Good evening, everyone. Uh, we're about to call the meeting to order
if we can please everyone take your seats.
okay. Thank you. Um, I'm councilman darryl augh.
uh, I'll be chairing tonight's meeting, uh, the mayor and vice mayor our
way, and that's why I'm in the seat tonight. Um,
the time is 5 0 5 june 16th, 2026. So
we'd like to call the meeting to order. And can we have a roll call, please? Madam
clerk councilwoman s present councilwoman
ellen present. Council member duggan. Here. Councilman
subina. Here. Councilwoman kerr. Present councilwoman
sorrow. Present vice mayor oranga councilwoman
thrash. And took here. Council member rick sodi. Here. Mayor richardson.
we have a quorum. Okay. Thank you. Um,
at each meeting we rotate, uh, a different council member, um,
delivers the, um, moment of silence and the pledge. And tonight
that honor goes to councilwoman cindy allen. Thank you everyone. If everyone would
be so kind, a moment of silence for all of our police officers and
firefighters that work so hard for our city and our protection. If we can have a moment of silence, please.
thank you so much for your service to our city. And if you're able to please stand up and
face, uh, and face the flag.
okay, thank you. The first order of business tonight is a presentation for
employee of the month, uh, from the city manager's office, and the city
manager is also absent tonight. So in its place we have assistant city manager, april
walker. Uh, april. You have the floor.
okay. Thank you so much, uh, chair of their meeting this evening. Councilman
augh and council members. So every quarter we
give our employee of the month presentation and we're really excited to recognize
these hard deserving colleagues of ours who support operations citywide.
and so we will cover april, may, and june this evening. So if you can
come forward as I read your bio, and then we'll take a photo. So the first one
is angel marquez from the utilities
department, chief construction inspector angel leads a team of eight
construction inspectors, ensuring that all water and sewer infrastructure projects meet
lvud standards. Long beach utilities department, he is widely
recognized as a glue person who keeps construction activities on track
and communicates effectively across teams and stakeholders. Angel regularly,
uh, regularly steps into inspect sites, resolve
issues, and addresses complaints. He's one, also one of our go-to leaders
for emergency water and sewer repairs, frequently responding to after
hours events, and often managing our most challenging field situations.
whoever wants to mug .
alright, here.
thank you.
one, two.
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
okay. Uh, the next for april is tiffany lamb, deputy city
auditor city auditor's office. Tiffany joined the city in 2023
after serving in a managerial role at davis far, bringing years of
auditing expertise through her leadership, vast knowledge of government auditing
and accounting and collaborative management approach. Tiffany consistently drives
the success of our projects and empowers her team to achieve shared goals that
support a better long beach. Tiffany's analytical skills and strategic mindset
have led to an impactful findings and innovative solution-oriented
recommendations that improve city operations. Among her many accomplishments,
tiffany has led two major audits that not only enhance city operations through
implemented recommendations, but also earned national recognition through prestigious
19 awards, including the construction and demolition performance audit
and the development impact fees, performance audit, tiffany's dedication,
professionalism, and commitment to excellence set a high standard for those around
her. She truly embodies the values of the auditor's office and is highly deserving
of this recognition. Please join us in congratulating tiffany on her outstanding
service and dedication to the city.
all right. We move into may, our first
may employee of the month. Oh, yes. Thank you for flipping through. Here we go. Is jeffrey holland,
clerk typist three. Energy and environmental services department. Jeffrey holland
consistently exemplifies professionalism, teamwork, and a strong commitment to
supporting his colleagues. He always approaches work with the initiative to get things
done. Jeff is known for his willingness to volunteer and step in wherever is needed.
his genuine des desire to contribute to the department's success is evident in both
his daily contributions and his proactive approach to improvement. Jeff has
been instrumental in the integration of the new energy and environmental
services department, which is comprised of energy resources and public
work staff. His assistant with coordinating the move of staff from multiple
locations was crucial to the project success. He also has been
responsible for initiating team building events and assisting with the ees
all hands meetings. He is also both a floor warden and racial
equity champion. Jeff's reliability commitment to assisting colleagues
initiative and dedication to the department are what have made him an
invaluable member of ees.
thank you.
oh, yeah. If you want your parents up there, that's the most important.
they don't.
thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Nice to meet you.
okay. Next we have joshua valencia, moreno, police officer,
police department officer josh valencia moreno is highly deserving of
employee of the month for his exceptional leadership initiative and impact on recruitment,
retention and department operations. As one of the department's lead recruiters, he
manages a list of more than 700 potential candidates, coordinates
over 30 recruitment events each month and played a role, a key role in achieving 100
recruits for class 100. Drawing from his experience as
a former us marine, he has been especially successful in recruiting and
mentoring military and college applicants help, helping
strengthen both the quality and diversity of the applicant pool.
in addition, he serves as a campaign manager for the 30 for 30 initiative,
and as an instructor in the police recruit non-career program where he has helped
prepare and retain approximately seven recruits prior to academy
entry. Beyond recruitment, he supports the department through his service on
the honor guard, crowd management team, explorer advisor, special
weapons and tactics, technical and drone pilot. He
is also a member and organizer of the baker to vegas race committee. Through his dedication,
leadership, and wide region contributions, officer valencia moreno
has made a significant and lasting impact on the department making him an outstanding
choice for employee of the month.
we can
congratulations. They have to come back.
come. Oh boy. We got a whole toyota apartment. Okay,
for you, josh. All right.
we need squeeze in, huh?
okay. Everyone over here. One, two.
okay. I'm gonna ask any pd, any pd that will stay
behind for our civilian employee of the month to just hang out so we can quickly
take our next photo. So our next employee of
the month is corinne swart crime analyst police department.
corinne consistently exceeds expectations routinely working extended hours, and
maintaining a high level of responsiveness. She provides command staff with
critical updates and emerging trends, patterns and actionable intelligence.
her professionalism, reliability, and strong sense of ownership over her work have
had a direct and measurable impact on operational effectiveness.
in addition to her core responsibilities, corinne has embraced innovative real-time
crime monitoring practices by utilizing genetech camera systems,
coordinating with on-duty personnel. She has also developed a patrol
information notification that provides officers with timely intelligence,
unwanted individuals for serious crimes. She also assisted the
east division during a vacancy in their crime analyst position, and has supported
targeted crime reduction strategies within designated priority grids.
through detailed analysis and strategic recommendations, corinne
exemplifies the department's values of respect, compassion, service, integrity,
and accountability. Her work ethic initiative and commitment to excellence significantly
enhance the capabilities of the department and contribute to the safety
and wellbeing of the community we serve.
thank you so much. Thank you.
these guys. Sorry.
holy slopes. Hi everybody. , can you stand on your toes
over here? One and
hold.
thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
brandon boyd. Say his name, boy. Brandon boyd. Okay. So we
have our last employee of the month that we'd like to honor today. And this is an
employee of the month for june. Uh, yali santana, city
clerk specialist city clerk's office. Yali has been an outstanding member
of the city clerk's office whose dedication, professionalism, and continued
growth have made a meaningful impact on the department. During her four years with the
office, she has consistently demonstrated exceptional detail, attention
to detail, a strong work ethic, and an eagerness to learn and understand the
city's processes. Since promoting from city clerk, clerk assistant to
city clerk specialists, she has expanded her knowledge and responsibility while remaining
a dependable team member. Yali plays a key role in conforming
contracts, ordinances, resolutions, and manages the passport program
with efficiency and care. And much patience because I brought my children for that. And you
are wonderful. Thank you. She also supports civic engagement,
outreach efforts, assist residents with public comments, signups, and questions regarding
city meeting processes, providing helpful and professional customer service.
most recently, she has begun training on clerking city council meetings
and has shown great enthusiasm and initiative in preparing to join the legislative
team. Her positive attitude, adaptability, and commitment to providing
excellent service make her a valuable asset to the department and well deserving of
this recognition.
thank you. Thank you, thank you. Do you want to take,
and thank you so much to chair and counsel for allowing us this time every quarter.
it's super important, and as you can see, uh, colleagues and family are very excited
to celebrate our well-deserving employees. Okay. Thank
you. April. Let's hear it for all the employees.
okay. Um, now we're going to move to, uh, general public
comment. Um, number one, this is public comment
for non-ag council items. We'll wait till, uh,
those folks make their exit.
and, um, I'm obligated to give my first,
uh, warning. And that is, um, shouting out from the
audience is not permitted. And so consider this the first,
uh, warning. Thank you.
okay. The speaker signed up to speak is seymour justice x
gray tay anthony holmes, steven solo,
g russell clamp, carolyn essex, and
dave shukla. If you could please line up at the podium.
oh, uh, hi everybody. Uh, I'm here as a concerned citizen.
uh, hello, counsel minus mr. Oranga
and, um, oh, rex. And unfortunately,
tom moca's not here, but, uh, I'm a history teacher. And,
um, I've been thinking about some connections between what seems to be happening in the world,
in the country. And right here in this room with a moment in history.
I'm gonna talk to you about france in 1940 through 1944,
um, when axis powers germany invaded france,
the south of france, known as vichy french rule, decided to
collaborate with fascist nazis in an effort to
get a better deal from the nazi power and gain some autonomy.
it didn't work in 1942, they ended up getting, uh, fully
taken over and occupied anyway. But the
idea that fascism is on the horizon or far
away, I think we, a lot of us still have that idea. Fascism
is right here in the united states right now. And on an, you
know, more and more it feels like fascism is on the rise right here
in these city council chambers. So I'm gonna hope that
tonight, a little later, when you are voting to, you know,
curtail public comment, you'll kind of think of these connections. You
might think they're like way out of line or way, like, uh,
too much. But when I see things like
black hawk helicopters with military people repelling onto
hotel roofs, firing live rounds,
and our city giving nothing but a very tepid response, really
no response to it. Whether you have control over it or not, that's
vichy french energy. When I see us
pretend to be a sustain, uh, um,
sanctuary city, but do very little to nothing
to protect our citizens who are our residents, who are being kidnapped
off the streets, except for a big banner up on top of city
hall for a couple of days, that's vichy french
energy. When I hear that the city council
is gonna restrict public comment and make it
so that it's harder and harder for you to hear from the public,
that's vichy french energy. And I'm gonna encourage you
and challenge you to not be like the vichy french
fascism is here. Don't be a part of it. One day we'll all be opposed to
this. Pretend like we are against it. You could do that right now.
stop leaning into fascism and be a part of the resistance, please.
thank you. And roll out of long
beach. Our, uh, our next speaker I have
listed is gray. Is that, is that accurate?
x ibi x. Oh, I'm sorry. X, x or gray x. Alright,
I apologize. X so this is a continues, uh, public comment
on non-ag agenda items. Every time city
council proposes something seemingly good, it's nothing but
lipstick on a pig. 2015, you voted to
build a more modern civic center in part to promote civic engagement.
the old city hall chambers was the embodiment of democracy. It was the rule of the people
where we, the people sat high and observed. You are public servants.
the old city chambers were surrounded by full high glass windows where the public could look down
into the proceedings. Lipstick on the pig, the new city chambers
is a, is the anti, uh, thesis. The
dais is above the people, and the chambers are completely surrounded in opaque walls.
the glass on the outside simulates transparency, but it's only skin deep.
2005, the adopt, uh, the city adopted the greenport policy
intended to reduce the negative environmental impacts of port operations. And you
called our port the green port lipstick on the pig in 2014
against every single environmental organization in long beach and the state. You renewed
the contract for exporting the dirtiest fuels produced by the us coal
and petroleum coke. 2015, you voted unanimously
to create three parks in the park, star north and western long beach,
uh, and called them the pearls of the la river lipstick on the pig.
after campaign investments from the developers into your pockets, you voted in
favor of two gated communities and a 14 acre asphalt parking
lot. The iic of the cake was you called the parking lot an
environmentally responsible project. 2018,
you invoked the voting rights act and the boogeyman of,
uh, unlimited, uh, number of terms to increase term limits. The
lipstick on the pig, as we predicted this anti-democratic
fascist measure resulted in three count, uh, council members serving three
terms in the city's 129 year history.
only two people had achieved the third term. In the last eight years,
we have had three council members serving 12 years, including
super na and uranga. In 2020, in the aftermath
of the george floyd protest, you acknowledged that the city's police complaint commission
was a farce. And after extensive inter interviews with
those of us who have been negatively affected by the police, you promised to right the
wrong lipstick on the pig, instead of fixing the commission, you eliminated
it. 2026. Today
you sent out one of your typical push polls,
designed as a survey ostensibly to inform city council on
ways to increase public participation in council meetings,
more lipstick on the pig. True to form, you're about to pass an
anti-democratic ordinance that does the complete opposite
no, on 49 and, and real out of long beach.
okay, thank you. Uh, the next speaker is gray.
uh, last week this council awarded a contract to this superlative group of cleveland,
ohio to consult and evaluate advertising opportunities and
design ad an advertising program for city owned spaces. Some
of us questioned why this project and funds weren't used on local advertising
services. The council said, uh, long beach doesn't have this specific service.
I think there probably was local talent that would've been up to the task. But anyway,
it recently came to light that ohio secretly gave 100% sales tax breaks
lasting up to 40 years to tech giants for data centers. These exemptions
give google meta and amazon $600 million each. So
just a reminder that data centers are destroying our environment and they need to
be stopped. So maybe just next time, award the contract to a local
business. Just keep it local. And speaking of things that need to be stopped,
android industries, a weapons manufacturing industry is setting up
shop in our backyard, a 1.18 million square foot campus
close to the long beach airport. Android industries is known for making
autonomous weapons and has ties to gkn aerospace, which was
recently responsible for a mass evacuation in garden grove due to a chemical leak.
this council, despite our objections, approved contracts that support ice in
the dhs, even as people continue to die in ice custody, in
cases of sexual abuse, medical neglect and inadequate nutrition
continue even as israel's genocide of the palestinians and its bombings
of lebanon. Continue, this council approved a contract with
lexus nexus cop logic solutions, which contributes to mass surveillance
as outlined in their contract with ice, which also indicates that ice
aims to surveil individuals who are, where no crime has been committed.
it also approved a contract with general dynamics it, which holds more than one multimillion
dollar contract with the, the dhs. It approved a contract with
gov connection inc. Which also holds a contract with the dhs in a
time where congress is now trying to not just figurative, figuratively, but literally
tie our military to the israeli military. This city at the besst
of this council, will be a hub of mass surveillance and weapons
manufacturing. So I want to, again, advocate for the council to adopt
the civil and human rights screening policy so that there's a line of defense in
place to prevent our taxpayer money from being invested in acts of war
and war crimes and other aggressions against humanity.
and, uh, these first public comments are inaccessible for people who are working normal hours or
have a long commute. So some of us have to request time off to get here.
so trying to make these start times even earlier would be ridiculous.
andro out of long beach, f**k ice, f**k israel free palestine.
okay, our our next speaker is tay. And just a reminder,
this is general po public comment for non agendized items.
I, I have tay tay. Is that accurate?
okay. Uh, after tay is anthony holmes,
y'all can start my time.
somehow I think white america is paying. Somehow I think
white america is, is paying black america back for the oj for the
oj trial. I want to thank donald trump tonight.
I know what y'all thinking. Oh, is anthony a republican? Not at all. I'm not a democrat
or a republican. I want to thank donald trump
for giving white people, white racist people, the courage to come be racist
publicly. No more hiding than behind closed doors. And I want y'all to tell
rex the next time he start my time without me speaking, since he wanna arrest
my voice, tell him to arrest my hands, have long beach pd put me in handcuffs. It
won't be the first time I've been put in handcuffs for no reason. Um,
what I've been asking for for the last four years is free. I'm
not coming down here asking for no funding, begging you guys, if I come down here asking for something,
I'm demanding it. If I don't get it, I'm taking it.
and what I'm asking for is free. And that's justice
for all black workers that's going through what I'm going through. And
april walker sarah green, you know, I respect y'all. Y'all did
something for me and one of my coworkers, that
black people that look like me wouldn't do and ask.
really, really investigated something that happened in our department.
something I've been fighting for, for four years publicly. I'm not talking
about the times that I wasn't fighting for this, you know,
and I 49. It's just, it's
just the disrespect. You guys are so, so busy. But y'all have time
to put this on the agenda. The take away, not take
away public comments. The shortening 'em the 90 seconds is just disrespectful. So that shows me what y'all
think about the public. You know, I don't, I don't, I
don't agree with it, it's just sad. Um,
but I have the end is protect black workers, protect black workers, protect black workers
until my black employees, well, black leadership in the city of long beach. I'll
be coming at y'all for the next four years. Y'all have a nice day.
our next speaker is steven soto. I'm pulling an order. Yeah,
I want to know what order I'm in.
carolyn essex, here's speaker number nine. Thank you.
okay. We're, we're now on speaker number six. Is that accurate? That's
accurate. Steven. Solo. Solo. That's right. Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm .
alright. Uh, I said non agenda item. Uh, only
'cause it never really feels like morality's on the agenda here. Uh,
but I am more, I am pretty concerned to hear that you
about the efforts to limit our time together. You know, it, it kind
of, I dunno, like if you don't want to see or hear from the people you know, just tell us. It
don't string us along. You know, it's like a bad breakup, you know, just, if you don't wanna see us, tell us.
we'll make our voices here another way. We'll find a way. Now,
I want to thank all my comrades that are here, that got all the facts. 'cause most of what I got are feelings. Okay?
and we're all here. None of us are paid to be here. I mean, some of us are.
now, I came here in an effort to follow the rules, you know, to lawfully express
my feelings, my emotions. Even though we have leaders in this country that have completely
disregarded those rules to make their will and their feelings known,
those in charge do not appear to have a conscience to me.
and the, all the laws that we have a history of here in this country that have been
unjust, some of 'em that are no longer here, some of 'em are still here. Were never changed because
the officials gained a conscience. It was because the people forced them to change.
I wanna mention, uh, a friend of mine by the name of kai guerro, who's
been locked up for almost a year now, that's a year without
trial. So that's an innocent man. You have locked up without his court approved medications without
food access to his family, the people that he cares about as a man losing
his life slowly disintegrating because paperwork getting passed
around from city official to city official. I know for a fact people here that have responded
in emails, passed them along to other people. That's a life you've passed along. Imagine being
that family, watching, seeing themselves being passed along from official, official while you make magic
happen for corporations to come in here, murderous corporations
that are gonna come here and milk weapons to, to go kill people in other countries
off of our tax money. Meanwhile, we got people rotten themselves
that don't even need to be there.
that's andel. We want andel outta long beach. We want ice outta long
beach. If we're up to me, if it were up to me, I'd have the police outta long beach.
okay? I heard somebody earlier mention brandon boyd.
I'm gonna say his voice out loud for brandon boyd. 'cause that's another life right there. Lost
how many families out there we in, I, I don't even have enough time on that list right there to mention all
the names. Accountability. That's right. Accountability.
and that's something we don't see here. We feel it as people. We face the accountability
for your actions, for your spending, our money. You're standing on the piles of our tax money
saying you can't do nothing but give it to the police. Meanwhile, our kids can't even get a proper education
here. Woo. So that's something y'all need to fix.
and like I said, I don't got facts. I just got feelings. And that's how I feel and will outta long
beach f**k ice. Woo. Okay. Our next speaker
is g is is g here?
sweet. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
all right.
hmm. Whew.
all right. So, um, I saw long beach has a sign
out there on ocean boulevard. Long beach
is a vibe city. What vibes are we giving off
ice as those ick holes were staying down here and
most likely still are? Fascist city as
most of this council is so eager to assist this regime
in the white house. By the way, did you guys enjoy that spectacle of ufc
and how stupid we look to everyone all over the world? It was, uh, pretty
sad. Anyhow, so again,
like I was saying, this council is more than likely, I mean more than happy to assist this
regime, um, by way of ordinance 49,
which is going to move the start time from five o'clock to what?
4, 4 15, when people could barely make it. Again, I've said
this before, you guys could barely make it when you're here, you're not even here.
this is our only recourse for what you guys
are doing. You guys decide what you do with our money,
you guys decide whether or not we should have, um,
los mutos. You guys are deciding whether or not,
um, we should have pride. Guess what? Two of those things didn't happen.
every other city had it except for us. And of course, thank
you ua. You continue to do your job of nothing. I appreciate
that. You know, speaking of ua and dr.
joni, you guys continue to sit up here and look
down upon us. Where your freaking constituents,
how the f**k you guys think you guys got here with us? If it
wasn't for us, you guys wouldn't be up here. And some of you guys will stay. I'll
give you that. But some of you guys will go. So if
you want to stay and if you actually want
to care to listen to your constituents, say no to 49,
say no to those other ordinances that are, that you guys use
for sb 7 0 7 to dissect and say, ooh, this is a great
excuse for us not to hear what the people want to say.
again, this is our only recourse right now. And if you guys think you guys are safe up here for right
now, think again, think again. Because
guess what? You are once us and we are still you.
and, uh, with the time I have left, I wanna say, uh, go iran.
go iraq. F**k ice free palestine, and
I love you lebanon. C chao, fornell.
okay, uh, speaker number eight is russell clampett.
good evening. My name is russell clampett, and thank you for allowing
me to speak. And this is about the military
exercises in long beach on the night of june 4th.
and I see the city responded to the military, uh, last week
by letter, and I appreciate that. But I'd like to make two additional
suggestions. First, who
or what was the entity that allowed its vacant hotel
to be used for that exercise that night?
and we had the closure of an important state highway,
and it was near homes and businesses. And
I want to know who owns that hotel and who agreed and how much
did they get paid. And they created a situation that inconvenienced
a lot of people, including our own police, who had to block the highway.
and I think the city needs to go after that owner and get a fine
or prosecutor or whatever. And secondly,
more importantly, be proactive. Contact
the military now and tell them, no,
you're not coming into this city for your training exercises. You
got these giant bases at camp pendleton, fort irwin, 29
palms. There's lots of places where you can practice and blow
up stuff. Sorry. Now I'm gonna assume that the
military will ignore that letter. Or maybe they'll just respond and they'll
say, well, we're the united states military. We can do whatever we want.
and trump and hegseth said, we can do whatever we want. And I
ask that you push back, file a lawsuit for an injunctive order,
or whatever the city attorney might suggest. And you know what? You'll
probably win the lawsuit. 'cause trump's lawyers aren't very good. All
the smart lawyers have gone. So give it your best shot.
maybe you can get a public interest law firm to help, but you can get a
judgment that keeps the military out of our city for any future
training exercises. You know,
120 years ago, the ku klux klan would go into a town and they'd go up
on a hillside and they'd set up a big cross and they'd set it on
fire. And the klan wasn't doing that to practice their fire building skills.
they were doing it to, or roast marshmallows. They were doing it to intimidate
people, particularly black people. And I would submit to you
that the us military is trying to do the same things with their training
exercises. They're trying to intimidate the people who live here.
they're trying to intimidate the government and our police department.
don't let them do that. Thank you very much. Yeah.
okay. Our final speaker, oh, I'm sorry. We have, uh,
carolyn's, uh, speaker number nine, carolyn essex.
thank you. Good evening, members of the council. Carolyn
essex, district one happy juneteenth week.
uh, we celebrate freedom day june 19th, 1865.
we celebrate resilience. Number one, we celebrate freedom
and joy, our history, uh,
american history. We honor the strength, courage, and
contributions of black americans past, present, and future.
every element of the flag intentionally mirrors and,
and, uh, reclaims american history. The
colors red, white, and blue. The color scheme deliberately uses the colors of
the american flag. This serves as a reminder that the formerly enslaved
people and their descendants were and are full
americans. The central star, the white five pointed star in the center
has a dual meaning. It represents texas, the lone star state, where
the final enforcement of the emancipation proclamation
was delivered in galveston on june 19th, 1865.
it also symbolizes the freedom of african americans
across all 50 states. The nova burst
the multi-point outline surrounding the star represents
a nova, a new star. This signifies a new beginning,
a new dawn of freedom, and a new future for african americans. The arc, the
curve line, dividing the red and blue fields represents a horizon.
it symbolizes the promise of progress, growth, and the ongoing
journey toward full equality and opportunity.
and I wish I had my flag tonight, but amazon overnight
is a lie. , this week, communities
across our nation will celebrate juneteenth the day that news of freedom finally reached
its last enslaved american americans in galveston, texas.
as I reflect on juneteenth this year, I think of our ancestors, the ones
who survived, who sacrificed, who built families, businesses, churches, neighborhoods,
and communities. Despite barriers designed to hold them back,
I think of their courage and faith. And how do we honor them by revitalizing
neighborhoods that have been neglected for decades by
ensuring our streets are safe, our public spaces are welcoming by addressing
homelessness with compassion and effectiveness, by investing in our
children and creating opportunities for future generations to thrive
by recognizing that democracy works best when every voice matters, and every
community is seen. So tonight for me to you, you guys simply wanna say,
happy juneteenth long beach. May we honor our past
and inspire our future. May we remain strong together, better together,
thank you, protect black city workers, protect black families.
reparations are a legal remedy for state sanctioned unjust policies and
crimes against your time has included. Thank you. Thank you.
okay, our, uh, our final speaker, speaker number 10 is dave shukla.
and dave, we'll move to consent right after this, so you can hang out there if you wanna speak on consent.
thank you, chair sono council members. So
how about them next? I think, uh, after
30 minutes of, uh, being yelled at, we could all,
uh, appreciate some levity. Um,
the stated, uh,
topic that I was gonna talk about was, uh, rollback, which, uh, for those
of you who don't know, is a technical term. When, uh, systems,
uh, they can be technological systems, they can be human systems, organizational
systems, uh, achieve a certain level of complexity or differentiation,
but then are called backwards to an earlier state that is
not as complex, not as effective. Um,
there are a lot of, uh, examples of rollback lately. Um,
but I like to do something else because this part might perhaps be my only time to be
able to be a bit more interactive, a bit more loose, uh, be able to, uh,
respond to things that I just heard that made me think of something else. Um,
maybe my thoughts aren't worth anyone's time, but since I got a minute, uh,
and change, uh, I, I'd like to say a bit about why I come to city council and,
uh, what my method has been. Um,
as I've, uh, spoken to a couple of you, uh,
I left graduate school early, uh, deliberately
to try and build something in the city. And that was a community choice energy
program. Uh, basically to take over electricity service
for the residents and businesses of long beach, um, from edison and
do it at a cheaper rate, um, than what
edison currently can provide. Fun fact, the united arab emirates
just yesterday announced they're building one of the world's largest storage, uh, solar
and storage, uh, installations. Do you know how much
they're gonna charge for electricity? 1 cent,
1 cent per kilowatt hour. On the economic argument,
clean energy has won. We are in the mid transition of a better,
brighter, cleaner future. But here in southern california, we are
paying the second highest rates in the nation, second only to pg e. Uh, we
pay between 38 and 44 cents for residential. It can be a lot more depending
on what type of commercial installation you have. And yet, somehow,
uh, the service, even though, you know, in the eaton fire killed people, is not as bad as
pg e's. Um,
as you've heard from a lot of the speakers before me, there's a lot of frustration, not just at you,
but the way things are going throughout the country. And this is their first kind
of point of contact with governance and hopefully with governance done right.
um, I appreciate that councilman super nas the, uh, chair today
because you run a tight ship, sir. I like it. I like things that move quickly. Uh, I like,
I don't like having my time wasted, but I, I encourage you all to listen because
be your only chance, your time has to include it. Thank you. Thank you.
okay, thank you. We're going to move to the consent calendar now, and we have
one item, item being pulled. Um, item number six. So we'll
hear consent items one through five and seven through
13. So if you're, do we have a list of the public speakers? I know dave
is speaking on five. It's item seven through 31. Oh,
okay. Yes. You wanna do seven through 31 first? No, I, it's one . Oh,
I'm sorry. I missed that. Did I, I didn't say seven through 31. Yes. That's funny. That's
exactly how it's written here. So thank you for those accurate notes. No problem. Um,
okay. So, uh, any public comment on items one through five
or seven through 31? We need, uh, a second, please.
oh, I'm sorry. Oh,
we have, uh, dave shus signed up to speak fb
seymour justice, please line up.
I'm here to talk on item five. Uh, I think it's a great item. Uh, I'm not here to criticize.
I'm here to applaud you. I think, uh, the city needs to take full advantage of,
uh, programs like the california climate action corps. I, myself, uh, am an alum
of that program, the city of oakland. Uh, this is the premier program
along with civic spark, which I'm also an alum of , uh, in the
state, uh, to do something meaningful about climate change, uh, in your
locale, uh, in a way that is structured in a way that builds on previous efforts in
a way that has, uh, appropriate tracking and metrics for evaluating
its effectiveness. I applaud the city for continuing to partner with, uh,
uh, bay area community resources on the california climate action corps. And I thank
all of you. Okay. Uh, madam clerk,
can you help me with the list? Yes. Uh, fb
time starts. Matt. Good evening, everybody.
um, I wanna say happy juneteenth
and, uh, yes, please protect black workers and
in honor of juneteenth and also black workers that are here with us
tonight. Uh, a quote from brother malcolm x, you don't
get freedom peacefully. Freedom is never safeguarded peacefully.
anyone who is depriving you of freedom isn't deserving
of a peaceful approach by the ones who are being deprived of their
freedom. Saying that I'm speaking about item 27.
um, it looks like you guys are going to contract out chargepoint
inc. Who I will read out the case number, whoever's
listening or watching. Um, it's case number 5 23
c like charlie v like victor, 0 6 1 7 2
con versus chargepoint, inc. This is a current status of
a, um, lawsuit, currently had may 26,
the current status, the judge has denied charge point's motion to dismiss
the case. The judge noted that the updated case has no longer
a, uh, what is it, presentation of conclusionary,
uh, allegations, but rather a methodical chronological
presentation tying the company's financial emissions directly to
securities fraud. What the f**k are you guys doing?
it took me two seconds to find this. You don't know that there's an active case right
now with this same people. You wanna contract a $2.5 million
contract to how dare you pieces of s**t,
do your job. And then I also wanted to congratulate,
um, ms. Santana, she's very nice to us,
you know, human beings. And, um, I do agree that she is
employee of the month, and I agree to that. At least you guys, um, you
know, can come together on a really good and honest decision.
thanks for doing that. Congratulations miss samantha or santana.
um, go f**k yourselves. Do better.
okay. The, um, see you more justice. The technical, uh, difficulties have been
resolved and I think, uh, seymour justice is up now to speak on item number 25.
mr. Justice, the floor is yours. Thank you, chairman. Um,
I, uh, I'm here on number 25. I'm gonna be honest. Uh, some of these consent
calendar items, I can't really, I'm not really sure what they're a hundred percent
about. I, I, all the numbers and stuff. It's beyond my, uh, my
knowledge base. But I do see, uh, ceqa there,
uh, the california environmental quality act. And I also see,
uh, douglas park, eir environmental impact report.
and then I also see it says something about vacating
a portion of conant street and cover street. And I'm not sure exactly
what property that is, but I do know that a
giant vast military industrial complex ai submarine
building factory is coming to our backyard,
councilwoman kerr, right in our backyard. I know you
live right over there too. I know in garden grove, they just had
to evacuate 50,000 people because
gkna company had a horrible spill. Gkn
has contracts with andro. Gkn is a little,
little guy next to this proposed andel site.
it's half the size and only 20% of that company is
military. Like, I don't know, whatever they use to blow stuff up.
so andel will be twice the size and 100%
evil doing merchant of death ai submarine creation right
in our backyard. And I'm in the evacuation zone, and I'm guessing
almost everybody here would be in the evacuation zone.
so I'm wondering, I hope anyway, this environmental income
report, uh, impact report and the ceqa has nothing to
do with this douglas park building operation. 'cause it looks like you're
creating a carve out where somehow the eir and the ceqa
is gonna be vacated. I'm here really to ask, please,
pretty please, with a cherry on top, do
whatever you can to force and roll to
do everything that you can to force them to have the most,
like in depth, slow them down with environmental impact reports.
that's what I'm hoping I saw they already broke ground. They're moving dirt around. They
got all the earth movers. I know that they're probably gonna be using our waters
to do their little test runs with their ai automated submarines.
okay. I really hope we'll turn away from what mayor
rex did when we found out they were coming 5,000 jobs,
more tax base, celebrating these merchants of death coming
into our neighborhoods. I know that we've been tied to
the military industrial complex since the beginning, but the days of
rosie the riveter, yes, we can. We're the good guys trying to save,
uh, germany, save france from germany over the time has concluded
. Okay. That, uh,
satisfies public comment. We have a, uh, fir, uh, motion
and a second on this item. So, uh, members, we wanna cast
our votes on items one through five and seven through 31.
motions carried. Okay. Thank you. Now we'll move to item number
six, which is being pulled. So, um, uh, councilwoman, would you like to,
uh, do the cusal at this time? Yes. Thank you so much. Chair,
go ahead. At this time, I need to recuse myself from item number six out of an abundance
of caution. I may have a personal conflict regarding this matter due to a family
relationship with obcc.
okay. Um, so on item number six, we have a motion by megan kerr,
a second by suli sorrow. Uh, do you have any public comment on item
number? I'm gonna go ahead and read the recommendation. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry.
report from city manager recommendation to execute any necessary
agreements with long beach community college district to allow for
the placement of college corpse fellows at no cost to the city citywide.
okay. Um, so, so we have a motion to second and public comment
on, there's no public comment. No comment. Okay. Members, please cast
your vote.
motion carries. Okay.
so, um, we'll move on with agenda when our, um, recused member
returns. And, uh, next up
is, uh, hearing item number 32,
report from financial management recommendation to receive supporting
documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and grant
an entertainment permit with conditions for entertainment with dancing to the lynden
club at 36 36 lynden avenue, long beach, california,
9 0 8 0 8 district five.
and this item requires an oath. Okay. And, um,
also I have here that grace y is going to be presenting here. Is, is grace
here? Oh, there she is. Yeah, I I'm used to you
being back there in the hot seat. Okay. Um, so yeah, would you like to
administer the, the oath? Yes, please. Stand. For those of you who are going to testify
on this item, do
you, and each of you do 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, you may be seated.
okay. I'd like to invite staff to for the presentation.
great, thank you. We have ju salcido business services officer with the financial
management department, who will give the staff report.
uh, good evening. Uh, members of the city council before you tonight
is an application for entertainment with dancing for 24 karats, l-l-c-d-b-a,
the linden club. The establishment is located at 36 36
linden avenue and operates as an establishment, I'm sorry, operates
as all hall rental. Uh, this location has been in operation since march of
2026. All the appropriate departments, health and human services development
services, police and financial management have reviewed the application
and have provided their recommended conditions as contained in the hearing packet.
uh, the following, uh, recommended conditions and attachment a should be noted
from the additional conditions section. Uh, one entertainment activities shall
be restricted monday through sunday from 8:00 am
to 12:00 am. Uh, also all outdoor operations shall
be restricted to no later than 10:00 pm monday through sunday.
no outdoor entertainment as, uh, or amplified music shall be permitted.
I, along with the city attorney, ashley stone and commander hughes from long beach
police department are available to answer any questions that you may have. This
concludes my staff report. Okay. Thank you for that. Um,
madam clerk, do we have any public comment on this item? We do. We have one speaker.
okay. Crystal, crystal moreno.
good evening counsel. My name's crystal moreno. I am the director of sales for
24 karats catering, who is operating the linden club, formerly
as the petroleum club. I just wanted to come and give, um, an
expression of gratitude for the amazing community support of
reopening these doors as a special event venue. Um,
it has been our goal to take 22,000 square feet
of event space that can hold up to 600 people and welcome people
for their most cherished moments, weddings, social events, corporate
events, and then also work with citywide business for
further corporate and entertainment pur purposes. Um, today I
just want you to know my face as a partner, as a friend. Welcome you all
and thank you so much for being so welcoming to us. Um, we're excited to be in
this community with all of you. Thank you. Alright,
thank you. At this point, I believe I can close the hearing and we'll
move to, um, council deliberation. Um, first step
is to move to the maker of the motion making concur. Thank you, mr.
chair. Um, welcome to the lyn club. Folks, it's good to
see your faces here tonight. We're happy to have these doors back open in such
a spectacular honoring of the original space and elevating it, uh,
really incredibly so. We're so grateful to have you in the neighborhood. I just have one
quick technical piece, uh, both on this item and item 33. It has,
uh, the zip code listed as 9 0 8 0 8, and I believe the zip code is 9 0 8 0 7.
so if we could note that for the record, wherever it needs to be for legal
purposes, would be helpful. But welcome again.
okay. Now to the second dear of the motion, suli sorrow. I'm in support
of the item. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Um, that
concludes, uh, council deliberation, madam clerk, is there anything else I need to do on the hearing?
no, we could go for the vote. Alright, thank you. Let's move to a vote.
motion is carried.
okay, we'll move now to our next, uh, hearing item number 33,
report from financial management recommendation to receive supporting documentation
into the record, conclude the public hearing and grant a social club
permit with conditions to the lynden club at 36 36
lynden avenue, long beach, california, 9 0 8 0 7
district five. Okay, thank you. At this time, it's my great honor
to introduce grace yon, who's one of my favorite employees in the city.
and before we go back to your favorite employee in the city, I would just like to
remind you an oath is required on this item. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Okay, let's, let's go for the oath.
please stand for those of you who are going to testify on this item,
do you, and each of you do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause
now impending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help you god. Yes. You may be seated.
all right. And with that, we'll turn it back to junie salcedo business services officer for the staff report.
thank you, grace. Uh, this application for the same location is for a social
club license, uh, for 24 karats, l-l-c-d-b-a as the lyden
club. Uh, again, the establishment is located at 36 36
lyden avenue and operates as a hall rental and has been in operation since march
of 2026. And all appropriate departments, health and human services development
services, police and financial management have reviewed the application and have provided their
recommended conditions as contained in the hearing packet. Uh,
the following recommended conditions in attachment a should be noted from the additional
conditions section. Uh, the entertainment activities shall be restricted to monday through
sunday from 8:00 am to 12:00 am all outdoor operations shall be
restrict, restricted to no later than 10:00 pm monday through sunday. And no outdoor
entertainment or amplified music shall be permitted as a social club.
the permitee shall always comply with the long beach municipal code. Chapter 5.75
membership and a social club shall be granted, and membership registration shall
always comply with long beach municipal code chapter 5.75.
and once again, uh, the team and I are here to answer any questions, uh, that anyone
may have. And that concludes my staff report. Okay. Thank
you. Staff will, uh, now move to public comment. Any members of the public wishing to
speak on this item, please come forward. Chris. Crystal moreno. We're good.
okay. Thank you for those brief remarks. Um, okay.
now we go to the, the closure of the meeting and, uh,
the public. Uh, now that public comment has been satisfying and we'll
move to council deliberation again to the maker of the motion. Megan kerr,
supporter of the item. Thank you. Okay. The seconder, uh, no comment. Supportive.
thank you. Okay. We have everything satisfied, so we'll move to a
vote.
motion is carried.
okay. Um, could we, uh, have the next, uh, hearing item read?
please report from human resources recommendation
to conduct a public hearing hearing pursuant to assembly bill 25 61
on the status of vacant positions, recruitment and retention efforts
prior to adoption of the city's annual budget citywide.
okay. Uh, this says no oath required, so we'll go to grace
yon. Great, thank you. We have bryce tyler, director of human
resources, and yesenia rico, tejeda, manager of talent management,
who will provide the staff presentation.
good evening chair and members of the city council. Um, we're gonna do just a
brief background and overview for, um, the hearing tonight, and then
I will pass it over to yesenia to continue with the presentation.
so this hearing, um, is a, uh, part
of our requirement under assembly bill 25 61, um, which passed last year.
so this is the second year that we are actually having this, uh, presentation,
um, where we are, um, required to, um, hold an annual hearing
prior to final budget adoption, to present information on job vacancies,
recruitment and retention efforts, uh, and any hiring related
policies or procedures that may create barriers to filling positions. Um,
also as part of this requirement, um, the city is required to provide our
recognized bargaining groups, um, the va, the citywide vacancy rate and vacancy rates
for their respective organizations, and provide an opportunity to present
input to the council, which is going to happen, uh, this evening.
uh, and what we'll do after our presentation will actually queue up the,
uh, four labor partners who will, uh, make the presentations this evening.
also, in terms of our, uh, hiring process, we utilize
a merit based hiring system, which is governed by the civil service rules and
regulations. Uh, this process consists of, uh, four primary
phases requiring, uh, the coordination between departments and the human
resources department. Um, and we have, um, over the
years been working to modernize, uh, the hiring process. Um, last year
was the year that we implemented the charter amendment, uh, measure jb um,
so we will speak on some of the hiring efficiencies and, uh, streamlining
the processes next, uh, in our slide. So at this point, I
will turn it over to yesenia.
thank you bryce, and good evening members of the city council.
I'd like to start off by highlighting several of our recent recruitment and staffing wins.
so over the past year, the city has continued to make meaningful progress in recruitment and staffing,
including reducing the average time to hire across classified positions to approximately
90 business days. We've also seen a reduction by more than 50%
in requisition approval timelines and the implementation of the local hiring preferences
program. These efforts have overall contributed to the decrease in the citywide
vacancy rate from 22% to 16.4%.
these improvements are also reflected in the city's overall recruitment
strategy. So now we'll take a look at 2025
recruitment outcomes. So during the reporting period, the city opened 403
recruitments, reviewed and processed over 41,000 applications,
supported over 800 permanent hires, and had over 1.5 million
hits and views on the city's online job board demonstrating continued
interest and public interest in public service careers.
so as of may 1st, 2026, citywide vacancy data represented
5,806 permanent budgeted represented positions
with 959 of those positions remaining vacant, resulting in
an overall vacancy rate of 16.5%. I
do wanna highlight that this vacancy rate does not include contract, temporary,
seasonal, or extra help employees.
so this chart demonstrates, um, visually the steady decline in vacancy
rate that the city has experienced over the past several years with a peak of 22%
at fy 2024, and where we stand now at 16.5%
in fy 26. This continued improvement reflects recruitment,
modernization efforts, streamlined hiring processes, and strong collaboration
between departments and central hr. While vacancy rates
do continue to improve, several factors continue to contribute to
the influx in staffing levels.
like many public agencies, the city is not immune to labor market competition,
particularly for hard to fill roles in specialized positions.
vacancy rates are also influenced by employee attrition, retirement,
and the addition of newly budgeted positions each fiscal year to the city's workforce,
which do require recruitment activities before they can be filled.
despite these challenges, I do wanna recognize that the city has continued making steady
progress and reducing vacancy levels.
so here we provide an overview of the bargaining units that were included in the
city's vacancy analysis and reporting efforts. So now we'll take a
li we'll take a look at vacancy rates across each bargaining unit and compare
current data to prior reporting year.
so based on our point in time data, as of may 1st, 2026, the
majority of bargaining units remained under the 20% vacancy threshold,
and several have shown significant improvement compared to the prior reporting year.
notably, I'd like to highlight a decline in vacancy rates for bargaining units,
p-o-a-s-e-I-u-l-b-m-a and ace. And
do wanna highlight that a e, e and cpa were the only bargaining units
above that 20% threshold. So now we'll take a more
detailed look at those specific bargaining groups.
so for the association of engineering employees, the data shows that
66 out of the 307 positions are currently vacant.
we received 686 applications across 12 active recruitments
that were conducted for classifications, including but not limited to,
civil engineer, fire inspector, permit center supervisor,
and senior surveyor, with the average time to hire for these recruitments
being 126 business days from date, posted
some of the efforts to improve recruitment across these classifications for
this specific bargaining group, um, include continued partnership with
central hr and our labor group and active and ongoing labor negotiations.
so now we'll take a look at data for our city prosecutors association, cpa.
so they currently have three out of 14 positions that are vacant, and we saw
a total of 561 applicants across five active recruitments
for classifications, including deputy city, prosecutor, intern, and
prosecutor assistant one through five. Some efforts to improve recruitment
for these specific classifications include continuing to strengthen the partnership,
specifically with central hrs talent acquisition unit to expand the candidate outreach
and pool and increasing awareness for these specific career opportunities.
beyond vacancy reporting, the city continues implementing several recruitment
modernization strategies. Some of
these strategies include streamlining, hiring processes, processes through process improvements,
policy updates, and the continued implementation of measure. Jb
the city also continues to enhance recruitment technology and standardizing hiring
practices to improve efficiency and transparency. In
addition to streamlining these processes, the city continues to invest
in strategies to attract more qualified talent.
the city does this through strengthening workforce pipelines through initiatives such
as the public service corp fellowship program, recruitment and marketing
community outreach, and the expansion of the local hiring preferences
to expand awareness of and access to career opportunities with the city.
these efforts are also reflected in the growth we've seen in our outreach activities between
fiscal year 25 and 26.
so when looking at the data for our outreach efforts between fy 25 and 26,
we see that an fy 26 outreach efforts have already exceeded
fy 20 fives totals in several areas, including a 29%
increase in career fairs and hiring events, and a 73%
increase in workshops and trainings.
in addition, the city continues to focus on strengthening classification and compensation
efforts to support workforce retention, market competitiveness, and
career growth. We also recently launched the civic excellence
leadership academy, which helps develop current and future leaders across the organization.
together these efforts continue to support employee engagement, professional development, and
long-term career planning. The importance of these investments becomes
even more apparent when reviewing the city's separation data.
so in 2025, there was a total of 687 employment
separations processed with resignations representing the largest category
at 51%, followed by retirement at 20%.
looking beyond why an employee leaves, we must also acknowledge that
it's important to understand when they leave.
in looking at our 2025 separations by length of service, we
recognize that approximately 62% of separations occurred within the first five
years of service. This reinforces the importance of onboarding,
employee engagement, leadership support, and career development opportunities earlier
on in an employee's career. These insights also continue to
reinforce the city's retention efforts. Moving forward and looking ahead, the city will
continue to focus on several key priorities.
those priorities will be to continue to modernize recruitment practices,
leverage technology and data analytics to improve hiring outcomes, while continuing
to strengthen local hiring efforts, community partnerships and workforce
pipeline development initiatives, in addition to attracting talent
focus, will also remain on retaining and developing employees who choose to grow their
career with the city of long beach.
we'll also continue to enhance onboarding and employee engagement efforts while
using employee feedback and workforce data to drive our retention strategies.
we'll continue evaluating policies, improving processes and procedures,
and revising civil service rules and regulations to improve efficiencies and support
a more responsive and sustainable workforce.
ultimately, the city remains committed to continuous improvement in building a workforce
that can effectively serve the long beach community.
this brings us to the conclusion of the presentation, and I'll go ahead and hand it back over
to bryce. Thank you.
thank you, . So at this point, we'd like to, um, bring
forward our labor partners, and we'll start first with the long beach association of
confidential employees, also known as ace.
hello. Good evening, um, chair and members of the city council. Uh, my name is levi,
uh, sinkler, and I serve as the president of the association of confidential employees. Um,
I'm joined with my, uh, board secretary anthony lim tonight. Um,
so first I would like to start out by asking, you know, if the chair or any members of the council
can ask, um, as to slide 12, um, in reference to the
pre and post merger, um, statistics. Um, we did note that,
uh, the pre-merger, um, stats state that up to two years
was the timeline. Um, and then the post merger is a definitive 90 days.
um, oh,
this is the, for the slide deck, we don't have a presentation.
okay. So, um, yeah, we do believe, uh, transparency is paramount, uh, when highlighting
the city's successes and failures. Um, so that would be a, a good question to
ask. Um, so a little bit about ace. Um, we're primarily based in human
resources, um, but we do have members across several departments, um, including
economic development, financial management, um, the police department, public works,
and technology innovation. Um, our members support over 6,000 city
employees through benefits administration, workplace investigations, budget management
classification, and compensation systems, recruitment, labor relations, risk management, and other
critical citywide functions. Despite these responsibilities, many
areas remain significantly understaffed. For example, uh, just three employees handle
all the eeo complaints, um, from city employees, uh, vendors,
uh, in the public. Um, there's three staff to manage citywide
classification and compensation system, which is responsible for over 300 classified
classifications, not including the unclassified side. Um,
we also have two, um, two members that oversee the return to work operations. So
this involves, um, a da accommodations leave management, um, so
on and so forth. Um, we are a small bargaining unit, um, but our work is essential
to city operations, um, and requires specialized expertise, collaboration, and strong
support from, uh, city leadership. Currently, we do have seven vacancies, as
you saw on the slide, um, which is an 8% vacancy rate. Um, that is significant
for us. So we do urge the city to go ahead and fill those, um, within the 90 business
days. Being, um, stated here, uh, tonight, um, operating with
only 89 budgeted positions is not sustainable when positions remain vacant under
budgeted or uncompetitive. Um, which brings me to my next point. Um, the
city's retention strategy, rightly does emphasize that internal equity, uh, market
competitiveness and pay transparency, uh, and employee development are important
principles. Um, we strongly do support those, those ideas.
um, so as part of our negotiations in 2022, we did,
um, breach an agreement with the city to conduct a salary, um, uh,
salary survey, um, of our 11 represented classifications.
um, so we did receive the results of those, uh, a couple months ago, and the results
are stark. Um, we benchmarked against 10, uh, 10 agencies,
um, and it, and it did reveal significant, um, gaps in the
compensation, uh, structure within the city. Um, so,
you know, I, I want to, uh, take this time tonight to ask that as negotiations
continue on, and you guys find yourselves in closed session, um, for, you know, additional
contract authority or whatever it may be that you do, um, consider carefully
our request here tonight and those requests that come through, if you could wrap up your,
your time has concluded. Okay? Yep. That's all for
us. Thank you.
thank you. Next, uh, we will have the long beach association of engineering employees,
also known as a ee,
and if we could bring up their slides for this presentation.
can we please load this slide deck for
a ee?
they're having a little bit of technical difficulties, so have a moment.
thank you. Go ahead and proceed.
hello, my name is he corso, president of association of engineering employees.
the city's own vacancy report shows that a ee
has a 21% vacancy rate, one of the highest among all
bargaining units, more than one in five engineering positions are vacant.
these vacancies create challenges for project delivery, institutional knowledge,
and workforce stability. We're talking about your infrastructure, your
port, your roads, your utilities airport.
the city states that its retention strengthening,
um, strategy includes a strengthening compensation to improve market
competitiveness and employee retention. The question is whether
current salaries are actually competitive. According
to the city's own salary study, 87% of
a ee classifications were found to be below market when compared to the
cities as standard competitors agencies, some classifications were
as much as 28% below market. These findings help explain
the recruitment and retention challenges reflected in the vacancy data.
the results become even more concerning when engineering positions are
compared with en enterprise agencies, including utility agencies and
the port of la. In those comparisons, some classifications were found to
be as much as 32% below market. These are
often the same employers who are recruiting for the same talent pool.
but despite these findings, the city's initial
proposal in negotiations included a zero 0% equity adjustment
and only a 1% annual cost of living increase with inflation
exceeding 4% of most ae classifications and most
of ae classifications already below market. Many members viewed this,
this proposal as discouraging sign that the compensation concerns
documented by the city itself were not being taken seriously.
it is also important to understand that only 10%
of a ee salaries come, come from the general fund. Nearly
90% of, uh, are funded through enterprise and or revenue
generating operations. As a result, improving compensation for
the engineering employees will have a limited impact on the general fund.
the city's own data tells a consistent story. The association
of engineering employees faces high vacancy rates. Most classifications
are below market, and the city's current proposal makes those gaps even worse.
hiring and retention require a comprehensive strategy that
makes wages, employment conditions, and benefits more attractive and competitive
in today's economy. The question is not whether the city can afford to
remain competitive, the question is whether it can afford not to. Thank
you.
thank you. Next, we would like to bring forth the long beach firefighters association, also known as ffa
fay, excuse me.
and if we can queue up, uh, their presentation. I think it's just one slide.
oh, green.
good evening, mayor pro, tim super na, honorable members of city council, city management
staff, favorite employees on behalf of the long beach firefighter
association, thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's discussion,
and a special thank you to human resources for the work reflected in this report.
we appreciate the city's efforts to improve recruitment, streamline hiring processes,
strengthen retention, and modernize our workforce system.
those efforts are important not only for our employees, but for the quality and
reliability of services that our residents depend on every single day.
as the bargaining unit representing the long beach firefighters, we wanted to offer a
perspective from the workforce, the workforce side
of this conversation. When discussing recruitment and retention, it
is easy to focus on metrics like vacancies, hiring
timelines, applicant pools, and obviously separations.
those measurements are important because they help us understand whether processes are improving,
but from the perspective of the people doing the work. Recruitment and retention
ultimately are about something larger. They're about building a workforce that
is sustainable. They're about creating environments where talented people choose to
join, choose to stay, and have opportunities to grow throughout their careers.
they're about preserving experience, mentorship, institutional knowledge,
while ensuring organizations have the resilience and the capacity
to continue serving the public effectively. Over the past year,
the city labor organizations and elected leaders have engaged in important
conversations about workforce needs, service delivery,
and preparing our organization for the future. Those conversations
have reinforced an important principle. Thoughtful investments
in people and organizational capacity create stronger teams
and better outcomes for the communities we all serve.
as we continue evaluating recruitment and retention efforts, we encourage
the city to look not only about how positions are filled,
but also at how those efforts strengthen workforce sustainability,
operational readiness, employee development,
and long-term organizational health. In public safety,
we see every day that people are our most valuable resource.
recruitment and retention are not simply workforce objectives. They're
about ensuring that when our community calls for help
experienced and well prepared professionals are there to
answer. We appreciate the city's willingness to evaluate these issues openly
and transparently, and we remain committed to being a constructive partner
in this conversation. Our shared goal is straightforward,
attract exceptional people, retain experienced professionals,
and build an organization that is prepared to meet the evolving needs
of long beach today, and remain ready
and resilient for the needs of tomorrow. Thank you for your time.
and next, we would like to invite up the long beach lifeguard association, also known as
lga.
good evening. My name is devin bebe. I'm president of the long beach lifeguard association.
first, I'd like to acknowledge the city's efforts to improve recruitment and hiring processes,
particularly the emphasis on local hiring and strengthening partnerships
with educational institutions throughout the city of long beach. From
the lifeguard association's perspective, one of the most successful recruitment tools we have is
our partnership with long beach unified school district through the long beach
near lifeguard program. Every summer, we introduce hundreds of local
youth to water safety, public service, and the profession of ocean lifeguarding.
for a number of our lifeguards, that program was their first exposure to the possibility of
a career in marine safety. And what's unique about this profession
is that developing a permanent lifeguard workforce is an exceptionally
long-term process. Many of our permanent members started as junior lifeguards,
became seasonal lifeguards as teenagers, and eventually promoted
into career positions. And to 10 years later, the
workforce pipeline we're building today will determine whether we have qualified local candidates
five to 10 years from now. The marine safety division has 25
positions that represent our entire permanent workforce, and because of that, even a
single vacancy can have a significant impact on operations, staffing,
training, and employee workload filling vacancies. Recruitment,
retention, and training are all critical to maintaining the level of service that
the public expects on our beaches and waterways, especially as the olympics are fast
approaching. As the city continues its efforts to strengthen local hiring, we
encourage continued investment in these programs like the junior lifeguard
program, internships and partnerships with long beach unified. These
programs not only create career opportunities for long beach youth, but also help
ensure that the next generation of public servants come from the communities they serve.
the long beach lifeguard association looks forward to continue our partnership
with the city lbsd and local educational institutions to
strengthen that pipeline. Thank you for your time.
and that, excuse me, that concludes the, uh, presentations for this
item. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, director. We're gonna move to,
uh, public comment at this time. I have one speaker listed
that's, uh, sashi. Miro. Rin.
okay. Sashi out there. I I, I probably butchered that last name. I apologize. But,
uh, okay. Any other speakers? Madam clerk?
no other speakers. Okay. So, um, I will now close
the public hearing and we'll move to, uh, council deliberation.
um, I think they may hear the motion out, have it on my
screen, but it was council member duggan. Alright. Thank you chair. Uh,
I wanna thank human resources for bringing this report forward.
um, and I also wanna thank our labor representatives for speaking tonight
and for your partnership. The work that we have seen
over the last couple of years to fill critical
vacancies has been important. Uh, but this has been working.
we can see that when I started in 2023, we had
so many, so few maintenance assistant
positions that it was impacting our services. We were short on
trash collection, drivers and roots were being missed.
and this was before our organics, uh, program was even
implemented. We were closing the beaumont pool because
we didn't have lifeguards to work. Our police department
had vacancies in the 20% range,
and we were short several hundred officers filling
these vacancies matters because they directly impact the ba basic
services our residents rely on. Whether it's trash collection,
park maintenance, public safety, or other core city services, we
need to have the staffing in place to deliver those services. Well,
I think the numbers for our police department, uh, I think that
is a little bit misleading because we know many of the officers who
have been hired are still in the academy and they can't
be deployed on their own yet. I
believe we still have nearly a hundred officers that are currently
still in training right now. This is going
to be critical. We need to continue to fill officer
vacancies by continuing to run academies.
we already have officers working mandatory overtime, and as we add
facilities like the amphitheater, it increases the demand
for our officer coverage. We can't have special events
take officers from patrols at the risk of a longer response time to
priority one and two calls. I know there's nothing, uh,
no action required tonight, but it really
has to be a focus. Thanks for the city to continue to fill officer
vacancies as we increase the demand for police coverage throughout
the city. Thanks again for the presentation.
okay, thank you. We'll move to the seconder, uh, council member,
uh, ook. It's, uh, councilwoman
rick sodi. Oh, I'm sorry. Alright, you're next .
um, thank you. Uh, thank you chair. Uh, I just wanted to put in there that,
um, thank you for the presentation. I think it's kind of a sobering reminder of the,
uh, of where we've come, right? How far we've come, but also the work that is, uh, we
continue to need to do, uh, here in the city to, uh, improve our vacancy rates,
um, and fill the really critical positions, uh, that we're gonna need ongoing. Um, I
wanna thank all of our labor partners, uh, for speaking their truth,
um, adding context, uh, to the data that we have gotten from the city.
um, and these are things that we're all gonna need to take into consideration, um, as we move
into our budget, um, and again, determining where resources are gonna go.
okay. Thank you. Now we get to move to council member thrash.
thank you so much, council member. Super. Um, so thank
you as well, uh, to director bryce, uh, for your work here and to
the team for bringing this comprehensive look at our hiring practices along
with our workforce results. Um, I too want to thank our labor partners,
our bargaining units for being here tonight. Uh, it is very
important that we hear those perspectives, and I wanna thank you for being so
prepared and so effective in sharing, uh, some additional context regarding
the numbers that we're seeing here. So, um, it's already been stated
by my colleague, but I will just remind voters that this is something that they were interested
in, which is how do we ensure that we streamline,
uh, the hiring process here within the city. And so measure jb as
well as the consolidation of our civil service and human resources department
into one single unit, um, has created a unifying hiring system
that allows us to do just that. Um, but I want to
move towards the area and issue of how we continue to
strengthen our outreach efforts, um, especially for local hiring
preferences. Um, as you know, earlier this season,
I put forth the motion, um, that your department is taking a look at to analyze
our workforce and intentionally make sure that we are increasing outreach in
underserved communities as well as employment deserts within our city.
and so I look forward to that report back accordingly. I'll just
note that on slide 14, um, you talk about and share
the increase, um, in the number of workshops and trainings that you've
been hosting. And I think that that is wonderful and can also be, um,
probably attributed to the number of vacancies we've been able to feel.
um, but I'm specifically interested in trying to understand,
uh, what type of sessions, uh, these, that makes up these categories.
so I know that we currently have, um, the economic development department
and the lb win team conducting outreach activities. So
I wanna make sure that I know, you know, what makes up those outreach activities.
and then beyond that, you know, city hall is one place to get access to
information about jobs here in the city, but we have a very large city
and one where if we're going to reach underserved communities means that we have to
be in those communities ensuring that we're sharing the opportunities
of employment in those communities. So I'm interested in hearing and
learning more about how we have ensured that those workshops, um, have been
equitably placed throughout the city. So those are my two questions. Um,
director, if you could answer those. Sure. I'm gonna ask
you to speak to the, uh, the current events, and then I'll talk about, um, some
of our future plans in terms of the, um, continued community outreach.
thank you, bryce. So these workshops and hiring events include job fairs.
um, we've done interview and resume, uh, workshops specific
to departments, um, per their request. We've done 'em for the community. It includes
our, um, regularly held how to navigate the city's hiring
process workshops as well. So it's a combination of all of those. We're
continuing to explore different ways we can, um,
target different communities and kind of figure out where those gaps are.
so we do a combination of different workshops and sometimes it's at the request of
specific departments or just feedback from the community.
thank you so much. I think what I'm looking for is a bit proactive, um, activities
within the department to get out. I know for example, in in my community in
the north part of the city, we have the long beach adult school, which would be a great place to do
some outreach. We also have some very active parent associations at some of our
schools where that outreach could take place, especially again, in underserved
or employment deserts within our city. So I look forward to additional information
in the future regarding how we are being proactive in that.
yes, and just to, just to add we, you know, um, understand and kind of, you know, reflecting
on like, um, what was mentioned earlier, um, by councilwoman rick oti, that we
are, um, you know, uh, realizing where we have been and where we are going.
and part of that is all making sure that we are looking at, um,
better outreach with our partners, not only within our department, but the other departments
who are running the recruitments, as well as our, uh, community stakeholders
and educational partners. And the goal is really to go out to where the community
is versus asking them to come to us as a single, um, point
of information and engagement, but also continuing to learn more in terms
of what the needs are and working with individuals and not just pointing them to
how to apply, but better understanding the nuance of applying and
what they should be doing actually, um, giving them more opportunity to
understand the process. So that is forthcoming, um, for the work that we still have ahead of us.
okay. Thank you. That concludes council deliberation. Uh, let's move to a vote.
motion is carried. Okay, thank
you. We have one more hearing. That's hearing number 35. There is no oath
required. So, madame clerk, can you please, uh, read the recommendation report
from public works recommendation to receive supporting documentation
into the record, conclude the public hearing and adopt resolution,
amending the master fee and charges schedule to add a special events
parking fee at the 1 2 5 elm avenue city owned
facility and increase appropriations by a hundred thousand dollars for parking
structure upgrades, district one. Okay,
thank you. As I said, there's no, uh, oath required. So is my honor to introduce
grace yon. We have joshua hickman,
director of public works, who will provide the staff report.
all right, good evening chair and council members. Um, excited to be here before you
this evening. So the item before you is to establish a fee to utilize the city
owned facility at 1 2 5 elm for special events parking.
this will allow additional, uh, capacity and parking within the
vibrant downtown area and activation of the space itself. That
concludes staff report, and we're available for any questions.
okay. Uh, we'll move to, um, uh, public comment
on, uh, this item. Do we have any public comment? There's no public comment.
okay. Thank you. Then I will close the, um,
uh, I'm closing public comment and, um, we, we will move to, um,
council deliberation, and we have
any council members wishing to speak on this item? Yes, mr.
chairman, hold on one second, please. This is the maker of the motion,
so go ahead. Thank, thank you. Um, council member,
um, where people park matters when it comes to bringing foot traffic
to small businesses, um, I, I wanna thank, um,
public works for this opportunity to bring more parking
into very, um, very parking impacted
location. I think that for the time being, adding
a parking option at 1 25 elm may help
activate our east village in a positive way. Um,
the item mentions that this funding will help prepare the facility
for public access with cleaning and safety upgrades.
uh, may staff please share what some of those, um, safety upgrades
will be. Yes, great
question. So we do have, uh, some preliminary work that will be done here
very shortly to allow the space to get up and operational
for these special events parking. And then in addition to that, what will
be before you later this evening is some additional work, uh, as part of the pd
parking, uh, the pd crime lab project will also include
some, um, parking improvements, but
specific to the items included within this council letter. Would you like to speak a
little bit to this? Yeah. So the
items that are gonna be covered by this are, uh, a lighting upgrade
to convert the lights to led, uh, sweeping pressure washing,
uh, locksmith, some fencing for the top level of the
facility. And I think that's the majority of the safety ones
for the start. Thank you. Um, I know that in the past I have
asked for this, uh, parking lot to be accessible to our
community for community use. So I'm glad that it's being used somehow
to alleviate the parking in that area. And I would also
encourage us to continue exploring options on how our community
can use it when it's not being used for special events. So thank you for
this item. Great. Thank you.
as is protocol, we'll move to the seconder of the item,
uh, council member rick sote, uh, no comment chair. Um, support of the item.
okay, thank you. I see no other council deliberation going once,
going twice. Okay. Let's move to the vote.
motion is carried. Alright,
thank you. Uh, we now move to the regular agenda.
next item up is item 36. Will the clerk please read
report from city clerk? Recommendation to adopt resolution, establishing
a policy addressing disruptions to telephonic and internet service during
city council meetings?
okay. We, we have a motion and a second.
um, I do have a staff report. Yeah, please.
good evening. Members of the city council. This policy was created in response to
senate bill 7 0 7, which amended the brown act to require local legislative
bodies to have a plan in place by july 1st, 2026, for
handling disruptions to telephonic or internet service during public meetings.
the goal is to ensure the public can continue to participate remotely, even
when technical problems occur. The policy applies to all city council meetings
where remote public access is offered. A service disruption
is an outage or a failure that prevents the public from joining or observing
a meeting remotely. If such a disruption occurs, the mayor, presiding
officer, or city clerk must immediately announce it. The meeting may then
go into recess up to one hour, while staff makes good faith
efforts to restore service. These efforts could include troubleshooting
software, replacing equipment, using backup systems, or contacting
support if service is still not restored. After an hour, the city
council reconvenes and may choose to adjourn the meeting, extend the recess,
or continue the meeting after making a formal finding that the public
interest is moving forward in moving forward outweighs the lack of remote
access. Just to clarify, this item is only
speaking to technical disruptions during the meeting. Finally, the city
clerk must document the disruption, the efforts to fix it, and any
decisions made by the council in the meeting minutes, staff from the city
clerk's office, city attorney's office, and technology and innovation department are available.
available to answer any questions from the city council. Thank you.
okay. Thank you. Um, monique de la garza for that staff report.
uh, we'll go to the maker of the motion. Dr. Joni, rick sodi.
oh, do the staff here not have any report or no? Oh, that was it. Okay.
um, yeah, I, um, I'm supportive of the item. It's important that we make sure that we have a
policy in place so that people are able to engage telephonically, um,
and virtually, um, if they so choose to do so.
okay. Now we go to the seconder, mary zendejas supportive.
okay. I see. Uh, oh, we have, um, deliberation, um,
suli. Soro. Thank you. Uh, so I have
a question about this technical, uh, policy here.
um, so I just, I think that this is, this
is brought forward because it sounds like, I just wanna make sure we clarify
that this policy is set up because there's an expectation that there's going to be technical
difficulties. Um, and I'm wondering, uh, you know,
can you share a little bit about why that's anticipated around technical
difficulties? Uh, thank you council member. To be clear, this policy is legally
required by sb 7 0 7. That is why we are, uh, adopting it tonight
before sb 7 0 7 goes into effect july 1st, um,
of this year, uh, as staff can attest to, we are working
diligently to, um, comply with sb 7 0 7 before the
deadline and do not anticipate any issues with that. Uh, thank you for
clarifying that it is to be in compliant, but I also wanted to make sure we
lift up what are some technical difficulties we expect to
encounter as, uh, as we conduct
our council meeting when we do have, 'cause the effort is to
make sure there's more accessibility to people making public comments,
not just in person, but virtually. So I just wanted to
make sure, um, you know, we address this. Is that, that's,
yes, it's according to law, but what do we expect to encounter as a city
right around that? And council member, thank you for the question.
um, I think there are a number of technical issues that we always want to be
prepared for. Um, and we'll talk a little bit about what those could potentially be.
um, but part of this is having a plan for how we would go about addressing
the different aspects that might occur. Uh, because this is a public meeting,
we want to ensure that we have the maximum amount of transparency and accessibility from
our community. Um, and so anything from the internet,
uh, and, and outages in an internet to any of our
outages of the systems, uh, which are many that support the technology
for the council meeting, um, that, uh, are, are either
run through a system or a vendor, uh, may have the opportunity to
not work as intended. And so having that plan in place, uh, to address
what happens if is very important so we can then also be,
uh, reporting that to the city clerk and being compliant in a way, uh,
with the law. Yeah, and I appreciate that and I, I'm making it a
point to have this discussion because it's really, um, you know, as a city
we wanna make sure that to make every effort for people to be able
to participate. So should there be technical difficulty,
uh, do we need to put in writing that if people who wanted to
speak that day with technical difficulty would also be able to submit
their comments in writing? Um, or is that something that's part of
our practice is like, okay, so if, again, I'm
not thinking about within the, the law, right, the state law, but I'm thinking within
about how do we actually put this into practice because there's no guidance
from the state to do so. How do we make sure then, is that a
policy we need to put in there that, or is it kind of a roll of practice
that we can make where if people couldn't provide their public comment virtually,
can they email that to city clerk or should they email it to city clerk
or mail it in by, you know, usps? 'cause I do have some
resident that still sends me hard copy mail. Uh,
I think both of those are options that we currently have
as part of our council meetings. At any time, the public can email
or use our software, our one meeting software to provide written public comment
for any of the agenda items at any time. Um, people can submit
comments after the meeting, before the meeting. We don't have a deadline on when
we can receive those comments. They will be taken and distributed to the council
members and made part of the record at any time when we receive them.
again, we can receive them via email through our software. Um,
people can drop them off at the meetings, they can drop 'em off at our counter, they can mail it in. So
that is always an option. If technology does go down, the council would
make the determination whether to continue the meeting, um, after an
hour of trying to reestablish connection,
or we would adjourn the meeting. And if people telephonically could not
participate after that time, yes, they could definitely email us their
comments. Thank you. I appreciate that. This is where I just wanna make sure there's a
very clear point of clarification that we wanna make sure regardless
of technology, that, you know, engagement is very important
to us, um, and that we won't allow
that to interfere with people being able to give their comments to us. Thank you.
okay. I see no other, uh, counselors queued up. So without objection, we'll go
to public comment. We have four speakers on the list,
um, so they'll have three minutes each. Um, first up is dave chla,
followed by oscar svia, seymour justice, and fb.
thank you chair, superman council members, um, first I'd like to thank
you as well as the city attorney's office for separating, uh, the issue of sb 7 0 7
implementation and compliance from, uh, the proposed changes
in what is now, uh, agenda item number 49 last week, uh, agenda item
46, uh, they were, uh, muddled together
and really since, uh, november of last year, uh, it's been presented
as though the toe are, uh, are inseparable. And
I think that's just not only been logically, but procedurally, uh, an error.
um, I'm supportive of this item because, you know, I'm supportive of
expanded access to public meetings and generally, um, increasing
those options to include zoom and telephonic, uh, options. Um,
but also because I've experienced them, uh, with the city council. So in, uh,
2020 when we had the pandemic, we had to switch. We didn't have any
other choice but to switch to zoom and telephonic call-in options,
uh, I find it striking, uh, that the staff report doesn't have any
analysis of what went right or what went wrong with that experience. Um,
and may, maybe there's some reasons for that. It's not, uh, my
job here to speculate on what they are. But, um,
there are three things, uh, specifically, uh, not only the lack of
analysis on what went wrong or, or right, with how the city rolled it out the first time
when it had no other option, but, um, how, uh,
we would metric and evaluate, uh, success
of implementation for sb 7 0 7. There we're saying we're
doing it, we're saying we're going to provide these options. We're saying we have a policy now if
there are technical service disruptions. Um, but I don't think there's
been sufficient thought into all the other things that could go wrong with implementing,
uh, zoom and telephonic options at the city council. Um,
from my experience on october 4th, 2020, uh, october, sorry,
uh, august 4th, 2020 and august 11th, uh, I, as
well as other speakers, uh, were selectively, uh, disrupted
by service interruptions. Uh, in my case, once I had a comment cut off
halfway through when it was a particularly sensitive, I'm a long-winded guy,
I think in paragraphs, but it, it, it cut the paragraph right in half and it made me
sound like I was saying something that was an exact opposite of what I was. Uh, luckily
for me, I knew to comment on more than one item and knew to, uh,
to adapt. But, uh, not everyone comes to every state of council
meeting. Um, the other, uh,
issue, uh, in addition to metrics or, um,
you know, uh, speakers kind of being targeted for the content of
the commons is there's nothing about bad actors. Um, not only from inside the city,
but outside the city. How are you going to ensure that residents are being heard and people aren't
gaming these new options? Haven't heard anything about that. Thank you.
okay, next speaker please.
you can start time. My name is oscar svia. Um, I try
to come here when I can. I'm just, um, I'm very puzzled on
36 sb seven seven and agenda item 49.
um, it overlaps, I'm satisfied that they were split up, but
I thought agenda item 49 was proposed or done or we're
discussing that in order to satisfy sb 7 0 7, but
now we're being told that 36 satisfies it. So if 36 satisfies it, I
don't see why we need 49 or why 40 thirties can't be done on that
or waiting on. So I just wanted to ask if I could have some elaboration
on why 49, um, is still going on. If it's not supposed to be a part of 7 0 7,
would I be able to have a comment on that later on? But this, this is your time
to comment. We, we don't respond to comments. Yeah. So I'm talking about later though. Would I be able to
talk with the temporary city manager about that or
no? This is not a q and a, this part of the, uh, agenda. It is this your yeah,
I'm talking about after the council meeting. Um, well, certainly yeah, you,
you can contact, uh, staff on, on anything, but go ahead. This, I'm, I'm, I'm
taking up your time, so go ahead. Yeah, that was all. Thank you. Okay.
okay, next speaker is seymour justice. Uh, hi again,
counsel. Um, I'm just speaking to 36 now, and
uh, I was really pleased to see that you've kind of like double,
uh, decoupled the, uh, compliance with sb 7 0 7
from the other measures that you guys have been deliberating over.
um, I like some of the previous statements.
um, 7 0 7 is great. Um, it's to
increase access to public comment to having your constituents have access
to let you know what they think to comment on issues
that are coming before the council. So I think it was a really good idea
whoever kind of decided to pull those apart for this meeting. Uh,
I also know there's a whole thing about having to do a first reading, a second reading
before a, a final vote. So I'm wondering, is this a first reading
of the 7 0 7 or, uh, and having to start over
again, uh, or is the vote later on 49,
the third and final reading, and you're voting on that? So I, I'm
not sure how all the parliamentary stuff works, but I do know that,
uh, you've been getting some calls, uh, opposing what's
coming in 49, but I want to make sure like we don't lose the
7 0 7 part and the sauce because whatever you guys are gonna do,
I, I didn't, like dr. Sorrow said, I didn't get why this motion was all about
a disruption of, of the telephonic and, and web stuff.
I was hoping to maybe hear when you're deliberating, what is the plan
for like how, I don't know whether public comment means we're
gonna hear people from zoom kind of in telephone, like
in the meeting room or just that they get to comment 'cause they're the public and
send an email. Uh, it sounds like they'll be a part of this meeting.
so I was a little confused in the presentation about they can like
send an email whenever they want and get it to you. I think part of the whole point of
7 0 7 is people who can't come to council want to be a part of the
council meeting mm-hmm . So I'm really hoping that that's what this part of the measure
is and not just about what happens if the wifi goes down or something.
so I look forward to hearing 49 much more than this one, but I wanted to
thank you for pulling this 7 0 7 part away from that. So now
we can deal with the 49 part that really felt kind of disingenuous
that you were trying to kinda like jam in these restrictions on
public comment and pretending that it was about 7 0 7 to comply with
it. 'cause that was pretty clearly not the case. So thank you.
okay, thank you. Our final speaker is fb,
I'm am not gonna thank you. I'm gonna thank the, um, constituents
of long beach for coming and forcing you to decouple
3 36 from 49 you pieces of s**t. Um,
this is the reason why we come to city hall. Uh, this is the reason why people's
voices need to be heard because when they're heard you do things
like decoupling 36 from 49, and I wanna
say I am, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with 36, approve it. Great, fantastic.
make access possible for all of us. Um, I just wanted to say that
thanks doesn't go to you that thanks, goes to us for forcing you to
f*****g do it. We all know you got phone calls and emails
and I don't know, talking tos hopefully, but the reason why you
f*****g did that, you pieces of s**t, and this is the reason I speak to you this way
because you're trying to take our f*****g voices away from us. How f*****g
dare you. You're eroding our first amendment every single f*****g
time. The people that come here every tuesday, no matter what,
it's because we want to protect our f*****g civil
liberties. You don't get it. Or maybe you get it, but
maybe you're, I don't know, getting backdoor deals somewhere. I don't f*****g know. I
don't wanna have conspiracy theories on what you guys do
to make your money, but I just wanna say that please say the
f**k away from my first amendment, you pieces of s**t
free palestine.
okay. Uh, that concludes, um, public comment. I see no other,
uh, deliberation from the members. So, uh, please, let's move to a vote.
motion is carried. Okay,
thank you. Our next item is number 37. Will the clerk please,
please read report from community development recommendation
to approve the fiscal year 2026 through 2027 action
plan for the expenditure of community development block grant, home
investment partnerships, program grant and emergency solutions grant funds
approve the substantial amendments to the fiscal year action plans
and execute all necessary documents with the united states department of
housing and urban development and other entities to implement
and comply with related federal regulations citywide.
um, I see we have a staff presentation, so please take it away.
all right, team. Good evening mayors. Um,
good evening, members of the city council. This item is for the fiscal year 26
through 27 action plan and prior year substantial amendments for
our hud funds. This is a fifth and final action plan under
the current five-year consolidated plan. The presentation today will cover
the consolidated plan, the annual action plan process, including the
proposed budgeted activities as well as prior year action plan substantial amendments.
and lastly, I'll cover our outreach efforts for this action plan and the feedback
we've received. Click
thank you. The
26th through 27 action plans, a single year spending plan for the three hud
grants listed here, cdbg home and esg. The c-d-b-g-p
program encourages activities that facilitate suitable living environments
and can expand economic opportunities for low income persons and communities.
the home program focuses specifically on increasing the supply of affordable
housing and the esg program provides funds for persons experiencing
homelessness.
although the city of long beach is an entitlement jurisdiction, meaning we do not compete for this
funding, we must, we must prepare a five-year consolidated plan for hud approval.
the consolidated plan serves as our application for the hud funds and
was developed with significant community input and was approved by city
council on july 19th, 2022. It will expire
next year on september 30th, 2027. The
consolidated plan includes an assessment of housing and community development needs,
market analysis priorities and strategies to address those needs.
whereas the consolidated plan identifies needs and establishes
goals and priorities over five years. The annual action plan includes specific
actions that will be undertaken through funded projects and activities
every year. We follow a three step development process, which entails addressing our
five year goals, collecting and considering public input
and analyzing trends and allocating resources to best meet
local goals. As I mentioned,
the 26th through 27 action plan is our fifth and final action plan under
the 23 through 27 consolidated plan. Our congressional
allocation for 26 through 27 is a total of $7,855,555
and 95 cents as shown at on the table
this year. Our cdbg and esg allocations have decreased by
about 29,000 and 11,000 respectively, and our
home allocation has increased by 17,000. The total available
funding for the year is over $9.4 million when we combine the new
entitlement with projected program income for the year.
this slide provides more detail on the proposed activities and their budgets
that will be supported. They are organized by consolidated plan goal. They are responding
to goal one is to create and preserve affordable housing. The action
plan proposes just over 3.4 million in home funds
and a little over 1.4 million in new cdbg funds for new construction
acquisition and rehab for a total of $4,867,204.
this goal receives the largest amount of funding as housing was identified as the
most urgent priority during the consolidated plan outreach process.
under goal two, support activities to end homelessness, the total esg
funding amount is $400,303 and
it's being proposed for emergency shelter rapid rehousing, the
homeless management information system and street outreach. These figures were
determined by our health department as they administer esg grant activities.
it should be noted that the health department receives funding from several different
sources for homeless services and those resources are considered annually when
developing the action plan. Budget consolidated plan goal three,
eliminate blight and strengthened neighborhoods, supports a variety of community
improvement activities and public service programs. The two proposed
non-homeless public service activities are the afterschool and weekend recreation
program and the senior meal program for a total
of $417,993. Under the
strengthening neighborhoods category, we have several programs including the graffiti, graffiti
removal, mural restoration, neighborhood leadership, code
enforcement, and side improvement, all of which are supported by cdbg with
a total of $2,000,007. Activities that
are considered public service are marked with an asterisk here.
total cdbg funding for public service type activities cannot exceed 15%
of the annual budget. Undergo four, expand
economic opportunities, 110,000 is being allocated towards this goal
goal for small business technical assistance. And lastly, undergo five, promote
fair housing choice, 100,000 is being budgeted.
this slide summarizes the budgetary changes from fiscal
year 25 through 26 across the three grants by activity
under cdbg. The sidewalk improvement program was budgeted
substantial. The budget was substantially reduced in fiscal year 25
through 26. As the department of public works was working to spend down
prior cdbg funds allocated to the program. In fiscal
year 26 through 27, the budget for this program is being restored to
its previous level. The neighborhood leadership program is
being increased by 60,000 to help cover increased staff and program cost.
the graffiti removal program has a proposed budget increase of 50,000,
similar to the sidewalk improvement program. Their budget was decreased
by 50,000 in the prior action plan year due to the
cap on public service cost this year, that that budget is also being restored to
prior year levels. Budgetary decreases in the fiscal year
26 through 27. Action plan for cdbg activities include
housing, land acquisition, the neighborhood resource center and
administration. And I'll cover this more in the next slide.
as I mentioned, the home grant allocation has been slightly increased and
as a result we're able to increase activity budgets accordingly
as shown here. Lastly, esg activities tend
to fluctuate from year to year. And as I mentioned with the health department assessing
new and ongoing funding sources this year, they're proposing
an increase to street outreach, emergency shelter, hmis and
a reduction to rapid rehousing and administration.
the proposed fiscal year 26 through 27 reductions for housing
acquisition will be offset through new funding sources, including measure
a la casa and state housing trust fund and pro housing
incentive program, which also support the acquisition and production of new affordable
housing. Reductions to the nrc will be covered in part by
budgetary increase to the neighborhood leadership program as the two programs
share staff in the next, in the next consolidated plan cycle. Staff will
redesign nlp with community input and will consider changes
such as partnering with community based organizations to coordinate the program while
maintaining program structure and the goal of resident empowerment.
reductions to administration will be covered by administrative allowances under state
grant dollars and measure funds.
federal regulations and the city's citizen participation plan require a
substantial amendment to the consolidated plan or annual action plan. If there's a
change in the use of cdbg home or esg activities from one activity
to another in the excess of 25%.
a change in allocation priorities, a change in purpose, scope, location, or beneficiaries
of an activity. Funds not spent from previous action plans cannot be
included in the current fiscal year 26 through 27 action plan and
will be spent through action plan substantial amendments. Unspent funds will
be allocated to the security deposit program, home improvement roof program,
mobile outreach, homeless management information system, and supportive services for
people experiencing homelessness to help meet programmatic needs and
help meet regulatory requirements of cpd funds.
outreach and public participation is a key component of action plan development. This year.
community development staff attended and or hosted 15 events
shown here to inform residents about the action plan development to collect feedback
via our three question survey, which assesses which programs and priorities
are most important for us to continue to fund.
the multilingual survey was made available for over two months from february 24th
through may 2nd. It was available in english spanish command tagalog.
it was available online and via hard copy at the 15 events I shared
on the previous slide, as well as at in libraries and parks and cdbg
areas. We received 454 total responses and
the most critical goal was assisting in the creation and preservation
of affordable housing for low income and special needs households. We also shared
information on ways to participate on social media, the city
website, a media public notice, several e-blast, promotional
video and flyer distribution. We conducted two public
hearings with the long beach community investment company on march 18th
and last week on june 10th. Um, and lastly, we
published public notices in multilingual newspapers and on the city website as part
of our 30 day public comment period.
the fiscal year 26th through 27 action plan draft was made
available for 30 day public comment, beginning may 5th
and ended friday june 5th. During that time, staff received 28 written
public comments, many of which opposed higher density and affordable
housing development within highest opportunity areas. For reference,
highest opportunity areas are those whose characteristics
have been shown by research to support positive economic, educational
and health outcomes for low income families, particularly families with children.
historically throughout california and long beach, affordable housing has been
concentrated in low opportunity areas, effectively excluding low and
moderate income residents from neighborhoods with the highest quality schools,
parks, and environmental conditions. Upon approval of the 21
through 29 housing element in february of 2022
and the 23 to through 27 consolidated plan on july, 2022,
the city identified the development of affordable housing in high
resource areas as a goal
annually. In order to continue receiving federal funds,
the city must also self-certify that it's meaningfully further furthering fair
housing in accordance with the fair housing act of 1968,
as well as complying with the california assembly bill 6 86, which
includes taking action to address various types of discrimination.
however, since the current consolidated plan was approved in 2022,
no projects have been proposed in highest opportunity areas due to higher land
costs. Lack of available sites feasible for larger developments.
prior to that, only three small acquisition rehab affordable
housing projects were developed in highest opportunity areas. These
three projects produced a combined 13 units. Because smaller affordable
housing projects are more feasible, the city intends to continue working with nonprofits
and the local housing land trust to purchase and rehabilitate smaller
rental projects to convert to affordable housing units.
as part of this, as part of the city's obligation to address fair housing goals,
this is one of the three affordable housing projects located in highest opportunity
area that I just mentioned. To give you a sense of the size and scale, this is a four
unit affordable housing project for disabled adults.
as we begin to prepare for our next consolidated plan, we're also keeping a close
eye on federal funding developments that could,
excuse me, that could impact future funding
of cpd funds. On april 3rd, the trump administration
released its 27 budget, which would be implemented locally on
october 1st, 2027. So next year that would
be under the next consolidated plan, and that proposes the elimination of cdbg
and home. The house appropriations committee completed markup
of the 27 budget and voted to send the updated bill to the full house.
the house bill proposes to fund hud at an 8% reduction
from 20 se 26 levels for cpd programming.
the program most affected by this radi
iteration of the budget includes the home program with the
proposed 60% reduction. Though
the 27 budgets still being revised and reviewed by congress, staff are
monitoring the budget developments closely.
not all needs requests or priorities can be supported with these funds, especially
considering our annual allocations have been declining year after year.
the allocation presented today is 47.7% less
than our 2010 allocation. If allocations had remained at the same level,
the city would have received an additional 96 million during that time.
staff also continue to apply for new funding sources and have secured state grant funds
for affordable housing staff continue to work closely with partner departments
and agencies to better align our programs, improve service coordination, effectiveness,
and efficiency, and spending to find upstream, upstream solutions such
as our partnership with the los angeles county housing solutions agency
or la casa. And with that, our recommendation
is to approve the 26th through 27 action plan and prior year substantial
amendments. That concludes the presentation. We're happy to answer any questions you may
have. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for the presentation. We'll
move to the maker of the motion. Uh, council member zendejas. Thank you.
um, thank you staff for that great presentation. Very thorough. A lot
of information in there. Um, these federal grants offer
critical funding that offers enhanced support to low income communities
throughout the city. These grants have, uh, funded services
like neighborhood resource center that allows residents to apply
for supplies and print flyers to invite their neighbors to an
upcoming block party event or any kind of neighborhood event
that they're hosting. These services support neighbors getting
organized and getting active and making a difference in their community.
as an alumni of the neighborhood leadership program, I have
experienced firsthand the empowerment, um, that these services
have had on our neighborhoods and our community leaders. Um,
it is unfortunate to see such a decline in
federal support and a loss of some of these services.
this is why I support the efforts to reassess, um, and
look for alternatives and future funding to bring the support
back in the coming years. Thank you so much for your work on this.
okay, we'll go to the, uh, seconder of the motion, uh, council member
sorrow. Um, thank you. Yes, thank you for the presentation
on this year's, uh, fiscal year's action plan. I think
that, um, it's, it's been really important that we've
received this, um, funding, um, and been
able to allocate it them annually through the public
participation process, which I appreciate was done to make sure that it's
going into the areas that the community wants, um, you know, see
improved. And I think we're seeing more need for housing
services, um, um, homeless services to also preserving
housing. And I think that need is gonna continue to not only
continue as is, but increase with the less funding that we're gonna get as a
city. Uh, but it's really been so crucial to be able to have this, to make the different
kind of improvements and empower residents through training
programs to be able to make these changes, um, in, in their communities.
so I, I also wanna add that we to encourage staff
to continue monitoring, but also, um, finding ways that we can be
creative to continue the programming that we do. Especially,
um, prioritizing the neighborhood leadership program. I know that we're gonna
continue that program. It's gonna be modified, but I think that it's
been so empowering to see residents throughout
the city get the training they need to, uh, activate the neighborhood
and also empower their neighbors to do, to take action as
well collectively. So, thank you very much.
okay. Uh, councilman th thank you so much, chair.
um, so to the team, um, I know you read it out, but it takes an incredible amount
of work to get to the point that, uh, you are and to have, um, the presentation
accordingly. And there's some elements we should be celebrating because of the
things that we've been able to do on the front lines for so many families
in our community. Um, but understand that you've presented it in a way that's
quite sobering, um, and helping us understand where we're going from
a fiscal standpoint. So, programs that you've mentioned home, esgc,
dbg, um, really help to stabilize families in our communities.
um, and yet we're seeing sort of a very devastating trend.
um, the combination of multimillion dollar disinvestment
and just elimination of resources, the rising costs of labor
and inflation that we're experiencing right now. I'm just grateful that our team has
been able to maintain, um, even the services that we've been providing,
uh, so far. Um, the transparency that you've provided in
this presentation, uh, should help share with the public that the president's
budget currently, uh, plans for an elimination altogether
of all of these resources, um, in community. And so,
you know, I know that you're trying to be as clear-eyed about our fiscal reality as
possible. The complete elimination of the cdbg
funding, which would now, you know, really close our neighborhood resource centers, um,
is quite a heavy blow. Um, and one that provides direct assistance
to our neighborhood association, civic engagement and community building.
um, but like my colleagues have said, um, I see that you've put more money, um,
into the neighborhood leadership program, um, to ensure that it can
continue on and really creatively thinking about how to use staff from other
programs to support very similar work to what they're doing,
um, to keep our residents connected with this important, uh, infrastructure.
so, you know, with that, I of course will be, uh, I will be supporting
this item. Um, but, um, you know, trying to, trying to celebrate the wins
of what we've been able to do to hold communities together while understanding that
this may be the last year of these resources. Thank you.
okay. Um, if the clerk can confirm, it appears we have no public comment on this item.
no public comment. Okay. Without objection, we'll move to a vote.
motion is carried. Alright. Uh, the next item,
um, number 38, will the clerk please read report from
economic development and opportunity police department and public works? Recommendation
to execute any and all documents necessary, including a
standard offer agreement and escrow instructions for purchase of
real estate with lalb harbor for the purchase of
certain real property, located at 1400 canal avenue
in an amount not to exceed $6,300,000
with an additional $100,000 for our acquisition related
cost increase appropriations by $6,750,000
to fund the purchase of the property and to fund tenant improvements
and accept categorical exemptions. District seven.
okay. Thank you. We have a motion a second. Can we move to the staff report please?
thank you. Chair superman, members of the city council. The item before you is for the
purchase of, um, 1400 canal avenue. Uh, the subject
property measures approximately 39 30,900 square feet and includes
a 17,400 square foot building that currently houses the long beach police department's
crime lab, and one of two sites for pds long-term property and evidence storage.
the current lease expired april 30th of this year with the tenancy continuing
on a month to month holdover status, permanent locations for the crime
lab and property and evidence storage functions have been identified at 1827
spring street and 1 25 elm. However, tenant improvements will not be completed.
total 2028, the city engaged landlord and negotiations for
short term extension, but only long-term options were, uh, offered.
in addition, the current lease requires the city to complete substantial restoration work upon
vacating the site. Given the cost of a long-term lease and required restoration, acquisition
of the subject property is the financially prudent option.
to that end, the city has negotiated a purchase with the landlord in the amount of 6.3 million
with an additional 100,000 needed for acquisition costs, due diligence items,
and escrow and closing fees. Further, $350,000 is needed
for tenant improvements, including roofing repairs. The city will have a 45 day
due diligence period and escrow will close 21 days thereafter.
a couple of additional considerations to note is that first, the city will no longer owe rent
payments when, once we take ownership. And secondly, after the pd functions relocate
to their permanent facilities, the city may declare the property surplus and recover cr costs
through a fa future disposition, or alternatively,
evaluate use of the subject property for other long term municipal uses.
the acquisition will be funded with idle cash in the general capital projects fund group in
the department of public works until a long term decision is made to either sell the property or
retain the property long term and issue debt to replenish the upfront cash.
a decision would not need to be made until later in 2028 or early 2029, at
which time the subject property could be considered for a bond issuance forecasted for that
time. This timing also allows the police department to complete transition to
their permanent facilities. Ongoing operations and maintenance costs are
expected to remain in line with the current usage and are already appropriated in the general
fund group in the police department. Therefore, the recommendation
before used is to authorize the city manager or designee to execute any and all documents for
the purchase. Increase appropriations in the capital projects fund group in the public works department
by 6.75 million to fund the purchase offset by
the sale of the property or future bond proceeds and accept categorical exemption
ce 26 dash 0 4 8. This concludes my staff report
and I'm available for any questions you may have.
okay? Okay. Thank you. Um, we'll move to
the maker of the motion. Councilman thrash I
support. Okay. To the seconder joining rick sodi, uh,
no comment. I also support. Okay, I see no public comment
on this. We have one oh, oscar svia.
hello. Um, I want to express dissatisfaction with this specific
agenda item, especially 'cause I come from district seven. Um, I don't know if people
remember, but one of the reasons why I became an unofficial candidate back in
february was to look out for the community for my district, because
I feel every time there's funding available, that funding is used specifically for police,
police funding or something. Not for the community. This
place, $7 million, that's a lot of money
all of a sudden that could appear from the city funds instantly.
but we have no money to put more trash cans in the corners of
district seven more facilities make that entire district area where canal
is more prettier. So it could, so it could be more storefronts, could
be there, more people could want to come, but it's just all alone and
ugly. The streets aren't cleaned, nothing like that. So just, it really
angers me and frustrates me that there's always money for things
like this, but never any money to support the community. Thank you.
very here.
okay. Thank you. That concludes public comment. So that concludes public comment without objection.
we'll move to a vote
co council minow. Motion is carried.
okay, thank you. Um, next item is number 39.
report from health and human services. Recommendation to receive and
file a presentation regarding the city of long beach, cambodian community
health needs assessments citywide.
okay, we have a motion and a second, uh, we'll move to
a staff report. We have allison king
with the health and human services department.
good evening. Um, pro mayor, pro
tem , and our honorable council. Tonight the department
of health and human services is presenting the cambodian community health needs
assessment, which reflects the lived experiences
and priorities of the cambodian community in long beach.
this work aligns with the city's racial equity and reconciliation
initiative by advancing racial data transparency
and centering community voice in decision making.
I'll now turn it over to nicole san andre, our
cambodian health equity coordinator.
thank you, allison.
good evening council member. The purpose of this assessment was to better understand
the health and social need of the cambodian resident in long beach and
signal hill, particularly following covid-19, and to help
inform culturally responsive programs and services. Additionally, I would
like to note that we also included cambodian residents
in signal hill due to interconnectedness of the cambodian
community across cities. Some, some cambodian
residents live in signal hill, but work, worship, access,
healthcare and community program in long beach where my speaking
resources are more accessible. Next slide.
this particular project was conducted in partnership
with cambodian communities, uh, the united cambodian community,
families in good health camp scholar and an academic partner,
um, csu dominguez hill, using community led
and culturally response approach.
their assessment collected 447 surveys between
may and august of 2024, both in kamai and english,
followed by community listening sessions. Survey was also
conducted by bilingual staffs and volunteer through trusted community
spaces. Next slide. Our
sample included 18 to 92 yale cambodians
one third were full, full-time worker and nearly 20%
had less than high school education. About one in five
respondent lived in multi-family dwellings with
an average household size of four language access issues.
intergenerational homes and economics stability were also founded
in the assessment. These demographic emphasized the needs of
culturally and linguistically relevant services
based on both surveys, result and community listening sessions.
we identify five major area that consistently came up as
top concern for cambodian residents. These are healthcare access
and utilization, mental health and emotional wellbeing, housing
stability and food security, economic security and employment.
and lastly, community safety and discrimination. These five focus area
guided us and our analysis and frame the
next section of a presentation.
access to healthcare is a significant issue for this sample of
cambodian resident with about 70% reporting, health
insurance may lead through medi-cal or medicare. However, insurance
does not equal to access. 38% experienced a lack
of support during covid-19 pandemic lead leading to missed appointments.
65% reported having regular doctor or primary care
provider. Approximately 26% use traditional healers due
to familiarity and trust. This
highlight the need for culturally safety and relationship and healthcare.
in this lie highlights the top three barrier respondents
face when trying to access healthcare. The most common barrier is
cost. With 38% of respondent said healthcare
is unaffordable even when they have insurance. Second barrier
is time. About 31% reported not having time
to seek care often due to long wait times, work schedule,
or caregiving responsibilities. The third major
barrier is distant and comfort with 23%. Se
said care is either too far or that they
do not feel comfortable in healthcare settings together, these findings suggest
that access is not just about coverage. It's about whether care is
affordable, fit into people's lives and feel accessible
and welcome when they seek it.
mental health emerged as a significant concern with one in three
respondent reporting, ongoing stress culture,
cultural stigmas, mistrust in healthcare system, and limited
access to culturally relevant services contribute to this gap.
respondent often rely on family, faith and community leaders
for support. Underscoring the need for culturally affirming mental health
approaches and address both intergenerational trauma and community
based healing. Housing and food
security emerge as interconnected challenges affecting
health and wellbeing. Rising health housing costs
are a significant stressor for many respondent, most of whom are
renter. Approximately 38% reported experiencing food
insecurity, including skipping meals due to financial constraint,
while also facing barrier to access affordable, healthy, and
culturally familiar food transportation challenges. Further
limits access to grocery for about
one third of the respondent. Together these finding highlight
the needs for integrated solution that address housing, affordability,
food access, cultural food needs, and transportation barrier.
nearly one in third respondent lost work or had hour
reduced and one in four
reported experiencing or witnessing anti-asian
hate. These events create lasting fear and
mistrust. Many community members describe feelings
unsafe, even doing simple thing like grocery shopping or taking the bus.
one respondent shared, I don't feel comfortable leaving my
house because of hate crime against asian communities. Another
said we had, we need more protection for our elders who
takes the bus beyond fear. 38% said they
had no one to help navigate healthcare during the
pandemic. A gap that left many isolated and
unsure how to get support these experiences highlight
the importance of safety, belonging, and trust as part
of health equity, not just services or programs.
through surveys and listening session, community member consistently emphasize
the need for kamai speaking services, affordable housing, transportation
support, and safer community spaces and
respond recommendation fo focus on expanding culturally responsive
services, strengthening mental health supports, address
food and economic insecurity and advance community safety
efforts.
next step?
yes. The cambodian community health need assessment
report will be publicly available this month. As
part of a next step. We had convene a first meeting of the
cambodian com community health need assessments steering committee to help
identify current community priorities and guide the next phase of this work.
the department will also continue to support culturally responsive community
response activities informed by the findings, and utilize the assessment
to help inform health equity community projects, funding opportunities.
that's it. Next one.
oh, I went ahead. My apologies. Okay. And that's it.
alright. Yep. Couple more. Slide. One more.
if there's any question, please reach out to a team at our email on the s slide.
thank you for your time.
okay. Does that conclude the staff presentation? Okay. We'll move to the maker of the motion.
uh, councilman th took that
was councilwoman sorrow. I'm sorry. I got number first here. Um,
thank you council member. Um, . Uh,
so thank you very much for the overview and presentation
on the, um, health needs, the cambodian health needs assessment. I
think that, uh, this was the timelining. Just to clarify,
uh, this was one of, uh, several community health assessment
that was requested to be conducted post covid
to see how we can be responsive to the needs of the
specific community. 'cause they were disproportionately impacted by covid.
is that correct? Okay. Nodding meaning. Yes.
I'm, I just wanna make sure , yes, I'm interpreting it. Okay. Thank you very much. I
just wanted to share, because it's now 2026, and I know
that these, I appreciate a lot of the work done to
bring, um, community steering committee members together. So thank you
to those who have helped, participated and conducted the,
um, and been part of the, uh, survey as well as the focus groups.
I think it's so important that, uh, you know, people do know that the community
has been here for now about 50 years, given that we celebrated
the, uh, ann or the commemorate the remembrance of the, the
genocide. It's 51st now, but I think that over time,
uh, there's still challenges that has changed, but also that has, and
I think some emerging one that had come up was from the post covid
pandemic and where we had, um, the federal administration
targeting a specific group of people and blaming particularly,
uh, those who are from china or may look asian as a cause
of covid. So, which had triggered a variety
of violence against seniors at that time. And I just wanted to add
some context because it's been some time in how this has emerged. Right? So
having the background is very important, which is why I think that,
but that doesn't mean that all that fear and those issues just went away.
right? Which is why this assessment is important because this is still people's
real lived experience, particularly cambodian community members.
so I appreciate you also including the signal hill, um,
as well, city member, uh, cambodian community members because, uh,
my district, which is really adjacent to signal hill, is hard to tell where the line starts
and end unless you look at the street, uh, uh, signs.
I did have a question around, uh, when it's been lifted up
many times around having language access, and I'm
wondering how does this, uh, report help inform
the language access program that we have currently? Uh,
as far as, um, sharing that information, but also will there
be exploration and how this report will help inform
the program around needs and, and other resources.
thank you, dr. Soro. Um, so in terms of
this assessment, it will be, it's our first and we're hoping not gonna be our last.
um, however, I, I think in terms of where we're heading
currently, we're hoping to get our steering committees members, some of
who are here today, um, to, to help support guiding us
in terms of what it could look like and how this report will be
utilized by a language access team. Um, in partnership
with our language access team. As you already know, a lot of our
translation services are very, um, are now more up to date
and also more accessible for our cambodian community as well. 'cause traditionally,
um, we translate our material at a, at a very direct,
um, translation where community, as some of you may already know, our
community member, some of them might not be able to read at that
level. So, current, one of the, our continued partnership, we're hoping
to, uh, work with language access to make sure our language access are translating
material in where community are able to do so. But also currently we're waiting
for our community, uh, steering committee recommendation as well,
because again, they're in the community. They're the one that's doing the direct
work with community, and they're hearing the day-to-day basis. So they're,
whatever their recommendation may be, that's what we're gonna utilize to continue to guide us to doing
this work, um, while always emphasizing on amplifying
a community voices through this process. So we're in a early stake. We just have a first steering
committee meeting last month. We're hoping to get more done. Okay. Thank
you for that update. I think that every, uh, the different assessment
groups, um, that has a steering committee and they're at different, um,
pace, uh, as far as timelining. And I think, you know, that
question applies to these other area issues that would be related to the
department, such as economic impacts, right? Is that gonna be shared
with our economic development opportunities department as
well, so that they can be informed in areas that they can provide
programming or resources to, to those respective small businesses.
so thank you. I look forward in hearing the progress of the steering committee,
prioritizing, uh, the issues as we narrow down what programming
could look like. But I think that we also know that we're going into
a times where there's gonna be more budget constraint. So
I think that more than ever partnership is gonna be so crucial, uh,
not only amongst other department, but also with our community members,
uh, as organizations that we work with in order to figure out
ways that we can, uh, collectively think through programming
and sharing resources if we can, and expertise. Uh, so thank
you very much for all the hard work. Um, and I look forward to staying updated,
uh, on this. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. We'll
go to the second of the motion. Thank you so much, chair. Um, so
I just wanna say that I'm really proud to live in a city, um, that focuses on
ensuring that and understanding that the cambodian community is not just part
of long beach. Um, it is part of our core, uh, city identity,
uh, history, and I believe future as well. Um, so, and I
wanna thank all those community members who took part, um, in this analysis. Over 400,
uh, conversations, I know, uh, took a lot of energy to
get folks to fill things out, come to community events, and engage accordingly.
uh, director king, thank you for overseeing this and to, uh, health equity coordinator.
nicole. Um, thank you for the presentation. So I, what
I appreciate about this, uh, health needs assessment, that is that it doesn't
just exist on paper. Um, I believe based on the kinds
of feedback that you've shared with us today, it reflects lived experiences,
the struggles and the triumphs, um, that I hear from my constituents,
and then personally that I hear from my family members who are of cambodian descent.
this, uh, data specifically shares with us that we need
culturally competent mental health and other care linguistic services,
uh, for this community. And that was reinforced in some of the feedback that the
community, um, had shared. But I do believe that this, uh, plan here
provides us with some actionable, uh, steps that we can take,
uh, to make sure that we tear down those barriers, um, help people not
only be part of social safety nets, but frankly feel safe, uh, within our
community. And that we could hear loud and clear from what you've described, um,
like my colleague. I too look forward to how we can align resources,
um, to ensure that we're prioritizing some of the grassroots
organizations that already have the community trust that you talked about,
um, so that we can make sure that we get the community, all of the, uh,
public health that it deserves. So, um, I wanna thank you for,
um, really making sure that this particular, um, health needs assessment
lifts up the voice of the cambodian community. Um, and I look forward to
hearing next steps. Thank you. Alright, thank you. Uh,
it appears we have two members of the public who would like to speak. We have sangha
and savon,
department of health and human services, dr. Alison
king for your leadership. Uh,
cambodian community assessment,
cambodian assessment
theory 2020, commitment to
advance racial and health equity by .
good evening city council members. Uh, I'm sangha resident of
district six. I'm here to congratulate the team,
dr. Lisa king and the whole team for doing great job regarding
this assessment. And as a cambodian community member, this is really the first
opportunity to also thank you everyone involved for uplifting
our cambodian community, because this is the testament to
how the city is taking good care of the community in a way, like,
uh, especially the promoting healthcare and how,
uh, cambodian people live in the community alongside with other cambodian
folk, other folks, because, uh, this is, uh, the statement
itself to, to, uh, to emphasize that, uh,
cambodian community is taken care of. And again, the, uh, tonight I would
really humbly ask that city council members vote to approve,
uh, this item of the agenda for the cambodian, uh, the health
need assessment report. And, uh, because this, this means
a lot to our community. Thank you so much. Thank you.
hi, good evening, council member. Uh, my name is ion cy,
and thank you to dr. King and nicole for this presentation. Uh,
I've been working at united cambodia community for a little over 10 years now,
uh, helping the youth and the community, uh,
access various things from, have the school art program,
uh, uh, senior program, and learning about how to talk
about health, uh, oral history, about their trauma.
and, um, and with our other steering
committee, uh, kimberly town inc. Um, seniors
taking, uh, self-defense courses because of the
fear that they've had. And so, what we have tried to do at,
uh, at ucc, you know, the last years we have served
four, uh, 5,400, uh, community members, uh,
is that we wanna empower our community. And, uh, programs
that we provide are like, you know, uh, esl classes,
um, access to resources and where to
empower them and not just, you know, being able to hand them
different things that, that, you know, that would just, uh, continue to equip with them.
so our purpose is to empower a community, build a healthy long beach,
uh, and of course, the cambodian community. I live in district three, but I
work in district six, so I get to see a variety of, of
places. I'm very privileged that way, I think, to be able to see two
sides of, of my community. And I understand the west side as
well, uh, and the need. So I just want us to say thank you
and I love the city. And please, I know the funding is, is
not quite there, but continue to fund our health department because that's for all of us.
thank you. Okay. Madam clerk,
can you confirm that concludes public comment? That concludes public comment. Okay. Without objection, we'll
move to vote.
motion carries. Okay, thank you. We're into the forties. Item
number 40, report from health and human services
recommendation to execute all documents necessary to amend the grant
agreement with the los angeles county chief executive office for a
revised total contract amount of 12,000,111 and
$52,000 for measure a comprehensive homeless solutions
citywide. Um, okay. Thank you. We have
a motion and a second. Do we have a staff report?
okay. No staff report on this. And for those of you keeping score at
home, I've messed this up twice tonight. So we're gonna go to the maker of the motion. Joni, rick
sodi, uh, uh, thank you chair. I'm always gonna
support investments into our health department, our
homeless services, and the fantastic work that our continuum of care, um, does.
um, and you're very deserving of this. And I only hope that we are able to
continue to fund everything at the same levels that we've been able to, and that we have a reversal in
some of the decisions that we see at the federal level.
okay. Thank you to the seconder. I'm just delighted to
be able to accept, uh, millions of dollars in resources, uh,
from the county and other measures accordingly. I look forward to supporting. Thank
you. Okay, I see no other council comment. Uh, any members
of the public? There's no public comment. Okay. Without objection. Let's
go to a vote.
motion is carried. Thank you. Number 41. Report
from health and human services recommendation to execute all documents necessary
to amend contract with the los angeles county chief executive office
for an updated contract amount not to exceed $9,889,433
for measure a local solutions fund citywide.
okay. Thank you to the, uh, maker of the motion council member thrash.
thank you so much. Chair unequivocally support. Okay. To the seconder,
joni, rick sodi.
are we good? Sorry, we're having some technical cept here. Um, but none nonetheless.
uh, ditto. Uh, councilman rush took, uh, happy to accept this funding, uh, on
behalf of our health department. Okay, that concludes council deliberation.
do we have any members of the public who are speaking on this? No. Public comment. Okay. Let's move to
a vote.
motion is carried. Thank you. Number 42, report
from human resources recommendations to purchase through alliant
insurance services. Various insurance policies, total cost of
all coverage coverages, shall not exceed $18,418,150
and execute all documents necessary to secure these coverages
citywide. Okay. Thank you for that abbreviated reading
and, uh, much appreciated. Uh, we'll go to the make of the motion council member
sorrow. Um, I support the item. I think, fortunately,
you know, insurance needed for, um, all the activities that's done, and some have increased
and some have decreased. So, um, that's it for my comment.
okay. To the secondary councilman row, I support, uh, the item.
okay. We have a motion a second. Any members of the public? No public comment. Okay. Move
to a vote. Motion is
carried. Okay. I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you to fasten your seat belts for
this section of the, uh, agenda. Uh, item number 44,
uh, 40 43. I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself. , we
still thinking. Report from human resources. Recommendation
to procure property insurance for city buildings, contents, and vehicles
via alliant insurance services property insurance program to include
primary cyber liability boiler and ma machinery
and primary property layers for the queen mary. Total premium
for these policies shall not exceed $7,226,363
citywide. Okay. Comments from the, uh, motion or, uh,
council member fashion? Took comment. Did one of my colleagues want
to motion councilwoman in dejas? No.
okay. Thank you. No comment. Okay. To the seconder, uh, council member
allen, no comment. Uh, approve the item. Okay. Any public comment?
no public comment. Okay. Move to vote.
motion is carried. Thank you. Item number 44, report
from public works. Recommendation to adopt plans and specifications
and adopt resolution to execute a contract with comp compass
contracting and consulting for the construction of the convention center, promenade
and ra rainbow lagoon curb concrete repairs for a total
contract amount, not to exceed $4,025,000.
district one. Um, thank you. We have, uh,
a motion and a second. Um, we're gonna move to a staff report.
all right. Good evening. Again, chair and council members, we do have a brief staff report that
we'll we'll go through here. Thanks for pulling that up.
so we are combining two projects, the convention center and the
rainbow lagoon. They're both located in the downtown shoreline area.
the convention center features more than 400,000 square feet of
meeting and exhibit, uh, exhibit space. And the area
around the convention center will be utilized for the 2028 games, hosting
several events. The rainbow lagoon is a saltwater lagoon
that's connected to the bay, um, and is a destination and a special
events location.
so, a brief background on the convention center. It was originally constructed
back in the seventies. There was a major renovation back in 94.
the pedestrian bridge that connects the convention center to the
other side of shoreline drive was constructed in 82. And
there have been some minor repairs and maintenance, uh, over the years, but nonetheless,
there is still, uh, some significant work that needs to take place out there on site.
so what is that work that we're gonna be doing? We've got some deficiencies
of non-structural elements that will be addressed as represented here
in some of these photos. You've got some damaged sidewalks, some cracks,
deteriorated stairs, um, and some leaking down into the parking garages.
over at the rainbow lagoon, we have a five and a half acre
manmade salt water lagoon. As I had mentioned previously, uh, was constructed
a number of decades ago. And while again, some minor repairs
have been made over the years, the perimeter walkway is in a state of disrepair.
so our goals over there at the lagoon are to repair the curb
and the walking surface surrounding the lagoon itself.
as shown on this image here, you've got some, uh, deteriorated
concrete coping as well as the broken tiles, the broken bricks and
deteriorated concrete and cracks and uplifts in the, in the
sidewalk.
so we did put this project out to bid, um, the,
as a combined project, the, the goal of which was to find a contractor
that can perform both projects. Uh, we opened the bids back in february,
however, we, we received no bids on this project, so we
did decide to move forward. We courted our construction
folks that are out there and asked them to submit on
this project, asked them if they would be interested, and we ultimately were able to
work with compass to, uh, compass contracting and consulting.
we worked with them to, uh, get a price, negotiate a price, uh, for this
project. So we, we selected them and,
uh, worked with them based on prior experience on projects within the city.
so a little bit of background. Uh, they did serve, uh,
and worked with us directly on a couple different projects. We, they were the
general contractors, cm or construction manager, responsible for
overseeing the macarthur park renovation project that was recently completed. And
the davenport park expansion project also recently completed,
uh, with a combined construction value of over $13 million.
uh, they were responsible for project management, including onboarding subcontractors,
working with different folks to, uh, deliver both of those projects. So we do have confidence
in their ability to deliver this, this project as well.
they have a pretty good understanding prior to, to compass. They also worked with us in
a couple other projects. Um, we, we have confidence in their
ability to know and understand the long beach construction
standards and rules and regulations.
it is, uh, an important to note that the previous projects mentioned were,
uh, completed on budget and on schedule.
so the budget for this project, we have $5.3 million available.
uh, the total cost of these projects, both the convention center and the
restoration around the lagoon, uh, is anticipated to cost $5.3 million.
so our goal, uh, should the item be, uh, passed this evening,
we would quickly enter into construction contracts. We would begin
later this year and wrap up construction in 2027.
that concludes staff report, and I'm available for any questions.
okay. Thank you. We'll, uh, move to the maker of the motion. Mary zendejas.
thank you. Thank you director hickman for that presentation.
uh, we have a beautiful convention center, promenade wok
and rebo lagoon that offers aesthetic settings for a lovely visit
to our downtown long beach. I am in great support of these
repairs and improvements, and I'm glad to see we have a record of successful
projects completions with this contract partner. Um,
so that brings me great excitement. I greatly appreciate
that the presentation includes the project schedule. 'cause
I'm, I always wanna know when it's gonna be completed, and I know
we have a lot to do, but, um, thank you for sharing that with us.
uh, I'm looking forward to seeing the results coming back, um, and seeing the
completion in in spring of 27. Thank you very much. Okay.
thank you to the seconder, dr. Joni otti.
always glad to see investment in infrastructure, uh, in our city, and thinking about
just, you know, how much utilization we have of the rainbow la grown and just that area. Um,
I'm happy to see this in investment. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other council
discussion and no members of the public wishing to speak, let's move to a vote.
motion is carried. Thank you. Item number 45,
report from public works. Recommendation to adopt specifications and
award a contract to laz parking for providing
citywide parking operations and management services for a total
contract amount, not to exceed $16,014,945
and execute all documents necessary citywide.
okay. Uh, we have a motion a second, and it looks like director hickman is
ready to present another report. Yes, sir. We'll,
we'll make this one, um, pretty brief. It's a a pretty robust slide deck,
anybody's feel free to, uh, flip through it. There's a lot of great information in there. But
I will, uh, quickly touch on a few of the highlights, uh, that I think are important
to note. So we have a pretty robust system,
uh, parking system here in the city. We, that includes parking structures,
surface lots. And overall, we have 10,418 total
spaces that, that are managed, uh, by the city because
we love maps in public works. We've got a, a nice map here that gives you
an overview of the different parking facilities that we manage, uh, downtown
over, um, along the beach. And we have north long
beach, uh, in the inset as well as downtown.
so, parking management overview. The, the goal behind bringing somebody on
board to do this is to run the day-to-day, uh, operations and management of the
facilities themselves. This is a 365 day operation.
we need somebody there, um, onsite to serve the public, uh, protect the
revenue stream, uh, keep the facilities ready to go, keep 'em safe, clean,
and we want to be able to continue to scale up what we're doing, uh, throughout the
city. So I do wanna spend a minute
on, on this slide. Our previous contract allowed for the parking manager
to handle the maintenance, landscaping capital projects. Uh, kind of a whole,
whole approach type effort. Uh, there were some small
specialized projects or initiatives that were led by the city, um,
but the majority of work was handled by the parking contractor. Our
new contract, or what's before you this evening, is that the parking manager
will handle the day-to-day operations, as noted on the previous slide, making
sure everything's safe, beautiful, accessible, uh, signages
in place, that kind of thing. Public works will then be handling and performing
the management of the landscape and cip type projects.
so, some recent improvements to our parking system include equipment, uh,
technology. We're gonna continue to evolve and adapt and, and look
at new opportunities there. Uh, we've also repainted some of our facilities.
we've added new way finding signage, new security cameras and, and, um,
additional lot striping and improvements.
um, but we're not done. We're gonna continue to invest in our parking assets. We're
looking at increasing the use of technology, license plate, reading technology,
qr codes, real-time occupancy monitoring. Uh, and, and the list,
uh, goes on.
so our parking systems generate just shy
of $10 million annually. And our annual parking
contract, uh, that's before you this evening, includes the just shy of
$5 million operator contract in addition to, uh, $1 million
that will be c performed or self-performed cipn maintenance type improvements.
so over the course of the, the first three years, we have a not to exceed,
uh, $16 million. Uh, that includes the contingency
that we also do have options to renew for two additional, uh, one year
periods. And this is funded across a number of different funding sources.
that concludes staff presentation. And I'm available along with my colleagues to answer
any questions. Okay. Uh,
thank you director hickman. We'll go to the maker of the motion. Uh, mary zendejas.
thank you. Thank you again. Director hickman. Um, las park has
been a strong partner of our city for many years. I think they are one
of our strongest partners that know the needs of long beach
very well. And they, they have extensive experience
in this, so happy that we're able to partner with them. Thank you.
okay. To the seconder, uh, council member allen. Yeah. Um, I agree with you, councilman
diaz. They've done a great job, uh, for us. And, um, and I'm happy,
uh, to see us moving forward with another contract. Thank you. Okay.
comments from, um, council member? Th my point of, I I,
pardon me? Oh, did you call my name? Yes. Okay, great. I know, I know I
made you gun shy tonight. I apologize. Um, thank
you chair. Um, so my comments are related to, um,
the, I, I agree. I think that the service has been very strong
and, um, pleased that, you know, we're moving forward. But one of the
things that I see is when I'm out and there is an event or
a major set of activities, um, individuals who
may not be as familiar with interacting with our system, uh, may take
a little longer and create some backups in some of our, uh, facilities.
again, especially when we have major events. I'm wondering, does this contract include
human capital investment? Um, are they, you know, where they make
sure that there's an attendant there to help people, uh, manage the exit
process? Um, and if not, is that something that the city does?
and when do they decide to employ those human, that
human capital in order to ensure that we have a smooth, um, exit process?
yeah, great question. We'll have our mobility officer, willie walker,
uh, help answer that question. Yeah. So it's really,
um, a little bit of parking theory here. You
don't always wanna put someone in the lane at an exit when it's busy. Everyone's gonna stop and
ask them questions. Uh, we saw some examples of this recently. Um,
what they do a lot of times to manage event parking though, is they pre-sale for our
events, which means when you get to the exit, it just reads you your license plate and it opens up. You don't
actually have to wait. So what you might be noticing during special events has a
lot to do with the traffic that's outside of a garage. So maybe someone's
gonna go to a stoplight or stop sign and that actually backs up traffic going through the
garage, which it looks like someone's actually stuck at a, at a gate.
but yeah, they, they're always staffed and there's always people on site. They just don't always put them in
the lanes. It slows down traffic. Mm-hmm . So I'm asking the question 'cause
I was at the events over the weekend with, uh, soccer and lbc mm-hmm .
um, and I was in a lot, um, and there were two exit lanes.
um, I could tell that, uh, patrons were having a hard time understanding how
to use the systems and there was only one, uh, person there to manage
the exit. Um, and so that's why I wanted to get a sense, given that we will have
many more activities during the world cup and of course are preparing for
the olympics. So my expectation is that we are thinking about
what, um, assets we will have in place. And I'm assuming that this
contract considers that so that we don't have that level of stack up that I
saw over the weekend. Yeah, it, it does. They, so they do have,
I mean, it's fully staffed. I think it's, I don't
know the hours off the top of my head, but it's massive in there, the amount of hours that they run. So
if, if we approve them to staff up for special events, they can.
okay. Um, I look forward to maybe having further conversations about that. Thank you.
alright, thank you. Uh, council member duggan.
so the contract with la was started in 2018 and it just was,
it just ended. Why are we splitting the contract for
the city to take some of the facility maintenance over? And
what is the savings? Um, could you share that
again if that was, uh, part of one of the slides?
yeah, great question. So, uh, we wanted to, as, as we
released this rfp, we wanted to make sure that we had a full understanding
of what it is that a parking operator would do. Uh, there's also some new,
um, state requirements as well. So we wanted to comply with the new state requirements.
we also looked at where do we have some overlap with what we do within public works
currently and with the parking operator. So this really allows us to be
a little bit more efficient, a little bit more nimble, allow the parking operator to really
focus in on what they do well and allow us to focus in on what
we do well. Can you just repeat it would be for
maintenance, is that picking up trash in the parking lot as well
as landscaping?
so, uh, here on, on slide four is really the overview of
the day to day activities that will be done out there in our parking
facilities, in our parking lots. This isn't, uh, fully en
encompassing. There are some additional items. So if a parking garage is full, let's
say, then we'll have folks available to be there to
facilitate the way finding direct folks elsewhere. There's also special events
as we were talking about, uh, previously. So we'd onboard them to help with
additional, uh, support there as well as maybe some additional security in
different locations. So this isn't all encompassing, but really the idea is
manage it on a day-to-day basis. And then, uh, public work should
be doing more of the landscaping capital projects and improvements. For example,
installing new security cameras, installing, um,
new, new led fixtures, that kind of stuff.
thank you director for clarifying that.
okay. Uh, thank you. That concludes, uh, council commentary. Um, do we
have any members of the public issue to speak? No public comment. Alright, thank you.
let's move to a vote.
motion is carried. Okay, thank you. We're to the second
to the last item in the, um, regular agenda. Item number 46,
please report from public works recommendation to execute
all documents necessary to amend contract with all american
asphalt for providing as needed major and secondary highway
construction services for a revised total annual contract amount
not to exceed $100 million citywide.
um, thank you. We have a motion and
a second. I see no staff report here.
uh, just, just a brief, brief report. Okay. So this is an existing contract that was
bid and awarded in 2023. Uh, there is no
increase to the line item cost themselves. This is an increase in authority that
will allow us to continue delivering critical infrastructure projects. That
concludes the report. Well, thank you, uh, to the maker of the motion, dr. Sorrow.
um, I support the item. Thank you. Okay. To the seconder, dr. Rick
sodi, uh, no comment chair, just supportive of the item. Okay, thank you.
um, do we have any public comment on this item? No public comment. Okay.
let's go to a vote.
councilman duggan. Motion is carried.
thank you. I misspoke again. We have item 47 to slip in there.
report from public works police department recommendation to adopt
plans and specifications and awarded contract to new
dynasty construction for construction of the long beach police department crime
lab laboratory ti project for a total contract amount
not to exceed 14,000,870 2008 $899,
and execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract
and increase appropriations by $12,500,000
to fully support project delivery including design
construction and associated administration and design support
cost district one. Okay. Thank you, uh, to the maker of
the motion, cindy allen. Um,
I'm mc mary the mo, the maker of the motion, please.
okay. And mary cindy house. Thank you. Um,
the crime lab will become an important component of our public
safety responses and criminal investigations. I'm glad
to see these improvements including additional accessible parking
upgrades and other safety improvements, um, by when do
we expect the completion of these improvements? If I could
interrupt just one second. Do you wanna go to your full staff report at this point
or do you wanna answer that question? Sure. Ha, happy to do that. Yeah. It and the, or both
the staff report does include a slide on the scan. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you.
okay. Well without further ado, we'll get right into it. So, uh, we're excited to be here
this evening to, uh, give you a little overview about this project. Uh,
did mention it briefly earlier, um, earlier this evening. And
this is the, the first of our capital improvement projects
for the new 1 25 elm facility. So the police department
crime lab is gonna be located on level three. You can see here in the
diagram on, on the screen before you, uh, we have parking
on level two in the rooftop long beach police department crime lab on level
three, and then our new ees, um, department on level four.
so some of the work that will take place out there, uh, within the crime lab,
modern forensic lab space evidence process in storing,
uh, admin spaces and new hvac and other infrastructure
improvements to the facility itself, uh, including the common space that
you see here.
this slide represents a floor plan showing that the project
is going to include office and circulation areas as well as the crime
lab itself, restaurant facilities, and then space carved out for a future
dna lab. That'll be a future project.
the total cost of the project is $19.8 million.
uh, available funding, including the proposed bond financing.
uh, it brings us to $19.8 million.
we intend should the item get approved this evening. Uh, we intend to execute
the contracts with the contractor start construction as soon as this fall
and wrap up in 2028.
so the recommendation before you this evening, adopt the plans and specs, award the
contract to new dynasty construction company and approve the 12
and a half million dollars in bond financing necessary to complete the funding stack
and deliver the project. That concludes staff report.
and I'm available for any questions. Okay. I see no other
council commentary. We have one member of the public, uh, wishing to speak
and that is, uh, mr. Svia.
madam clerk. Do we have any other public speakers? No, that was the only
one.
so once again, um, kind of relating to what I said about 36,
there's always money for police departments for real estate, but never for
actual improvement of the communities. Yeah.
and for this to be the tune of almost $14 million
shame. It's pretty crazy. Like when we're like, especially
priority wise, don't get me wrong, I'm a, I'm mechanical engineer, so I appreciate science
and having that technology be able to do some science, but we need
to think about priorities. This is not a priority right now. While so
many other things in the city and districts need attention.
yeah. You guys are trying to make a fancy, it's like state of the art
lab, but including improvements of elevator as if it's
like a lounge space. So again, I just, I'm really disappointed
with you guys always using funds for stuff, especially with district
one. I'm really, I would wish better for
you would do better. Especially given recently you also around the
park, you, it was you that approved the homelessness fence. Correct.
so I feel like there's a lot of funding going to things we don't need that just attack our community.
um, and yeah, I
would hope that going on further on or
one of you guys have wrote no on this, we
could discuss it further as council as democracy.
um, thank you so much.
okay. That, that concludes, uh, public comments. So without
objection, let's go to a vote.
ocean is carried. I, yay. Okay. Thank you. Well money for
cops. Woo. Okay. Uh, we'll
we're gonna have a second warning on that. We have identified two people
in the audience. Please keep the comments, uh, down
and, um, we have, have, uh, we've concluded
the regular agenda and now we're gonna move to the, oh, I'm sorry. We have one
more item number 48.
I wouldn't wanna break any more votes. Okay. Madam clerk, I think that would be the third warning then.
so can you read your statement? I don't know who, who's who. Yeah,
you have to announce it. Chair super na
this is your third and final warning. We're on second meeting. Just to be clear, is disrupting
the meeting? Sorry, just to be clear, we're on a second warning for the individuals
in the audience that you identified. Okay. Do
I have any other obligations at this point? Yes.
so they are, they're entitled to an additional warnings.
okay. So that, that's a warning and, um, identify the individuals.
is that, is that required? Okay, so gentleman, the red shirt, the woman in the
white, next to the green hat back there. Everyone got that? Alright.
thank you chair. Thank you. So, um, we're gonna go to item number
48 48 report from
public works technology and innovation recommendation to execute
the right of way, use agreement and any necessary documents between
the city and the gateway city's council of governments for the installation,
maintenance, and operation of the gateway city's regional fiber optic
network and administer the agreement, approving finalized plans,
associated site letters, and any other actions necessary and
connection with the agreement citywide.
thank you. We have, uh, no staff report here, so we'll go to the maker of the motion. Mary zendejas.
thank you. I'm pleased to support this item, which
represents a smart investment in long beach's digital infrastructure
and term connectivity. Um, this agreement allows
the city to partner with gateway city's council of governments
to expand access to a regional fiber optic
network that will strengthen communications across our city.
reliable high speed fiber infrastructure is essential
for modern city operations, public safety, traffic management,
technology systems, and the delivery of efficient
services to residents and businesses. Happy to
support this item. Okay. Tha to the seconder, uh,
councilwoman kerr. Yeah, I just wanna thank the gateway cities cog for their continued
important regional work and collaboration, uh, with all of the cities in the
council of governments. Uh, I noticed that executive director, hector de la tore was here. There
he is. I wanna thank you for the continued work that you do with your colleagues,
um, to keep us more physically connected, communication connected, um,
and do all kinds of things across the region. So, thank you.
okay. Um, can the clerk confirm we have no public comment on this? No public comment.
okay. Thank you. Let's go to a vote. You have one,
I believe. Um, councilwoman rick sodi.
okay. I, I apologize for that. You don't show up on my screen, but you have the floor. No worries.
thank you chair. Uh, I just wanted to, um, uh, uplift the, the work of the gateway cities
cog. I get the honor of, uh, sitting as part of that, uh, of that body. Um, and
this has been a continuous conversation we've had over the last several years. Uh, the importance
of, um, really the connectivity in our southeast la cities, um, and make sure everyone,
um, we think about utilities, right? Internet is one of them. Um, and making sure that
everyone, um, in the southern, you know, southeast la county region has access to high quality
internet, um, and making that a priority. And so I wanna thank the gateway city cog.
I wanna thank our executive director, hector della tore, um, trust me, he has been very
consistent , uh, on this particular issue and making sure that it comes
to fruition for every single city, um, in southeast la county. So, thank you.
okay. That concludes commentary. So we'll go to a vote.
motion is carried. Okay, thank you. We'll move to ordinance
number 49, report from
city attorney recommendation to declare ordinance amending chapter 2.03
relating to the rules of the city council by adjusting the city council
meeting. Start time, public comment, process and supplemental agenda
timeline, read and adopted as read.
okay. Um, we have a motion, but we have no second.
okay. We now have a second. So, uh, we will go.
okay. Uh, we'll go to the, um, maker of the motion. Uh, council member duggan.
so, uh, over the past week I've heard from many
residents about their concerns with this proposed change.
these are significant changes to how we will run our council meetings
and people have raised real issues.
I think changes are needed as we implement this
ordinance, sb 7 0 7. But I don't wanna make a rash
decision based on an arbitrary deadline that we are
imposing on ourselves. My understanding that this
council only needs to approve the disruption policy, which
we already approved before the deadline, and the other changes aren't
required to be implemented before july. I have concerns
about having one public comment period only at the
beginning of the meeting. I don't like, like giving the meeting chair the authority
to cut off public comment. Now the mayor may
never use that authority, but other people could.
as I brought up in one of the first meetings, I have concerns
about cutting off public comment signups at five 30.
also, most importantly, I don't like that we are being put under an
arbitrary deadline when our communities are asking for more public discussion
on sweeping changes to how the public participates in our meetings.
when I started this discussion with the
goe, the government operations and efficiencies committee,
uh, we did community outreach. We sent out
surveys, and I think some of
the proposed changes don't reflect the feedback that we heard,
I think we need to slow down these changes, hear more from our community,
and not make a rash decision when we don't have to right
now. Okay.
does that conclude your comments?
okay. We'll go to the seconder. Um, dr. Jon, rick sodi. Okay.
um, thank you chair. Um, I just had a couple of clarifications. Um,
I think we've heard a lot of public comment, either in person or, um, like
our council offices by email, et cetera. Um, and admittedly, I think that there's a lot of
questions out there around the proposed changes. And so I wanted to ask some questions to allow some, some
clarity, I think, for the council as well as the, um, uh, as those in
watching the meeting tonight. Uh, so the first was, and this was actually a comment that was made,
uh, earlier in the meeting when we were talking about the disruptions. Uh, can the city clerk
describe to residents what a hybrid city council experience was, look and sound
like. Specifically, will attendees in the chamber be able to hear public commenters?
and how will staff transition between in-person public comment and virtual public
comment? Thank you for the question, councilwoman.
so it would function similar to how it functioned during covid, where
we had people call in on a zoom meeting and we would broadcast their voice
into the chamber for the duration of their comment. Under
new sb 7 0 7 guidelines, we would hear people in zoom
and we envision going back and forth between the people in
zoom and the people physically in the chamber to ensure
equity with in-person and online public commenters.
okay. Excellent. Uh, and so the follow up comment to that is, some public commenters
have mentioned that virtual public comment should be easy to implement because we had to do this during
covid-19. Can staff specifically the city clerk, describe what a similar between
that experience and the hybrid meeting we are now moving to and what is
different? It's similar in that we are having zoom commenters.
the big difference is during covid-19, there was nobody in
the chamber physically present for public comment. It was 100% virtual.
we were able to organize callers and have everybody
function in a zoom room and make their comments,
and we can determine how many callers we're gonna be commenting, commenting on
a single item during covid-19. Under this hybrid
model, we would not be able to determine how many
people are gonna call in versus how many people are gonna arrive in person
to make comments. It's gonna be a little bit more difficult to provide
equity and do one-on-one. Um,
I think we will be able to wrap our arms around that after we have a few
meetings under our belt, but I think it's gonna be a, a difference. So
that is one of the big differences between covid-19 and what we are going
to experience going forward. It's, it's
not all online like it was, we will have, have
to manage both in person and online. And then the last
question would be, we've received public comment saying the residents don't understand why we are
choosing to combine agendized public comment into one period instead of having it per item
like it is right now. Can city staff speak to the technical and staffing challenges
to a hybrid meeting in general? And why was the recommendation made to combine public comment
into a specific period? So the recommendation was to ensure
that we mitigated potential
technical difficulties that we could have with
every item receiving public comment. It increases the
chances of, of us losing connectivity, having
high volume of calls. Um, there could be a lot of internet traffic
and we would have to stop the meeting depending on our connectivity
issues at any point. So we could get through half of the meeting, a third of the meeting,
three quarters of the meeting, and then need to call and end to the meeting in order
to reestablish connectivity. The thought behind having
one public comment period was that that would reduce technical
potential technical difficulties that we were having. It would also allow
us to determine the volume of callers that we were going to have for that meeting.
and we did do, um, research on how many callers
we were getting. I'm sorry, how many public commenters we were getting per meeting,
which was about 36, which is something, something we discussed in one of the previous meetings
on average. And we did do some math on how
money, how much time, if we had 36 on average, would that
require for us to have. And it equaled about an hour, hour and a half for to
hear all those public comments. If we had about an average of 30 to
36 callers, and then I'm assuming the assumption is now,
um, because we are recommending in this particular item to go to 90 seconds,
the idea is that potentially we could double that amount. Um, and so therefore that allows
for the same amount of hour and a half. But understanding now we're ex we're,
we're expecting an increase volume, right? Because we're, we're increasing accessibility
and increased volume of callers, right? And so we're gonna need to be able to accommodate both
in person and virtual correct of a comment. And it was also
out of the survey that we did, one of the, the common comments that
was part of the survey was they, the public really wanted
to have an idea of when they were gonna comment. The idea that they were
waiting all night long to make a comment was
a, a burden to sit and wait. And part of
the recommendation was to give them a definite timeframe in
which they could make their comments. So they weren't waiting all meeting long to make
the comments that they could come down to council, make their comments, and
then go home. Or they could make their comments virtually not
even come down to city hall, but have the opportunity to call in during a given
timeframe and make those comments and not be as disruptive to
their day. They can go on and have dinner with their family, go to soccer
practice, go to baseball practice, call from those places as well. That is
part of the virtual comment availability is being able to
access your counsel from wherever you're at during that timeframe that
that also went into the thinking behind the recommendation for that particular timeframe
for public comment. Okay. Thank you so much. Those are all my questions, chair.
okay. Uh, thank you. The next speaker is council member tu.
uh, thank you so much, chair. Um, so I too received a number,
I would say a robust set of emails as well as phone calls from the public,
uh, regarding this matter. And I wanna thank the public for taking the time to
engage in this way. Uh, part of how we are, how,
what, how I think about, um, this work is related to,
uh, what we understand might be the public sentiment, as well
as some additional information out there regarding the facts of
what, you know, where we're trying to go. Um, I wanna say that a couple things
that I have considered are how do we identify a way to
engage the most people, um, in the process. There seems to
be an interest, uh, among the public to definitely be part of the
process. So we wanna try and figure out what that looks like. Um, we want to
make sure that people have a sense as to when, uh, their matter will
come up. That was also something that we saw in the survey as well as what I've
heard from the public. So, before I get into some analysis
and information that I was considering as part of this conversation,
uh, one question that I have probably for either, uh, our city
attorney or for our deputy city manager, um, if there is
a, uh, potential change or, you know, recommended, um,
friendly amendment that I might offer, um, to the motion and seconder, um, if
that does occur this evening, does that put us back at a first reading regarding
this matter? If it's to the language of the ordinance, then yes, it would bring us back to
a new first read. Okay. And the language of the ordinance includes
the, let's say, for example, the amount of time the public is given to speak? That's
correct. That's a substantive change to the ordinance. Okay. Thank you. Um, I will
keep that in mind. Um, so one
of the things that I did, my staff and I is tried to think about, you know, how are
other jurisdictions grappling with this matter? Um, what are they
doing in order to ensure that there is public participation?
and based on some of the things that we've heard from the public, um, regarding how
does the city of long beach fair in terms of its access and democracy
as a city? So if we take the, the top eight cities in the state
of california with long beach being the seventh one, um, the
city of los angeles, san diego, san jose, and san francisco,
all in that order, all host their public meetings, their council
meetings, either in the morning or as early as one 30 or 2:00 pm
which is not what we do here in the city of long beach. We allow for
more accessibility, allowing people who might be in a more traditional
nine to five working experience to participate. All of these councils
that I've just brought up are also full-time, several of which meet several
times a week, just to give some census as to, you know, how
do we fair in comparison to other cities. Then I took a look
at among those cities, uh, how often or how much
time do they allow the public to speak? Um, currently,
most, if not nearly all of them allow for a maximum of two minutes.
so that's los angeles, san diego, san jose, and san francisco. So
as of today, they allow for two minutes. However, the city of san
jose is having conversations as a council to move to one minute
in order to comply with 7 0 7. We have not gone that
far down as the city of long beach to two minutes, or even to to one
minute. Um, then I took a look at other cities that I would say, okay,
they're population size, very similar, um, to the city of long beach
and represent the fifth, sixth, seventh. Well, we represent the seventh and eighth
city. So fresno, sacramento and oakland skipping long beach,
all of which are part-time councils. Now, um, according to
that research, fresno gives three minutes, um, and long
beach gives three minutes. Um, oakland is more likely to give
two minutes and noted that they move to one minute if there is
a crowd. And out of all of those entities, fresno,
uh, sacra, uh, fresno and oakland in particular, fresno starts at nine,
oakland starts at three 30. Um, sacramento has two
meeting times. It appears that they start some of their business at 2:00 pm
uh, so some of the consent calendar items, some public comment, and then
they also have a meeting that's scheduled at 5:00 pm where they continue a regular
agenda. So I share all this just to give
some context about where I think we are. As long beach one, we wanna be
a leader. So I'm pleased to see that we are starting our meetings at a time
that I think the public is pleased with. And, and because we are starting
later in the day, we are a leader in that sense. We have
long been a leader on the amount of time that we have provided to the public
at three minutes. Um, but, you know, I wanna reserve,
uh, sort some more additional conversation regarding whether we go
down to a minute and a half or how that change might go into effect.
given that we also now have to consider not only those who are in the room,
but those who are not in the room, and how many, uh, calls we might give.
so I wanted to share this with my colleagues, um, as we consider,
um, you know, how do we fare in comparison to other cities, um, and
how, again, do we allow the most people the greatest opportunity
and a specific time to participate, um, in our meetings for today.
so I'll stop there for now. Thank you.
okay, thank you. Um, next up is suli. Soro. Yes, thank you
chair. Um, yeah, I wanna also thank everyone for their
engagement and participation in giving feedback. I think that
with every process, we're a democracy, right? It's not perfect, especially when,
uh, a legislative item is passed at a state level for
local cities to figure out how to implement it based on the size
of their city, the resources they have, um, and the
level of connectivity. So hopefully it's better since we got that gateway cog grant,
right? To improve our digital access.
uh, but that may be a bit to get it built. Uh, well, I think actually,
uh, yeah, to get it act, uh, constructed and set up. Uh,
but I did wanna ask some clarifying question about
the engagement process because I think many knows that we've
been, the conversation has been going on in the committee, right? The government oversight
and efficiency committee. So, and I know there was engagement done
during that committee, so I'm just wondering how, what,
what is it that I think has generated more interest now
compared to when it was discussed in the committee meeting? Um,
you know, as far as what was shared in with the public during
the committee process to get public input put.
okay, so I know that there are several departments that worked on this process alongside
goe, so I can speak to what I know happened over
time. And then mo can you please fill in any blanks for me? Thank you. So
this originally came, um, out of the goe committee, I believe concurrently.
they also had issued a survey. Um, when we brought this back
as staff with our memo and our recommendations, um,
we also issued, uh, the same survey but more citywide.
we had multiple offices sending it out via newsletters. We
sent it out via our newsletter, which before the original survey hadn't had
that much reach. And so through the memo process
and taking that feedback that we received bringing you back to, to council,
um, we developed recommendations. And so it's been in front of a public setting.
besides the survey itself, I would say
probably five or six instances in up
to now. Um, and so I can, that's what I know
has we've done in a publicly with this item. And then mo you wanna fill
it, anything else that maybe I glazed over our miss?
yeah, that, that was an excellent recap. We did go to goe, um, a few
times and it has gone to k cod for review and input from
that commission. Um, and it has been before council, uh, a handful of
times as well. And it's been discussed and I think all
of our recommendations have grown and evolved. And I think
once it comes to council, it definitely gets highlighted and has
more eyes on it. And we have seen an uptick in
participation and communication on the particular item. I think people are very concerned
about change and what's gonna happen with the order of business and how that's
gonna impact public comment. So right. And then that's what
I think I appreciate is this process of conversation about
creating a process that in a short period of time. So I think that there's
a lot of pressure because of this deadline that we need to meet. And at
this point, we're at the third reading, so, but I also understand that,
um, it takes time to kind of really allow
people to digest what, what it means, maybe at this point
for their ability to make public comments. So I
wanted to just as building on, um, my colleague's
question is, uh, you know, I, I did wanna be reminded, well, what's
the consequence again if we don't pass this in order to make sure we set up a
process that would work, uh, best for,
um, you know, a trial? 'cause it's gonna be a trial and error
process. And I think that we've been discussing, well, let's try something
and see how do we change it later on. But it sounds like we're at a
place where the starting point is, is kind of, um, you
know, it's, you know, there isn't a lot of, um, it
feels like it's not in increasing engagement, so how do, but it
also means that we're gonna be having longer meetings we're gonna have.
so I think that there needs to be understood the consequences around increasing,
um, you know, public commenting as well as making sure that,
uh, we also have to deliberate. This is the only time that
council gets to talk to each other. I've heard many comments about, well, you go
on and on and like, because it's the only time we're allowed to talk to each other,
and sometimes we will go on because all of us goes through our own process and
our own, uh, consideration and analysis as we're
considering our decision making here on the diet with feedback that's given
from co comment as well. So that's all of the things that's going through my
mind when I have to figure out, well, what are all these things to consider, right?
so I think that this is a real process that we're, you know, encountering. And we're not
the only city. So I'd like to know what the legal consequences
are, uh, at this moment as far as, because there's
continuous conversation that seems around how to proceed and move forward.
um, if you could see, I have a point of order, pardon me for interrupting this, but
I don't know if you, we should go to it now, and that is the maker of the motion would
like to withdraw. So my understanding is that it's not being withdrawn,
it's not I'm
motion. Oh, okay. I apologize. Please
continue. You have, you have a question before you,
I believe your question was the legal implications if we do not pass this final
reading today, correct? Yes. I just wanna make sure we're clear.
this is the third reading, so, um, I just wanna make
sure we're clear on that again. Uh, uh, just a point of
clarification, this is the second reading. Oh, it's okay. Yes. Um, last week
we had a second, first reading this week is actually the second reading.
okay. Um, to your question about the legal ramifications of this,
if we don't pass this ordinance, um, to be clear, uh,
july 1st hits, if this ordinance doesn't pass, the proverbial
sb 7 0 7 switch will turn on and we will still be required to have
a hybrid meeting with zoom. And in person comments. We would
continue with the current order of business in which every, um, every
item is called and we call and we call for,
um, public commenters. Except the difference will be we will call for
public commenters, both in the zoom and in person.
uh, and, and most spoke to the reasons behind the, the recommendations for this
ordinance. Um, the idea was due to sb 7 0 7
and the significant changes it will have on the, uh, uh, business of
this, of council meetings. Um, that was the, uh, reasoning behind
the recommendations. However, again, uh, if we, if the
council does not pass this ordinance tonight, we will still have to comply with sb 7 0 7
in, in which we will have a hybrid meeting. And I would also like to add that
it will also impact the non-agenda public comment because we do need to be
equitable. It would be five in person and five in zoom, if they're indeed five
in zoom. So it would reduce the number of in person
speakers for non-ag agenda, public comment. 'cause we are limited to 10.
okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh, council member
allen? Uh, yes. Thank you. Again, I wanna thank everyone too.
um, and I also, just like the rest of my colleagues received a lot of communication.
um, so that was a little bit, I asked that question last, um,
count, uh, last meeting, um, about the consequences, um,
of us, uh, deciding to, um, talk
more about this and just basically, uh, try to get it right. So it's a little bit
different answer. It sounds like, um, even if we didn't move forward
with this tonight, um, we could still have a little bit more time without
there being any legal ramifications. Is that what I'm hearing from you?
last week? Uh, your question was the, uh, consequences of violating
the brown act, if I remember correctly. And, and, uh, the city attorney did explain those
consequences. And in general, for the brown act, there, there are con uh, legal ramifications
for violations. However, again, for this ordinance,
uh, we, the counsel can again, not adopt this ordinance
tonight. We will still have the proverbial sb 7 0 7 switch turn on
when counsel returns from recess. And we will continue under this current,
uh, proposed order of business, except in a hybrid environment in which we have both online
and in person public commenters. Awesome. Thank you so much for clarifying
that. Um, also, I wanna say I had a, um, a long conversation
with, uh, dave shukla last week, and, you know, he had, um,
some really good, uh, he has some good feedback and some good questions that,
that I want to, um, ask the, uh, city manager, um, about.
um, so one of the things, um, that dave brought up is
someone who likes to read and review staff reports, as we all know he does. Um,
you know, and this new ordinance, um, you know, we
are, you're, if we get the, the staff reports on friday, and then you have to
have your public comment and on friday, it's really tough for them to be able to review, um,
to review these staff reports prior to a council meeting. So, um,
what would be a staff's, what would be your recommendation for getting those
those staff reports out in a timely manner? Um, even before,
uh, before and, you know, a couple days before a meeting to make
sure that the public has plenty of time to review those staff
reports, uh, prior to, um, to a council meeting. And even sometimes
they don't come out on friday, sometimes they come out on a monday or even a tuesday
or even come out right before a meeting. So, um, that could be problematic for,
for the, um, um, for folks. So can you address that?
sure. Uh, so some time ago we aimed to adjust
our timeframe for submitting, uh, to the clerk
for public record, the powerpoints, um, staff reports.
and we did receive, because we receive feedback that, um,
the council would like to have more time to review that over the weekend and not the day
before or the day of. So I would say we're pretty successful, uh, over the last several
months in getting those in by friday. There are instances
where sometimes we get them in on a monday, and that is usually due to a lot
of, um, internal review and data collection.
uh, sometimes the feedback from the city manager might require additional
gathering, sometimes inter interdepartmental efforts, but we always
aim to get that done on friday. Um, we would love to
explore the feasibility of getting those in sooner. I do wanna highlight
that much of what the staff reports include due to the brown act.
um, and the powerpoint really do reflect what's in either the attachments
and or the agenda staff report itself. It can't be way off because then
we'd be in violation of the brown act talking about something, uh, that
is not necessarily aligned with the recommendation and the data within the staff report that's already
been published. Um, so we can look into that and what that
would, what, what that would take. It would just take a lot, uh, it would just take some coordination
and understanding of, um, those particular items. And they're all very nuanced
and different, so some are very easy, straightforward, and then some take a little
more time and coordination. Um, thank you. And I think, uh, I think
I would appreciate, uh, that consideration, just making sure those staff reports are out in plenty
of time, um, for people like dave who likes to, um, who likes to read all
those and, and, um, and also for council. But, um, but I think that's gonna be
important, especially if we're asking folks, uh, to provide other comments, um,
prior to council. So. Okay. That's all my questions. Thank you.
okay. Um, the next speaker is mary zaja. Thank you.
um, I too have gotten a lot of calls and emails both supporting
and opposing this item. Um, one of the things that
I continue to see is that there's a lot of confusion
and discu discomfort with these changes and their
impact on public comment. And I, I see it up
here on the daes, so that makes me, um, anxious
to see that. And also if we are having discomfort
or confusion, um, I can just imagine what our community
is going through as well. Um, one of the things that I would like to
see is that if this is approved, uh,
one of the things that we have in there is that, um, we would come back
in, uh, six months, um, to give a review
of how it's been working, what, um, what has been working, what
hasn't been working. Um, and so that's
not in the ordinance correct? For clarification, can you confirm
that? That's correct. That's direction that we took from counsel. Okay.
um, since that is not in the ordinance, um, if this
were to be approved, can you do a 90
day report back, like using the data that that's
what my recommendation would be, that if this is approved, that it would be
a 90 day, um, showing us
what has been working, collecting data, um, to give
the, to give us an idea of what it looks like and what
it's gonna look like, and, and then we can take community
input to be able to just get it right.
yes. Uh, I think especially with, uh, this item aside, especially
with sb 7 0 7 and that changing how we, um, navigate
the meetings and including the hybrid option, we will definitely wanna gather some
data, both staff time, resources, um,
engagement from the public, uh, obviously with the rules
we have to track any disruptions, um, tech concerns. So
we will definitely be gathering all of that with the sb 7 0 7 implementation
and we can certainly provide a report back, um, and a snapshot in
time up to that point if 90 days is requested. Yes.
thank you. Okay. Uh, council member duggan,
I'd just like to make a comment and, um, city attorney,
we, um, vote on an ordinance two weeks in a
row. Correct. And for what reason? So you vote
on an ordinance under the, uh, charter, uh, vote is an ordinance requires
two votes. Your first vote happens and then the ordinance comes back at your next regularly
scheduled meeting. So last week you voted on this ordinance and then it's back
tonight because of the regularly scheduled, it's your next regularly scheduled meeting,
and that's created for an opportunity for additional public feedback and consideration on the
item. That's the point I just wanted to bring up.
we vote twice on an ordinance because we received public comment
at different periods of time, and this was a time that
there was, um, I think additional public comment that
I know I was listening to. So thank you very much for that clarification.
um, council member ku? Yes, uh, just a clarifying
question. Um, and we've talked a little bit about this, uh, over the whole conversation
about the different ways that we receive public comment, including through emails.
um, one thing that I try to do is go through,
I know people get frustrated if they see us on their phones, but sometimes it's because we're getting comments from
the city clerk and we're trying to read that before an item comes so that I'm fully informed
of what people say. And I don't think necessarily in the ordinance, but since we've
given counsel direction about a six month review, can we also talk potentially about
the city clerk giving us a report out similar to how the city attorney does about the number
of public comments received up until, you know, the hour
before. I know that the policy is that if you want it on the record before the meeting, it has to
be received an hour before. Would there be an opportunity for the clerk to report out
the number of emails received potentially, um, to each item that's
given? I know, uh, one of the pdfs that you gave us today is 40 pages
long with public comment and one of the attachments is one page long.
so, um, I think for me as a council member, it would be helpful to know that as you
were taking public comment over the whole course of the time before the meeting, if you said we
received 47 public comments on item two zero public comments on
anything else like those kinds of report out, would that be something that we could do as council direction
and not in the ordinance? Yes, we can provide
that information for you. Um, we have a cutoff
at 4:00 pm uh, the day of the meeting. We do take public comment
after that. We just don't include it in the email sent to you by five o'clock meeting
start time. Um, but we can definitely provide that information to you.
I think it would be helpful because I think we see that unless someone goes in after the meeting
to read the minutes of a meeting, they don't realize the amount of public or the lack of public comment that
was received that particular week. So I think if we had a kind of point in time
in the moment meeting conversation or at least an acknowledgement about what has
been received in the other ways that we receive public comment could be helpful for deliberations.
I think that was it for now. Okay. Thank you. Um,
that's, uh, all the uh, council commentary we have for now. Um,
I had a quick question way into the weeds, um, before we go to public comment.
and that is, is the six month timeframe baked into the ordinance?
so would that be difficult for us to change tonight? No, the six month timeframe
is not reflected in the ordinance. It's direction that was given to us from counsel,
so that if we wanted to come back in 30 days, that could be something that we could vote on
tonight. That's correct, chair. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Without any,
um, other council members, uh, queued up, I think we're ready to go to public comment.
um, I have a listing here, I dunno if it's still accurate, but that would be something
like 22 members of the public wanting to speak and by rule that would
go to one and a half minutes. That's correct. Okay.
um, so do you, uh, madam clerk, would you like to read off the,
the names and, uh, we can queue up at least read off half of 'em and, and go
from there? Sure. I will go ahead and read the first 10 names. Joseph ramos,
nadia tushnet, carolyn x, anthony holmes
gray, dr. Sharif batz. Elena dorio.
jay oscar illa. If you could please line up at the podium.
okay. So our, our first speaker is joseph joseph ramos.
good evening, joseph ramos for agla. We urge you to reject the
draft ordinance for agenda item 49 or at a minimum limit. Proposed changes to general public
comments only. These changes are far too sweeping to be made all at one time and
risk seriously damaging public engagement due to unforeseen impacts.
we understand that the city council cannot allow itself to be sidetracked based on a single issue.
this is why the mayor already has the authority to hold any highly contentious issue over a special
meeting. And we encourage the use of such existing authority. Also,
we do not want city council meetings to be contest of endures lasting far into the early morning hours.
therefore, we encourage adoption of a set time for all city council meetings with any items
not covered, automatically held over into the next regularly scheduled city council meeting.
if the city council wishes to pursue untested and radical revisions as drafted, then they should
be implemented for general public comments only. These general com these general comments can be even
held until the end of the agenda, free of additional time fraction items. However,
the drastic changes should not be implemented for agendas. Items that the city council will be deciding
a speaker's cap of 60 minutes will wrongfully prohibit many speakers on many items from speaking
as we have experienced firsthand in los angeles, a defund mentally un
undemocratic to prohibit all public input on multiple agendas items due to an
arbitrary time limit. Further speakers should not be limited to
90 minutes per speak as the time is greatly insufficient for regular community members
to be able to fully communicate their concerns or ideas, especially on complex issues.
we, again, urge the city council to policy sweeping changes until agla long beach city,
uh, long beach chamber city or city unions and other groups have been been
able to wait far as them. Thank you.
next speaker please. I'm
gonna say my name first. It's naida. The a is before the
I, just so we know. Um, I've been here many times
and actually I had a speech written before I came
and that I've changed it is the very reason comments
should be buy item not ahead of time.
there are two points I wanna make. One is that I teach
hybrid for seniors. We manage it fine.
um, it's not a problem. And it's seniors. One's 101
by the way, we're okay and she's at home. Uh, the
other issue that I wanted to raise is the comment,
buy item issue. That's what's important. You hear
the public also needs to hear the analysis
and the comments and the staff report, not just
get access to the slides, but hear the staff
report before we get to comment. Um,
so that's really important. I think I'm
very much in favor of opening it up to a hybrid kind of
setting. I found teaching hybrid was difficult
at first and now I've got a rhythm. You'll get a rhythm. It's all
okay. Um, and again, the comment by item is the most
important thing that I can think of. And I also
thank you
coming. Thank you nata. You're amazing.
uh, carolyn essex, district one. Uh, I appreciate,
um, your run of this meeting, member super na um, thank you for your remarks.
uh, member dugan on to knew why, just why
we're not lucky. Um, this is, uh, those other cities have
nothing to do with us. Exactly. Woo. Um, uh, I would like to offer a
few recommendations to keep meaningful public comment opportunities in tact and
in place of importance. Consider whether council member remarks could be
shortened if residents are being possibly reduced in 90 seconds. Perhaps council
discussion could also be more concise. Uh, shortened
staff reports and focus on highlights key facts, recommendations, and
fiscal impacts. Res residents can review the detailed reports
online, uh, move council district announcements and ceremonial
acknowledgements to the beginning of the meeting exactly after the pledge of allegiance, immediately
before hearings. Followed by non-ag agenda, public items, community
recognitions deserve attention. Uh, announcements delivered at the very
end of a meeting are often made to an empty changer chamber.
um, if the purpose of this announcement is to inform, uh, connect
and engage in public, they should occur with the public is still present and
attentive. Uh, efficiency is important, but efficiency should not come
at the expense of meaningful public participation.
the public is not the problem to be solved. The public is not the rea the
public is the reason these meetings exist. Your time, time have concluded
participation. Thank you very much.
hi, I'm x um, I live in district five and I work in
the east village at byo long beach and at throughout long beach as a pet sitter,
I'm here to speak for myself and other residents of this city who don't realize what they're losing tonight.
to diminish the time that people have to give public comment or the ability to give
it at all because of timing, is to diminish access to the first amendment
by removing precious moments from when regular residents and community members are
able to address you, you lean into the fascist federal government's goals to take away
any chance for public descent and completely usurp the original purpose of
this bill. Come on. Amen. Please do not vote yes on
this, especially not because of all the crazy hypothetical technical
difficulties that you keep throwing out. Do not sharpen a tool to use it against us when
it was intended to be used to help us. Again, removing public comment, time is
an act against the public. Please do not pass this. Thank you so much.
next speak. Next speaker is anthony holmes. Anthony holmes,
you know, I give credit when credit is due. Christina duggan, you, only one made sense tonight.
you stand with us on this, um, ua, you comparing
us to other cities, we don't need that, but it's long beach, long beach versus everybody.
I think it's a agenda, agenda problem. It's not a people problem. Yep.
and just vote on it. That's all I have to say.
next speaker is gray.
uh, first of all, other cities doing a bad job of engaging their public and cities council
meetings is not an excuse for this city to adopt bad practices that make it more difficult
for the public to engage. So yeah, vote no on item 49
last week, every public comment about the proposed changes was against them. And we brought
up that an earlier start time makes the meetings less accessible. The people coming from work that
putting a limit on total speaking time for the public would rob us of time potentially
limiting us to 60 seconds. We're not trained professional speakers. And
even trying to get your point across in 90 seconds is difficult.
um, the council ignored all the points that we made and said that we have to be in compliance with sb 7 0 7.
we have a deadline, but sb 7 0 7 only calls for telecommunication to make these meetings
more accessible. And that was the one thing that none of us disagreed with. We're fully behind
more inclusion in these meetings. None of us spoke against that, but the council acted like
we had. First public comment is already inaccessible to anyone who can't be here at 4 45.
and with the new meeting time, it'll be inaccessible to anyone who can't be here at four 15.
and the mayor mentioned that the limit on public speaking time isn't fixed, that it can be lengthened
if necessary, but it's up to your discretion. Right? So how are we supposed to take comfort in
that? I've seen that timer started before a member of the public even began to speak. And when
he demanded his time back, the mayor refused to give it to him. And I've seen people wait and
wait for an agenda item to come up, only for it to finally arrive. And the council decided
to choose to go out of numerical order and push the item off. Just last
week, a number of us were kept outside waiting. And when a speaker was called, nobody
told us that we could come in. And by the time we got in, they said, no. We moved on. Your time has concluded.
dr. Sharif bat mic off. You could still talk in my cameras . All
right. Good evening. My name is dr. Sharifa batz. And although I am the president of the
nacp long beach branch tonight, I am speaking solely in my capacity as a
resident of the eighth district. I do appreciate the efforts to improve the efficiency
of a city council meeting, but the concerns are there
and there's a potential impact to those who don't even get off
work in enough time to reasonably arrive to city hall
by four 30 or five 30 to sign up to speak. There's also concern with
the proposal to reduce the speaking time to 90 seconds
because 90 seconds on complex issues that affect our neighborhoods,
our families, our businesses, and quality of life, it's just not enough time to clearly articulate
the concerns and provide relevant facts and offer meaningful
input. I recognize that cities and throughout california exploring
ways to improve meeting efficiency. However,
we really need to focus here, right here in long beach. And I do believe that there's
opportunities to achieve both goals, improving efficiency while preserving
meaningful public participation. But I encourage the council
to explore solutions that maintain accessibility for working residents
and ensure that all members of our community have a fair opportunity
to engage in the democratic process. Public participation should
be encouraged, not restricted. Public comment allows the community to
speak before our elected representatives, and it's vital that we are
here to speak. So I respectfully ask that you carefully consider
the, your time has concluded
elena.
my name's elena. I'm here in opposition of agenda item 49.
rather than simply offer you my opinion, I chose to look at what other california
cities are actually doing. After reviewing each city's bylaws
throughout the state of california, these principles remain consistent. Public
testimony is three to five minutes long in connection with agenda items being
considered. Even los angeles, the largest city in california and the second
largest in the nation, allows public comment on agenda items before
council deliberation. You have the power to postponed agenda
item 49 indefinitely tonight. Do you want
your legacy to be california chair and california
city council members to be that you've silenced the people to do the
right thing? These are the california cities that are not being
silenced. Bakersfield. Agenda item. Five minutes. Clovis agenda
item. Five minutes. Visalia agenda item. Five minutes. Roseville agenda
item, five minutes. Folsom agenda item, five minutes. Elk grove. Agenda
item, five minutes. Vacaville agenda item, five minutes. Fairfield
agenda item, five minutes. Temecula. Agenda item, five minutes.
stockton. Agenda item, five minutes. Crescent city agenda
item, three minutes. Eureka agenda item three minutes. Napa agenda item
three minutes. Petaluma agenda item three minutes. Milpitas agenda item, three
minutes. Monterey agenda item, three minutes. Tracy, agenda item, three
minutes. Fresno agenda item. Three minutes. Did time have to included riverside
item three minutes, santa barbara and I could go on.
next speaker is jay. Jay
is jay here,
sorry. Sb 7 0 7 is
a public access law. Its purpose is to expand participation
in local government meetings by requiring cities and other public agencies to
provide remote access and remote public comment opportunities.
what sb 7 0 7 does not do is equally important.
it does not require cities to shorten public comment speaking times. It does not
require cities to move general public comment to the beginning of meetings. It does
not require cities to start meetings earlier. And it does not require cities to make
it harder for working people, parents, caregivers, students,
residents with disabilities to participate in local government. These are local
policy choices. Last week, several high schoolers came here
because they wanted, or, uh, wanted to be heard, but didn't come here because
they had to prepare for their final exams. A trusted adult read their
comment for them. None of these comments were 90 seconds
or less. If this council simply implemented a hybrid meeting
and allowed these kids to call in during the relevant point in the
meeting, they could have had their voice voices heard. Whether it was 5:00 pm 8:00 pm
10:00 pm 11:00 pm I urge you not to use a pro
participation law to weaken our local democracy. We do
not need to be the least worst of the top eight cities.
. We can do better than that. Thank you so much for your time.
um, ma madam, madam clerk, just a point of order. Can we read the next
10 names? Yes. Um, it's gonna be oscar seymour,
justice fb, robert fox, al francesca,
tara glennys, cordless lee, brian cochran,
jay, amy, and de shukla. Such a huge night.
go ahead. Ask to stop a suppressive ordinance. So
just in case anyone in the audiences or at home online
is confused. Um, sb 7 0 7 has already dealt
with, with agenda item 36, which was passed today.
that's dealt with. I don't approve of
this kind of notion of framing the framing. Us having to stay till
10 or later till 11, till 12 as consequences for all of us. It
was framed as consequences when in a sense it's
our duty to show up and we show up because we do show up. Obviously we're tired and
everything. We come type, we still show up. But you guys all
have city council. You guys, we have a social contract, which I hope
all of you're familiar with. You guys are supposed to come here every single
time so that people can hear you. The fact that I'm from district seven and
my district seven representative isn't even here to hear me or speak on it,
or I didn't, never got a survey from him, I never got told by him what was going on.
all things have to, I have to depend on the other city council members on
christina have to depend, depend on what's more,
is just such an important change to the ordinance of the city. Yet the
the mayor isn't even here. Thank god the mayor isn't
here. So what if it passed and then he wasn't even here then he just comes one month later when we
reconvene. Lastly with my last seconds credit where credit is
due. Thank you so much christina duggan for being with the people on this and for being
a council representative and for representing the people on this time has concluded. Okay,
nick. Nick, speaker seymour seymour justice,
uh, hi council. I appreciated the like robust discussion. It helps us
understand what's going on, uh, in in your office and
in your heads. And, uh, if we had to make those comments before you even
talked, we wouldn't know that. So, um, I think that's more of a reason. Like
I think a previous speaker, nata said, uh, you need to keep the comments coupled.
here's one question I have is by looking at the words
on the agenda, I couldn't find what you're actually about to vote on.
are we voting on right now to start meetings at four 30? Are we voting
right now to limit to 90 seconds? Are we voting right now
to decouple public agenda for agenda items at the beginning of the
meeting instead of during the, uh, agenda item? It doesn't say that
in the, in the agenda. And you know, I, I've been coming a little while.
I know what's going on. I pay attention more than, than most or more than many.
and if I don't know, and I've been sitting here all night, I, what are you guys voting
on? Right? I I hope you just vote no, because as
was clearly stated, sb 7 0 7 is going to happen
whether we vote tonight or not. Exactly. So there's no, like this whole
idea, this pretend like we have to do it right now. This was a convenient
way for you to try to like swoop in with some of the things the government
oversight and efficiency committee was gonna do. I have never even heard of that. And I
come every week, vote no on this, please. Come on guys.
uh, next we have fb.
I just want to thank everybody except the city
council members that are here because you're constantly retaliating against
us. You, I, us, no pun intended.
um, and the mayor's not even here. This is one of
the most like record breaking, like city council. There's so many people here.
why? Because we're all fighting for our first amendment. Why? 'cause there
is a current administration that's trying to take that away from us. And
you here locally are trying to take it away from us too.
and you're not going to. Nope. And this is what we do to protect
our first amendment and to protect all of our rights
as citizens, as humans, as people that need to be heard.
this is why we have such mental illness
in and mental health is because we are not being allowed
to speak on what we are concerned about. You are not transparent
enough for us to know what the f**k you're voting on.
no one f*****g likes you, okay? And I'm not gonna thank
you christina. And uh, ua, you can go f**k
yourself. You f*****g b***h. You too christina.
all of you. Yeah. Go ahead and go leave. Yeah, that's right. This is what the first amendment does. It
makes you feel uncomfortable. You f*****g b***h ass f*****g losers. No leaders
here. F**k you all free palestine.
okay, uh, robert fox,
aloha council members, I flew in from honolulu to address you tonight.
wow. Um, as you know, I ran for city council and
lost legally. And here's what the truth is.
when I started so many decades ago when beverly o'neill
was our mayor, we had unlimited amount of time to speak.
and then as time, as many people were gathered here, we shortened
it by her will because she was a very good, uh,
mediator. And I think that was a really good process. Uh,
asking people to make a comment at the beginning of a meeting for something that's happening
like three hours later, the council will forget what
the, what the comment was. So that cannot be uncoupled.
you have to have comment at the time, uh, of the,
of the item. Also, what's disturbing to me here is
we have to sign up. Now, we didn't used to for an agenda
item 44 or 49 or 62 at
the beginning of the meeting. Sometimes in the middle of all this stuff, we
listen to a staff report, we listen to the council and we say, oh my gosh, I
didn't know that that was something different. And
then as responsible citizens, we want to make a comment so that you know,
that we know or maybe we bring something to the table that you had not
thought. I'm not trying to beat you up, but I'm trying to make
you more responsible with the things going on in our country today. Thank you.
we,
uh, next up is l
alright. First I'd like to say, uh, I wanna start off, uh, am in solidarity
with those, um, both inside and outside the lento and
delaney concentration camps, those who are putting their bodies on the line by
going on hunger strike and, um, by getting the hell being out of them.
viva raza. Um, now onto this suli. How
dare you say, uh, you talk so much because,
oh, there's, this is the only time we get together. Well, how about this?
why don't you use the time wisely instead of getting all these photo
ops and instead of filibustering over f*****g trash cans
for over an hour, why don't you talk about things of substance like we're trying to do here.
you wanna shorten the time so we can stop
talking about what we need as your constituents? Yours.
mary, yours, cindy, yours, christina, yours, megan,
yours, sna, yours, suli and ua. God
and dr. You know what, I'm just gonna say joni, because you know what a
doctor would want, what's best for their
patients, right? What do you want? What do you want? Do you want what's best for
us? Or do you want what's best for you? Because all your fricking uh,
eye rolling and stuff like that, it's absolutely disgusting. And you know what,
christina, it's interesting. I thought you brought a bot about
this ordinance and now you're backing off. And you know why? Because
all of you got your asses handed. You time has concluded constituents
by calling, by emailing by the way. It's okay bill and know
what you guys have the opportunity
that we matter. Thank you. Next speaker is francesca.
hi, good evening. Um, so I'm a little confused because currently commission
meetings are already in hybrid. I just recently attended one and they are hybrid.
and then in 2021 I actually attended multiple city council meetings that were hybrid.
so the idea that we cannot do city council meetings hybrid is confusing because
I've attended multiple city council meetings that were hybrid after covid.
so it's misleading to use that as a talking point. Oh yeah. Um, also the
earlier points about residents wanting to know where they could com when they could comment is also
misleading and misinterpreted because I took the survey and the way that it was
framed was that we just wanna know a roundabout time when we could comment. So for example,
we sign up at 5:00 pm for public comment, but then we have to sit through employee of
the month. The mayor brings the dogs out and we're here for two hours before we
can actually even do public comment. So it's misleading when we're told come
at 5:00 pm and then we can't do public comment until two hours
later. So clarification on those points doesn't mean that we want to
come at four 30. So that's also being misleading and misinterpreted.
um, the survey also mentioned that the time is too early. And I actually looked
at the, the outcomes and the number one reason why people don't
come is because of scheduled conflicts and city council meetings being too early. So
why are we starting them at four 30 then if people can't even make it at 5:00 pm it doesn't
make sense. And I just wanna uplift what na said. I second what she said. And also
last week's point about the youth not being able to talk, it's also misleading because the
mayor has moved up items before I was here when he did so for mike union.
so why.you do it for the youth and you care so much. Okay,
we have tara.
hi, my name is tara. I'm here today to claim my full-time, perhaps for the
last time. Since time is such a topic for this evening, I'd like to point
out a couple of items that I was able to suss out from this council's
meetings. Since 2023, there are 52 weeks in the year.
this council meets an average of 32 weeks of that year. Since
this council has, has, has started, you
have started the meetings late 95% of the time, about
20, wasting about 22 hours of your time. And the community's time
you have heard just under this is since 2000, 2333
hours of public comment. That makes up about 8% of each meeting's
time. Meanwhile, you have heard over 81 hours of comments from
non-public presentations, including staff and other members before this
that have matters before this council. That makes up about 20 me percent of the time
in the same amount of time you have heard seven five hundred and seventy three levine
act items indicating that this isn't so much against expression
as is the currency under which that expression is given.
if this amendment were to go into effect since 20 23, 40
members of your community would have been silenced. If the council
seeks to reduce time in co in council meetings, it can run meetings more efficiently
and effectively. You can put time limits on yourselves and on
on the uh, non-public presentations. Councilperson
kerr, your left, your time has concluded. Thank you. Very fortunate. Okay, we
have glin. Thank you.
good evening counsel. My name is clin dolche and I'm here
to, uh, remind you that I I was one
of the many people that took your survey and I am
pretty sure, in fact I'm positive I didn't
ask for reducing the speaking time by half.
I took the survey and I'm positive that I did not request
the, uh, agenda items to be disassociated from
comments. I was however, approval approving
of having the remote, uh, agenda item,
public comment. So, um, but here
we are and what are we getting? We'll get the remote public
commenting as uh, required by the state. We'll get
meetings at an earlier time, not, not that we ask for it.
reduce our speaking time by half. And most egregiously
disassociating the, uh, public comments to the agenda
items themselves. And no one asked for this.
you can have remote commenting without cutting us off at the knees. Uh,
we are the public and we have a right and a responsibility
to speak up on actions that you want to take that affect our lives.
you need to hear us. Sb 7 0 7 was intended to
expand, comment, not limit it. We are not an inconvenience,
we're not a box to be checked. Your time has concluded. Thank you. We're partners and democracy.
okay. Cordless lee carelessly,
district five. Um, one of the things that wasn't reported on tonight
was how many council meetings these other cities have.
I mean, we went from four a month to three a month
because you guys voted for that. Is that what they're doing in the other cities?
these council meetings do go along and I sympathize with the idea of
working on shortening them. Um, I didn't
realize when I wrote my letter to you that so much work had been done on this.
and I did see that survey. It did come across to me. I didn't take
it because the question seemed to disingenuous to me.
how can we increase public participation?
well, first of all, sb 7 0 7 did that for you. They're increasing
public participation. But when I looked, went back
and looked at what the survey responses were, I
don't see that reflected in this ordinance. Somebody messed with
it in the meantime. And the real goal became how can we shorten
meetings anticipating that more people will be attending
remotely? If you'd been honest about that, I would've been willing to take the
survey. I mean, I'm interested in shortening these meetings too.
I will say that the gettysburg address lincoln stated, um,
in the gettysburg address that we may preserve a government
of the people by the people for the people time
has. And you guys need to print that in front of yourselves.
okay. Next speaker is brian cochran.
good evening everyone. Uh, brian cochrane, district three. Um, I'm hoping you're
all familiar with the washington post's motto, which is democracy dies in darkness.
well, it withers, fades, and diminishes in lack
of engagement. You have to want the engagement. That's the important part
of this process. It's ugly, it's messy. It's sometimes uncomfortable, but
that's the part that the public trusts in you to do. Don't take democracy
away by letting it wither on the vine. You have to want that.
um, I heard a week ago that, uh, somebody asked the, the, um,
city attorney about what the consequences for this self-imposed or artificial
deadline where the answer came back that we don't know. The, uh,
the judges have a lot of discretion. Everything I hear tonight suggests this is not that
urgent. I would rather see council go dark for three more sessions than push this
through to create the artifice of some sort of better process. Christina,
I really wanna applaud you. This is the most proud moment I've been knowing you in four
years because you took a bold statement here. Follow that through. Withdraw your emotions
so that this doesn't go forward. That would be huge.
thank you. Tune up for asking questions. Previously, I saw that came up in last
session where somebody here was posing questions about other jurisdictions.
we should be thought leaders, not followers, not adherence to what the basic minimum
should be. Keep the robustness of this. Let council be robust
and bold in this room. Find another way. Follow the oscars example here.
time honor. Thank you. In a different,
okay, next speaker is jay. Um, madam, madam
clerk. Can, can we have, uh, more speakers names read? I think we, we are off track
here a little bit. Uh, jay, amy and dave shukla are the last three speakers.
so jay and amy are up before dave.
okay. Hi, my
name is amy. I'm a resident of district two. Thank you for not skipping me because I wasn't lined up
like a kindergartner. 'cause I would like to clarify that that's specified. Nowhere. We don't
have to line up. And I think that you guys should be able to wait a couple of seconds for your constituents
to walk up here. Um, so there's
so much I wanna say. So many people have said so much, so many amazing things.
um, I would like to clarify though, that a lot of the things that have been brought up have been brought
up in previous sessions. So like, we don't have to be at this, what this
first, second read, whatever the hell you said. Um, this could have been like
squashed weeks ago, but there was always this fake urgency about these fake
scenarios about what could happen. Um, and really just like putting fear
into b******t. Um, so here we are.
um, tena, you totally bastardized my comment from last week. What with the research
that I did in the top cities in california, and literally word for word long beach
being number seven. But there was so much that you left out in that research, which is so evident by
the research that elena did. Um, so you can thank us for doing that research
and all the other numbers. Um, I didn't get your name, but you also came up here
with research and facts, which is always great. Um, because up here
you guys like to freak out over fake s**t. Um, , there's always,
there's, there's comments about like, people being worried about change. We're not worried about change. We're
worried about being limited in our first amendment. Um, and I'd like to also,
I'd like to also make it clear that I feel like we've made progress here because rex is
so f*****g condescending to you all because you guys have brought up reservations before
and he basically shut that down. And he had,
oh, okay. Uh, dave shukla, I think you have the last
word. Thank you. Chair
council members. Thank you cindy allen for asking my main question. Uh, like, uh, nata,
I have, uh, changed my, uh, prepared comments in light of the staff presentation council discussion
along with other public comments, uh, that made me think, uh, mary,
I'd like to challenge you to produce evidence of any public support
for this proposal. Um, I don't believe there are any,
some quick metrics, uh, for the council. You have received at least 65 pages,
uh, on agenda item 46 last week from 40 unique respondents. Tonight,
you've received at least 50 pages from at least 35 unique
respondents. And not a single one of them, not a single one of them are
for these changes. Not a single one
lost my place and I really have to go pee. Um, okay. So, uh, there have been, uh,
a survey, uh, uh, there have been public comments where, uh, people have said,
look, uh, our survey inputs have been misrepresented in your survey. Yeah,
yeah. The survey is not a representative sample of the city. It's not scientific. And the
way it was rolled out was kind of problematic to say the least. Look,
I'm a supporter of the mayor. I'm a supporter of the city council, but
I don't think he got it right. I don't think you've gotten it right. Yep. You lose
nothing. You lose nothing. By waiting a couple of weeks and bringing this back and
actually trying to implement a hybrid system and seeing what the problems were, I have not heard
any metrics related to the city's previous experience with doing
a hybrid system. Your time has to, you do thank you. To solve
the trouble.
okay. That concludes a public comment. Thank you to all the, uh,
speakers for your civic engagement. Um, I don't see any other council
members queued up. Oh, council member, uh, sno, can I just have one point
of clarification for, um, council members in dejas,
um, request around the, was council member,
uh, dayja, was it 90 days you wanted it to come back?
does that need to be, uh, a modification to the motion,
or is that just, or is that just direction and we only need direction? We'll just take it as direction. Thank you.
okay. Understood. Oh,
okay. It can I have c clarification on what you just said, ? Oh,
I was just clarifying because council members zendejas had shared that we, before the council direction
was for a six month report back. Council members zendejas asked for a 90 day
report back. And I just wanted to clarify that council direction was sufficient and that we did
not need to have an amended motion in order to incorporate that into the motion.
correct. We will take that as direction. Withdrawn.
okay. So I, I think we, um, have all
the, uh, commentary satisfied, and, uh, with no further ado,
we'll go to a vote.
motion fails.
thank you. Thank you.
okay. Uh, thank you. We actually have more of a council meeting to get to. So we're gonna go to item number
50,
report from city attorney. Recommendation to declare ordinance amending
the long beach municipal code relating to speed limits red and adopted
as red citywide. Okay.
uh, thank you. We have a, a motion and a second we'll go to the make making kerr.
no comment. No comment, um, to the seconder, uh, trash
into it. Okay. No comments. Any public comment
on item number 50? No public comment. Let's, let's
take a vote.
councilwoman allen and councilwoman sin
motion is carried. Okay. Thank you. I'm
gonna pause just a second and just ask the audience if you can exit quietly. Both have to,
uh, we'd like to continue our meeting. Okay.
item number 51.
item 51, report from community development. Recommendation to
adopt ordinance for a city initiated zoning map change to amend
the zoning designation for a property at 57 0 5
and 57 23 lyme avenue from low density multi-family
residential, small l small lot to mix use to special
use incentives, red and adopted as red district eight.
okay, we have a motion a second for the first time tonight, I'm gonna get this right. We're
gonna go to the maker of the motion. Council member thrash. Untuck. Thank
you so much, chair. Uh, we are just excited to be able to usher in, uh,
a piece of property that will allow us to activate affordable housing our community. Thank
you here.
okay.
any, any members of the public, uh, wish to comment on this? No. Public comment.
okay. Thank you. We'll go to a vote.
councilwoman th motion is
carried. Okay. We go to
item number 51. Item number 52 reports
from community development recommendation to declare ordinance adopting
zoning code amendment to update the existing enhanced density bonus
to align with the provisions of the inclusionary housing ordinance at
special bonuses for projects providing communi community
benefits and implement other procedural and implementation streamlining
changes, read and adopted as red citywide.
uh, thank you. We have a motion. A second. Any commentary from council?
okay. See? None. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. Okay. Let's move to a vote.
motion is carried. Okay. Are
we moving to item 53 now? Report from community development
recommendation to adopt ordinance amending the long beach municipal code to
establish two new zoning districts mixed use main street
and commercial main street that will implement the neighborhood service
serving corridor low and community commercial place
types of the long beach general plan, la land use elements,
sorry, and minor amendments to all existing
zoning districts contained within title 22, red and adopted as
red citywide. Uh, thank you. We have a motion to second any commentary from council?
okay. Seeing none, any public comment? No public comment, move to a vote.
council in the house. Motion
is carried. Thank you. Number 54, report
from community development recommendation to adopt ordinance for a zoning
map change to amend the zoning designations and rezone select
properties on major corridors in the greater bixby olds area to title
22 zones that implement the designated place types
for each property read and adopted as red citywide. Okay, thank
you. Motion by curve. Second by alan. Any comments?
seeing none. Any public comment? No public comment. Move to a vote.
chair. . Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay.
you want these? Motion carries.
okay. Number, item number 55, report from
technology and innovation. Recommendation to declare proposition l ordinance,
which pursuant to section 1806 of the city charter,
makes findings and determinations regarding contracting of utility
bill printing, read and adopted as red citywide.
uh, thank you. Moved by dejas, seconded by curve. Do we have any
council comment? Cn any public comment?
no public comment. Move to a vote please.
motion is carried. Okay. Thank you. If anyone
remembers former mayor bob foster, it is time for a new business
report from community development recommendation to amend purchase order
for the amount of $39,720 and
amend the terms and conditions with granicus for short term rental compliance
services citywide. Okay, we have a motion by christina duggan, seconded
by cindy allen. Any council commentary? Seeing none. Public comment?
no public comment, move to a vote.
motion carries. Thank you. Um, item number 57,
report from city manager. Recommendation to receive and file an
overview of the city soccer in the lbc plan and increase
appropriations by 800,000 for the soccer in the lbc plan.
offset by a release of internal designation established in preparation
for the 2028 olympic and paralympic games citywide.
uh, thank you. We have a motion a second. I can see we have the esteemed dr. Curley here
to give us staff presentation. So, um, thank you. Yeah. Before tyler
gets started, I just wanted to, um, say that we're really excited to talk about this. We've
already had the activations last week. It's gone really well. Tyler will give you some of the stats
and some of the overview, but the team's done a really, really great job pulling all this
together and it's really helping us with our 2028 games readiness. Tyler,
thank you. Yep. So just wanna give an update on soccer and the lbc. These
are our activations, uh, related to the international soccer
tournament that everybody knows, but must not be named.
um, so we have a essentially a three stage approach that you
all have seen. Um, our group stage is happening right now. I'll talk about in partnership with la
galaxy and downtown long beach alliance. And then we'll bring, um, our city
screen out to neighborhood parks, um, in the knockout stage.
and then we will end, uh, the world cup final with a large beach streets
event. So the group stage that's happening right now, we'll have
viewings every single day, um, and 47 total matches will be viewed.
and this is ultimately two main layouts. The main closure is pine avenue between
broadway and third, uh, throughout the whole group stage. That's about
2,400 person capacity. And then for seven marquis days,
we add a part of broadway between pacific and pine. And
this is largely a partnership, as I mentioned, with galaxy and with downtown long beach alliance.
and we did get a few, uh, letters of support from downtown long beach alliance from
altar society, and baby bros talking about the benefits of, um, more foot
traffic downtown for the businesses. Uh, but we're also seeing
through the partnership with galaxy, they're bringing out their star squad, uh, team, uh,
store popups, player appearances, and then a lot of exciting fun
for families. And it's also an opportunity to test out the entertainment zone
and the easy sip, um, process that I know the council has been really interested
in over the last year or so. And then as we move into, uh,
later parts of the tournament, we'll have eight additional match viewings. Uh, we'll have neighborhood
level, uh, watch parties in the parks. And this is more community focused
family, uh, type of programming. Um, where, um, you know, we
will be able to watch a number of the later stage games. And then as mentioned, we'll
have a beach streets to close off the entire tournament. Uh, and that is supported
by la metro and the port of long beach as well. So, just
to give a high level overview, a lot of different activations are happening throughout the region.
um, this is a different approach that we're trying to
take. Um, a lot of the regional, um, events are
fee to get in. Uh, often they're at one location, they may be for
one to maybe three days of viewings. Often these are in private event
spaces. Um, there's limited partnership opportunities with this type of
activation, and you might just see one type of activation. But we
wanted to diversify this as much as we could. So all of the viewings are free
and open to the public. We have viewings in every council district 55
total viewings. We have a different approach to support local
businesses, of course. Um, the entertainment zone activation, as I mentioned. Uh,
also leveraging partnerships like with la galaxy to hopefully
maximize the reach and also minimize some of the city's costs. And then also,
uh, test different activation models that will help us prepare for 2020. It
is, uh, april mentioned. So I did want to show a little bit
of, uh, the feedback and the excitement from the first early
days, um, where we meet. We reached capacity on the first day, which is a thursday
afternoon for the mexico south africa game. It's soccer and the
lbc for the 2026 fifa world cup here in downtown long
beach. Let's watch some fluke ball.
these events are here until june 27th. Come watch the world
cup games here in downtown long beach.
and then friday we had the usa paraguay match, um, where we opened up that
part of broadway. As I mentioned, we had another 2000 people, uh,
capacity. So this is another exciting video of what happened. We're back for soccer and the lbc for
the world cup, and this time it's usa versus,
and over the weekend we did reach capacity again with the brazil morocco game, um,
and then also had strong crowds at during the other matches.
um, we've also had our first youth soccer clinic in partnership with
galaxy, uh, where we had a hundred youth to participate at lincoln park. Different soccer
clinics. We'll have another one on june 19th. Um, and then ali galaxy
is actually one of our partners for the day of sport, which is happening next week, um, which
is also very exciting. We'll have over 600 youth, uh, participating in different youth
sports activities. So this just shows the long-term partnership opportunities
from something like this. And it's not just a one-off activation. So just really
quick, um, there is data in the slides around some of our communication efforts for
this. We have a website. We've had over 5,000 views driving a lot of traffic there
to show where to go, how to watch the, the matches. It also includes community
led events. Um, as part of our calendar, three press releases, two
inside long beach news articles with over 500 views as well. Um, and
then working with galaxy and others, we've been able to expand our reach on social.
so you can see again, some of the social media data points over 75
posts across different platforms, 500,000 impressions.
um, there are a number of different top posts, but here you can see a couple. Uh,
one of them is 141,000 views. Another is 87,000 views.
just, um, in the last week or so on some of these activations and
in partnership with others, um, we've been able to get over 1 million content views
in collaboration with the galaxy downtown, long beach alliance and others,
including lbt to really raise, uh, awareness around public transportation
options as well. So, as april mentioned,
this is really important, not just to activate right now, um, but to help us prepare
for the 2028 olympic and paralympic games. Uh, this is helping us to learn
more about interdepartmental coordination. Um, jorge, myself, others
aren't typically involved in special events coordination, um, but we are in this
effort. And our special events team, of course, leads a lot of that. But we're also
bringing in external partners, really testing out our public safety resources,
different street closure, um, strategies, security perimeters,
crowd management, uh, of course the communications that I just mentioned, working
with different sponsors and partners, and of course, uh, looking at different
strategies for neighborhood activations later on in the tournament. And all of this
is also happening during other large scale events. So for example, we have
this weekend juneteenth, we also have, um, an insomniac
event and the, one of the larger activations for the world cup
all happening together. So this is part of our test and delivery phase for the 2028
games as uh, mentioned in our strategic roadmap. So
for tonight, uh, obviously wanted to give you an update on where we're at with the plan
and, uh, the different, uh, activation strategies. Um,
but this of course will cost, um, the city some funding,
but there is no general fund impact to our strategy here. We have set aside
funding in the special advertising and promotional fund, sap,
um, over the last several years to help us start preparing for 2028.
um, and this again, is part of our preparations for 2028, doing different test test events,
figuring out different activation strategies. So there is no general, general fund
impact, um, but any of the additional funds that aren't used would go back to
that set aside for 2028 games preparation. And we're also looking of
course, for additional sponsorships and grants to help, um, with this as well.
so with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay. Thank
you for the presentation. Uh, we have, uh, suli sorrow.
so council and second. Yeah, did, did we not do
that? I apologize. So chair, I was the maker of the motion. Okay. I'd
like to, um, actually ask that the clerk, um, make my colleague,
uh, councilwoman, marry the maker, and I'll serve as the second, and
then I'll yield to her to begin.
thank you. Um, team, what a great
job you have been able to do. It's been electrifying
out there on pine avenue. Um, thank you for
all the investment that we've made. Um, I've never seen the community
so excited, um, and just, just vibrant
out there in downtown long beach. I didn't even know we could fit that many people on
pine street. Um, but it was really great to experience that.
I'm really happy to support this, and especially because we are preparing
for the olympics. And so this is a real test case for
us. Um, and one of the things that I would also like to highlight
is that, um, it's bringing a lot of business, a lot of foot
traffic to our small businesses around the downtown area,
whether you're right there or adjacent. And so I think that
that's really good. I also, um, would like to recommend that we,
um, keep in close contact with our small businesses because I think
that sometimes they have been overwhelmed with
not expecting that many, uh, people to come and, um,
and need their services. So, um, I think that that's one thing that I
would recommend, just keeping an eye on our small businesses, making sure that,
um, they know, uh, what, what to expect. Um,
I, I think now they know , but I think that that would be
really good. And seeing if we can help them in any way, um, be able
to take advantage of having so many people out, um, in, on
pine street and in downtown. So, great job. Great job to,
to you guys and great job to our special events, um, team as
well. Okay, thank you. Now we'll go the seconder. Thank you so much,
chair. Um, I too was very excited about, um, soccer
and lbc. I had the chance to go out and see my colleague on pine
street, uh, along with so many other residents and just folks from
all around, uh, here in the region. Uh, we were excited about
the chance to have our, um, my son have participate in
the clinic, um, and get to meet an la galaxy player, which was
very exciting. He being a soccer player. Um, and then to be able
to be part of some of the small business activities, um, I have to admit,
uh, I would like to make sure that the economic development department as well, um,
along with maybe, um, uh, dlba check in
with our, uh, small businesses, uh, there was a lot of people
there. And I think a number of strategies that I'm hoping that our small businesses will
look to, uh, employ in order to take advantage of the number
of potential consumers and customers that are there. Um, and would
wanna make sure that there is a plan in place for that. Um, and to give them some ideas
about how to take advantage of those, that audience. And then further,
I think that, um, it would be great if we, if economic development could
also think about what are some of the key metrics that we want to benchmark
against, um, as we host events like this, um, to get a sense
as to where sales, you know, were, had been, um, maybe the number
of jobs they were able to bring in. So really thinking about some of those economic impacts,
um, in the immediate area. And certainly we could see that people were spilling
out into our downtown area, creating other very positive
economic benefits. And I'd love to make sure that we are taking the time to capture
what some of those might be, to be able to tell, uh, the full story. And
I already mentioned earlier today that some of our parking lots were quite a fool,
and I wanna make sure that we have, um, the human touch of support and someone
to make sure we get people moving along and out of the facilities and
on their way. But all in all, uh, kudos. Tyler, you did, you've done a great job getting
us to this point. Um, and I will say with lbpd, I
felt like all of the, um, checkpoints and everything was set up really, really well,
um, to allow for a lot of family fun. Thank you. Okay,
now we'll move to suli sorrow. Thank you, chair. I too wanna add thank
all the work that's done to set this up in order to make sure that we take advantage of this opportunity,
uh, to practice how we really uplift our
business quarter at particularly to downtown. So that kinda get
a feel for what, and also make it aware to the businesses what to
prepare for. But I think that what's great is the consideration of
also doing watch party throughout, um, the city and our parks.
I think this is really an important time to gauge to that. Um,
you know, there won't be existing businesses in the park area, but it's
good to consider what, what, what could we do to take an advantage of the opportunity
to bring vendors out to these sites if we have, if we can
partner with the health and human services system, uh, as far as who the vendors are
that could come out practicing, uh, you know, vending, um,
or if we could have other booths set up, if that's a possibility with
our local businesses. I, I do understand that we have a short
timeline, but I think that there could still be an opportunity to do a call
out if we can. So then it's, um, giving these people some time if
they wanted to set up a booth that could easily pop up. So
I hope that that can be done in partnership with edo, um,
as a way for our businesses, um, in our district
area that can practice this well. This could be a practice run, hey, pop up
opportunity, who wants to join? Um, sign up here.
uh, otherwise this is very exciting. Um, it's great to see
soccer fever throughout the city. Even I
have it, and I'm not that, I'm not a sports person, but I'm also feeling it
too. So thank you. Okay, thank
you. Um, do we have any public comment on this item? No public comment.
okay. Thank you. Members, please place your votes.
motion is carried. Okay.
um, now we have general public comment number two.
that's correct. We have six speakers signed up to speak. Lourdes and
dixon. Melanie andrews, carla
polito, jeffrey, oscar arturo,
brian cochran, can you please line up,
uh, hello? Uh, three minutes. Okay. Hi, uh, how's it going?
um, gee whiz. Uh,
it's a very colorful city. Um, congratulations.
um, I, I feel like, uh, just getting, uh, just getting
acquainted I guess with this, uh, area and city. And, um,
I was, I was a bit, uh, uh, I had a
bit of a reaction to just like spending time here, walking around to
see the, uh, economic inequality, I guess is what they would call it on
cnn or whatever, um, of, uh, people sleeping outside
somewhat like, uh, downtown la uh, previously I've,
I've been to los angeles to the city council also to, uh, make comments there
and talk to people there, have some experience seeing how things go
in that political, uh, the horse shoe, they call it. You have kind of like
a less of a curved shoe, something on a shoe.
um, so, uh, I thought I would kind of maybe lend a little bit of my support
to, uh, karen bass. Uh, as far as inside safe, um,
I know, I guess there's a election cycle now going on with that. Um, and,
uh, she gets a lot of crap, um, for spending a lot of
money on that, I guess you'd say, or making attempts to do something like that. Um,
but in my opinion, walking around here and seeing the variables or whatever they're
in los angeles, um, you should be keeping pace,
I think with, uh, los angeles, if they can do, if they can be trying to
house people at, at a certain rate or something. I don't see why long beach can't be
doing the same or better. You're a smaller city, maybe you could be a little more agile
or something and get ahead of the, get ahead of the bar or whatever.
um, as far as the mayor, I guess, uh,
he's not here. The vice mayor's not here, so they say, um,
to be honest, looking around at the city and looking at the way the mayor acts,
his personality or the, again, the variables of politics, I'm
not sure that that can be something that can be fixed, so to speak.
um, I think that I, to, to be honest, I,
I would have to say like, I think it's reasonable to ask the, the mayor step down.
um, just based on walking around again, I mean, the way that
you guys live, you know, everyone here, you seem to have your needs fulfilled or whatever, you know, food,
water, shelter and whatever. Um, I think
that that's something obviously that all people would like to have. Um,
if, if, you know, he has an ego or whatever, that he doesn't understand
that, you know, it's something is wrong in the situation, to me, I'm not
sure that there's a way to, uh, uh, connect
that person with the reality of what's going on. It's just like he lives in a bubble. So
that's, that's my take. Have a nice day. Okay, our
last speaker is brian cochran.
thank you, mr. Chairman. Um, I'm here with a, a semi-regular
update on something of concern that I think matters to all of you, but you haven't
come to realize it yet. We're at an alarm bell stage. Um, there's
an irony, a bitter irony in fact, that rich archibald, my former editor at the press telegram
from way back in the day, has a column this week that, uh,
touts the virtues of leadership at long beach. It's a join it. Now,
here's this alumni network that's huge, making a difference across our city. Um,
while in the same piece, he never mentions the neighborhood leadership program of which
I'm an alumni and a current facilitator of my third year. Um,
those things matter. And the big difference that you'll see in that is the equity.
um, you heard the item earlier about the community block grants and people telling you how
things are gonna be preserved. Don't feel as uncomfortable as that would suggest
you should be. The neighbor leadership program amounts to a subsection of a line item of a
budget of a section deep in there, and it's in jeopardy because
they're going to cut the two staff members that are currently overseeing it, and they
represent the continuity to the program. We don't come back as facilitators just
because we want to do hangouts. We come back because those two staff members in
the city are that continuity that I've seen it through for 20 plus years. Much
like leadership, long beach has its continuity. Jeff williams, the mayor's
aid, is a former director, sean devereaux, who's on the olympics
outreach thing. He's a current participant of nlp and a former director of leadership
long beach. The two programs get con get convoluted and contorted,
but they are different. And the big difference that you should all be concerned about is
that leadership long beach costs $5,000 for each of their participants.
you need to pay up to get in there. That's already an elite group of people, often
from city circles, often from employers who can pay to send them to that.
are you comfortable giving crumbs to all of our communities to just go, neighborship
leadership program will just be outsourced to occasional events like that. It
won't have the continuity of staffing, it won't have the continuity of all those alumni
that we've built up over those years. We're gonna graduate our 900th one this year,
and god willing, they're, they're going to be out there and meaningful much as the leadership
long beach folks are. But that's essential for you to find the budget for that small
subsection of a budget item and not let it get lost in the, in
the community block grant development funds that are seemingly being saved. So please
start that process now. We're in the budget, early parts of that. Save those two staffers
so they can be that continuity, be the glue that we need, that we all come back and build
on from there. Don't give crumbs to our communities because they can't afford $5,000 for
a much different program. Thank you very much.
okay, that concludes public comment. And, um,
we are now going to move to announcements.
and first we have council member cindy allen.
thank you, uh, chair superal. Um, tonight,
um, I would like to close an honor, a retired long beach police department
sergeant james smla, who passed away on may 17th
after a courageous battle with cancer. Sar sergeant
smla served the long beach police department for nearly two decades,
joining the department in 2007, and then being promoted to
sergeant in 2019. Most recently, he supervised
the marine safety detail. Despite his untimely passing,
he made a tremendous impact on so many people in the department and
the community will be forever held in our hearts.
his passing is a heartbreaking loss for his family, friends, long beach pd
and our community. Please keep his wife jessica, who lost her
husband and his two daughters who lost their dad. And your thoughts
during this very difficult time, and especially in the many days
ahead, my prayers will be with you.
okay, thank you. Council member. Um, we're gonna move to, uh, councilman
mary zendejas. Thank you very
much, chair. Um, I also would like to
take a moment to close this meeting out. Um,
and in honor of the life of a
wonderful longtime community leader who was known
through the community as downtown dawn,
sending a heartfelt condolences to his wife barbie,
don er loved and believed in
the beauty and greatness of our downtown long beach.
he brought people together. He encouraged business owners and
residents to get involved, get organized, and most importantly,
he was a friendly and welcoming face to all.
don, you will certainly be missed, but your immense
contributions to our city and our downtown community
have made an impact that will be felt unseen
for generations to come. May you rest in peace.
thank you. Alright. Thank you. Uh, councilman mccrea.
yes, thank you. I so appreciate you bringing the stories of community members
who've made a deep impact in our community, both our city family and our larger communities. And my
heart goes out to their families and my sincere condolences, uh,
we have some events happening this week as we move forward for your
consideration in the fifth district. Uh, consider stopping by long beach exchange for their two events happening
on saturday, june 20th. On the, from 12 to four, they have a little maker's
market summer fest, and after that, they have their reggae
summer concert series with the band cali conscience from five to 9:00 pm
these events are free to attend and pets and families are welcomed and
encouraged. Next, I'd like to invite you to bixby knows for the first event, uh,
the first concert in the parking lot series of the summer on monday, june 22nd
at the bixby joe parking lot, starting at six 30. Enjoy great music from yaari,
moori latin band and great food from local bixby noles restaurants. The band will
begin playing at six 30 and is advised to arrive early. You can bring your own chair,
you can walk, ride your bike, um, and friendly leash. Dogs are welcome.
this event is also free and for all ages. Uh, I'd also like
you to consider stopping by a seat at the table. Exhibit offered by the african american
cultural center of long beach, located at the expo art center. The exhibition pays tribute to
the nine trailblazing women who have served as harbor commissioners, recognizing their leadership and lasting
impact in shaping the port of long beach. The hours for exhibit
are tuesdays, wednesdays, and saturdays from 11 to 4:00 pm thursdays
and fridays from two to seven. This exhibition's last day is saturday,
june 27th. So be sure to plan a visit before then and to mark
your calendars for july 11th as, uh, soccer in the lbc heads
to the fifth district, where we'll have a, uh, hartwell park viewing
party of, uh, the match that night. Thanks.
okay, thank you. Uh, council member, me soro. Um, thank you.
I wanted to share that juneteenth celebration at king park
is this saturday, um, june 20th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
at mlk park. And right before,
um, well, uh, right before it starts
or a little bit after that, juneteenth starts there, we all have a soft opening
of the dale e clinton resource center from at 11:00 am
to 12:00 pm right, um, next to the park. But I also wanna make sure that
people have an option to also go to the world famous, uh,
block party juneteenth, uh, in downtown as well. So that's
also gonna be, um, pretty much all day as well. Uh,
so we'll hope to see you at one of them. Thank you. Okay. Uh,
thank you, uh, councilman thra. Thank you so much, chair.
uh, tonight I'll be closing. Uh, today's, uh, meeting in memoria
to jim burge. Um, colleagues, uh, we lost,
uh, jim burge on june 5th, 2026. He was a
ridgewood triangle neighborhood association leader. Jim passed away
peacefully, surrounded by his family and loved ones, following a courageous eight month
battle with pancreatic cancer. Born in jasper, indiana.
jim was a beloved veteran, husband, father, grandfather, and friend who
touched countless lives across the country. And his quick wit and infectious
sense of humor, uh, was felt by all. After graduating
high school, he joined the us air force station primarily in turkey.
following his honorable discharge, jim moved to california and attended
ucla where he owned, earned a bachelor of arts degree,
as well as a master's of fine arts degree in motion picture in television.
jim remained at ucla as a counselor in the school of fine arts,
where he founded the ucla comedy club and launched accomplished
writing and acting career with memorable roles, including a famous
scene opposite danny glover in lethal weapon two,
the koch classic chasing dreams with kevin costner and writing
credits on productions like tales from the crypt. But here
in long beach, jim was a pillar in the community around activation
in the eighth district, north long beach and bixby knowles from hosting cleanups
twice a month or to organizing youth programs, jim's devotion
to his neighbors was never ending. For the past 25 years,
jim produced and hosted, which, you know, as the classroom jeopardy,
it was a student competition event. He visited schools throughout long beach
and southern california to foster a deep love for education, earning
media attention awards, and the affectionate nickname jim,
the jeopardy guy jim, brought to every conversation,
uh, joy, and always saw the bright side of light. He
was inspired by the very best, best, and everyone was fortunate
to know him. We send our deepest condolences to his loved ones,
his incredible legacy live lives on in his wife donna,
his children, grandchildren, and thousands of other children he taught
and inspired. So after a lifetime spent asking questions,
learning, teaching, and sharing his love of knowledge, it brings us great comfort
to imagine that jim has now moved onto a place where all of
the answers are finally revealed. May he rest in peace.
okay, thank you. Uh, council member duggan
tonight I have a shout out. Um, I
want to recognize our marine bureau team and our beach
maintenance crews that work for the marine bureau for their work. Over the past week,
our coastline is experiencing an incredible swell that is causing damage
up and down the state. This includes the peninsula, which has
been facing high tides and a southern swell that is coming through the breakwater.
this is pretty much the worst case scenario. Our marine bureau
team has been working around the clock to build berms and take every
protective measure we can limit imp uh, measure
we can to limit the impacts on life and property
over the next few days. We're still going to see some high tides
and swells. We're not through it yet, but there has been limited damage
to this point because of these city teams, the marine bureau
and our beach maintenance crews. They sometimes work all night.
uh, I just wanna say a heartfelt thank you.
um, and your work is appreciated.
okay, thank you. Uh, councilman row? Yes. I just have a couple events
I want to let you, uh, be aware of. Um, tomorrow I wanna invite everyone to join us
for the lgbtq plus cultural district concept unveil press
event. And, uh, so I hope y'all can come. It'll be three 30 at bixby
park near broadway and juan perro. And, um, at the event
we're gonna share the conceptual design and renderings and the vision for
the lgbtq plus cultural district right here in long beach. So I hope you can contend.
um, and also we have some cleanups, um, that happening in the district. And I'd love
if you could come, um, monday morning rose park neighborhood cleanup at 10th street,
and it'd be from nine 30 to 1130 at
28 25 east 10th street. And bl park
neighborhood association is also having a cleanup this saturday,
and it's their quarterly neighborhood cleanup and a breakfast.
so they're gonna feed you. That's good. So, so 9:00 am to 10 30,
um, at the trolley at the corner
of redondo avenue and 82nd street. So I hope you all can come and help clean up our
district. Thank you. Okay. Um, council member retu.
thank you so much, chair. Um, it's movies in the park time. We hope you join
us tomorrow, june 17th in davenport park. Bring your family, friends,
and a blanket for a fun evening under the stars, starting at 6:30 pm
on saturday, june 20th. The north village neighborhood association will host
a cleanup as well as a neighborhood meeting. There'll be several, uh,
key speakers that'll be there. Um, you'll get to hear updates. We hope to see you at
8:00 am for the cleanup, and 10:00 am for the meeting.
happy juneteenth. As my colleague mentioned, there are several celebrations happening.
I wanna bring your attention to the juneteenth block party, celebrating black culture,
music, and creativity. The event is hosted by the vip family foundation.
I will bring the community together through live music, cultural popups, and
engaging conversations. It'll be held at two 15 east first street
from noon to 8:00 pm on june 24th. I encourage
my colleagues and residents to attend the move la conference. It's a gathering
that will feature the future of transportation, including air travel,
as well as by sea. This, uh, conference focuses on mobility
and infrastructure in our region. We hope you'll be there to be participate
with other community leaders, advocates, as well as those who are interested
in improving the quality of life for all residents around transportation.
it'll take place at the long beach convention center from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
visit move la.org for more information. And on
saturday, june 27th, we will be out there as well, cleaning up the neighborhood.
we'll start with the ridgewood neighborhood cleanup at 8:00 am located at
4 5 5 5 orange avenue. And the coolidge triangle neighborhood
cleanup will start at 9:00 am that's at 300 east
scott street. We hope to see residents out. And finally, I'd
like to say as we move towards, uh, the weekend, happy father's day to all of our
fathers out there. Thank you. Um, thank
you for those comments. Um, I have two announcements to make.
the first I want to give a, a shout out to my chief of staff, isabelle
martinez, who's been with me here all night. And you think I look nervous. Can
you imagine how she felt watching me here? But, uh, and also an alum of, uh,
leadership long beach. So thank you isabelle, for doing the extra duty tonight.
and, um, last, I wanted to wish a
heavenly happy birthday to my dad, don ana, who was born on this
date in 1918. He's the poster child for,
um, the olympics in long beach and how it affects kids. Uh, he
watched the rowing competitions at marine stadium in, um, 1932
and inspired him to go on to letter in crew at poly and
in college. Um, he was a world war ii marine
who, um, went, uh, to, uh, work for the fire department
where he served for 28 years. In his 27th
year on the job, he received a certificate of accommodation from the
fire department for extreme heroism in the line of
duty. And he always got a kick out. The fact that the
certificate was signed by the mayor, tom clark, who had been my
dad's councilman for 10 years. And when people made comments
and they did, like, isn't 56 years of old, uh, of age,
a little bit old to be getting a hero award, and he would use this line.
well, I needed my councilman to become mayor to sign a certificate before
I won him. So, because I'm in this seat tonight, I just
wanted to, um, wish my dad a happy birthday. And I know age
108 is a little bit late, but I guess he had to wait till his son was in the
mayor seat to get it announced. So to don ana, happy
birthday, uh, semper fi and semper pradas.
with that, we will, um, want to thank you again for
your civic engagement. And with that, we stand adjourned.