Recommendation to request City Manager to work with all appropriate departments to include commercial small business rent relief as part of any future rent relief funding initiatives provided by the City.
Item 27. Or. Communication from Councilwoman Mongeau, Councilwoman Zendejas, Councilman Super Na, Councilman Austin Recommendation to request City Manager to include commercial small business rent relief as part of any future rent relief funding initiatives provided by the city. Mr. Mayor, this is Susie Price. I need to declare a conflict. Okay. I am a small business owner in the city of Long Beach, and although I have sought and received a formal opinion from the FTC regarding my voting on items involving businesses and have been approved to vote on those items as falling within the public generally exception, I am choosing to conflict off of this item and not participate in the discussion or the vote in order to avoid an appearance of impropriety. Since any benefit to businesses on this particular item might result in a direct financial benefit. With that, I'm going to log off of the meeting. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember. Council on Mango. Gil. Many of our small businesses are the backbone of our city. And those small businesses have certain revenues coming in. And they have to make tough decisions about the number of employees that they can reemploy and the number of hours that they can offer to those employees. And it's often based on their ability to meet, rent and other things that have put them over the top in terms of the balance of expenses versus revenue in the last several months. And so I hope that as we evaluate the different options for matching funds and rent support, that we also include those commercial businesses. Because while it is both important that people have a roof over their head, it is also important that they have their jobs so that they can again afford to pay rent. Furthermore, I'm hoping that there can be some research done into whether or not businesses that hire back Long Beach residents are able to get a higher priority in any of these kinds of funds that are become available. Does that really support our Long Beach neighbors with jobs? Thank you. For all the councilmembers that supported this item. They got the present day out. Thank you, Councilmember Mongo, for this, but I think that this is absolutely the right thing to do. It is very critical for us at this point to not only look to look at our tenants, but to also look at those tenants that are in commercial areas. And I think that they also have been very much affected by COVID 19, and they continue to be affected because of the health order. And now even the fact that we're scaling back and we always have to keep them in the front for, you know, thinking of them and in front and, you know, so it's really it's really important that we bring this item and that we definitely include them in anything pertaining to any kind of rental assistance or or moratoriums, anything that to do with rental policies that we do consider them and keep them in mind are small businesses, as was said, is what makes Long Beach. And it brings so many jobs and so many people that are invested in those small businesses to create the wonderful community that we have here in the city of Long Beach. So in turn, I hope that we also can can provide them with assistance and making sure that they know that we care about them as well and we continued to invest in them. So again, thank you, Councilmember Mongo, for allowing me to sign on to this item and for your thoughtfulness about our businesses here in Long Beach. Thank you. Councilman Austin. I thank you. And ditto to both the maker of the motion and sponsor Councilmember Mongo in the House. I agree wholeheartedly with everything that has been said. Obviously, our small businesses are really part of the DNA of our of our city, of our communities throughout the city, and they should be supported however we can. I believe this item is consistent with the values and spirit of the Council. The priorities that have been set forth already, and our economic support packages that we put together already. And so this, I think, further emphasizes that I'm happy to support. Any public comment? We have one comment from Dave Kuka. Your time starts now. Hello. Dave Chappelle from the third district. I urge your support on this item, like with the rental eviction moratorium. Eventually we're going to need to not only reckon with. The forces that wanted to reopen to early. The forces that have directed a lot of the funding available at the federal level. But also those that have generally been getting fed up of three and a half years of illegality at the federal level eventually is going to have to seriously consider. Going to the bank on behalf of the small businesses in town and having serious discussions about restructuring and canceling debt. That's what this is. The people primarily responsible. The rentier class would add much to the productive economy and not let the small, small businesses be struggling with their own. Thank you for your support of the fight. Thank you all the. District one, district two. I District three. District four. All right. District five. I. District six. By. District seven. By District eight. District eight. All right. District nine. All right. Motion carries.