Recommendation to direct City Manager to begin negotiations with the Los Angeles and Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council and the Signatory Craft Councils and Unions for the extension of the Project Labor Agreement (No. 33859); and, explore the addition of street construction projects.  (Citywide)
We're going to go into item 20, please. Communication for Mayor Garcia, Councilwoman Price Councilmember Super Now Vice Mayor Andrews Councilman Austin recommendation to direct City Manager to begin negotiation negotiations with trades for the extension of the project labor agreement and explore the addition of street construction projects citywide. Thank you. I have a couple brief comments and then I do have a couple of members of the public. I'm not sure if some of these folks are here. I did ask our our our friends in the trades to go ahead and head home. It has been a long night and so I'm not sure how many of them are still here, but I just want to just briefly just say a few things and then I'm going to I'll make some comments. I'll let the members make some comments. And then I want to make some clarifications to the staff before we go ahead and and take a vote. Let me just begin by saying, and I think this whole council deserves an enormous amount of credit for establishing what is viewed as today as a model citywide project labor agreement across the state of California. And in fact, when other cities are talking about putting together project labor agreements, they look to Long Beach for the way we have modeled ours. And I just want to thank the members of the Council for being supportive and for doing the work. I also want to thank our staff has done a great job of implementing these this project labor agreement across across the city and you've seen the work and the good jobs across the community are the reason why this is in front of us today is very simple. I have been having discussions, as have other members of the council directly with the Building Trades Council, including Ron Miller and some of the individual trade organizations. And their main requests are in fact their single major requests that they have asked us to consider is the expansion of what is considered street infrastructure work into the project labor agreement as we move forward. And so the the recommendation as you have it in front of you is to begin negotiations with the Los Angeles and Orange County Building, construction trades and signatory craft unions and councils for the extension of the project labor agreement. So this will be the first major extension that we do, which is exciting and an opportunity to build even more good jobs and explore the addition of street construction projects in this negotiation. Because of Measure which was adopted after we put the play in place, we've obviously seen that increase. And this this is a top priority for our the building trades because it directly impacts jobs. And so I do want to thank the folks and the council members that have also signed on to this. So I want to turn this over to Councilwoman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank you on your leadership on this particular item and on this topic in general. I will say that when this issue first came to us in 2014, I was one of the the people on council that really wanted to make sure that data supported the benefits that were being shared with us by the advocates. And here we are several years later. I will say that including the building that we're in, we've had several projects happen very smoothly, several projects where we can all. Put our faith into the quality of the work that was done. And we've had very smooth integration of this policy into the the plans of the city. So I want to thank our public works staff, really, and our the leaders in our public works department in terms of facilitating those relationships and allowing that to happen in such a successful way. I think this extension is warranted under the circumstances. We've had several years now where we've watched closely. Again, you know, I think in some cases the expenses have been perhaps a bit higher, but the results have been, you know, timely, sometimes under budget and very quality work. And in my opinion, the overall success has been nothing but positive. So I support this project. I thank the mayor for bringing it forward, and I urge my colleagues to support it as well. Councilman Price. Vice Mayor Andrews. Yeah. Yes. Thank you, Mayor, also for bringing this project agreement because it has been good for the city of Long Beach and it's good for our residents, you know, has ensured that public projects utilize the quality of tradesmen and women in constructions of our own infrastructure. At the same time, it ensures that the disadvantaged workers get a shot at a great career in building and construction trade. I have hosted a few job fairs with the trades over the years, and I'm always impressed with the dedication and the passion that people are looking forward to be employed or receive with. Because of that, I believe that we should include our street improvement project into the extension of APRA so that we can ensure quality constructions while providing new opportunities for our residents. I urge my colleagues to join me on this item. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mayor. And I also before I get to the speaker's list, I also want to thank Councilmember Darryl Supernova and Councilmember Al Austin for also signing on to this. So let me before I get to the speakers, if I can, also a clarification. There's one particular item I've heard from some folks. I want to make sure that we're clear. We're clear, Mr. Modica. So I just want to just also just note that earlier this year, the Council in June adopted actually unanimously to have the on on the project labor agreement that we currently have as a pilot program. The jobs coordinator work. I know that's something that is not just being supported by some of the folks working on on these jobs issues in the community, but also the trade. And I've talked to, you know, Mr. Mr. Miller and others as well. So that. Can you give us an update on where that's at? I think there was some question about that. This isn't one or the other. This is the item in front of us today is building on the work the council already started in the first discussion. So can you give us a timeline of where the jobs crane or position is that. Sure. We see those as two separate issues. In April, we came to you with the report. That was something you asked for back in 2014 was give us a report on how we've done with creating jobs and meeting our benchmarks. And we provided that report. As part of that came a discussion about jobs coordinator. So just a reminder, we have a jobs coordinator in the play as it stands today, but the amount is set at $10 million projects and above. So this council was interested in having that be a lower type threshold. And so in June we got direction to basically do a a pilot program where we lower that amount, but it's kind of on the city. We didn't open the play and that we would then have a group that would then coordinate with workforce and everybody else to get out into the community and really recruit jobs and get people into the pipeline. So that was direction in June. We are. It was also direction to do an RFP and then to take the results of all of this pilot program and use that to inform the next round of discussions. So you've already given that direction on jobs coordination. The RFP will be out in September and we expect to make a selection in October and then that will start and that will be more than six months worth of data because we would be renegotiating this in spring 2020. And it's my understanding and talk, Mr. Modica, that in talking to the building trades and the jobs and the around the jobs coordinator work, that they're obviously interested in negotiating that as is as this additional street work. And I'm imagine that as from what I remember in the discussions the first time that obviously the pilot is going well, that's part of the negotiation that would happen as we move forward. Is that correct? The pilot will give us good information and help us determine kind of what that appropriate threshold would be in the new play going for. Because I think the key question would be what is the threshold question, which I think you're working on with through the pilot? Thank you. I hope that clarifies that question. I think this is this builds on the kind of unanimous vote the council took. And this you know, we've been working on this specific street infrastructure expansion specifically, and that's what the item is about. And so thank you, Mr. Modica, for those clarifications. And let me go ahead and go through the rest of the the members. Councilmember Richardson. I want to thank you, Mr. Mayor Garcia, for bringing up this this item. I think, you know, the conversations have evolved over the last really the last ten years on plays and what's appropriate, you know, specific areas of town or citywide. And here we are. We've been involved in this four and a half years. And I think the question of of if a play has been been answered, I think thank you for acknowledging sort of the ongoing conversation that, you know, I think we've sort of brought down anxiety around plays and union work and all that, and that's sort of accepted. And then we also want to give acknowledgment to sort of the community concerns have coming up come up and how the council has heard that has received that has acknowledged that and wants to make sure that that is also encompassed and reflected in what we're doing today and moving forward. So, so thank you for asking those questions, and I'm looking at you. Mr.. MODICA So the idea here is that this motion adds the street work in, but we're not going to aggressively sort of take anything off the table we've already began to work on. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. So yeah. So if we put, you know, on the street work, I completely support it. I know. I think it was an oversight before I support it. And I think if we. Give up that additional work. At the same time, we double down on the local jobs as a negotiation, and I think that's head in the right direction. Also want to just state that it does address some of the issues raised here. I have a letter I'm looking at from the Long Beach Ministers Alliance, which is a group that I check in pretty regularly. You've got, you know, you know, ten, 12, maybe a masses of 12, 15 pastors signed on to this. And so I would hope that this response that, hey, this is not not you know, we are acknowledging the private previous work and this is going to be included in that. I hope that some communication goes out, an acknowledgment of this letter to say, hey, we received it, counsel acknowledged it, and the play issue with the job coordinator is not going to be left off the table and that this is sort of going be central to our negotiation. So that's that's my hope. There, again, I think this is is smart. It makes a lot of sense. I think it's smart. It makes a lot of sense. And I support this motion in front of us. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Councilmember Pearce. I think you are right to recognize that this has been a long journey. Before I was ever ran for office, I was on the other side advocating for this policy when it was first in front of us. And the biggest issues are for myself and the organizations that I partnered with were really how do we make sure that taxpayers get a return on their investment whenever we're doing big projects? And that means funding good jobs and making sure that those good jobs are local jobs and that those jobs hopefully will be going to people of disadvantaged communities, people that have been locked out of having a good job. So I'm good to hear that this is a step that nothing that we've done is kind of going backwards. I know that that's been maybe a concern from from not having communication. And so I to support this item as is in front of us, I look forward to having the continued conversations. I do think that we have to grapple with the lack of language around disadvantage workers, around how we calculate work hours and making sure that our Long Beach residents are really getting access to these good jobs that our taxpayers are creating right here in the city. That will help us with crime reduction, that will help us with health impacts, all the things that we talk about every single day behind this dias it is the only way that we can really tackle those things in a holistic approach. So I support the item as is, I support the community groups that have come forward to advocate and I look forward to continuing to have that dialog over the next several months. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Councilman Austin. Thank you. I'm proud to support and sign on to this particular item. I believe that the building trades have been a very good partner for the city since we entered into the project labor agreement several years ago and it wasn't the smoothest process, but I think it has proven to be a model that that that works there . Training programs have been excellent. They've worked with most of our council districts and many of our residents to create good middle class jobs in our city. And I believe this next play that will be negotiated will will meet the our values, but also the city's goals will continue to meet those goals of inclusion, equity, local hiring. And importantly, we know that with the project labor agreement on future infrastructure projects for street projects, we're going to get quality workmanship. On those on those jobs. So I'm happy to support this. It was an oversight the first time, but this is an opportunity for us to to, again, give back in and hopefully create local jobs. That's what that's my goal, that the local jobs and the quality workmanship that we know we can depend on. Thank you, Councilman Austin. And I'm not sure if some of these folks are still some of these folks I know are not here anymore, but I'm going to read their names and Cantrell is not here. Angela Kimball, Ex. I know, I know Chris isn't here. Omar Galindo is not here. I know Marco is also not here. Juan Alvarez. Theresa Hernandez, Eric Lopez and Andrew Mayorga. Okay. And a councilor appears to have another comment. I'm sorry. I just realized that we I wanted to mention and think East Yards. Long Beach Community Action Pvt. Jobs Legal Aid Library Logo 11 Long Beach, Florida. United Cambodian Community for also sending a letter supporting this item and asking for continued partnership in the future. Thanks. Thank you very much. And members, please, Gordon Casper, cast your votes and it's another big night. This is the official extension of our second project labor agreement. So this is a big deal for us as a as a as a community. So please go ahead and cast your vote. Let's not start begin negotiations. Beginning negotiations. Okay. Beginning of negotiations, but not the official start of the second one. That would be till 2020. Okay. What? Did everybody freak out? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries and we're going to go back to that was that was item 19. I'm sorry, that was item 20. Let me let me do these third district fund transfers real quick. So 22 through 25.