Recommendation to approve the destruction of records for the Legislative Department, Seventh Council District; and adopt resolution.
Can I'll go and do that? Item four and five have been requested to be pulled by Councilmembers Gonzales as well as council members. Austin. So I will first to maybe Mr. City Court. Did you want to begin by kind of giving a brief on those items or. Councilman Gonzales. Okay. So on four and five, the destruction of records. I just wanted to first off, they're potentially a very important and substantial primary sources of language history. So with that, I wanted to direct City Clerk to work with the Historical Society of Long Beach on the management of these records and perhaps digitizing them. And then also report back in about 30 days and then just going forward to continue working with community groups in this respect. Okay. I was second that. Seconded by Councilmember Austin to the motion in a second on the on the item. Mr. Herrera, did you have any comments on that? I wanted to thank the council members for pulling this item, as well as the public for paying attention to our agenda. Putting this on the agenda serves its purpose where the public is notified consistent with the Long Beach Municipal Code of records about to be destroyed. And we will hold those in abeyance until we come back to the council. Thank you. So there's a motion on the floor to take any public comment on the item. Mayor. This is items four and five. Items four and five. Yes. Larry, good. You click as we address specifically zeroing in on four and the destruction of the records from the Cal and and O'Neill administration of certainly the integrity of those two terms has never been in question. Like our esteemed governor, they got a standing invitation to stand side by side with Caesar's wife. The last eight years, however, is an entirely different matter, which prompted me to ask right at this point to the city attorney, what assurances do we have? That Rosemary Woods will never have access to these tapes or any future tapes or records. Mr.. Where can we ever speak to the the agenda? Continue your. Career? I think it's very important to understand the integrity and the level of integrity we have with records, period, and I think the concept of destroying the records of the past eight years. When on the heels of learning that there will be a federal and state investigation relative to a number of people in that. Within that past eight years raises. So serious questions and strains, even the weakest of olfactory senses. And I would suggest moving forward, if there's no objection from Mayor Cal or Beverly O'Neil of destroying their records. But hold, pending the outcome of a federal and state investigation of the complicity relative to the matter, which was earlier referred to , i.e. in that ten page package, dealing with the complicity to gift illegally $300,000 to a select few. Delete the first two there. O'Neals and Madam Park and Ernie Kels. If they don't have an objection. But do not destroy these records. Think apps and such. Those who vote for such a call, the City Council might in fact be viewed as complicit in addition to ones they've already uncovered. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker. Evening again, Mr. Mayor. Gary Shelton. My address is on file and I'm really glad the item was pulled. And for the reason it was pulled, it sounds like we have a a good solution to, you know, these things come up every once in a while and they're kind of pro forma in the way they work. And what I appreciate is that what I was concerned about in simply reading the item, which was somehow or another, we need this to be a last call for folks who might think that they have some use for these old records. And that's exactly what's happened. I didn't realize that it was easy, as it seems it's going to be, to create that gap of time for folks who are listening and thinking, Gee, maybe I am interested in finding out what was said or what some internal memos were or some emails, that sort of thing. Issues that have come and gone, which haven't really gone, they're still on our table today in the period is covered by these records are like the disillusion of the RDA, the creation of the housing element and the downtown plan. The Civic Center request for proposals, which is still in the mix right now, has been going on for a long time. The Belmont Pool, Queensway Bay in the park, specifically in regards to replacing the cyclone racer or maybe its access to South Pine some way from North Pine. The Gerald Desmond Bridge is an issue that's been on the in the records for a long time and certainly public safety staffing, which is all part of the budgeting that we've heard and we'll be hearing next week also. So I'm glad to hear that this motion has been made. I think it's fitting that the historical society would be obtaining these records, especially that they would be digitized because that's a really economical way to save records for a very long time. I would ask if there's a way that the public will understand when that digitization, if that's what they're going to do, will come back and if it will be in fact, made public, and how that might be publicized as to what their output becomes. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Craig Hendricks, and I am the secretary of the Historical Society of Long Beach. And I just wanted to come here. Tonight and thank the mayor and the city council members for pulling those items off the consent calendar, because a destruction. Of public records should never. Happen, certainly in a city the. Size of Long Beach. And those records are could be very, very valuable in the future. So we really would like to thank you for pulling us off the consent calendar. And we look forward to working with city staff. To find a way to preserve these records. But speaking on behalf of the City of the Historical Society, we will gladly accept these historical records for our archives. So thanks very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Mr. Mayor. No council people. I'm not a resident of Long Beach, but I'm a resident of the great county of Los Angeles in the state of California and a friend of a little plant called Marijuana. And I know it's another agenda item, but I'm concerned about these records, too, because when I was last in the city council chamber, the mayor asked me to leave because I'm a medical marijuana patient and I'm concerned about the five or six years of those records concerning the all the years I came here and testified as a man living with AIDS for 20 years, that stood up to the federal government and has been in the room with two presidents , one that inhaled and one that didn't, and have the benefits of knowing that 23 states in this country have legalized medical marijuana. And I was just at the White House on the 4th of July for the 45th annual smoking. And if I was to destroy my records of the 20 years of the historical use of AIDS drugs to keep me alive and marijuana to keep me alive, we would have a big problem. So I'm glad to hear the Historical Society. And you have changed your mind about destroying Mayor Foster's records, because I believe my friend Eric Holder and the United States Justice Department might want to subpoena those records and even the records of some of the council people that are now mayors or or our new council people, because there is corruption in the marijuana world, including politics , because the mayor of Upland went to jail recently for his corruption and state Senator Leland Yee, who some of you might know is going to jail for his corruption involving marijuana. And I don't want to say that you, Mr. Garcia, will go to jail in the future like the man over here said, because of your corruption with marijuana or if you're not corrupt with marijuana. But and I don't know how much of the time I have a minute left. You know, living with AIDS for 20 years hasn't been an easy thing. You know, nausea, vomiting, taking 40 pills a day for many years, taking seven or ten pills a day and having a couple of puffs on my medical marijuana makes me hungry. And there's a lot of AIDS patients that live in Long Beach. And you're aware of all the homosexuals and gay people and straight people that have AIDS, aren't you, Mr. Mayor? Garcia Because, you know, Long Beach has the highest incidence of AIDS in the state of California, besides the great city of Los Angeles, where I live, and San Francisco, where my friend Dennis Peron was on the phone with me a few minutes ago. Now, I came here because I'm concerned over you trying to limit things on another issue that I'll speak later, but I want to congratulate this issue. Yeah, I got a couple more minutes. I want to congratulate you, Mr. Mayor, for not throwing me out, for raising my voice a little bit like Mayor Foster. Maybe he was concerned about what they'll find in those records when my friend Eric Holder subpoenas them, because I'm asking the federal government like I did previous times, they're to investigate the entire county of Los Angeles, the city of Long Beach, the city of L.A. and the state of California, for upsetting the will of the rights of the people of Proposition 215, which we passed in 1996. Thank you. Sir. You have to identify yourself for the record. Richard Eastman, former HIV AIDS commissioner for the county of Los Angeles, representing 70,000 people living with AIDS in this great county. And I believe Long Beach is there. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening, City Council. My name is Patrick Rhodium with the American Patients Rights Association. I just wanted to speak to you because, as you can tell, many medical marijuana groups are very heated over the subject of the X Mares records. And I'd like to thank you guys for pulling these items from the list, because we do not want these records destroyed. There's actually many groups that are interested in the mares records because of the issue that Mr.. He's been just brought to your attention. Yeah, there is a pending federal investigation and there are a lot of groups and a lot of attorneys that are looking forward to seeing the mayor's records. So we highly appreciate the fact that you guys were willing to recall these items, and we're looking forward to reviewing them as soon as they're made available. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. There is a motion and a second on the floor. Count's embarrassed. Barossa. You have any comments? Okay with that? Members, please go ahead and cast your votes. And this is for Mr. City Attorney. Okay. For four and five. BOTH Right. Great. Motion carries nine zero. Okay. Thank you. With that, we're going to be moving on now to the regular agenda. Madam Clerk.