Recommendation to request City Manager to work with the Harbor Department to conduct a study of automation at the Port of Long Beach and report back within 120 days. The study should focus on the economic impact of automation, as it relates to the local community (job loss and local businesses).
Great. Thank you very much, everybody. With that, we're going to move on to our time certain. And that is for me. Give me 1/2 is. Item number 17, please send Kirk. Item 17 is Communication from Council Member Richardson, Council Member Peers, Vice Mayor Andrews and Council Member Urunga recommendation to require City Manager to work with the Harbor Department to conduct a study of automation at the Port of Long Beach and report back within 120 days. Thank you very much. With that, I'm turn this over to Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a few thoughts and then we want to kind of hear from the port, I mean, here, from the public. You know, as I traveled to a number of cities and I like to reflect on those cities as I go there, sort of what was the impression was the identity of those cities? And when I go to, you know, Seattle, I think of the clouds. I think of the Space Needle. I think of innovation. When I go to Saint Louis, I think of the arch. I think of automotive industry and most of the cities up and down the Midwest, in the Mississippi River and with Long Beach, you know, and , you know, I think Long Beach is a working class town and it's been like that for a long time. If you think about the legacy industries, from the naval bases to to manufacturing and automotive to our port, and that's something that's been sort of consistent. If you take a step back, Long Beach is a town of middle class working families. And we've, you know, made sure that we've talked about our economic development, we've talked about our values of economic inclusion and making sure that we pay attention to the way our our individuals, our workers of small businesses are impacted and are considered as we make economic decisions in our city. The Port of Long Beach is our regional economic driver. It's anchored to our city. It's one of our most important economic engines, and it's the second busiest seaport in the United States. And there's a transition happening around the country that has a lot of people on edge with respect to the conversation on on automation. And so I think, you know, this this this concern is certainly warranted as we, you know, sort of see reports and see what happened in other industries and, you know, how some communities were hard hit. You know, my mother was a welder for General Motors in Wentzville, Missouri. That that plant's closed down. And and we see what happened in a lot of these cities. And so I'm a member of the city council. I represent the city of Long Beach. I have a great deal of sport and respect and support for our port. But I think we need to be able to to ask some very, you know, some very clear questions about the status of whatever transition is taking place with respect to automation within the ports adjacent to our community . The purpose of this of this this item is to really be proactive, not reactive. The idea here is we want to engage our port who shares the complex with us and into sort of a higher level conversation about the economic impacts of the conversation of of automation. And, you know, we want to understand things like. You know, how long are we going to be having this conversation? Right. Is it. Is this a five year conversation? Is this a 40 year conversation? What's the impact to our local jobs or, you know, is there an impact, you know, as if automation were to be fully realized ? What does that what does that mean? Are we looking at a at a port that doesn't have very many connections to local jobs at all? Does it mean that more jobs going to warehouse jobs or trucking jobs? What's the ratio? What does that mean? Trucking jobs and warehouse jobs, we know are not to the same level of quality as as a longshoreman. And from, you know, the standards of work and, you know, the the amount of money that an individual makes. What are the impacts on our local communities where the impacts on our local small businesses. We have a lot of questions, and I think this is an opportunity for us to get to the table and begin a dialog and ask some of these questions. I think I don't want to, you know, necessarily limit this. I want the port to be able to, you know, be be broad and come and tell us explain to us what the impacts are. If there are things that we haven't asked at the very beginning, we need to know. I think one to on the side of being open, being balanced and erring on the side of more information than less. And if there's you know, if there's a challenge that the than the port has with is we want to hear from them because ultimately I think we have a responsibility to ask questions of every city department , particularly the ones that have a major economic it could potentially have a major economic impact on our communities. So so to sum this up, you know, I want to thank, you know, the folks who have sort of reached out, helped shape this this motion. I want to thank the class of students, recent leadership students who most of the focus group and submitted their results today of their local focus group. And I want to thank the members of Iaw and all the industry stakeholders who have reached out and have come out tonight to speak and to thank them to coming out. And I think, again, I would love to hear back from the port of Long Beach within the next hundred 20 days on the scope and the scale and the timeline of this report. And I think that pretty much sums it up. And that's my motion. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Pierce. Thank you. I want to thank Epic for taking a look at this. I know you guys take on different issues and bring them forward and thank Councilmember Rex. Obviously, the port is in the is great interest to the second district. It's about 70 to 80% of it is in the second District. And so when the conversation around automation came up, I think a lot of people felt that they weren't fully in the conversation of automation and really understanding what was the intent, what was the timeline, how long are we looking at and what questions we can have ? And so I know that the county is doing their report. I look forward to seeing that report, and I hope that our port, in doing their study, really takes that report and looks at the gaps and has a conversation with the council and the city about what other information we need to find out specific to Long Beach . Obviously, the balance in a city, just as we talked about with the previous item is how do we make sure we have a thriving economy, that the workers are the backbone and that those are the jobs that continue to support our city? We know one in five jobs in our port come from one in five jobs in the city come from our port. We know that as a mother, I want to make sure my environment's clean and healthy in the future. And so where's that balance and how do we make sure we keep our jobs, we have a clean environment and that we all are doing the very best to keep our port competitive. And so I really look forward to hearing the comments tonight from those that are in the audience. I look forward to continuing the conversation with the port around the study and making sure that it's as robust as possible. And I think my council colleagues, again, for bringing this item forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. That's right. It's now. Thank you, country Ringo. Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank Councilmember Richardson for bringing this forward as well. And I also want to thank the members of the L.W.. You have brought this forward in terms of concern because it is obviously to the law, which is not only an economic engine for the city of Long Beach, but it's a regional economic engine. And I understand that there are other reports or other agencies that are also conducting some form of study, including the city of Los Angeles, Portland, Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, and the Blue Ribbon Committee Commission that was put together by Governor Gavin Newsom. So I'm hoping that when these reports are put together that there's some kind of collaboration between all these different agencies, because I wouldn't want to see that one report conflicts another or is in competition with another. We should have a report that's comprehensive, that is in in coordination with one another so that we could get a very clear picture as to what's going on with this issue so that we can have a better way of being able to address it as we move forward. So thank you again for bringing this forward. And I'm looking forward to what would be brought before us in 120 days. Thank you, Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I also I'd like to thank Congressman Richardson for bringing this, you know, indeed, the individuals who know who I am and know the things that I usually see when I come up here concerning jobs. And I've been saying it for many, many years. A job can stop a bullet. And I've always, always supported the Port of Long Beach and the growth and has provided thousands of jobs for our residents. You know, we need to understand what the cost of this local business, what the cost to local business is and the input that to our workforce. You know, so I feel like I believe that we should not put the job of our dockworkers at risk so that we could so retailers can save a few pennies on their merchandise. So I'm looking forward to reviewing, you know, the report and what it returns back to the city of Long Beach. And thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilwoman Price. Thank you very much. I have a couple questions on this item. Is this and it's it's to Councilman Richardson. Is this a study that you think the city is capable of doing a good job on? Or do you think maybe the harbor department could initiate a study? Because in my opinion, it's a great topic, really talking about an issue that's a national issue of automation and productivity. And so I don't know. In terms of the impact to the city, who who would be the best person to do that? The report thanks for arising in conversations with the port. I think they understand that we're asking them to conduct they can sort of partner with them on that process. Okay. Got it. Excellent. Thank you. The other question that I had and I don't know if our staff has the answer for this. I know I saw Mr. Cordero here earlier, but do we know are there any productivity metrics that are built into the leases so that we can have objective data? Because there's a lot of recent research that has come out of late suggesting that automation doesn't necessarily mean more productivity. So what kind of data do we have built into our leases where we could measure those kinds of metrics? If anyone knows, I'd love to see that in the report, I guess. Yeah. My hope is the conduct report come back to us and we have we can have a full conversation on all of this. So that certainly we can include that. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a really important part of this discussion. This is this is a national discussion that's impacting so many industries in so many different areas. And I think one of the most important things for us to think about is a huge part of the labor force, are residents of this city in all of our districts. And when we're talking about a topic such as automation, you know, does that necessarily mean more productivity? How are we measuring that? Because there's there's a lot of research out there that says the work that's done by the worker can produce a more productive outcome for the industry as a whole. So, you know, I worry about when we talk about things like automation, which I'm very supportive of us advancing in our technologies and moving forward. But we're talking about displacement of workers. That's that's a huge, huge contributor to our city's local economy and the life and welfare, not just of the people who live here, but those who spend money here as well. So, you know, I really want to make sure that we support policies that are proven to be effective in terms of the direction we're headed. And I look forward to being educated on that topic. I've been reading a lot of research on this topic, especially in the area of goods movement. I think Mr. Cordeiro knows I'm really interested in this topic in regards to the port and the impacts of local policies on the port and the workers at the port. And so I do try to keep up on that and I will say that automation is an issue that's not just affecting our port, but every port in the country and in the world and is going to be something that we're going to have to be very cognizant of in terms of the impact, not just to the workers, to the industry, but to both. So I thank you for bringing this project forward. I'm I'm thankful that we're going to be working with the harbor department on this, because I really do think, you know, for me, I look to our harbor commissioners a lot for guidance in terms of their area of expertize. And certainly I believe that they're in the best position to understand the impact of any policies that are made on the labor force as well as on the tenants. And to strike a balance that's that's fair and takes into consideration the needs of the city as we continue to grow our local economy, our revenue base, and our protect our homeowners and our our residents and visitors who shop here. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Austin. Thank you. I'm glad to see this idea of this item come before us today. I want to thank those who brought it forward. And for those of you who know my background, I grew up in Detroit for the most part. I come from a family of autoworkers. I've experienced this this issue of automation myself. I moved to California and a few years later worked in the aerospace industry right here in Long Beach, was a member of the UAW Local 148, and we had 23,000 members in 1989. Right. There's no members today. And many of those workers were impacted not just by the market, but automation as well. And so I don't need a study to tell me that automation impacts jobs. It impacts neighborhoods and impacts quality of life and communities and impact cities. Detroit Long Beach are examples of how major job losses in manufacturing industries have impacts and the ILWU. There are many members who live in my neighborhood or my neighbors, folks who depend on jobs in the maritime industry. This is a this is something worthy of our attention. And I'm glad it's coming forward and I'm happy to support it. Yeah, nothing else said. This is a good item and happy to support. Thank you. Councilman. Councilman. Mongo. Thank you. I just want to thank the writers of this motion. I think that is a great opportunity to reinforce the great work of our workers that are at the port and to really talk about how we've made great strides with the leadership and the Port Commission on what they're doing to address the issues that they've had in the past and the solutions of optimizing our terminal gates and Pier Pass 2.0 and all the other things that you guys are doing. It's just only one part of a bigger picture. And so I look forward to this item. My initial question I cued up for was fiscal impact. But I think Councilmember Richardson's comment that this would be in partnership with the port would mean that the fiscal impact to the Long Beach side of the budget would be insignificant in nature. And so for that, I'm appreciative of the clarification and I look forward to reading the study. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Councilman Austin. Just really quick question for the maker of the motion. In terms of scope is and I think I heard you mentioned earlier that that you wanted it to be broad. Is there a certain level of latitude that you give in stuff to look at in terms of economic impacts? And job impacts overall. So I'd like to get a clear picture. I'd like to. I'd like it to be focused in on Long Beach. I'd like to hear about the impacts to our local communities. If you have to frame that within the broader context of the region or what you know, the impacts from a regional standpoint of automation are there you know, is there an idea based on phasing like we just need to get a better picture to understand if that means that the study is maybe to part or if they come back and say, hey, we can engage in this level of study, come back, then gets us, gets the conversation going. I think that's fine. I think the idea here is that. We you know, we want to work with the board here. We want to engage in a smart dialog. We do value workers. We need to understand a lot more and we have a lot more questions to ask. So the point here is the sort of beginning discussion around the context of economic impact and a study on this issue within our report. Thank you very much for that. I appreciate it. I'm going to go ahead and go to public comment. We are we first five speakers are Billy Wharton, Sheri Lopez, Chad Lindsay, William He-Man's and Martinson. If they can, please come forward. Bill Orton, Sherry Lopez, Chad Lindsay, William Timmons and Martin Sawada in that order. Sorry very much, Mr. Mayor, and members of council. The motion by the gentlemen of the ninth District and a question posed by the member of the third District. You mention three cities or you mention cities, multiple cities, and you asked the question. Of who best are we trying to handle this? I would point to three cities that are us that deal with the real threat of what automation is. Yeah, it's certainly going to affect jobs here because people are going to lose day to day, month to month, year to year. They're going to lose work. But they are going to lose their careers. Because those. More those machines are going to follow wherever markets take. Them. They are going to I would humbly. Opine they're going to leave the West Coast of the United States because maps. Change. We now have a new. World. Of melting ice. And that melting ice is going to mean that. Ships already are testing the waters. The navigable waters of the Arctic. Last year, Maersk sent a major. Vessel over Russian waters to move goods from Vladivostok. To England to Europe. And they moved 40% faster. It was cheaper. They are moving a ship right now in Vladivostok. There is going to be an Asian. Conference on the Arctic in the president is going to Denmark, he said. So. Thank you very much, Mr. Jordan. Thank you. Thank you. And next speaker, Sri Lupus. Good evening. Thank you for listening to us. I heard your whole story on the homeless and I applaud you guys. Our position here is to keep jobs so that we don't have more homeless people. I have a small tax and insurance business. And our business depends on the longshore industry. 70% of our clientele. Are either. Part of the longshore industry and they are the businesses that support them. I will promise you. That if this goes. Through on a large. Scale basis, you will have a double, triple homeless population. You have jobs that are going to be taken away. And I'm telling you that humans pay taxes and. They buy insurance. Robots do not. So I'm asking you. Guys to please continue with this. And by the way, there was already a. Economic. Study done years. Ago when there was a lockout. I'm not sure if any of you guys remember that. But the study was done at Cal State Long Beach. And it was labor and unions. And I would recommend that you take a look at that study. And if anybody wants it, you can contact me or anybody else. It was already done and the devastation and what it cost the community. And just ten days with the lockout. It wasn't a strike. It was a lockout. So thank you. Thank you very much. Lindsay. Good evening, our members. I'm Chad Lindsey. I'm the vice president. Of Pacific Maritime. I do labor relations for the Southern California region. Our CEO, Jim McKenna, sent a letter to each. Of you earlier today. And I'm here to say, reiterate on a few points. First, PMA looks forward to working with the city, with the port. Of Long Beach should you decide to conduct a study on port automation? We have commissioned some excellent studies ourselves on the topic, which we're happy to share. We believe any study. Of automation. Should consider its impact on the port's competitive standing, including its ability to attract and retain and retain discretionary cargo. A recent study found that 60,000 workers in Southern California relied directly on discretionary cargo coming through the San Pedro Bay ports. We believe it's also important to study. What happens without automation. This includes potential financial financial risk to the. City and the poor. Related to the Alameda corridor. And specifically on bonds issued by the Aluminum Corridor Transportation Authority. And the cash flow deficits. Projected if cargo market share continues to decline. In addition, we encourage the study to focus on automation as role in achieving the port's environmental goals. And finally, PM is happy to provide information. About our collective bargaining agreement. And the automation provisions it contains. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Thanks. Next speaker, please. And is William Simmons. And then after William would be Martin certain if I can please have after Mr.. Mr. Rich Dines, David Ross, Gary Herrera, Sydney Ken Fee and David Tirado. ALL Please come to the microphone next speaker. Martin. Yes? It's William Heymans here. No, Mr.. Sort of. Go ahead. Hello, everybody. I would like. To. Marty, sort of. I'm a norther north Long Beach resident. I would like to point out some of the things that were commented on. This absolutely is a national issue. There are Oxford reports and Brooking Institute reports that state that we've lost over 5 million jobs to. Air power automation since 2002 and we are on pace to lose 10 to 5 million more jobs. Across the nation in the next ten or 15. Years. This problem will absolutely be exponential. Now, some of the things that have not been pointed out. More recently, APM Terminals has decided to. Automate 90% of their work away. That's going to be 5 to. 700 jobs lost daily. Okay. We are. Or is it? We have over a. $300 million lost. On their lease agreement. Over $300 million lost. I think that was in one year in the first year. And that's based. On the cargo and the volume that's. Going to slow the throughput. Right, as I understand it. We make money off of in taxes. Right. So the volume and the production of this automated facility is cut in half, 50%. I think that absolutely needs to be looked into. And that's. Not including. The like I said, the tax payer revenue, the jobs that are going to be lost as well. Um, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Dinesen. Good evening. Thank you, members of Council for the opportunity to address you this evening. My name is Rich Dines. My addresses is on file and I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. I speak in support of AB 1321 and the need for an economic impact study to help understand how much revenue the City of Long Beach would lose due to foreclosures, bankruptcies and small business closings. If our public part becomes automated. I recommend an independent academic based study be contracted by the port to avoid any political influences. Proponents of automating our port claim it is necessary to achieve the goals of the cleaner action plan. They claim it is needed to add efficiencies and increase productivity. Those claims are completely false. As you know, I provided a lot of input on the cleaner action plan. The port does not require any automation or electrification to achieve its cleaner goals. The port continues to be fuel and technology neutral. In fact, alternative fuels such as renewable natural gas, can meet the same zero emission standards adopted by the California Air Resources Board as an electric vehicle. The Cleaner Action Plan also pushes for operational efficiencies, including a goal of moving 50% of all containers by on dock rail. No robot can compete with IOW workforce where the most productive and efficient longshore workforce in the world. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Dines. Mr. Ross. Good evening, commissioners. My name is David Ross, and back in 1911, Long Beach was entrusted with the title Land Trust Act. It allows the citizens of Long Beach to have control over the port and the revenue and what source of income is coming through. We as the people of Long Beach deserve to know and they should be transparent on what impact automation will have on the future of our economy and all our local businesses and anything coming into the ports. Because, as you know, most ports are owned by foreign companies. And by eliminating jobs at a high rate, we only they save money. No one else does. And what exactly and how much is it going to affect us all? APM Terminals, for example, wants to fully automate, as Richard has said, and in their port master plan, there was no information regarding how much jobs were lost and how many jobs could be gained. And this trend can keep going on without any effect on us at all. As you already know, there's a homeless issue going on in Long Beach and in Los Angeles. If if automation is to continue at a rapid rate, we have no idea what can affect us now with smaller jobs, with long , short jobs being affected, and any longshoreman that spend money in communities and in restaurants and mom and shop shops. Restaurants or shops. Sorry, but. I feel the need to push this agenda through so that we have at least transparency going forward with any automation project. And I think every community should be involved with this. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Next speaker, please, sir. Good evening and thank you for having us here tonight. Thank you for putting us on the agenda. My name is Gary Herrera. I'm vice president of the Iaw Local 13. And I just want to touch upon a couple of things. Did I hear here tonight? I hear very greatly that you guys care about your community and you do a lot of us who live across the bridge over there come over here and we support the business because you have such a great community and because of that, you're able to thrive because of us that have jobs. We talk about the homelessness problem. Homeless. Homelessness will only increase when there's no jobs. Right now, we're looking at losing anywhere between 570 jobs across the bay over there. Right now, we lost jobs here. It'll be because of automation. If you continue to automate over here in Long Beach, there'll be further job loss, which will contribute to further homelessness. Small businesses failing your community that is thriving so well. Going backwards, we heard some testimony that it could be more competitive with automation. There's a McKinsey report, report that you can look in your own and it will tell you that is not did it is not give you more productivity. As a matter of fact, it was said to us over the L.A. Harbor Commission, the APM will not be more competitive. They will not be more productive. It was about getting rid of labor. I was in that meeting. So what I'm telling you today is a truth. Also, we've heard there's other terminals here in Long Beach that have converted their machines for clean air with the human driving them. So we're asking to this report go through. You look at the economic value and the environmental value that we can all work together on this and keep humans working. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Please. My name is and I can say. You know. Hundreds of years ago, coastal towns across the world, they were plagued. By a, uh, an invasion of, uh. Of, uh, an entity called the Vikings. This is the modern day version. It's just a p molar instead. But going back to the roots, it's the same exact plot. Here we have an opportunity. Much like, uh, the, um, the councilman over just across the shore, the 15th District. Uh, Mr. Schiano, you know, it's, this is an opportunity for. Our city to step up to the plate and really. Strive and work. Towards the benefit of the workers. You know, this is not about automation. Is it about clean energy or clean air? It's about, uh, limiting the power of the labor movement in America. And it's imperative, as. We can see, as Mr. Wilson was councilman also was talking about his own experience as a McDonnell Douglas, which my uncle and great aunt worked, that it doesn't exist anymore now. Those are orchestrated attacks on the American worker by companies that don't have our best interests, um, in mind. So with that saying, I think rather than having a recommendation to, uh. Conduct a study, we should have a recommendation to stand in solidarity with. What they're doing just across the board. What's going on? Thank you. Thank you very much. And before before I have Mr. Serrano speak, I'm going to call the next round of speakers our our community college trustee. President. Vivian Marlowe. Shannon Ross. Brandon Dowling. Joni Ricks. They can please line up as well. Hello, Toronto. Hello, Mayor. How you doing, Rex? How you doing, everybody else? Thank you very much, council members, for having this study. Al in there. There's Roberto. Janine, thank you all. And you know Susie Pierce. I like what you said. What she said got in here. This is a national problem that's going to happen. This automation, it's not just I lw I had a sign out there 48% of jobs to be automated by 2040. It's not just the ILWU, it's everybody. And there will be a revolution in this country. When you start losing that many jobs and people start to be homeless like crazy, you know, Rex came to I was talking to him the other day and he's working on like you're all working on automation. Thank you for that. I mean, not automation on homelessness. And then the other thing you're talking about taking care of your people in Long Beach. Taking care of your workers. A couple of them. One of them is one tenant. You know, Long Beach is really done. Good. I can tell Long Beach cares about the port. They all know about the port. Other city councils don't know. We have a guy named Chris Garcia. Would you stand up real quick? This is an SSA, one of our top drivers, SSA driver. They do some moves between 30 and 50 moves an hour that'll beat a robot. But it isn't all about a robot. It's about keeping American jobs here, keeping people worked in America. So, you know, it isn't all about getting this in that it's about taking care of your community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, David. Good evening, Honorable Mayor. Council members and city staff. While I am very proud to be president of our college board. I'm not here in that capacity, nor as a commissioner. I'm here as a rank and filer of ILWU, Local 13, and I'm here with my family, my union sisters and brothers. I would like to thank Councilmember Richardson and the other council members who have joined him in bringing this agenda item forth. I'd like to speak in favor of it. I would also like to thank EPIK and the outstanding focus group that came out to our Local 13 and spoke with some of our Long Beach Union members. This is an important issue and couple of key points just moving forward. Please take into consideration that near zero and zero emission cargo handling equipment technology has advanced with many options available that include human operation. Also, the Port of Long Beach today is recognized as a world class port. Let us not forget the significant contribution of the ILWU Longshore workforce, and I'd like to ask that all future automation projects at the port include job and economic impact reports and human operation. Please direct the port to be sensitive to that. Thank you once again. Thank you for including us. Thank you for giving us a seat at the table. And most importantly, thank you for getting ahead of this issue. Thank you for being proactive. Thank you very much. Trust. Hi. My name is Shannon Ross, council members and mayor. Sorry in reverse your efforts. I commend your efforts to be proactive on this issue of automation. Additional automation in the Port of Long Beach will definitely come with a cost, and that costs will be job loss, as we have already witnessed this at the Long Beach Container terminal . Many families that live right here in Long Beach will be adversely affected, in turn affecting the local economy. Further, the December 2018 McKinlay, McKenzie and Company report, as reported in numerous trade journals such as the 2018 Journal of Commerce, found that terminals implementing automation. My apologies. Experienced a loss of productivity that only. And that any benefit were outweighed by the cost. At this time, I believe clean air is a must in the port, but also no clean air can be accomplished without automation. I urge you to vote on agenda item 17. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much as Ross Speaker. Good evening, Mayor Garcia. Council members and staff and thank you for allowing us to present on this critical work related to automation at the Port of Long Beach. My name is Brandon Dowling and myself, and the subsequent two speakers are all members of the Inaugural Class of the Economic and Policy Impact Center's Leaders Institute, a six month program designed to empower and develop a network of diverse leaders to advance racial and economic equity and create positive social change in the Long Beach region. As part of our class graduation requirements, we must complete a community project focused on a policy area affecting the Greater Long Beach community. Our group's project in support of this agenda item engaged ILWU Local 13 in July of this year to conduct a focus group with 12 full time longshore workers to gather their perspectives and opinions on the impact of automation on their own jobs at the port. These longshore workers range in age from 35 to 53, with an average tenure of nearly 20 years on the job. And over the course of approximately an hour and a half, they were guided through, facilitated questions asked by our team. It's our intention that every voice be heard as policy discussions around this issue continue in the coming months. And it's our sincere desire that future policy decisions will take into account those who'll be most impacted by the effects of these policies. I'll now turn over to the next speaker to talk a little bit about our findings. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Dr. Johnny Riggs, O.D., and I'm part of the Epic Leaders Institute, as well as a proud resident of Long Beach. I had the distinct privilege of facilitating the focus group. They were a couple of moments in our discussion that particularly resonated with me, and I would like to highlight them tonight. When asked what they consider to be the best benefit about working for the Port of Long Beach, a longshore worker discussed that this job makes workers feel that they are impacting and giving back to the local community. And this statement served to be a common theme throughout our time together as the workers share. Time and time again, how much they value their community and how much their presence impacts Long Beach, both economically and socially. When asked about the biggest concern regarding port automation, a long time worker brought up the fact that the port is publicly owned land and thus the decision to automate and its subsequent impacts should be taken to the local community since they technically own the land. It should not simply be the decision of port operators. That really caused me to pause because as a resident, I never really thought about this issue from that perspective. When asked about the best strategy for stopping job loss due to automation. A long show worker brought up the importance of encouraging operators to invest in technology that improve the efficiency and productivity of current workers. As a researcher and statistician, I know how much data matters. And with the talk of the importance of efficiency, I think what gets glossed over is whether or not automating every aspect of port operations is really in the best interest of Long Beach port operators and the Long Beach community. I think it's time to act. I'll end with saying I think it's time to investigate this issue from all sides. I encourage you to support it. Thank you so much. And our last two speakers are Dr. Sally Saro and Elissa Ruth. Please come forward. Good evening. Honorable Mayor Garcia, Councilmember and staff my name is Dr. Sally Sara and thank you to Councilmember Richardson and Councilmember Pearce and Vice Mayor Andrews as well as Councilmember Ranga for supporting this item. It was an honor to be part. Of the inaugural. Class to. Help with the. Conduct, this study group. And it was a privilege to be able to speak to. The longshore workers, to hear from them. And I have a few items as far as their suggestions to include in the study, and that is to consider phasing in automation slowly over time with the input of those who will be impacted by the change. Identify and evaluate long, short jobs where a human worker is more efficient than a robot. And finally, which has brought us here, which is to push for an and economic impact report at the city level that also includes the community social impact. And I want to thank you all for supporting the item in advance and agenda item number 17. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our last speaker. Hi. My name is Elizabeth and I am a longshoreman and also a small business owner here in the community. I want to thank you for considering being a buffer between the foreign companies that are coming and taking. Over and. Having their own. Personal agenda, taking jobs from our workers. And it's. Really going to affect and it's going to impact in so many different. Ways the economic impact and the environmental. Impact. And I want to thank you guys ahead of time for actually considering and backing this bill. Thank you very much. That concludes public comment. I'm going to make a few comments now. I think everyone else has had a chance to say some remarks. I want to just begin, obviously, by thanking the council members that brought this item forward. This is actually a critical discussion and as was noted by some members of the LW. It also goes beyond what's happening at the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Oakland, and certainly across across the country as well. This this discussion is really about a broader discussion about what the future of work in this country and in this world actually looks like. And we are in danger as a nation, in grave danger as a nation of getting so far ahead with the way technology is automating all of our jobs that we could hit as a country, a major crisis when it becomes people's ability to actually find work, to put food on the table for their families. And that is just a reality. There has been there has been a lot of of academic work on this topic. In fact, if you ask, you know, the top economists and top folks across the country in our universities today, they will tell you that second to climate change, there is no greater challenge facing us right now as a as a world than what the future of work is going to look like for for people out there every single day in Long Beach. There is no more important industry than our port and goods movement. It provides the largest impact to our local economy. It is the larger, largest provider of good jobs and where and where. The future of work and automation certainly has impacts across industries. You're seeing it in fast food restaurants. You're seeing it at in retailers, you're seeing it on the assembly line. One key difference and why I think the discussion about automation is critical at the port is you're actually talking about jobs that are high paid, have benefits can have attached to them are pensions and have you have the ability to actually be able to take care and maintain of families on their own. And so these jobs are not just jobs. They are good paying jobs. You want to have to build a strong middle class in any city. And so I commend the forward thinking about the discussion, not just of automation, but hopefully once this study gets gets moved forward. I think this council and this is a good impetus for it. But it is it is past time that this body had broader discussions about what the future of work is going to look like over the next ten, 20 and 50 years in the city of Long Beach and across the country. And if we don't get ahead of what is happening, this economy could could suffer indefinitely. And that and that crisis level will affect real people with real jobs within our community. And so I just want to think I do believe that that the LW and though our dockworkers are actually leading this kind of this discussion across the country about what work is going to look like and what good benefited work should look like, represented work and what it should look like. And so I want to thank all of you for doing that. I want to also add that as mayors in California, we're having serious conversations with the governor about how he can really pull together and lead on this topic. And I think he is going to do so. It's critical that this is a discussion that not just happens in Long Beach, but not just in all of our ports on the port side, but also in the community as well. And so thank you all that had brought this forward. Thank you. And I look forward to supporting this. And with that, I want to go back to Councilmember Pearce. Thank you. Very well said, Mayor. I think I really want to applaud everyone that came out and spoke tonight, everybody that's been leading this this fight. And obviously, the gravity of this topic is serious, serious for you and your families. It's serious for our port. We've invested millions and millions of dollars into infrastructure in our port. And it's important, as was mentioned by a speaker for our small businesses, because of how many of you spend your dollars. And we know. I know from my work at Lane that every dollar of a living wage equals $3 back in our community. And so those good jobs really do matter. And so with that, you know, I'd like to make sure that the the study focuses on how we keep human operations at our terminals while also automating as much as possible , but keeping those human operators there. And I'd like to ask Rex Councilmember Richardson about the conversation about having an independent study, because I know our port does have a lot on their hands right now. I know that this type of study is not something we we want to step in too lightly. And so as I'm sitting here, I really think that it's important that we have that conversation around an independent study. So, Councilmember, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on that. Or is there anything else. The last one. Cute. I was going to touch on that. That it. Thank you, Councilwoman Pierce. I think a few things came out from this conversation that probably need to be highlighted. Three things. So one funded by property. So there were three council members who brought up and saw the fiscal impact, the intention funded by port. I think given we had, you know, folks and statisticians talking about the importance of data and academics, I think goes without saying it should be an academic report. And then I think it also goes without saying that it should be it should be independent. Fair. Right. That's that's our expectation. So I know that the port is paying attention to every word we say right now. I want to raise those three words up. So funded by you, port independent and academic. I also want to I also just want to say, again, I think this is I think the mayor summed it up beautifully, really the larger conversation about the future work. But at the same time, we do have a responsibility to our citizens of Long Beach. And we've been talking, you know, having this discussion about inclusion and the fact that we can't be a world class city. We can't continue to talk about our economics unless we really have a focus on key performance indicators on how our people are doing. And this should be a study that really tells us about how this is going to impact the people of Long Beach. You know, I know that there will be other studies. I know that the state will ultimately engage and all the counties engaged, but I don't think their focus will be Long Beach. My hope with having a local study that we're able to learn from the lens of our local community, the neighborhoods we care about, the schools we care about, the businesses we care about, what does the impact to us? What our you know, what are the things we can do? What does this time I look like? And how do we begin as a community to really embrace and engage in this conversation to make sure that's the best outcome for the people of Long Beach? That's why we should do a local study. So thank you again. Thank you to everyone who came out. Thank you for. I'll just say this. I'm really proud of these EPI graduates last two weeks. That really brought some really incredible issues to the city council. And I look forward to, you know, what you guys take on in the future. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Councilmember. Yes, Vice Mayor Andrus. Yes. Real quickly, I first of all, to really thank Councilman Richardson for bringing this item. But I guess a lot of individuals really understand that when we talk about homeless and you think some of those individuals, you know, the jobs that we have, as I put the individuals from the port, it makes our city so much better because those individuals are put back into the city. If you think about automation, what it would do to a city of this magnitude, it would be incredible. So that's when I sit down and talk to some of the management and the board. What impact would this have for us? Automation would be, and I know what it would be because I've had a chance to go over and take a look at it. You know, it's kind of odd you walk around and talk to nobody. You know, what kind of job you want like that. But I can see of individuals coming out of school with no education and can make the type of money that you make there. I mean, this is something that everyone it's a dream job because I remember the lines that they used to have when they did open it up were male and female. And everyone have a chance to work at the port and those individuals have those jobs, what they've done for themselves and their families, it's incredible. So what are we talking about? Automation. I don't even. What how do you talk to a robot? So you guys have to understand, we have a job. We're going to do it right. Thank you very much for being a part of it. Thank you. I want to just one quick thing to add, because it's been mentioned a few times, I just want to make it. I think the council certainly aware. And just to be clear, also, the Port of Long Beach is not some faraway entity. The Port of Long Beach is a department of the city of Long Beach. So the Port of Long Beach is the harbor department of the city of Long Beach, just like the Port of Los Angeles is not some faraway entity from Los Angeles. It's the it's the department of the city. And so I think for for this body, like our water department or our civil service department or the many other departments that are that are governed through appointments made and affirmed by this council and myself, these these departments of the city are are critical to the work and the way they impact our our community. And so it's very appropriate and important for us to to work with all of our city departments in coming up with solutions to these big challenges. And so I think that's that's important. And I know we're all going to move forward together. And so with that, there's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Thank you. And thank you all very much for for coming out. I know we have our budget hearing. I do want to make sure I do public comment as well as there's one other item that has folks here. So I'm going to take those to you before I do the budget hearing. Can I get a motion in a second on consent calendar, please? There's no public comment. Please cast your votes.