Recommendation to conduct a Budget Hearing to receive and discuss an overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2022 Budget for the departments of Economic Development, Fire, and Civil Service.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Next up is the budget hearing. Item 12. We still have very long agenda ahead of us. Item 12 Report for Financial Management Recommendation to conduct a budget hearing to receive and discuss an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2022 Budget for the Departments of Economic Development, Fire. And Civil Service. City Wide. America. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we have three presentations today as part of our budget hearing. The first will be our economic development department. Then we'll do our fire department. Then we will do civil service. So I will turn it over. To John Keisler to. Begin the Economic Development Department overview. All right. Good. Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. I am extremely excited to be able to present to you a summary of the Economic Development Department budget for fiscal year 22. And so you know a lot about us, but I want to share with you a little bit about our mission and how we create equitable economic opportunities for workers, investors and entrepreneurs. So, as you know, we have a couple of key service areas that are really designed around our customers, around how to help people make more money . First, business owners, we offer technical assistance and grants. A lot of the stuff that we were just talking about tonight. But we also offer programs around connecting business owners to the Internet. Digital inclusion and how we can build more connectivity between customers and business owners online. We also offer business owners as well as investors, developers and the private sector real estate development services that helps to grow the property tax base, the assessed value of property in the city. And it also helps to address needs like housing and retail, commercial manufacturing and of course, hospitality services. But one of the really unique things about the city of Long Beach economic development is that we have Pacific Gateway, a federally funded workforce development agency that would typically be a regional nonprofit. It's actually a part of our city and a part of our department, and that helps us to really develop and cultivate sector cluster strategies for things like aerospace or entertainment and hospitality. And it also helps us to implement really unique programs for our youth workforce job centers and of course, the implementation of things like our project labor agreement. So this last year has been historic. You've heard this over and over again, but specifically for the economy. The pandemic created an unprecedented spike in unemployment within about a three week period back in March of 2020. Some people are shocked when I say this, but there were 250,000, a quarter million unemployment insurance claims that were filed by 150,000 different Long Beach residents over the past year, a quarter million. The city itself, with leadership of the city council, took action to provide rent deferments to our city tenants and deployed over $7 million in new biz care programs. In fact, we launched the first ever busy care program as part of the COVID 19 response. And you can just see the thousands of individual business owners and residents as well as the business supporting organizations that we helped to support. We also launch for the first time ever, a digital inclusion initiative in the city of Long Beach, who is really remarkable. One of the things that COVID 19 accelerated was the need for businesses and residents and workers to get online, both to tap into and access services, as well as to transition their business models. And so you can see the thousands of people that we brought hotspots to their their residential and commercial locations for the first time, as well as devices and resources through our community based partners like humanity I'm sorry, who helped us as a nonprofit to actually deliver those devices and training and get those households online. We also supported thousands of adults and youth workers. We launched new programs to actually get displaced youth workers to help with COVID response. It was a remarkable opportunity for us also to connect with the community. And we did during this pandemic five different economic equity studies to understand what was happening with various sectors and members of our community, as well as over 40 hours of roundtables , which many of you participated in, so that we could move in transition in real time the way that we supported our local economy and workers. So many other accomplishments over this past year that help shape the way that we deliver services. A new 55 page digital inclusion roadmap was completed. Believe it or not, most of this started in-person and ended virtually. But this has become a national model for many other cities that have asked for for us to help them with their own digital inclusion roadmaps. We negotiated the acquisition of new hotels and other properties to help with transitional and homeless services. We actually executed a decades long, new and innovative project labor agreement during the COVID 19 pandemic, and we launched new programs for cannabis equity. Technical assistance for four new cannabis business owners, helped to reopen Long Beach Community Hospital to the emergency room and secured control of our historic Queen Mary and the surrounding properties for the first time in 40 years. So I want you to know that even though we talked a lot about COVID response, we actually made some historic generational progress on other areas. So the Long Beach Recovery Act looking forward is really an incredible opportunity for us to make historic, systemic investments in economic inclusion in some of these other areas. And we're going to do this in a collective impact model. You can see that $64 million has been dedicated thus far by the Council toward Economic Recovery as part of Elvira, the Recovery Act. And you can see that it cuts across things like transportation, economic and digital inclusion and in our key infrastructure, like our airports and other support services. This is what it looks like for us in economic development in the coming year. The Long Beach Recovery Act will be 33 new programs that will go. They'll range from direct grants, over $20 million going to businesses, nonprofits, arts organizations, and a lot of those business supporting organizations, as well as an unprecedented investment in economic inclusion, digital inclusion, diverse business councils, more inclusive procurement. We heard about that tonight, and we're going to be making those down payments in FY 22 to Seed Fund, many of these historic efforts. But there's also other programs that we're going to partner on through a collective impact model with our nonprofit organizations and other departments that have to do with cleaning up corridors and testing and tracing support so that business can keep workers safe and that workers can can serve customers in a safe way. So the 22 focus for economic development really has it starts with the Recovery Act. I mentioned the 33 new economic support programs to support a more inclusive and equitable economic recovery that will be based on our community roundtables. We will also be updating the ten year blueprint for economic development for a more inclusive economy, which will really make this a relevant and current plan for this decade between 21 and 30, and prepare our economy and our workers, investors and entrepreneurs for this new economy post-COVID. We will be implementing the Digital Inclusion Roadmap to eliminate the digital divide. Our goal is to make progress, to eliminate the divide for all residents, workers and business owners in need by 25. And we will incorporate all of the goals of racial equity and reconciliation reconciliation initiative to eliminate economic disparities in communities most impacted by racism. So we have goal four within the reconciliation plan that really focuses on economic inclusion, economic equity, and that will be a part of every program that we implement in the coming year. We also will be developing and implementing multiyear action plans for major real estate assets this year, in particular Queen Mary and the Convention Center. Those are two that have historic needs for infrastructure investment, as well as business models that can help to offset the costs of those investments. So some of our challenges EDI economic development remains one of the smallest city manager departments. We staff most of our programs through grants and one time funding. We also need a lot of administrative oversight for both effective program delivery. But to do things like audits, whether it's auditing our contracts and service agreements or it's these big grants. We need structural funding if we want to sustain these efforts, including our economic and digital inclusion programs. Because one of the disadvantages of having this grant funding is not being able to sustain it once the grant funding is gone . So structural funding is going to be needed for the long term maintenance and development of our city owned assets, particularly some of those large real estate assets that I mentioned before. So the opportunity here, which is which is fantastic, is that economic development is all about return on investment. For both the community as well as the city. So when you invest a dollar, you should get two or $3 back on those investments. So our opportunity here is by investing in long term economic development, we can strengthen the revenue sources that pay for all of the other city services police, fire, parks and Rec, public works. And we need to use data to do that. So we've been working with our community based organizations on many of these initiatives that I discussed and they're ready to implement. So we have huge opportunities right now to move toward action in fiscal year 22. The other really amazing opportunity that we have coming out of COVID 19 is the incredible collaboration that we've developed with our nonprofit and community based organizations. Those relationships are strong, and they have become an incredible opportunity for us to deliver economic development resources. The city is also has all the critical elements of a modern economy. So many cities look to Long Beach and say, I wish I had an airport, an international seaport, a hospital system. I wish I had space and technology companies. And I wish I had a university with 40,000 students graduating 10,000 students a year, a community college with 26,000 students. We have all of those critical elements and we can build on that foundation. And then finally, lbr lbr funding is like seed capital. It's like venture capital. We get to invest it in once in a generation, one time opportunities to build long term and inclusive economic development. So we've got everything we need. But together we can deliver. And in FY 22, your economic development department is ready to go. So thank you so much for your time. I'm going to hand this over to public record. I'm sorry for. Thank you very much, John. So we will go to our next apartment. Which will be our fire. Department, and then we'll do a civil service and then we'll get public comment and answer questions. Next up is fire. How the you know. All right. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and members of the city council. This evening, I will be providing a brief overview of the fire department, highlighting the key services that we provide to the community. Some of our recent key accomplishments are focus for the upcoming fiscal year and some of the major challenges and opportunities that we foresee for the upcoming fiscal year. The Long Beach Fire Department delivers fire rescue, emergency medical service services, marine safety response, hazardous materials response, and non-emergency response services. We provide a 24 hour operation 365 days a year. Our personnel are well equipped and highly trained to mitigate all emergencies. The fire department strives to make Long Beach a better place to live, visit and own a business. Additionally, we work to ensure the safety of the community through proactive fire prevention activities, including code enforcement, fire investigation and proactive community outreach. We also provide training and education that is essential to the delivery of our core fire and rescue services. I would now like to present some of the fire department's accomplishments and highlights for the current fiscal year. Over the past 12 months, we've responded to over 76,000 fire, emergency medical services, marine safety and other emergency incidents. Since many incidents require multiple units to respond. These 76,000 incidents equate to more than 157,000 unit responses. Included in this number are over 51,000 medical calls and over 6800 fire calls. This number also includes hazardous materials responses, airport responses and other non fire responses. I continue to be very proud of the work that the men and women of the fire department do for the community. Since the first days of the pandemic. They have come to work every day, answering every call, despite the danger and potential harm to themselves. Additionally, fire staff and management continue to provide leadership to the city's incident management team. With their knowledge of and experience with the incident command system. Our chief officers have provided structure to a rapidly developing and changing incident. Our shirt volunteers were a huge help as well, using their training to join many of our staff to support testing and vaccination sites throughout the city. Our Operations Bureau hired and trained a diverse class of eight ambulance operators to staff our basic life support program. And our training division turned out a diverse class of 19 new firefighters. These were both great investments in the fire department's future. In its second year of operations, the diversity recruitment program built upon the successes of the first year in fiscal year 21. The program hosted the inaugural Female Firefighter Work Career Workshop. This was a one day event at the David Rosa Regional Training Center, where 82 women were provided information on the application and testing process for fire recruit . Additionally, during the pandemic, the diversity recruitment program stayed in touch with potential recruit candidates by hosting 24 Zoom webinars on the hiring process and 27 Prospective Recruit Exercise Program or prep sessions which prepared candidates for success in the testing process. We also partnered with the Los Angeles Regional Training Group and the Long Beach Garden Center to develop a first response mental health training video series for all firefighters in the region. This training helps our first responders to readily identify the signs of mental illness in the field and to safely and effectively de-escalate these encounters. The department conducted 320 arson investigations, resulting in 57 arrests. This is a 60% increase over the number of investigations last year and a 50% increase in arrest. The majority of these fires are occurring of vegetation located in riverbeds, railway yards and vacant structures. To round out our accomplishments, I want to highlight two successful partnerships with other city departments. First, we conducted the triennial emergency drill in conjunction with the Long Beach Airport. This emergency preparedness exercise is required by the FAA and tests the speed and effectiveness of emergency personnel and airport staff in the event of an aircraft incident. We also partnered with the police department to develop and implement an alternative response model to work cohesively and collaboratively while responding to incidents of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. With this training, we're able to coordinate our efforts more effectively on incidents in which both police and fire personnel are responding. This collaboration provides for a safer interaction and improved outcome to these incidents. The fire department has several major areas of focus for fiscal year 22. The first is to improve response times to fires, emergency medical and other emergency responses. We are working with our medical director to analyze and provide recommendations for adapting how we respond to incidents and perhaps what incidents we respond to in an effort to minimize response times. Firefighter safety and behavioral health continue to be significant issues in the fire service. Firefighters are under a tremendous amount of stress working on the front lines during the pandemic, witnessing tragic events firsthand and working long hours. They and their families are impacted by all of this. The health and Safety of Fire Department staff is one of my highest priorities as fire chief. To that end, we have trained peer counselors and made the services of mental health clinicians available to all staff. We need to make sure that everyone in the department is aware of these services. Remove any stigma associated with obtaining help and increase these services as funding allows. Another priority is to increase diversity in all ranks of the fire department through recruitment and training opportunities. Programs like the Female Firefighter Career Workshop prep sessions and the Fire Services curriculum at Jordan High School are all part of our short term and long term solution to improving the diversity of the department. It is also important for us to foster an environment of inclusion and equity in our workforce. The department is rolling out implicit bias training to all fire department employees. While this training is available through our online training platform at a minimal cost, it is very effective training in fiscal year 22 and beyond. The Department will continue this and other similar training and activities that focus on the priorities of diversity, inclusion and equity. In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number and size of vegetation, fires and other fires in public areas throughout the city. Areas such as parks, riverbeds and areas surrounding freeways. This is a great concern to us as it poses a significant risk to life and property. Preventing and minimizing the damage caused by these types of fires will be another focus area in the coming year. The anticipated retirement of our leadership in the management and supervisory ranks creates a great opportunity to develop the next generation of leadership. This has always been a focus of mine and it will remain so in the next year. The Fleet Services Bureau will be updating fires, frontline vehicles that respond to fires, emergency medical services and other incidents within our current budget. We're able to replace a number of vehicles in the coming year. Ten engines, two trucks and seven paramedic rescues will be replaced in the next 12 months. I want to thank the fleet services for their support and partnership in this area. Another focus area is to improve compliance with mandated fire prevention inspections. This includes hotels, apartments and residential care facilities. To help us meet these requirements. We're proposing the addition of three civilian inspectors in the fiscal year 22 budget. The cost of these positions will be fully offset by fee revenue that the inspectors will generate by conducting the inspections. Finally, we continue to streamline the fired plant check review process to meet service demands while ensuring the public safety. Despite the pandemic, we've been able to keep up with the workload and are committed to this continued level of service. As part of the fiscal year 21 budget, the fire department is participating in a comprehensive fire services study. The consultants are taking a very close look at our operations and finances, and we'll be identifying efficiencies and structural budget savings in the amount of $1.8 million. Since February of this year, the city manager's office and the fire department have been working with AP Triton, an outside consultant with extensive fire service, knowledge and experience, to conduct an in-depth review of all fire department operations. This review includes an analysis of staffing levels, deployment methodologies, the operations and activities of the Fire Department's four bureaus and the department's financial data. The primary objective of this, of the study is to identify budget solutions and operational efficiencies that will result in structural savings in the general fund beginning in fiscal year 23. Additionally, A.P. Triton is gathering information and conducting interviews and surveys throughout the department as part of the Workforce Initiatives component of the study, which focuses on diversity, inclusion and equity as well as succession planning. We expect the study findings and recommendations to be to be provided in October of this year. The department will face several significant challenges in fiscal year 22. First, as I mentioned earlier, service demands, staffing levels, the pandemic and the types of calls that we see have led to firefighters safety and behavioral health concerns. Increased development, specifically vertical density in the downtown area and throughout the city will increase service demands, leading to an increase in emergency responses and response times. We have we have front line safety equipment that is nearing the end of their useful lives and are in need of replacement. Items, such as the breathing apparatus that the firefighters use are due for replacement in the next couple of years at a significant cost. The fiscal year 22 budget proposes additional staff to manage our grants so that we can explore grant funding for these items. Similarly, our first responders work 24 hour shifts, living in and responding from fire stations and marine safety facilities, some of which are old and have significant health and maintenance issues. A plan for repair and replacement of these facilities, including identifying a funding source, will be necessary to respond to this challenge. Finally, wildfires throughout the region and the state continue to pose a challenge as they grow in size and frequency. The Dixie Fire in Northern California surpassed 500,000 acres last week, making it the largest wildfire in California state recorded history. For the past several months, we have assisted on wildfires in Northern California, Washington and Oregon, averaging 20 personnel per day that are out on the lines. And most recently this evening, as we're sitting in the back, we had another engine and battalion chief heading up to Sacramento. That is, as we hear, losing homes as we speak. We also have several opportunities coming up. First, while anticipated retirement of our leadership in the management and supervisory ranks creates somewhat of a challenge. It also is a great opportunity to develop the next generation of leadership. The fiscal year 22 proposes the continued support of the FIA diversity recruitment program. This provides a great opportunity for us to continue our short term and long term relationships and recruitment strategies with the goal of increasing the diversity of our staff throughout the organization. I want to thank the city manager and City Council for your continued support of this program. Another opportunity is the potential for grant funding to support training for our specialized programs such as hazardous materials, urban search and rescue and airport rescue and firefighting, as well as to support the acquisition of needed equipment, including breathing apparatus and personal protective equipment. Finally, we have an opportunity for improved efficiencies by co-locating the Fire and Health and Human Services warehouses. This will be funded with grant funds from the Health Department. I want to thank the Health Department for their partnership and we are grateful for this opportunity to work alongside them. In closing, I would like to thank Mary Garcia, our city council, city management and all the members of our city team for your consistent support of your fire department's mission to provide public safety to the city of Long Beach. For many, if not most of us, last year was the most difficult time we've ever experienced. In response to the pandemic and all associated issues, our city team unified and provided leadership and direction. I have never been more appreciative of the city I work for and the great people I'm honored to serve with. Finally, I need to express my tremendous pride and appreciation for the men and women of the Long Beach Fire Department throughout the pandemic. Sworn in civilian staff have never faltered in their efforts to provide for a safer Long Beach. I consider their actions to be heroic, and we'll never forget their response when called to service. This concludes my presentation and I'm prepared to respond. Any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Espino, we will have one more presentation and then. We'll get to public comment and council questions. So the next presentation will be. Christina Winton and her team from Civil Service. Good evening, honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. It's my pleasure to present the budget overview for the Civil Service Department. This over for you will demonstrate how the Civil Service Department has utilized its budget and had to pivot like all city departments, to address the business operations of the department in the COVID 19 pandemic environment . Given the circumstances that we have had to face, we were fortunate to have the mission of the department to be our guiding compass. Civil Service Commission is a charter commission, and our mission was magnified this past year and a half as we had to think differently, as have as to how we were going to collaborate and provide technical, operational and strategic guidance and support to city departments in our effort to ensure a quality classified workforce. Our key services are outlined in our mission statement, and I'm proud to say we continue to provide these key services in spite of the barriers created by the pandemic. Like many of my colleagues, our team had to think differently about how we would carry out our mission. You will see in this presentation how we modified our selection system. We continue to listen to our customers needs and we were able to take advantage of best practices in merit based employment testing that involved the expanded use of technology. The first to pivot was the Civil Service Commission. On this slide, you can see that the commission immediately shifted to conduct their business meetings more frequently to meet the staffing needs of departments that occurred in an emergency setting. In addition, they provided me as the executive director with the emergency authority to approve certain routine transactions that would assist departments in moving quickly with staffing issues due to the pandemic. They also provided the temporary use of classified positions in the unclassified service in the Department of Health and Human Services, allowing the department to hire key staff immediately in the ever changing pandemic situation. And finally, the Commission created a policy to conduct disciplinary hearings in a virtual setting. With the support and assistance from the Civil Service Commission staff was able to to adjust to the staffing needs of city departments during the pandemic. When the emergency ordered to work remotely began, civil service staff shifted to a virtual environment. Staff was able to leverage technical services that we had already been experimenting with to address the ongoing staffing needs that continued throughout the organization. While staff had been experimenting with virtual testing platforms and we always intended to shift to this direction, we needed time to experiment with the various virtual platforms. Without the luxury of time to experiment, but with the tools to execute. During the pandemic, staff jumped in and developed new virtual process to meet the staffing needs of the department's. Now, candidates could not only apply online, but test online as well, whether it was a written examination or an appraisal interview. Without the challenge of commuting through Southern California traffic to come to Long Beach to test for a position show rates for exams increased, confirming that access to city jobs was now available to more people. Individuals were provided technical support if they were not sure how to access online testing before all exams. This technical support increase the comfort level and access for candidates to classified positions within the city. Our outreach to the community also shifted to a virtual environment. With the restoration of our record recruitment and outreach services division staff focused on outreach in as many virtual ways as possible. They participated in virtual webinars and job fairs, engaged in social media platforms, and increased followers in these platforms. Staff continue to reach out to the community as well through email notifications and sharing of information through City Council newsletters, which has helped increase applicants for specific positions. Some of our examinations required that we continue to conduct them in person. Specifically, public safety promotional positions. As you can see in this slide, protocols were in place to safely conduct these exams. Staff met with the city safety officer to establish safe protocols to ensure safety for all involved. I am proud to say that there were no reports of any exposure to COVID 19 through the in-person promotional exams that were conducted for both the police and fire departments. So as the landscape has changed, our business practices too have changed. And that will represent our challenges and opportunities. We look forward to the opportunity of expanding on the virtual platform that we have utilized during the pandemic. We will utilize the platforms to provide access to more candidates as well as assist us to streamline our portion of the hiring process. To do this, our staff. Will continue to receive training on implicit bias to assist us in being open to ideas that will allow us to continue to provide equity and access to classified positions through our merit based system. This training will help guide our department as we develop and implement our Racial Equity and Reconciliation Action Plan. There is a natural fit with the principles of the Racial Equity and Reconciliation Plan and the mission of the Civil Service Commission, which in part is to attract high quality, diverse individuals in our community. This outreach effort will be coordinated through our recruitment and Outreach Services Division. We are excited to expand our partnership with economic development, to further connect our community and educational institutions with the jobs that our full service city has to offer. We will continue to identify best practices as we work through the challenges of how to best connect the community with the city of Long Beach as an employer of choice . Thank you for this opportunity to share with you a snapshot into how the Civil Service Department has pivoted during the pandemic and how we intend to use this experience to utilize our budget to best serve the city moving forward into the future. Thank you very much. That concludes that presentation and I will turn it back over to the chair to do public comment. Well, thank you, Mr. City Manager and all of the departments. Before we go to the Council, I'd like to go to public comment. And so we have five speakers on the particular this particular item I like to call forward Karen boundary. Marian Drummond. Stephanie Park. Kenny Allen. Sheila Bates. These line up. Karen boundaries. Number one. Good evening. Yeah, that's really a misspelling of my name, but never mind. It's pronounced in. No boundary. Boundary with correct spelling was wrong. Oh. Yes. My concern is with regard. To the budget and some of the things that I have seen as of late. It appears that. There were a lot of listening tours that were given earlier. And during the year. Most of the. Time when surveyed individuals did talk about the importance of in communities, talked about the importance of defunding the police. So I'm not understanding why these moneys are basically being re appropriated for the police. That is my concern. Also recently, there is an article that is about to come out in the Long Beach Post. For tomorrow that talks about. How Police Association is saying how communities don't want to defund the police when that is exactly what they did state that they wanted to do. The survey that. They reference is flawed. The survey is not referenced in. The news article. We don't know how many people were surveyed in in that survey. We don't know where it was or where it was advertised. The like it scale that is used within this particular. Talking about you know the various options is skewed. There is no option for and no opinion option. And then even the questions that were framed are double barrel questions. So you have questions that are should be broken into X, Y or Z that are all combined together. So these are. Just my concerns. And with that, I will. Defer the rest of my time. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Mary Ann Drummond, and I just. The city's budget is a moral document, right, that reflects our our values and our priorities. And really, we spent the last four years knocking over in the last 40 years allowing the police department to slowly sap moneys from the community supports and civic programs. Pressing a lot of them to extinction or to be ineffective because they have been improperly funded. And that has happened because this body has allowed it over all that time. Right. And your budget spends more than double on police than it does fire. And I just find that to be interesting because. Um. A revealing because fire response tends to be one of care and safety and alternatives. The People's Budget is more than just a shift in the way that the city has done business. It's a pathway toward ending anti-blackness and structural racism in the city. Undoing historical disinvestment that has continued for generations and moving us closer toward a long beach that is safe and healthy for all our communities. Can't wait any longer for a budget that finally addresses their needs. And concerns and the people's budget needs to be adopted now. I do hear a lot of words, but I want to see some action. Action that looks like divesting from police and reducing the force size and banning surveillance technologies like license plate readers and facial recognition devices that are laden with racial bias and are often used against black people. We must redirect these resources toward basic needs in essential services that look that so that our black, indigenous and people of color community members can live successful and happy lives and healthy lives. And the police don't keep us safe. We keep each other safe in order to increase that safety. We need to invest in these community responses of care and violence reduction and prevention of strategies and prevention strategies that are unrelated to police and specifically alternative emergency response teams called for in the city's racial equity and reconciliation report. I yield the rest of the time. Harry Shearer bass. We've made it clear time and time again. The streets were flooded with people following the murder of George Floyd while we uplifted our local folks such as Tyler Woods, Lionel Gibson and Dante Jordan and many others with a clear demand and call of the city and the leaders. Defund the police. Provide care, not cops. And let me be clear about what that means. It means invest in our communities. It means invest in. Alternative responses to. The police. Real alternatives. Real alternative responses to the police. It means invest in our schools, invest in public health care, invest and invest in reparations. That was a promise that was made. There were things that city leaders said they were going to do on the immediate heals when the city was flooded with people on the streets demanding justice. And none of that has been moved on. We have not forgotten and we are not letting it go. Our demand is clear. Defund the police. Currently in the budget that was proposed. Y'all are wanting to give 42% of the general fund to police. That's on top of the fact that they continuously come to you time after time again asking for more money, asking for money for things like their uniforms. That should be a part of their budget. We're asking you for things like, Oh, we need a training program. To make sure that officers and intercede. When an officer is doing something not supposed to be doing. That should already be a part of their program, of their training program. And if it's not. If it's. Not. That's a floor. Another floor of the Long Beach Police Department. And so for you to not hold them accountable for that, they don't need extra money for that. You don't need to consider it an agenda item to do anything about that. It's ridiculous that this is even coming to this body and that nobody is calling them on that. I notice that item 23 was pulled from the agenda. Even the fact that that was up for consideration is nonsense. And I want to know who pulled it from the agenda. Because the reality is, is that if this was something that the city council and the mayor cared about, then y'all would have supported SB two, which is the. BRAC, which is a bill written and authored. By Bradford, named after Kenneth Roth. Jr. Who was murdered by the Gardena Police Department after Michael Robbins, who was an officer in Gardena, was previously an officer in Orange County and shot three people and wasn't held accountable by the department. Much like happens here was not held accountable by the oversight body of the police. Much like what happens here wasn't held accountable by the district attorney. And then we do not have a decertification mechanism. We were one. Of four states that doesn't have a decertification mechanism. If you cared about that, you would support SB two. But the Long Beach Police Department is cited as being against the bill. Ms.. Bates, your time. So how is it that you are hearing you say that you care anything about the community? Because it's clear that you don't. The budget makes it clear that you don't. And we. Demand better. Defund the police. My name is Stephanie Park, and like my colleagues who came before me, I want to take this opportunity to state that the budget, as it stands is grossly imbalanced and not actually designed to meet the true needs of Long Beach residents. 65 million for the Long Beach Police Department. It's obscene to take these funds, those millions and millions of dollars, and invest them in our communities, our schools and public health care and affordable housing. And you need to invest in alternative responses to the police. We heard about some of that tonight from the fire department. We need more of that. We need more and more and more. This is a direct way to work toward racial equity. At this point in history, there is no way you are not aware of the harms of our carceral system, of the dangers of the racism and violence inherent to policing as we know it. We cannot keep investing in the same dangerous system. We have to invest in new and healthier and safer ways to respond to the needs of our community, not with guns in handcuffs and prison time, but with appropriate and actually helpful alternatives. We need care, not cops. Defund the police. I yield my time. Good evening. Gunther. My name is Kenny Allen. I'm a resident of the second district of Long Beach. And I'm here to talk. To you. And ask you to adopt the demands of the people's budget. Tonight. We talked about economic development. That's why I. Again. Echoed the people's budget in demanding that you immediately divest 65 million from our expensive, violent and ineffective police force and. Instead invest that money in development and the well-being of our community. On Page 28, I think it is, of the city manager's note at the. Top of the giant budget document. It's got a big. List of unfunded items. When community members and activists come to this podium and ask for help getting the things that they want to get done. In the community. Mm hmm. Signed into law. The most common answer that we get is. How are you going to pay for it? How do you. Expect us to pay for it? Yeah. We're coming to you with a really clear answer. And really, I'd rather be at home. Having dinner right now than talking to you about this. So tonight, we're talking about economic development in 2021. An economic development budget must include a reparations program. Full stop. It's embarrassing that it doesn't. We need a citywide. Rental housing division to ensure economic development doesn't come at the cost of a displacement of our current residents. And we need universal legal representation. For immigrants to ensure. Economic development efforts don't leave those most vulnerable to. The violent effects of gentrification. Behind we all. Deserve to live in communities where we feel safe, where neighbors can connect with each other and help each other. The people's budget gets us closer to that reality. You need to divest to invest. Thank you. Thank you. That does it for public comment here. I'm going to take it back to the rail. I want to. First of all. Take this opportunity to thank all of our departments for for their presentation and also the public speakers today. I want to turn it over to Councilmember Mongo. Thank you. Thank you for the presentations. Thank you for the community input. It's always valuable to hear where we stand from each and every department. I want to start with some questions for the fire department. I am looking at page 245 of the budget book and reflecting back on a few years ago where we added fees for calls for service. And I see one of the things that's frustrating about this book is that I have to go from book to book to book year over year. There's not like a five year prior year actual, so I can have my staff do that. But in looking at page 245 and looking at the revenue that's coming in, it says that the key services on this page include calls for service. Does this include those calls for service fees? Have those come in as were originally projected? And have we implemented a program for our low income Medicare, Medicaid families that aren't able to afford that call for service fee? Councilwoman. Are you referring to the first responder fee? Yes, sir. Yes. That was implemented, I think, in 2015 at a rate of $250 per month for a response. And that is coming in around $1.7 million, which is. I think, about what. We had initially estimated. And are we thinking that that I know that one of the reasons for the implementation of that system was for our over users, the sober living homes, the businesses that were really relying on emergency services when. They may have been able to support appropriate staffing at their facilities or we've seen a decline in the calls from those businesses that we had felt were potentially over users or not over users, inappropriate users or less appropriate users of the system. Those calls that were necessarily emergencies but were coming in for emergencies. You're asking do we think there's a decline. From those particular areas? Yes. Had it been an incentive for them to reflect on the calls and more appropriately use emergency services? I don't have those numbers for you at this time. But anecdotally, just looking at the runs that we go on, I would say that they have not declined. And we've talked about in the past a tiered dispatch system. Are we still considering that? Is that waiting until the new data systems are deployed? We are still evaluating that. We recently brought on a new medical director, Dr. Abramson. She's going through all of the information that we have and will come up with a recommendation for us. I've heard nothing but amazing things about our new doctor, and I look forward to hearing that. You mentioned that we're looking for additional staffing for grants. What grants will pay for the staffing and what grants are you hoping to go after that we don't currently receive? So the grants that we currently receive or that. We don't currently. Receive, that we don't currently receive, that's why we're getting grant personnel in so that we currently receive the Homeland Security Grants. What we don't have is the bandwidth to be researching additional grants. We just don't have the the the personnel right now to get after that. So we're hoping to get an accounting in this coming budget year accountant. So I guess I would highly recommend that. Being a division chief over grants and cooperative agreements for a large agency that brings in millions of dollars. I'm not sure an accountant might be the right classification. There's a lot of writing involved in these grants to get the grants to go ahead. Okay. I can clarify that a bit. We currently have an administrative analyst who is who is managing all financial aspects of the grant. Hiring an accountant this year for fiscal year 22 and beyond will allow the accountant to handle the fiscal requirements of the grant reporting. While the administrative analyst under the direction of the Deputy Chief and Assistant Chief and Support Services can. Explore grant opportunities and apply for those. I would be very interested in which grants you think you're going to receive. A lot of the grants at the federal level are changing. I mean, day by day, I got a new one today for a no that came out last week. And their administrative budgets for these grants are also very slim. And so I'd love to see a plan because I'd love for you to have a dozen grant staff. The city of Los Angeles, I want to say, has 26 grant staff for their fire department, for their fire department. And they're able to bring in a substantial amount of funding, but they also have different administrative revenue streams available. Thank you. Next, you talked about improving response times for our community to your dispatch as a potential option. What I know that there's kind of a report that just came out about NFPA standards on turnout time. Where do we stand on our turnout time? Locally. Currently we are meeting that standard predominantly throughout the city, six and a half minutes. Turn out time is not the same as. Oh, I'm sorry. With our turn out times. I'd be interested in knowing what those numbers are. I imagine our personnel are doing an excellent job. I do have two additional questions. One, is a comp a compliment? I just want to tell you a great work on the mental health video. Excellent. I saw it on the television show and I'll here for a few additional questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you very much. First of all, to economic development. John and your team did a fantastic job last year with administering the COVID related small business grants. Your SWIFT work was able to keep a lot of people employed. And so I just want to thank you because I know that it really was life changing. Some of the work that you guys do did last year. And so big thanks to you. I do have a couple questions about with for Fire regarding the heart team and the transition to reach. So it may just be me, but I am thoroughly confused about what is happening and what's happening to the heart team and when REACH is going to take over. And I just want to have a better understanding of I know the Heart team was working with L.A. County or had to meet some threshold protocols and requirements to operate in the way it was with L.A. County. Is that going to happen with REACH? And I asked the same question last week, and again, I'm sure it's just me, but I'm a little bit confused about what that transition is going to look like for our homeless population and how we're servicing them. Okay. So with the heart team, we've over the last couple of months have received one time funding month by month, to my understanding that funding ends at the end of August, at which time the heart team would no longer be in operation. The REACH team, I believe, has started their operation as of this month. I don't think they're receiving any type of dispatch. I think what's occurring right now is more of a proactive approach to what they're doing. But the missions are different and the Mission for the Heart team was to alleviate some of the responses that were being taken on by our engines, trucks and rescues that allow them to go to more serious incidents or other incidents. So with that in mind, yes, the heart team did have to go through a pilot program over overseen by L.A. County. We have received correspondence from Cathy Chidester from from L.A. County, saying that she has questions regarding and that was, as of today, regarding the REACH team and the heart. And it's not really a transition. It was a transition of funding. So that funding went back into the pot and now the REACH team has the funding. But as far as how they're going to deploy, I'm not fully aware of how they intend to do that throughout use in the dispatch center. They do intend to have a separate call or call taker. I believe that will help them to dispatch. But there are some questions that still need to be answered and we still need to have some meetings on that, to my understanding. And I appreciate that and maybe for the city manager. So right now, the when people call 911, it may not necessitate the response of a fire engine and an ambulance to deal with someone who might need some mental health services and some interaction from what I think is going to be great resources on the REACH team. So what will happen now will if someone calls nine on one will fire now have to go out there with an engine and an ambulance even though the situation might warrant like something the team can do. Depending on what the. Call is. So Kelly Colby is on the line. I believe she's there. Kelly, are you there? I have near me. Great. Yes. So I'll start. So essentially it is a different service model. So we're not asking health department employees to be firefighters. We're not asking them to take medical calls that they're not trained to do. But they are a resource to be able to be sent or dispatched or have other types of. Of proactive ability to go out and look and work with individuals. Who are experiencing homelessness. The fire department will still do the fire department job. If they get a call about a medical incident and they'll be able to respond with an engine as they would any other call. But we also then have the REACH team. That can be able to go to certain types of incidences that they're trained for. Kelly If you can talk a little bit more about the transition and how we expect major calls to be handled. Yeah. So at the current time in the just as we're working on that through the pilot process of this is that this is we're in the midst of a proactive space. The team is out there engaging with people on the street. We have a mental health clinician and a public health nurse working with the outreach workers. Beginning of September, we'll start to be more responsive. So we are hiring someone specific to ensure that our phone line is of it's being answered during during our open hours to be able to refer and send folks, send the teams out in a response to people, call 911. There is there's a specific call code that the dispatch center has identified that they would then forward those to the NSC and we would respond to those that nonemergency. This is not an emergency response. All other things that are medical or in need of response, we would have those calls. And then once they arrived, if this determined that they don't need to be transported or anything, they can call the health department, the multi service team and we can do a warm handoff. And then that allows for us to do ongoing service management, um, and a greater way to engage people in the ongoing operations that are working from their housing. So it is a very, it is a very different model, but it is a very close partnership between the fire department, the police department and the health department in our work around people with medical and mental health conditions experiencing. Councilman Price, your time is expired. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Super Soprano. Thank you. My questions tonight are going to be restricted to fire. And first to Chief Espino on page 17. Great list of accomplishments. I'd love to go over all those, but my time is limited. But great work on diversity. The female firefighter career workshops great and the mental health training with the guidance synergies outstanding programs. So thank you. Congratulations on those. So to the Council, I would just like to say that my first request is that. We go to structural funding of engine companies. And I say that because a year from now, I don't think it's proper to be balancing our budget using these vital public safety resources. So that would be my very first request is that we do that. I think fire engine companies, it's a it's a little different look nowadays, I think, of the wildfires that that the department is addressing. The chief mentioned that tonight, the local vegetation fires. I don't know if the chief put a number on that. I happen to know we were at 200 at some point that we didn't have in the past. So these engine companies are just vitally needed. My other records read that we discontinue using the specification of Engine 17 when we talk about restoration of an engine company. It was on a list of priorities that was developed over ten years ago. It was developed by a previous fire chief. And I think our current fire chief certainly should have the latitude to develop his own list of priorities when it comes to restoration of engine companies. That list was also created before I ever brought to this council the concept of the equity lens. When talking about Engine 17 and its relationship to Engine ten. And they both happen to call on the 90804 zip code in Long Beach, and that is the most densely populated zip code in the city. So. I wonder if the chief would like to comment on that priorities list and and what his thoughts are, if he could share that with us tonight. Yes, sir. Thank you, Councilman. So we are still currently evaluating that priorities list, but I can tell you that Engine 17 still sits at the top of the list as far as getting structurally funded. There are a couple of different reasons for that. When you take seven teams out of the loop, there is a huge hole on the east side where we don't have the ability to flow water, as it were. As you're well aware, the condominium or the duplex directly across the street from Station 17 burning is a direct result of not having an engine there close by to get water on it, on that fire within a minute or two. And so 17 still sits at the top of that list. Right behind that would be engine one, two, one, which is downtown right here next door. The increase in vertical density down here. When I when I speak to our troops about it, it's as if the entire population of Hawaiian Gardens is going to be put in the downtown Long Beach. And that comes at a cost. Those are going to be responses that we have to respond to. And so that's, you know, apparatus and resources that and that's how we get there. So we will have a a new list coming out. And the the resources that we are looking at. It may not it may not change, but but I think it will change a bit. Thank you for that. I think that's all I have for now. I didn't want to be dismissive of John Keiser and his great presentation. He's one of my favorites for all his work on Community Hospital. So a great presentation tonight. Thank you. Right. Councilmember Mongo. Thank you. I see on page 244 that we have a video production unit, but I don't see any video production related. Personal items. What items? What staff members are in our video production unit. Ketzel Councilwoman. They'll be the communications specialist, I believe is the communication specialist. Three. Correct. Are you aware that currently between 300,000 and $1,000,000 annually of you U.S. funds go to video production? Are you speaking about the video production with the RTG? I mean, it's currently for any video production that would be homeland security in nature. So if you were to do videos related to trainings on Stop the Bleed or Active Shooter or you've done these videos and our staff participate, typically complimentary. I'd be interested in seeing if a Cordray could be completed where a partial funding of potentially your video production staff, other local cities that have video production staff could come together and really bring those positions in-house. As a group of elected officials, I think we work really hard to use government funding and specifically federal tax dollars to fund our positions that have good employee benefits. And when we outsource those things to contractors, while I do see a great amount of flexibility and this Council on this day, as has consistently over the last year, taken out outsourced services and looked to bring those in-house. And so if there were funds available, I know other agencies have received them in the past, but at least the past three years that has not been the case. Those have been outsourced funds, and I'd love to see us put together a plan where those funds would come back to government employees that are doing the work already . Know, we can certainly take a look at that and I'll get back to you with all that information. I do know that the the current staff that we have doing video production is extremely busy between everything that we're doing as far as being able to document all the different things that we do with training and whatnot. Excellent. Thank you. And then lastly, you talk about recruitment and depending on the agency that you look to. One of the things that we find is that Explorer programs are a strong tool for diversity and inclusion recruitment. What is the status of our Explorer program and or are we looking to funnel youth in our community into a neighboring program that we can recruit from? Yeah. We we currently do not have an Explorer program. We do have a search and rescue group that is a feeder system for both PD and fire. And we also have our program at Jordan High School, which is which is taking off. We are looking at an Explorer program and seeing how that would fit in with us. But at the moment, we don't have one. And then finally, I'll just mention that I don't want to disclose the donor, but an elected official at the regional level has recently come forward with some funding, and if it materializes, there will be a program for individuals from disadvantaged communities to go through a 16 week program and become an EMT. And then from EMT opportunities with local companies, they would have mentorship in working towards becoming members of fire service. And I approached a gentleman who was here just two weeks ago from the midnight basketball program and have gotten him to apply for the program. And I hope other members of our community who would like to become firefighters but need that additional help. I mean, you can become an EMT to pay $700 and go to a course. But these are for individuals who need that mentorship, that one on one, a pre academy program, the 16 week program that starts in the fall . And I'd really love to see us utilize part of that to really grow individuals who are in our community that may not know what career they want to really take that opportunity and become a part of the fire service. So thank you very much. And I hope that we can work together on some of those programs. Terrific. Thank you. We saw Councilmember Sorrow District six. Thank you. Yes. I also want to add to thinking. Fire Department, as well as Mr. Kaiser, as well as Ms. went in for the presentation, as well as our. Our community for the feedback. I wanted to just, you know. Councilmember Price that asks the question that I also wanted to ask, which is clarity around the Hart team and the transition to the Hart team, to the team. And, you know, I think with every new motto, it takes some time to figure out how do we make that work? And I'm just wondering if if there's a transition plan that, you know, develop. I mean, I know you're in conversation at the moment, but I'm just thinking it would be helpful because I think if we're not clear, I'm not sure how the public will know there's an alternative model that's happening and that where, you know, is it a pilot or is it something that's going to be permanent? And if that's the case, it sounds like then I just wanted to confirm. So we have the heart team on board until the end of this month and then September 1st the team go into effect. Like, because I'm trying to figure out like exactly how does it transition? So we're actually already in that transition. We had originally planned for Heart to Sunset in March. It was going to be a six month program. We had some delays and we also wanted to make sure that there was overlap and that these issues were worked out. So Health Department team has been working with dispatch and kind of the groups on the ground. To work on who gets what call and how they're going to handle those. We have launched them. So we wanted to make sure. That heart was still in place and that we didn't just end one service without the other one. We launched Reach, I believe, on August. 1st, and then we wanted to keep. Funding, even extra funding with. Heart all the way through the 31st. We did do some memos where we explained kind of what the differences between heart and region, the staffing models. But given. The discussion today, I'd like to provide a little bit more in writing so that we have that we'll get that before the next budget meeting about the protocols that have kind of been worked out and and the transition. Plan. Yeah. Thank you for that. And I also just want to share that I do look forward to seeing the study, the fire, your service study findings and recommendation. I know that we we've had some challenging year and we are in wildfire season at the moment. And climate change is not going to be you know, it's going to get worse. And I'm interested to see how much more resources is it going to how that's going to affect our service in general. Right. So I do look forward to seeing that. And I also want to make the comment to Mr. Kaiser in that. How much I think it's important that you appreciate the services and the hard work that the department has done to hit the ground running to ensure that services is provided to our businesses in the relief process and how we're going to be moving, looking forward to how we're going to be able to work together to really create transformation in services, as well as just changing the services and how we work with businesses and supporting people through workforce development, our guaranteed guaranteed income pilot program. Right? So many of these things that's going to be coming down the pipeline and how that we can transform our community for the better. And lastly, to civil services, to Ms.. Winter and the team. I do really appreciate the change in the way that you pivot continue to make sure we do recruitment. More than anything, I want to go back to how crucial it is to retain our workforce, given our hard work in doing the Long Beach promise and ensuring that we, you know, support our students and scholars through school process to college, how do we make sure we retain them, bring that into our city. Right. And that we are keeping our local talent. So I appreciate the outreach that you came out to our fair that we did in our community, because the city process is sometimes really confusing. People really want to be of service and want to work for the city. And it really helps that you're out there tabling and speaking in the community and kind of helping to demystify and breaking down and making it a little bit easier. Obviously we could do better and that's what I'm hoping we can do. But I appreciate the effort that's being taken at the moment. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Allen. Yes. Thank you so much. I just want to start with John Kiser. Thank you so much for for all that you have done. It would take me a half an hour to go over my list of all of the amazing things that your department has done. So I just just a sincere thank you to you. And then also, Chief, I just want to thank you for your presentation. I know over the past year and a half, your department has just performed incredibly. And I am extremely proud of all the firefighters, all the men and women out there that have performed during these difficult times and our city. And I want to thank you for your leadership. Thank you. I appreciate that support. I know that the response times are extremely fast, and that's important because that saves lives. So you all are heroes in my book, and I really appreciate and respect your work. I saw the long hours, too. I was out there at many of the clinics over the last year, and I saw the work that your team did in making sure that we. Vaccinations and arms and that save lives. And I appreciate that as well. I loved hearing about your diversity in your recruitment initiatives. That's really important to me, that we hire people from the community that look like the community and women. I know that we have civil service here. So this is this is for you. You need to make sure that when we are hiring police and firefighters, that we have people there that represent our community because you can only hire from the the list that they send over. So you also have to do a great job in making sure that you're being innovative and how you do outreach in the community so that we're bringing those folks to the table. You also and then promoting women. And I love what you're doing. I mean, loved hearing about your female engineers and not just all, you know, really good work. So I have a couple questions for you. I think we all have questions on the REACH team, but I'm going to come back to that if I have time. And my first question is, you know, I've been excited. I represent the downtown area and District two. So I've been excited about all of the downtown development and the high rises. But can you please share some of the challenges that the these developments might pose to the fire department? Yes, Councilwoman Ellen. Thank you for the question. So, first and foremost, the the challenges that are brought on by the increase in population, more people mean more responses for us. So you bring in these high rises. And as I said, it's like putting the population of Hawaiian Gardens downtown. And so we're going to need to manage the expectations of downtown and how are we responding to those incidents? We're also right now actively tracking time and time from the sidewalk when we arrive on scene to time when we're actually at the patient. Because oftentimes, if it's a structure fire, we're not going up in an elevator. We're going up by a staircase with all of our gear and equipment. So that takes many minutes, maybe ten, 15 minutes to get a loft in. When we're going to patients, actually, we're using an elevator, but that also equates in an additional time. So those would probably be the biggest challenges to us, is being able to respond to that. All right. Thank you. And then I do have some follow up questions. I'm sorry you're getting so much about the team, but is there anything that when we talked earlier about response times for fire call service, is there anything when we revert to the REACH team that would impact those that the response time or call for service time? Potentially. So we're tracking that as well. So as I stated before, the primary mission of the Hart team was to alleviate some of the responses for engines, trucks, rescues. So if you put those responses back into the mix, that means those units are going to be taken out of service to respond to those patients. And so I would expect a slight uptick in our response times overall systemwide. Okay. All right. And then is there anything any of the services that were provided by the Hart team that will not be provided by the REACH team that you're aware of outside of fire services? Yes. So the Hart team, along with the primary mission of taking on responses, which they did by basically monitoring the radio. So that would be one going on, those types of responses. Secondary to that, they they do proactive work with within the community in which the research team would be doing some something somewhat similar. But the biggest thing that they're doing for us over the last couple of months and Councilman Supernova is aware of this, is that they are proactively going out and conducting heat mapping of the homeless encampments throughout the city, vegetation areas that are going to cause us issues if and when they end up igniting. The problem is oftentimes these encampments are in areas that are very hard to access because the people that are are living there don't want to be accessible. And it makes it very, very difficult for us for egress and ingress makes it very difficult for us to help manage that. So they're going out there videotaping, they're taking photos, they're coming back with maps. They go to the area stations, they relay that information to those captains and let them know to be aware that there is an encampment there. So that's one of the other big things they've done for us just in the recent past. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Zendejas. Thank you, Councilmember Alston. First of all, John and your team. Oh, my God, you have done an incredible job this past year. You just jumped right into it. And it's just, you know, you make us so very, so very proud to have an economic development team as the one that we have right now. I'm so thrilled for the 20 plus million that it's going to support our local businesses. You know, I think that that's that's really going to be very helpful, especially because of all the challenges that are small businesses and all businesses have gone through during this pandemic. I'm also very excited about the $2.2 million being allocated to bridge the digital divide. And I was wondering if maybe that part of that money is going to be used to in multilingual workshops or courses to teach those small business owners how to use and how to navigate such devices. Council member. Thank you so much. So the answer is yes. We're really fortunate to have learned a lot through our Cares Act outreach and we have multiple community based organizations that are Spanish speaking. So language access has been built into the service delivery model and the programs that we've presented to the city manager. Thank you. Thank you, I and that makes me very happy. And I know that I have a lot of those business and, you know, business owners in my district. So I'm glad to hear that. Thank you very much. I also I'm so excited about, you know, how part of this money is also going to go into businesses and help them restart their own businesses or start a business here in our city. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about those efforts being made. Yeah, absolutely. So there's there's a couple of different categories in some of the comments earlier about providing access is first having direct grants. So the $20 million that you were talking about is broken down by sector for businesses, for instance, in food services, then personal services, and then our art serving nonprofit. And so we've really tried to target the resources based on the impacts from COVID 19. But then when it comes to helping those businesses with access to these programs, the busy care program, which is is something that we've been building and growing now, has outreach efforts where in some of the harder to reach parts of the city , they are now going out door to door to talk to businesses in multiple languages. We have speakers, Spanish speakers and English speakers in actually knocking on the doors of businesses that may not have received communications for through online or digital. And then finally, we're going to be through the LBR, a program that you see before you contracting with community based organizations to then provide outreach at the neighborhood level. And through that, they'll provide both the funding and helping with the applications. But then some of the business and technical assistance for some of those restart activities that you're talking about. And I think that we've been having some conversations recently about a fresh start, and I think your office has been really a leader in that. And so we're going to be talking with the city manager about how we might be able to also use some of the business license, taxes and fees funding to help businesses get a fresh start who may have some liabilities or some obligations that they could not pay for during COVID 19. So we're trying to cover all these bases in different ways. Great. Thank you so much, John, again, for all the work that you do and continue to do. I really appreciate that. Going on to the fire department. Actually, I have one more question for you, John, and then I might have to queue back up, but I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about our ten year blueprint. I know that we we talked about our blueprint earlier, our economic blueprint, and that was such a success. But I'm really anxious to know how close we are to maybe you guys giving us a presentation on the ten year blueprint for the city. Certainly, COUNCILMEMBER. So this is something that the Economic Development Commission, the 11 members that were tasked with creating back in 2016 and since COVID 19, we've seen huge economic transitions occurring. And that has to do with information technology, the transition of business practices, even even workforce transitions, working from home or maybe starting their own businesses. And so the commission is looking at those economic transitions as well as a lot of the social transitions. We've also seen a lot of new information and opportunities to close racial disparities with regard to income generation and small business support. And those issues are now at the forefront of the Economic Development Commission's planning and ultimately the recommendations that they hope to bring forward to the Economic Development and Finance Committee of the Council, and then for final approval by the City Council at the end of this year. So they've been conducting monthly study sessions on different topics, different focus areas, and we're going to be wrapping that work up this fall with some presentations to both the committee and the council later this year. Thank you. Thank you. We have missed Councilmember Supernova. Thank you. I realize that I had not mentioned the REACH program and I think that's obligatory tonight, so I want to do that. Seriously, Chief, you had mentioned that the head of County EMS contacted you today, and I think I heard you to say that the issue is over funding and not the public safety function of a group. So I just want to get that clear. No. The the issue with county DHS is not anything to do with funding. It's it's more of the the actual program itself. And so even with the Hart team through the fire department that took a pilot study before it eventually was adopted, and we were able to put that into play with the research team. I believe their their view of it is it's it's bordering on parrot medicine as far as what the actual outcome is going to be. And so they just need to be very clear, to my understanding, about what that team actually is going to do, how it's going to be. I don't want to say dispatch because we don't dispatch a non sworn personnel from from fire dispatch, but they need clarification on the actual mission of that team. Okay. And did they provide any. Well, I guess they wouldn't know what the timeframe is. And they have to get the information before they can analyze it, correct? Correct. Okay. And thank you for mentioning the tracking that the Hart team is doing on these encampments. My thought was just firefighter's safety. The fact that these rigs are not off road vehicles and in and it just be very nice to know where you're going ahead of time rather than trying to find a location on the way to a fire. So thank you for that. Thank you. Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. Now that I've asked the majority of my questions, I just wanted to follow up with a big thank you for the department heads who have really taken the time to make an excellent presentation on. Please. Go ahead and continue, please. Thank you. I know this year has been very trying for all of the departments and especially the ones presenting tonight. And I just want to give just an amazing thank you to all of the teams that work with you. I also know that we've lost some of those members in our community to other agencies and our promotions in other organizations. And I think it's just a testament to the excellent leadership that we have in the city. It does make me proud to be a leader on so many of these issues, and it wouldn't be possible without leadership in our departments like you guys. So thank you for that. And. Let us know how we can provide additional help. Thanks. Right. Council members. And they has. Thank you, Councilmember Austin. And I just want to take a moment to highlight all the great work that our fire department continues to do in, you know, your response time is very impressive. I'm very, very happy with all the work that you've been doing and look forward to the work that you're going to be doing in this next fiscal year. One of the things that I've been very, very, very proud of is, you know, the education and awareness that you bring. And I was wondering if there was a way that we can partner up with the fire department for more education and fire prevention workshops to inform and train community members on what they can do in case of a fire in their apartment buildings or houses. I really like welcome that opportunity and maybe we could talk off line, chief and and, you know, create some kind of curriculum so that we could work with our residents. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you for for that. We do have a currently have a very robust cert program and that has been doing very well for us. Unfortunately, with COVID kind of slow down, difficult to get together in person, but we do have more classes that are coming up. Also the least those which is onboard as well. So I'd be more than happy to just sit down with you and discuss that. How we can be more proactive. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Another thing that I'm very, very proud of is your fire pathway program at Jordan Hung. Jordan High has a very special place in my heart, meaning that I've done work with Jordan High School and hope to one day go back there and continue doing my work with them. So I'm very thankful that we have that kind of program there. And I was wondering if there was any any sort of I know the funding is always, you know, the main reason or something that holds us back. But I was wondering if there was any plan to maybe expand that kind of program to either Cabrillo or Poly High School, which is where most of my residents attend high school. Yeah, eventually we would love to do something like that. Unfortunately, right now it's just a matter of bandwidth. So not only is it a matter of funding, we need to come up with a requisite amount of instructors to be able to to give all of the instruction to these young men and women that are coming up. But I could tell you the the young men and women that we were looking at in this program are fantastic. Unfortunately, it just going to take a bit of time, but they're still young. But that's when we need to approach our youth, right? When they're young, let them see the opportunities that are out there for them. And then hopefully somewhere down the road, we're going to see them within our ranks. Thank you. And I'm always, always a big fan of female empowerment. So the female fighter per year workshops that you provide, I'm so happy to see that within our fire department. So congratulations on that and I look forward to supporting many more of those. And also wanted to I wanted to also see what the impact is on our fire department by some of the fires that have been created by some of the unhoused neighbors that we have. I, for one, had a big incident in my in my district, maybe like three, three or so weeks ago, June, June 24, to be exact. And. There was squatters living in that household. There was a lot of a lot of things going on there. And, you know, my residents were very, very fearful of the things that could happen. And they did see like that they were pulling, you know, electricity and this and that and doing a lot of illegal stuff. And even though we were on them and we were trying to work with code enforcement and everything, it was a very difficult situation until a horrific fire happened. And as you remember, the house burned down and now there's nothing there anymore. But I'm wondering what that impact has been on our fire department and fires like that. Yeah. So obviously fires like that take up a lot of resources both in our apparatus and our personnel in time. But more so is the the life hazard that occurs every time we have a big fire like that. There has to be the assumption that there's a life safety hazard. The fire just didn't start on its own. And so with that in mind, we have personnel going into structures that are dangerous, inherently dangerous looking, searching for people that could potentially be in there. The one good thing that I'm looking at is where we've had a number of fires within certain occupancy. We've been able to work with the other members of the city team and as you said, burn to the ground. But they get cleared out and taken down to the ground. And basically it's now it's a lot and which makes that area safer. But it's just a difficult proposition for everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Linda. So I guess I'll take the last opportunity to first of all, thank you, Mr. Keisler, and economic development for a great presentation and all the great work that your department continues to do. A lot of folks don't know. We're going on our 12 hour. We were here this morning meeting with the economic development and developers this morning on a key strategic economic development project in North Long Beach. And John and his team have been tremendously supportive and continue to do so for all of our activities and eight district and in North Long Beach as a whole. So thank you for that. I can remember not too long ago that this city council during the budget process made the decision to create an economic development department. Right. And I want to say, during my time on a city council, I think that's probably the best decision that we've made, that that decision has produced results far beyond what we could have ever imagined. And so credit to the city management. It's credit to the city, to the economic development team for for their great work and continued work in our city. Oh, so no questions. Fire department. Obviously, we do. We do appreciate your ongoing commitment to diversity in our academies and hiring practices. And that is obviously a nexus to our civil service department. And we appreciate all of the work that you both are doing to to make that happen. We do appreciate your great support during COVID. Uh, the 60% increase in arsons is very, very concerning. And I know we've had these conversations before, but there is anything that we can do proactively, particularly along the Rivers Railroad tracks, in terms of brush fires, prevention, to, to, to get in front of that. Yeah. So currently there is a city team that's put together that's working collaboratively with L.A. Public Works, Caltrans, some of the other agencies trying to come to agreements on what this is going to look like as far as the responsibility, who's going to have the ultimate responsibility as far as a cleanup. But it's it's kind of a slow process in going. And so in order to bolster that, we also have, as I said, we have the Hart team that are going out doing proactive education in those encampments, in those areas, trying to get people just to be as careful as they can, and also giving that information to all of the area stations so that they're able to react in any event. And we actually do have a fire. Right. Thank you. That that continues to concern me. And anything we can do to support proactivity in that space is important. I've seen and experienced that that increase in brush fires in my district and we experience it on often it seems like once a week right now. In Fire station night. Yes. Obviously, a very important topic of citywide conversation. And thanks to the structure overall. How or how are response times for a power station nine currently? And. And where do you see and where are we toward getting. I guess that's not your area but um. Response time supports this in nine. That's an important topic in my area of the city. Yes, fire response times improved just the way that we thought they would. Moving the personnel from Engine and Rescue Nine to an area that was that was closer to Old Station nine, brought those response times more into line where they used to be before. Now, the the opposite effect of that is obviously when so the rescue was down just slightly south. So those were response times when they were in that location had improved down there. But system wide, we're doing very well with our response times. Right. And then my my last question was related to wildfires. Yes. Obviously, they're not close by. But what are the impacts? How are these wildfires impacting operations and service delivery in any way for for our city? Yeah. Right now, it's it's a critical time for our region. We just got notified by OAS this evening that they are in a critical state. They're asking everybody in our region to send apparatus up north because they're unable to handle it on their own, obviously, with those resources. But our primary I just want to be clear, our primary mission is to protect the city of Long Beach. First and foremost, follow up to that is is the region in the area. So I'm talking Malibu, Ventura, Orange County, San Diego County, somewhere we can get to fairly quickly. And then the follow up to that, obviously, are the fires that we're seeing up in Northern California. We're also up in Oregon and Washington. We operate very well because of master mutual aid and not only with wildfires, but looking down the road. And I would hate to see anything like it, but we have another big earthquake. I guarantee you we would be using master mutual aid, asking for assistance from outlying fire departments to come in and help us. This might be a silly question, but are we reimbursed for that kind of mutual aid? We are. Yes. We receive full cost plus a slight administrative fee for the wear and tear on the apparatus and the like. Great. I have no further questions. I don't see any further questions from the council. So with that said, let's go to a vote. To receive and follow. Motion carries. Thank you very much. We are moving on before we go on to the next item on the agenda, which will be item 24, we are going to without any objection of the council, we are going to be postponing the infrastructure study session. I know that the Council is very interested in that and it deserves a lot of attention from the council. And and so we want to make sure that everyone's ready to go so we can postpone that hopefully to the next week or two. That would be great. We'll work on the timing on that. Thank you. And with that, we will take on item number 24.