Recommendation to adopt resolution expressing intent to prioritize spending of the Transient Occupancy Tax ("TOT") increase for specific purposes, if approved by voters in the March 3, 2020 Special Municipal Election.  (Citywide)
Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you very much for being here. We are now continuing on the agenda. We're going to move up and go to item 17, please. Adam, 17, is communication from City Attorney Recommendation to Adobe resolution expressing intent to prioritize spending of the transient occupancy tax increase for specific purposes. If approved by the voters in the March 30, 2020 special election. City Wide. Thank you. I'm just going to do a couple of opening comments and then I have some public comment. I just want to again add and say that I was really proud to work with all of our arts organizations in the city, as well as our Convention and Visitors Bureau to propose, measure, be on the ballot that the Council unanimously put on the ballot. Measure B is a transformational measure that, of course, does two things. One is it provides stable and consistent funding for all of our major arts organizations in the city, museums, theater groups, and of course, supports the Arts Council in a much larger way, which will then give us the ability to also support artists smaller grants, mural programs, community art and and other purposes. In addition, it also provides stable annual funding to make upgrades to the Convention and Visitors Center, which of course is the home of many of these arts organizations as well. And so that was that is Measure B, and what you have in front of you is a resolution that, of course, as we know, we adopted one of these as well for for Measure A, and we did that when we passed Measure A the first time as well. And so there is a motion and a second. But I want to ask Kelly Lucero, Steve Goodling and Cantrell, Karen Deci and Paul Garmon all to come forward in that order, please. Kelly Lucero, Steve Goodling and Cantrell, Karen Deci and Paul Garment to please come to the mike in that order. So, Sarah. Miss Kelly Lucero and president of the Long Beach Symphony. And on behalf of the Symphony's Board of directors, we urge you to adopt the resolution before you, which prioritizes spending of the funds that would result from the total increase. Funding will support the Symphony's inclusion and diversity activities by providing increased arts education programs in schools and after schools and on the weekends for all residents. We are deeply, deeply grateful to the Mayor and the City Council for your visionary support the city's arts organizations, artists, cultural programs and education. This action is unprecedented and it's extraordinary. And I've never been more proud to be a 33 year resident of this great city. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sarah. Mr. Goodling. Mayor, Council, also city manager. I, first of all, thank you for getting us this far. And last summer, I had the privilege of talking with the hoteliers individually. And they all said, Steve, we agree this would be a great thing for the city to help continue our arts programing, many of which use the convention center, continue to create this core vibrant area, but also some of the others like the museums and musical theater west further out. In addition, a study was recently completed by the city. An independent study 55 million is needed to take care of old mechanical that is 60 years old that we can't buy replacement parts for anymore. And so some of this money, sadly there won't be enough of it will help to defray and take some of that onus off of the back so that we can buy replacement parts, repair chillers and things like that. So it's a win win. And Mayor, thank you for champing this and the city council, thank you for your support of this. And to all of you, it's it really is a game changer for for the city. So thank you. Thank you. Mr. Goodwin. Miss Cantrell. Good evening. And Cantrell. And I wholly support the use of this hotel tax. However, I wish you had put in the measure that this extra 1% will go to the arts, will go to art education. As I read it, it says May and that all of this money goes into the general fund, just like the 10.25% sales tax does. And it's at the pleasure of the mayor and the council as to how it's spent. And I hope that when you come to budget time, you'll remember your pledge to all of these organizations that this money will be spent on the arts. Thank you. Thank you, Ms.. Control. And I think like we passed the measure of resolution. That's why we're passing the Measure B resolution so that all the funds get spent where the resolution asked them to be spent. And so that's what that's what this agenda item is all about. So thank you, Mr. Simon. Hi, I'm Karen Deci, artistic director, producer of International City Theater. Honorable Mayor and City Council persons, too. It's a pleasure to be here and share. This request with you. I was asking. That you pass the resolution. Which is a positive step in this city's evolution. A priority to the. 1% total increase it provides. For arts. Culture, education, ah, youth. And besides, it will allow for improvements that are now beyond reach at our. In-Demand convention center. The Pride of Long Beach. Please give this resolution your. Positive. Affirmation. Thank you for listening and for your consideration. Thank you so much, Mr. Paul Garment. Paul Graham is executive director, producer for Musical Theater West. I'm going to let the kids speak for themselves. We reach about 17,000 kids, both bringing them into the theater at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center and going into schools, libraries and parks in each one of the nine city council districts. This is after our pioneers of flight tours, which toured for two different weeks this past year. And it talks about the evolution of flight and aviators, and particularly women and African-American aviators. I just want to thank you for everything you do. This was an amazing show that you put on for us. I liked all of you guys singing voices. It was so cool that you have amazing voices. You guys taught me so much how to accomplish all my dreams and goals, even though I'm going through some tough things right now. I just want to thank you in case because I earned so I learned so many new things that we don't have to listen and give up. We can keep on going and don't let people tell it. Get into your dreams. Thank you for setting up this show and for all the work. It was so fun and cool and creative and she was a third grader at Fremont Elementary School to musical theater. Wes, thank you for showing us the music and how fun it was to watching it. I hope we get to do it again. He came to see Carmody and I am thanking you for paying for the tickets and for our busses. And I'm so thankful because that was the kind of the show. It was so kind of you. Your show was great. It had lights plus music, plus characters, and it was all my people and it was all on stage. My favorite part was when we met Jim met his neighbor and a teacher that's a friend of his when he moved to a new house to do some hard work. This is from a special ed kid that the teacher said has refused to do any paperwork for six months. And this is the first thing he'd written. So arts education in the school is so important. Musical theater was totally supports it. I urge you all to as well. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. Garman and Adam. And our final speaker is Miss Griselda Swartz. Good evening, Mayor and council members. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. I want to start by relaying a message from one of our third graders at Edison Elementary. When we went in with our arts, education, supplies and lessons and curriculum. After the third week, these this third grader said this is better than recess. And so this is. The kind of impact that not only the. Arts Council of many of our partners that are here with us. Tonight do in our classrooms. Many of us serve the schools that don't have arts curriculum in their classrooms. And so supporting arts education and dedicating these funds to our arts organizations, our artist and our performing arts is so such an important part of our city fabric. It really lets students know that their expression is important and their freedom of expression is important, and they can become civically engaged through that expression. So thank you so much for your support and for voting. On this measure. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. That concludes public comment. And I have a motion and a second councilmember pearce. Thank you. I want to thank everybody for coming out today. Thank the mayor again for your leadership on this and the council members that worked on this. I have a couple of quick, brief questions similar to what I asked last time. Obviously, I fully support this. Last time this item was here shared some stats about how arts can really improve everything from science to math. I think it's a great program. Can you just share for us the next step? So today we're doing a resolution just on broad spending. But what that next step is when we kind of hone in on a spending plan. I can share with I can I can answer that question. Sure. I think, Councilman, I think what we've been working on with staff is that similar to how the measure process went, the resolution was adopted. And then at some point in the near future, the as we did for Missouri, when the infrastructure plan came forward and there was an actual adoption by the council as to what projects and the amounts that will also a similar proposal from staff will come forward based on the resolution and the conversations with the Arts Council and the arts groups. And so that will be voted on by the council at some point in the weeks ahead. Great. And I asked that question just because the conversation that we had last time also was around equity and making sure that we are looking at all the arts organizations, everything from music to painting to mural work and making sure that we are sharing this great new resource with all the organizations that do different types of art , as well as ensuring that kids from our entire city get to benefit. One of the things we talked about last time was the equity toolkit. And I know that we've passed that as a as a council. We haven't had a presentation on it fully. But I would love if staff could work using that toolkit as they're thinking about those funding priorities. And think about that as you guys give that presentation to us. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Supporting this is just something that's so meaningful. I think it's important for us to keep in perspective what a small amount of money and a small percentage is going to go and how far it's going to go. I also think it's important that there's a lot of misinformation out there. Even tonight, someone said that 10.2% goes into the general fund, but actually only 2% of your 10.5% goes to Long Beach at all. And so I think it's just important that we keep everyone focused on what good things this could do for Long Beach kids. Thank you. Thank you. And Councilman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank the Council for consideration of this topic, and I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight in support of it. I have been a huge supporter of this concept from the outset, and I thank the mayor for his leadership in this regard. And I am pleased to see some of the organizations that are called out specifically in the resolution. I think many of these organizations represent the heart of the arts, community and culture in the city of Long Beach. But in addition, I know there are a lot of other great organizations that would fall into, for example, the local museums and theaters. Language that's in here. So our ranchos are beautiful museums that celebrate the history of the city of Long Beach. We have a lot of local theaters that are, you know, smaller, a functioning playhouses where folks get an opportunity to get exposure to the arts that they otherwise might not have. And they're trying to establish themselves. And and so I think this is fantastic. And I'm going to be not only voting in favor of this tonight, but personally, my family and I are going to be very supportive of of of this measure and look at the thoughts behind this measure and ensuring that the moneys that are collected with this measure, should it should it come to fruition, will be used in an appropriate manner. That's something that I intend to stay very connected on. So I thank you, Mr. Mayor, for this opportunity. Thank you. And then as I closing, we go to the vote. I just want to add and I said this earlier, that the the the what this resolution really calls for is really historic funding for our arts organizations that have traditionally provided enormous amounts of arts education exhibits, performances across the city. This resolution calls for what would be the most public funding the city has ever contributed to our arts organizations in the modern history of the city of Long Beach. And so we are absolutely. So when you talk when you talk about public funding of the arts, which is a absolute must, this this resolution is speaks to a historic level of funding that the city has never provided in the past. And so if voters obviously choose to adopt this and this resolution is in place, I think this council should should feel very, very, very good about this really historic step for the city and a transformational opportunity for all of these organizations. I will also add that it's not just these organizations that are traditional larger arts groups, but I will add that the Arts Council, which is the really provider of funds and support for all of our smaller organizations, will also be receiving a significant boost in funding through this resolution. And so for those of us that support our mural programs and our small artists programs and cultural programing and these organizations that might be looser in nature, those will be funded also at historic levels as part of of of this resolution. And so thank you to all the arts groups that are here. Members, please go ahead and cast your votes. Motion carries. Thank you. And thank you all for for being out here this evening. We've had a request to move up item 23, which is, I believe, a reading of the ordinance that was adopted at the last meeting. And so we will do that.