Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Chapter 10.82 relating to prohibiting spectators at street races, sideshows, and reckless driving exhibitions, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Let's do the final audience of the night, which is audience 16. And then we'll go back to the I did a comment, general public comment and the rest of the agenda. Madam Kirk, can you read item 16? Report from City Attorney Recommendation to declare ordinance relating to prohibiting spectators at street races, sideshows and reckless driving exhibitions. Read the first time and later the next regular meeting of City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Let me turn this over to Councilman Super now. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. I move that we accept the recommendation and declare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code. My motion also requests that we adopt the proposed seven page ordinance exactly as written without amendments. The City Attorney's Office has created an ordinance that aligns precisely with City Council's directive and unanimous vote on July 20th, 2021. It is modeled after the ordinances of San Jose and Anaheim. And both those municipalities were referenced in my council presentation on July 20th. Further, our city attorney's office sought and received input from both the city prosecutor's office and the Long Beach Police Department. That input included vetting, fine tuning and final signoff. That action is perfectly aligned with our goal to provide law enforcement with the necessary tools. For these reasons I'm asking we approved the ordinance as proposed. I'd also like to thank our city attorney, city prosecutor and LBP for their collaborative and comprehensive work. Last, I'd like to remind everyone of our goal that the ordinance should act as a deterrent. With other ordinances existing in our region. Our city should never be a target due to inadequate or non existing laws. This ordinance has put us on a path to achieving that goal. I respectfully ask for your support. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, that is an emotional thank you. As acknowledged, I think Mr. Mayor is gone. I don't have the view. I think he has a commitment at 6:00. And so if you have your sacking, we'll just raise your hand and I'll know speaking. Okay? Okay. Councilwoman Price. I support the motion and I thank Councilwoman Sabrina for bringing it forth. Okay, I'll add a council comment. And if you have council comments, just raise your hand. First of all, thank you, Councilman Supernormal, for trying to take on this issue. I think people want to see a resolution to the street takeovers and we have a lot of them in North Hollywood, I would say. I did raise this raises concern that I had some good conversation. The city prosecutor raised the concern about the youth who are spectators. And we talked about it last time. And I want to bring it up again that as we implement this this this ordinance, I'm going to support this. And I would I want to make sure that what we've learned is people under 26, they they respond to positive intervention. We have data on this. We've created the program, the past program to specifically talk about work with this audience. I don't believe that attending a street takeover should leave a black mark that ultimately can keep them from getting a job or connected to the things that we're supposed to be doing or getting an apartment or get into purchasing a home. So I think that we need to lean in and make sure we use the programs that we have. If somebody breaks the law, I think there needs to be a penalty. However, we need to make sure that we're being developmentally sensitive, particularly with young people. So I want to is the prosecutor here today and I have a question for him. Good evening. Members of the city council, this is Doug Halbert, Long Beach City here. Thank you. Hey, Doug, I will I want to just request that you tell us how we can engage, particularly with young people on this, you know, path was originally we talked about, you know, 24, 26 was the point when brains are fully developed and we have a lot of resources in the city, educational, you know, other things. And so the way, you know, path is work is not largely pretrial. So you get your ticket, then you get a letter from prosecutor says, look, you can stand in front of a judge and pay a fine or you can come in and connect and get on the right track or whatever it is. How would you engage path with this ordinance? It would be my first question. Well, first of all, I support the ordinance. I think it's a good idea and definitely needed in the city of Long Beach. Most of our path diversion and most of our diversion programs in general are pre filing diversion. So they don't actually go to court and they get a letter that they're offered to participate in a diversion program. If they take us up on that offer and they complete the diversion program, then they do not have to go to court or pay a fine or suffer any of the criminal consequences. So the PATH Program is a jobs based diversion program for mostly 18 to 24 year olds. And that's because that matches the grant that's available to Pacific Gateway, and it helps connect them to jobs or employment or some type of job skills to make them more employable. That's what the PATH program does. We have other programs as well. But since you mentioned the PATH program, that that one is geared towards young adults under the age of 24 and younger who have cases in my office. Fantastic. I think that's great. You know, I support the discretion that you have as a prosecutor to determine, you know, the best course of action. But what I like that we you know, we don't just have sticks, we have carrot. You can issue citations and we can do the things that need to happen. However, we you know, we're a local community, so we can handle our local youth a certain way. I think that's good. I think I think that satisfies my question. I'm happy to support the ordinance and comfort it, knowing that our prosecutors are going to get it passed. And I think, you know, I would encourage you to, you know, like. If people get questions because we got a lot of questions about what happened since these take over. Are largely young people out there. I think we should talk about we have more than one tool in the tool shed. I think that's important for us to know in how we are sensitive and how we deal with young people. That those are my comments. Any other comments he has raised? Okay. I see Councilman Ciro. I want to thank Councilmember Sabrina for bringing it forward. I mean, I do, you know. Agree that it can be dangerous and that we do need to figure out how to address it. But at the same time, I think when it initially came up, I did have concerns with what it means for young people, especially not just young people of color, but who are also immigrant and even maybe undocumented. I don't I certainly wouldn't want them being at an event and then getting caught and being not just only going through proceedings, but also being deported as well. And so I do want to make sure we do look into programs that can provide alternative ways and where they can learn their lesson, but also not have it be a mark against them as they move forward into whether it's higher education or jobs or other opportunities. So so those are some just having worked with young people of color and nonprofit and pretty. And it's particularly important for me that we we don't criminalize them for the, you know, for the things that they do as young people. Thank you. And ask anyone else. I see two hands. Counsel Now for your first. Your immediate counsel. Sorry about that. You think after all this time I would get that. So. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I also wanted to thank council member Super Scott for bringing us this item last summer. And the city attorney for drafting the ordinance. I do agree with you, Vice Mayor, that I think that we could utilize a path that would be that would be great. I do think that these street races and fight shows are dangerous and harmful. They interfere with traffic. They disrupt businesses. And and I think it's important that the city that we do everything that we can do to stop these events that are happening all across the city. I think in all of our districts, this is happening. I know I've seen the races down here along the the ocean corridors over the pike and Rainbow Harbor, and these are just happening on a regular basis. So I'm glad that that council members, if we're not took took a lead on this. I do also believe that these penalties are necessary to deter these events from happening. And in focusing on areas is a good start because they are a big part of the issue. But we also need to focus on the drivers of these events and these events would never even happen without the driver. So I think also exploring solutions to focus on those individuals is good too. I also believe that if a spectator is founded violation of this policy, that we have to make sure the extent of their involvement. I know there was a one of these takeovers over at the town center and my cousin had called me, you know , he was over there and he's like, I saw that. And so I just, you know, we just, you know, I hope and trust that the Long Beach Police Department will make sure that we do understand the assault, that that the extent of this involvement of folks and that just not bystanders are or people that are happened to be in the area. So I trust that that that that that that will have that that will happen. And so thank you very much. And I will be supporting this item today. Fantastic. Thank you. Can make complements and data. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you, councilmembers, for leading on this very important item. I'm very supportive of this item. I know that our young people sometimes feel that they are invincible. And so they they really feel that it's not dangerous. But when you're really creating a circle of people and then you have cars that are showing off, it just really terrifies me. And, you know, it's just a matter of time before something really bad happens. And, you know, I would not want to see that here in our in our city. So I really applaud Councilmember Super now for bringing this item forward. I also do agree that we have to make sure that we do let everyone know who participates, that this is not allowed in Long Beach. But at the same time, like other colleagues of mine have said, we do have to. Kind of be sensitive to some of the people that might be doing this. But also we have to send a firm message that this is not allowed. We're not going to allow people to come in and put innocent lives at danger. And so with that, I will absolutely be supporting this item. And tastic. Thank you. Any public comment on the item? If any members of the public wish to speak on this item, please use the raise hand feature or press star nine if dialing in by phone. Seen none. That concludes public comment. Fantastic. Thank you, Councilman Supernova. This great item will go ahead with our roll call vote. District one, district two. I. District three. I. District four. I. District five. District six. I. District seven. I. District eight. I. District nine. I. Motion is carried. All right. Thank you. I want to just check in with the clerk on what items we have next to do. Items 13, 14, 15 and 20. Okay. And public comment. So that's what I'm going to ask. Let's do public comment now and then we'll do the rest of the items in in that order.