Recommendation to request City Manager to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to update the Long Beach Strategic Plan for Older Adults and create an action plan to highlight and address priority areas, as well as, the feasibility of creating a City of Long Beach Office on Aging; and report back to City Council within six months.
Thank you. 22. Yeah. It's okay. All right. I know. Madam Clerk. Communication from Councilman Andrews, Vice Mayor Lowenthal, Council Member, Supervisor, Councilmember Muranga recommendation to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to update the Long Beach strategic plan for older adults and create an action plan to address priority areas, as well as the feasibility of creating the City of Long Beach. Office of on Aging and report back to City Council within six months. Thank you very much. Turn it over to Councilman Andrews. Yes, thank you, Mayor. You know, there's been over 65,000 senior citizens in Long Beach, which is the largest aging population within the city, borders yet the most underserved. As a senior myself, I know the difficulties that are faced and it's time to address these issues and to get help that is deserve. So at this time, I would like to ask my chief of staff, John Edmunds, to present a special presentation on this item. Thank you. Good evening. I'm bill mayor, vice mayor, council members city manager in the public and hope to keep this brief but it's background information for your deliberation. This plan was created in 2005 to identify the. Issues and recommendations solutions for our aging community. The Long Beach Health Department, under the direction of former department director Ron Ears and Health Department manager Teresa marano, spearheaded a Long Beach strategic. Plan for. Older adults. Task Force. This task force was made up of valued partnerships. That involved more than 60 representatives and stakeholders from the neighborhood and older adult service community and as well as various cities departments who participated in over two years. During the plan, the. Research and development stage. The purpose of the plan was to address the needs of the elderly, including safety, transportation, housing, health and improving their quality of life. The vision for the plan is one that still holds true today. Long Beach, the best city to live in for a lifetime, just by way of background. Long Beach is currently home to over 65,000 seniors, which is the largest age population within the city borders. We need to champion this population by providing all of the resources available to them. Each year are seniors and their. Families are faced with difficult situations from in-home in-home assistance, elderly abuse, transportation, housing and all of these can be difficult. Without the proper assistance. 60% of the seniors in our city are under the national poverty level, and one third of our seniors do not speak English. Updating the Long Beach Strategic Plan for older adults, the original plan is very comprehensive and very thorough. After reading the plan in its. Entirety, one would be left with the. Impression that not much should be changed. We do think, however, there are a few. Possible gaps to bring the document up. To date, and there should be new availability. In terms of services, education and technology. Many of our seniors are more active than ever. As I can attest to my mom. She puts things up on Facebook, Twitter, and everyone in Scotland messages her back. The plan was. Introduced to the. City plan in 2010. However, a few of the action items have been implemented since the plan was created. We need to demonstrate our commitment to this community. Through action, execution and the plan of implementation for this policy and support for the community that we are directly either part of or soon to be part of. Creating the City of Long Beach Office of Aging helps to achieve that. The City of Long Beach is fortunate to have many. Organizations services in our aging community. This includes Park Recreation, a in Marine Department Health Department, senior advisory committee, Long Beach Senior Police Partners, Long Beach Fire. Ambassadors, as well as other key. Senior partners like housing facilities, medical centers and foundations alike. Each entity carries its wealth of information and resources. But the information does not have a central hub for the community to draw upon its services. And therefore, many of our seniors are missing out. On key quality of life services that are, in some cases, could be lifesaving. Having an office of Aging within our city would be a central hub to providing much of the needed information and services, as well as being a conduit for future services and funding opportunities. The City of Long Beach Office of Aging would be under the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate. Senior programs across all cross functional department lines, including tho county, state. And other agencies to address the. Priorities in service of the Long Beach Strategic Plan for older adults. The Office of Aging would also reflect the diversity of Long Beach by offering services that have specific needs to their cultural. Ethnic. Identity. Throughout California, many cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Fremont have realized the need for an office of Aging to further their support of the increase aging populations in their communities. It is suggested that we look at this city, our city, to examine funding sources, possible seed money from general fund as well as exploring additional revenues. The City of Long Beach is the best city to live in for a lifetime. Our city's senior population is ever growing as well as their needs. In updating the implementation of the Lumbee Strategic Plan and creating the opening of the Long Beach, aging within the city will reflect our commitment we have for our. Seniors in our community. And that concludes the presentation. Thank you very much, Councilman. Your anger. Thank you, Mayor. I'm very glad to have co-sponsored this resolution with the. Can't remember. Jesus Christ. Andrew. Andrew, don't say. That. Look, don't say that again. I'm not saying nothing. You don't say anything. Okay. Rex got Rex off my bed. And I'm very happy to say this item because I know I was a planet long, long in the making. I recall when I first started at Long Beach State as a freshman and I traveled Long Beach, I saw a wealth of aging citizens here. I think it was I thought it was a senior citizen city back in the day because there were there were that many there, of course, with the influx of myself and young people at the time who changed the face of Long Beach and helped it grow. Now, here I am on the edge, on the verge, on the cusp of being a senior citizen. And it's something that I think we need to address, obviously, with the aging population of the boomers. You know, I'm part I'm part of that boomer generation. And where we're getting we're getting there. And our services have not kept up with where we're getting that, where we're getting to. I had the honor also of working in the health department where there were some services there. Granted, it was not specific. They were not directly related to senior services and they were not supported. The only way that we can do anything meaningful is we're going to have to put some money behind it. I would propose that we create some kind of fee structure if we can, or some kind of financing that would be consistent and sustainable that will keep senior services available for all ages, not only mine and those behind me, but for those that are behind them as well. Because it's a travesty that we would have 65,000 senior citizens in Long Beach today who are not receiving any kind of services officially or unofficially. It was also an opportunity for me when I was a trustee along with City College, and we had the unfortunate incident of having to eliminate senior programs along with City College. I would like to see those returned as well. Senior citizens who were enrolled in. Well, it doesn't sound good, but it was a good program basket weaving in in computer, Facebook, how to how to use your computer to have a Facebook page, how to how to grow flowers, a plant and your horticulture. Those programs are gone and we need them back. And I totally support this. This I had them here and we should put some money behind it. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to thank Councilmember Andrews for bringing this item forward and for the presentation that came out of his office. I think it was excellent and necessary and really thank the coauthors as well for raising this issue to the council level. Council District two, as many of you know, has a large senior population. And as a result, we have a very, very busy senior center on Fourth Street. Our seniors, they range in capabilities from living active, independent lives to requiring 24 hour care in some of our private facilities. However, with a growing senior population, I know my colleagues share my concerns that many older adults may become shut ins with little contact to the larger community. Perhaps they've lost a significant other, or they're living in the same home for decades. That's filled with trip and fall hazards. Or, like many who have parents can attest, they may not be seeing a doctor on a regular basis because it is too much of a fuss or too difficult to get to. I believe an Office of Aging would be beneficial to helping us achieve the goals and the imperatives detailed in the strategic plan. By focusing on the gaps in service that our group of older adults that don't have assisted care or visit our senior centers. I know of Councilmember Gonzalez were here tonight. She would agree with us that this need was never more real than during our recent set of power outages. I think that really highlighted where our vulnerabilities were with our most vulnerable community members. Once we realized that there wasn't going to be a quick fix, the city's attention turned to the most at risk populations, which included our seniors. My first professional role out of undergraduate was working for the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging and learned very quickly how critical that department was and continues to be for its very large senior population. We witnessed story after story during the power outage of infirmed or sudden seniors that couldn't or would not get out of their homes. There's a lot of fear involved. A lot. And whom do you trust when someone comes to your door to help you? We had a list of seniors, senior facilities provided by the health department. But again, how do we connect services and communicate with that growing population of seniors? I think this is a good start. Councilmember Andrews, I want to thank you for bringing this forward. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you very much. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this forward. And I want to acknowledge we have some commissioners here from our senior commission. So I want to thank them who are here. Two of them are third district residents. So thank you for being here and for all the work that you do. I think this is a great item and definitely something that we as a city should be tuned into. On our team, we have been working with our Parks Rec and Marine Department to extend senior services and senior citizen activities to other areas in the city. Currently, we do not have a senior center in the third district and we have actually set aside some money in our one time funds with the hope that we might be able to find a proper venue to be able to host some activities for our seniors. Also, one of the issues that comes up a lot in our district and I think it's probably a city wide issue and very relevant to people in my demographic is working with our Development Services Bureau, which we hope to do to review our granny flat ordinance and to think about future housing options for our seniors. I know that I'm one of those people who is in a situation very close relationship with with my mother. And as she continues to get older, we want to have options in terms of her housing and her quality of life as she grows in this city. So we do have an aging population and we need to make sure that we have adequate services and resources to give them all the wonderful benefits of this city and make sure that they feel supported. I know that I've worked with several community members on coming up with programs that might help engage the seniors and give them a meaningful opportunity to have civic engagement, artistic outlets and other opportunities available to them specifically for their target population. So again, I commend you for bringing this forward. Excellent job by John Edman on the presentation tonight and Councilman Andres for leading the charge on this. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman Orson. Thank you. And I want to thank the council members and especially Councilmember Andrews, our elder statesman here on the city council, for bringing this good idea forward. I was had an opportunity to review this plan, the strategic plan. And I got to say, most of what's here is very, very applicable and relevant today. I mean, change out a few signatures from the mayor and department heads and update the data. But this is a great framework to work from. And to be quite honest with you, I didn't know it was was even done already. So thank you so much for for this bringing this item forward. This this also helps us provide key services and engage a key constituency, meaning our seniors in the eighth district. We are about a year ago put together a senior advisory committee of active and engaged seniors in my district with the idea of actually doing this, accomplishing much of what this strategic plan seeks to do for older adults. And so I'm proud that we're headed in the right direction in that regard. In fact, next week, our seniors will our senior advisory committee will kick off their inaugural event and have free services for four seniors at the Expo Art Center. Two night, two days a week. That's a grassroots effort. It's all volunteer. It doesn't cost our city anything yet, but it is it shows us that that we are growing and poised to grow in terms of engaging. And that, like I said, is very key constituency, particularly on the district level. And so Mr. Andrews and council members, I fully support this and look forward to doing a lot more for our seniors moving forward. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you, Councilman Andrews. What a what a wonderful item to bring before us. Having worked extensively with the area agency on Aging in L.A. County. I know how important it is that housing, transportation, nutrition, our partnerships with our local providers to ensure that our seniors are receiving the fair share of the allocations coming down from the federal government and from the state to make sure that we are meeting the requirements in our deliveries to our seniors and what that means to us as a community. And I think one of the things that Long Beach is excellent at as a whole, but L.A. County has really had some challenges in its transportation and our ability to move seniors around our city. As you look at the demographics or the topography of our city, there's ups and downs. And a lot of the communities were built where you need to have stairs to get into households. And what does that mean for our transportation when we pick up a senior from the household? We can't just do curbside services. We have to do other, more extensive engagements. Additionally, how does that fit into the new health care model of the ACA and what that means in terms of our opportunities when our seniors are released from our hospitals and or rehabilitation centers? What is that follow up and follow through look like and ensuring that we don't have that recidivism back into our health care system. So I look forward to ensuring that the program proposed maintains at least level of funding, if not greater funding if we are to separate from another area agency on aging and hopefully that we can demonstrate through the numbers and partnerships with the providers in place that we would be able to warrant greater funding for the Long Beach community because we really do always perform because we are so innovative. It's a great theme for the night. Thank you, Councilmember Andrews. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Thank you. So so as the youngest to the most senior member of the council, I want to say great work on leading on this. And and as chair of the Fed large, I think it's great when we can align our efforts and our realignment in the city with some strategic plan. We're more effective when we bring down resources. We're doing the same thing with violence prevention. Great work in our development services department. We're doing the same thing with My Brother's Keeper, with our boys and young men of color. Our health department does this a lot. So I think it's fantastic that now we're we're reaching back to work that already been done in making it current and placing a greater focus. I'd like to just make sure that some real, tangible recommendations make it into the Fed agenda so that when we go to DC and an advocate , we know what the priorities are of the strategic plan. So those are my comments. Thank you. Let me just make a couple closing comments. Open it up for public comment after this. First, I just want to thank the commissioners that are here, because I think you guys are just such great advocates. And it was great to see a couple of you guys a couple of weeks ago at the senior Congress, which was which was wonderful. And I also want to make a request as the council moves forward and to Councilman Andrews and certainly to staff that, I really think that I would like to see our commissioners be kind of like some of the community drivers of this process. And I think as we move forward, I think the commission is really well situated in a place where they can help, really provide some good impact and feedback on on the plan as it moves forward and I think be a great project for them to to be involved with as well as the rest of the community, of course. And so I think that would be great to see. And so I, I think this is a great step for the city and I look forward to seeing it develop. With that, we'll open it up to public comment. Any public comment on the item? Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor. Councilwoman. Were women and councilmen and also seniors. I'm Mary Alice to you. I'm a resident here and I'm also the chairperson for the Senior Citizens Advisory Commission here. Would you mind putting that Mike just a little bit closer to you? Thank you. I was selected chair for the Senior Advisory Commission in May, and from that time we've been working, working very actively to come up with plans and to be able to serve our seniors. And I'm here to respond to a letter that I received from Councilman Andrews asking for us to look at his plan with the feasibility study that he wants from the Department of Health and Human Services in regards to the senior issues and whether we should develop a Department of Aging. I just attended a summit today with the Department of Health, and it was hosted by our councilman Al Houston and the Art Stone Foundation and also a consultant from Cal State, Long Beach . We need to develop a system to be able to reach out to our seniors and to help them with assessments so that we can fulfill their needs. There is a lot of gaps to be filled, and we also need a website to link everything together. We could also develop the senior program on MLB.TV. I watched that senior program on TV all day Sunday to see, but there's absolutely nothing about seniors there. And we could give out a lot of information to our seniors because a lot of them do watch TV. My recommendation is that the Department of Aging is a necessity. It's not a luxury. We have 65,000 seniors. They deserve to be served. They've served our country. Now it's time. It's our time to serve them. And they are the fastest growing population. The issues pertain to housing, transportation, nutrition, medical, health, and also their quality of life. I want to thank you, Councilman de Andrews, for bringing this forth. And I hope that we can work together on it and find a solution for our seniors. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Hello. Good evening. My name is Dr. Jane Galloway. I'm presenting as a resident of the third district, and I'm also very proud to be serving on the commission for senior citizens. I wanted to I'm very supportive of this department. I think what MaryAlice just said was fantastic. So I would just say ditto to that for the rest of my time. I want to plant a new idea because this isn't just about getting older. This is about creating a whole new configuration of our culture. So I'm going to read something from a book called Prime Time. It's not just about getting older, but about adding a whole new category to life. As we've understood it, a revolution has occurred within the last century, a longevity revolution. Studies show that on average, 34 years have been added to human life expectancy, moving it from an average of 46 years to 80. This addition represents an entire second lifetime, adult lifetime. And whether we choose to confront it or not, it changes everything, including what it means to be human. The social anthropologist Mary Katherine Bates and she's Margaret Mead. Started. As a metaphor for living with this longer life span in view, she writes in her recent book, Composing a Further Life The Age of Wisdom. We have not added decades to a life expectancy by simply extending old age. Instead, we've opened up a new space partway through the life course, a second and different kind of adulthood that precedes old age. And as a result, every stage of life is undergoing change. BATES And uses the identifiable metaphor of what happens when a new room is added to your home. It isn't just the new room that is different. Every other part of the house and how it's used is altered a bit by the addition of this room in the house. That is our life. Things such as planning, marriage, love, finances, parenting, travel, education, physical fitness, work, retirement, our very identities, even all take on new meaning now that we can expect to be vital into our eighties and nineties or longer. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker, please. Good evening, city council mayors, city council members and thank you, council member Andrews and thank you council member Durango and all of you for supporting this. My name is Teresa marino. I am retired from the city of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, and I was the lead staff on the strategic plan for older adults , and we started it in February of 2001. It was brought to the council in June of 2005. We did a redo of it in about 2007, 2008, and it has sat on a shelf since then. So it just gives us great pride and honor to see that it's being brought to light again, that all of the time and energy and partnerships from we used to call it the cast of thousands because there were so many partners, resources, organizations, experts. Just ordinary, extraordinary seniors that helped and contributed to this. Many of them have passed away. We just lost Diane Johnson, who was a prime mover of this document and an author of it. So thank you. You're making dreams come true. I think it's long overdue. An Office on aging. Thank you for putting it in the Department of Health and Human Services, because I think that's a good home. It'll be a good marriage with the partnership with the Parks and Recreation and input from the commissions. There was a summit today put on by the Department of Health and Human Services, and it was like déja vu all over again because so many, so many of some of the original partners and many of the groups that contributed to this first document were there, and they were excited to hear that this was on the agenda tonight. And it's going to be exciting. Many of us pledged that we will be a part of the trying to gather data coming up with new with new ideas and and looking at what has happened in the past ten years where we need to move forward and to see that many of us are now part of that aging population. And and. And this is, you know, self-serving in some. Respects. But again, it's a great thing for our city. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. Gary Shelton's my name and I live at 240 Chestnut. That's Plymouth West. It's a building of 200 senior citizens living in affordable housing. We have a residents advocacy network. Betty Chambers, if you could say hi, she's up there. She's the president of the Resident Advocacy Network. And I'm its sort of neighborhood. I'm the guy that brings things in from outside. So that's why we know this is going on. So I appreciate the time. I looked over the 25 to, I guess, 2007 strategic plan and notice that it had five basic categories. They've all been mentioned already. They were safety, transportation, housing, health and quality of life as the key element of interest. And I was thinking, well, what else could there be? Now Councilmember Yarrawonga was kind enough to mention technology should be a highlight. And I want to point out that as as Dr. Lowenthal said, we had issues during the power outage where no amount of technology was helping us, particularly the senior citizens, which were in such we were in such trouble over there. We needed low technology actually. So the the sense that and what by that what I mean but I mean what I mean by that is that if there had been police cars with loudspeakers going through the streets telling us what was going on instead of text messages and Nixon, which weren't working for us, it could have improved our understanding of what was happening. So there's, there's always a couple of sides to each coin. Council Member Price You mentioned entertainment, and I think access to entertainment for senior citizens is always something that needs attention. I know once or twice a year we're invited as guests of the of the theater back here. I guess it's that way. I never know what direction anything is from in this room. And those presentations are wonderful at the at the Beverly O'Neil Theater. Those are terrific presentations every year. Council Vice Mayor Lowenthal, you mentioned mobility is important. And I wanted to stress also that ADA compliant because so many senior citizens end up being disabled. But, you know, there's not such a thing as senior disability. Actually, we need disability accessibility to disabled help. But we unless you become disabled before you're retired, you don't really become disabled. But specifically and realistically, mental health is something that I think needs to be on the list. The whole idea of PTSD for our soldiers who have come back from now from Korea and Vietnam, for folks who are experiencing depression and folks who realistically are entering into years of dementia or perhaps Alzheimer's. And I think that's a category that's going to need special attention. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Dr. Cheryl. Mathew and I have a business in Long Beach. I'm a geriatric care manager for about ten years, a member of the for a resident in the fourth District. And I'm kind of in shock. I'm here because I just heard that this was going to be presented last night. We got an email, uh, through the some way that it found its way to me. And that's sort of like how our senior services have been up until now. It's siloed. There's lots of great people out there doing amazing work, but we don't know each other and we don't know what each other is doing. So what's nice is that this is not reinventing the wheel, just taking what we have and organizing it into a single place that can drive it forward. Um. Yeah, that's that's the bottom line. And I really see it. It's not just about frail, low income seniors. They are very important as well. But as a care manager, I've been into the multimillion dollar homes in Naples, and they have the same issues as the low income seniors and their caregivers have the same stress levels as everybody else. So they all we all need to know that information. We talked today in the summit about. And you touch on it a little bit too, creating intergenerational programs. So we all know about this. There's my eight year old, my eight year old daughter. She's been with me and dementia care community since she was an infant. And I see the difference that children make with the seniors and that we can all have fun together so that it's not just, oh, it's time to be a senior over here. It's it's our it's our whole life span. One of the things I saw on the summit vote today that got the most one of the most votes is creating fund with the seniors, but also the gift of aging. So it's not like, oh, we're going to bring the seniors to the Playhouse tonight or we're going to go sing at the nursing home for Christmas. It we embody this all year long. Justin Rudd does a great job with the Community Action Team in Bel Mature and I see myself as someone whose has wanted to take this to the senior community and older adults. And now at 50 I am one of them. I got my card for it in the mail. So here we go. And it was it was ten years ago that I was here presenting on the Long Beach Strategic Plan. I was here at the end when these amazing people spent two years to get it together. The economy took a tank and the council people weren't old enough yet to get it. So I'm just grateful that we're here. Thank you all for your consideration. And I look forward to playing a part in this and making a difference in our city. And together we are brilliant. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for having a business here in Long Beach as well. Thank you. Excuse me. Good evening. How are you? Laura Clarendon. I'm also a member of the third district or resident of the third district, and I'm also a member of the Senior Citizens Commission. And you have a lovely home. Thank you. And I must say that I'm just very delighted to be here. But I must also point out, and would like to thank Councilman Andrews and Ranga for sponsoring this motion of this. Agenda item so that we can move forward and create a Department of Aging. I think that it's I'm not going to repeat everything that the commissioners have said. I think that is not a luxury, is an absolute necessity that is long overdue. And the previous speaker pointed out some of the issues that we as a commission have also faced this lack of integration or communication between a lot of the city agencies in regards to the needs of senior citizens. So I think this this agency will be wonderful to establish and make sure that there is a follow through and there is a process by which we can unify all those resources. And secondly, I can assure you that the members of the Senior Citizens Commission are committed to making sure that we improve the lifestyles of the senior citizens of this city, as well as all of the citizens in general. So I'm happy to be here, and I just wanted to thank you and support the rest of the commissioners. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Another whenever a great commissioners. I'm Diane McInnis and I'm from the second district and you've got such wonderful faces at 8:00 at night and you're all alive and energetic. So why did I come for just two or three things? As a Long Beach resident, I wish to commend the entire council, the vice. There, and the mayor for. Realizing the importance of older adults. You don't have to necessarily call them senior citizens. We're just a little bit older and I'm going to celebrate my 70th in a few weeks. So I wanted to say that the most important thing is that we are a city of innovative thinkers. We are a city of wonderful, innovative thinkers. And I am confident that you as leaders and we as the community can work together to solve this problem. Go Long Beach. Thank you, Diane. I saw your other half earlier today. Good evening. My name is Maria Bezerra and I'm the senior organizer with Central Asia. I have a we have a group of 25 from Autodesk. I salute you. They are the promoters of aging and well-being. Thank you. Thank you very much for presenting this. Uh, Councilman Austin and also my long term colleague. We will Roberto and I go back from quite the college years, so I wouldn't say that I'm not even a senior. And he's trying to say he's almost there, but he we know better. I was also one of the part of the committee that was part of the part of the Committee for the Strategic Plan way back when I used to be involved a lot with the Health Department, and at that time we were kind of sad because we did all the work and then it kind of it got put on a shelf. So now it's the time when this baby is coming alive. And again, thank you for doing it. One of the things I just want to indicate is that out of those 65,000 seniors that are here in Long Beach, 42% happened to be Latino. And a lot of them are Spanish speaking. And so that's the reason why I decided to come up here to to be their voice and to kind of let you know that whatever services are out there, that we really need to take that into consideration because seniors do face that the need for the need for having company , for having caregiving, for being involved, because isolation is one of the biggest needs that they have with Latinos. It's even bigger even though we have even though they have families, some of them that are that are physically not able to get out. And and many of them are also being they're providing caregiving to their family as well. The families out there keeping to jobs to make make needs met. So, again, I just wanted to let you know to please not forget our Latino seniors and please include us in there as well. And I would like to be part of that agenda item for the group. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you for all the work you do. Great work with the promoters. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. Ladies and gentlemen. And thank you, Congressman. Council member Andrews. I just promoted you. I worked with Diane Johnson for many years. I'm trying to get in the office of an Aging, and unfortunately, she passed away. She was one of my best friends, and one of her dreams was Office on Aging. Theresa marino. Um. Dr. Cheryl MATTHEWS. Dr. Jean Bader. And Dr.. Barbara White and. California State University, Long Beach. She has worked many years. So I think all total it's been about 30 years that we've been asking please for an office on aging. We truly need it. I work with seniors. I'm retired now, but I work with seniors. I'm on the elder abuse prevention team and older adult transportation team agencies and programs on aging and part of IDA. And the most I hear from our senior population is all the services in Long Beach are fragmented for seniors. There is no one place to go for it. And they search and they get very frustrated. So if you can help bring this. In the forefront. It would help our senior population. At the present and going forward for the city of Long Beach. And by the way, I'm not a Long Beach residents. I'm located in Lakewood, but I support Long Beach. The elder abuse prevention team is Long Beach. I, I really respect the city and I truly do believe it deserves it for its community and senior population. Please don't let it be another 30 years that we wait for it. Thank you. Thank you. I have. Oh. It's only 1/2. Oh, come on for real quick. Just cause I'm going to get. I'm going to get married. So I completely forgot I had a senior moment. No, I just like to let you know that, you know, our friend Lou Wall, who was running the Latino club at the senior center on Fourth Street, also passed away. She was also one of the members of the strategic planning, and they're actually having the city alone, which police department is having a celebration of life for her tomorrow from 1 to 4 and everyone is invited. Thank you. No, thank you very much. Good and good. Important announcement. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you. I wanted to follow Councilwoman Price's gratitude, expressed gratitude for all of your service, those of you that serve on our commission. I know Rita is here and has served as the second district representative for a long time. And I want to thank you, Rita Elmer, for doing that and all of you who serve. And you can't keep using the senior moment excuse. That isn't. Some of our councilmembers use it it doesn't work but thank you. And Pat West almost. And. Soon to be. Just plain. We're going to we're going to go we have a motion on the floor. We've done public comment. I just something I was just thinking of, you know, vice mayor and I we like to talk about those good public policy moments. And I think this is a really good public policy moment. And I just want to thank everyone that signed on to do this. Councilman Andrews, vice mayor, councilman, superstar and councilmember your during this is a really, really good thing. I'm really glad you guys do this. And so we have a motion because. I did make the motion. Yes, go ahead, sir. Okay, fine. I would like to move this motion. But before I'd even do that is that I want to thank all the young ladies who came up and spoke on aging. So when you do get to be that age, then you can come back and we will accept it. So now I'm just moving this motion and I like all my colleagues to pass that and thank everyone for that. All right. Thank you very much. There's a motion and. I know that your my young ladies and. I've heard stories about you. Yes. Please cast your ballot. Councilman Andrews. And then they go. Yes. Yeah. He says he's 75. He doesn't have to vote if he doesn't want to get out. You know, he's voting. That motion carries. Great. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. And of course, no big surprise being led by women. Of course. Oh, it's always the women. Always the women. I swear. It's just amazing. Next item is 23.