Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing to consider the establishment of the Midtown Business Improvement District (MBID); direct the City Clerk to tabulate the ballots and report the results of the tabulation to the Mayor and City Council during the August 11, 2015 meeting; and, if a majority of ballots received are in favor of the establishment of the MBID, adopt resolution to establish the MBID for an initial term of five (5) years, effective January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2020.  (Districts 4,6)
Some turn this over to the clerk to read item hearing. One report from city manager recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the hearing to consider the establishment of the Midtown Business Improvement District. Direct the City Clerk to tabulate the ballots and report the results of the tabulation to the Mayor and City Council during tonight's meeting. And if a majority of ballots received are in favor of the establishment of the bid, adopt a resolution to establish the bid for an initial term of five years. District four and six. The city clerk is still accepting ballots. If there's any member of the public that has a ballot, they'd like to surrender. Please come down to the counter. Okay. I'm going to start off with a staff report from the city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the city council. The staff report will be conducted by Mike Conway, our director of Economic and Property Development. Mayor Garcia. Members of the City Council. Property owners of record along East Anaheim Street between Raymond Avenue and Alamitos Avenue. Who will pay more than 50% of the proposed assessment, have submitted petitions to the city for the establishment of a business improvement district to be identified as the Midtown Business Improvement District. The new business district will be compromised or comprised of property owners within the proposed boundaries, and the district plan details the boundaries of the bid and the improvements and activities for which the assessment funds will be used. And the bids engineer's report details the amount and method of assessment for each parcel. If established, the bids shall commence on January 1st, 2016, for the initial five year period of January 1st, 2016 through December 31st, 2020, and City Council will annually review and consider approving the renewal of the levy budgets and reports submitted by by the bid. As approved by the City Council on June 16th, 2015, and to comply with California Constitution, a notice of assessment and an assessment ballot were mailed to property owners who are proposed to be assessed. At the conclusion of this public hearing, an independent third party will tabulate the votes and will return to City Council later during this meeting to announce the results. If a majority of ballots received with a weighted assessment amounts are in favor of the establishment of the bid, the City Council may proceed with the adoption of the resolution establishing the bid. If a majority of the ballots received do not support the establishment of the bid, then the bid cannot be established. Ballots may be accepted up to the time that the public hearing is closed, at which time no more ballots will be accepted. And any member of the public may observe the tabulation process according to the guidelines that no cell phones shall be used. No questions shall be directed to supervisory staff. Observers shall not interrupt or speak to the ballot processing staff, and observers shall not approach the ballot the ballot processing staff. So with that staff requests that counsel will receive the reporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing to consider the establishment of the bid director, city clerk to a tablet to tabulate the ballots and report the results of the tabulation to the Mayor and City Council during this meeting. And if a majority of the ballots received are in favor of establishing the bid, adopt a resolution to establish the bid for the initial term of five years effective January 1st, 2016, through December 31st, 2020. And that concludes my report. Okay. Thank you. With that, I'm going to turn this over to those that made the motion. And then remember, this is a two part process. So we're going to have the motion. We're going to take a vote. Mr. City Attorney, is that correct? On the on the hearing motion? Is that right? Mr. City Attorney. Yes. We would come back. We would conclude we take the vote first and then we come back on the second. No, we take the vote after the tabulation of the ballot. Okay. So and we would also do can we do public comment now? We do public comment and any protest now they want to come forward and discuss it for the council and then we adjourn to candidates. Excellent. So let me take let me begin by saying if there's any protests on the hearing from the public. Any comment on it? Saying None. I'm going to allow both Councilmember Andrews and Councilman Superhot to make a few comments. Oh, sir, please. Yes. Come forward. Or if you'd like to go up there, you can do your comment from the top as well either either way. Okay? Yes. Okay. No worries, sir. Just please give us your name for the record and please begin. Mayor Garcia, this is Bruce Palmer Koch Cash Register Company, 1900. East Anaheim Street. I am against the Business Improvement District because I. Don't know how you could. Possibly improve my business. I talked to many people on the last two days. The businessman did not even get a say so in it along Anaheim Street. There are many small Cambodian. Businesses that are just barely. Making it and can't afford to have their rent increased. By this. Operation. It won't help their businesses, but yet we're getting it thrown at us. And the city owns 40% of the property. We need 51% say no. I don't see how we can possibly do that. I feel that the engineering. Of the project where they cut the lines. Was instrumental. In the. Fact that we would not be possible to obtain enough of a vote. The people that I talked to yesterday and today. Do not want this extra taxation type issue that is being thrown upon us. Myself. I'm 73. You want to charge me $5,000 over the next five years? And then I doubt that you would. Discontinue this operation. I imagine you would continue it on for as long as I would live, which may not be that long. Luckily for us. But I would like to have. Some relief in my old age, and I'd like to see everybody here. Think about all the people that came here from Cambodia. And the small businesses they have started. I don't think any one of you has walked this a district and talked to them. And asked them, do you want to pay extra money on your rent? For us to make the city. Clean, safe and beautiful. How are you going to do that? How are you going to guarantee me that you are going to improve my business? $980 a year. Is there any guarantee on that? That's a question for you, Mr. Mayor. Can you answer. That? This is not an opportunity to ask questions, but when you're concluded, I'll make some comments. All right. Well, like I say, after talking to so many of the people. I have noticed that all the blank. Places on this, which is over 60, were not even notified. I have a Filipino friend that. Is in the. A and cherry liquor store. He owns that property. He did not even. Get a ballot. Whoever did this job. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Andrews to make a few comments. I just want to just before he goes, you want to make sure that we're clear what the what the item is. This is a hearing to count the votes of those business owners in the proposed assessed property improvement district. And so this is obviously this is a democratic process that those that are in the assessed area have votes and they're weighted by size of property and so forth. And so we have, as you all know, a handful of these throughout the city, including in Bixby Knolls, the newest one being in North Long Beach, Belmont Shore downtown, and as well as Fourth Street. And I believe one of our newer ones is also on Anaheim, on east east Anaheim. So let me turn this over to Councilmember Andrews and then we'll begin the process of counting the votes. Thank you, Mayor. You know, first of all, I'd like to say I'm very happy to see that we have come to the point of counting ballots for the midtown bid. For many years, I worked with the Cambodian Town Inc business owners, the community in establishing this bid. As a result, a recent extensive work by stakeholders, city staff, consultants and state required stakeholders have been met and that if this final vote tabulated, conducted this evening indicate a majority support, the Council will ask to vote in favor. But established in Midtown Business Improvement District, I sincerely hope that my colleagues will support this item so that we can move forward with the beautification on nine corridor. The District will provide new improvement and activities, including a clean, safe and beautiful corridor that will encourage new business and development and attract additional business and they service. And I think the most important part about all of this is that people will get a chance to vote and that will make final decision about all of it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Yes. With staff be able to provide us information on whether or not there are any opportunities for businesses that are having financial challenges to be able to apply for support on their bid fees. Council member Mungo That is not an opportunity. These are assessed through the property tax, through the county and they will be. Collected along with. Property taxes. And there really isn't an opportunity for abatement. So the bid, once it has a board in place, would not be able to refund those or give credits towards the business in any way. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Vice Mayor Alonso. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to just show my appreciation to staff and everyone that's been involved in the bid to date when we worked with community members to create Cambodia Town in 2007. It was my hope that a business improvement district would in fact be formed to support the goals and aspirations of business and property owners along the corridor. So I wanted to share with everyone that I am extremely supportive, continue to be extremely supportive of this bid, and look forward to seeing this corridor evolve into a destination beyond its current success. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to close the hearing now. We've done public comment. So what happens now is the clerk's staff will begin the process of tabulating the votes over the course of the meeting. Once the votes come back, if there is an affirmative vote, then the council then records that into the record by having the vote at that time. Is that correct? That's correct. At that time, the council will then consider the resolution establishing. Okay, great. And so we'll then go ahead and do that. So the clerk will go begin counting the ballots. And I know we're going to be transitioning to minimum wage in just a minute, but I want to get two things out of the way quickly. Consent calendar. Can you get a motion to approve? There's some staff here that we can clear a couple of seats probably. Can I get a motion in a second for consent calendar, please? Madam Quirk. It's a good thing they're putting it up.