Recommendation to direct City Manager to work with Economic Development to request an Economic Impact Report and report to Council in 30 days regarding the 1) feasibility of and potential benefits and risks of implementing a citywide private healthcare minimum wage increase in Long Beach; and 2) to work with the City's Economic Development Commission to take public input and review the study's findings and make recommendations to the City Council.
Thank you. So that satisfies public comment. Well, now move on to item number 28. Item 28 Communication from Councilwoman Sarah. Councilwoman Allen. Recommendation to direct City Manager to work with Economic Development to request an economic impact report and report to council in 30 days regarding implementing a citywide private health care minimum wage increase and to work with the city's Economic Development Commission. Thank you, Councilman Ciro. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Well, I want to thank Councilwoman Allen for coauthoring this item with me. You know, COVID 19 pandemic has really highlighted the importance of our health care workers, particularly our low wage health care workers who've worked alongside our doctors and nurses who have also risked their lives in the process. As. Well. And all who've worked to keep our hospital and health care facility going are all our who we have called our heroes during that very difficult period. And a large percentage of those workers have left the health care industry. So increasing the minimum wage would be an important step to retaining these health care workers. And so this request to increase the health care minimum wage has come from the people, has come from those who have signed and submitted a petition for the health care workers wage ordinance. And so the purpose of this item is to request the impact economic impact report so that we're better able to understand how it impact the city, the industry, the local economy, as well as the workers. How would that also? So overall, the impact and so before I think I just want to ask a few question about the process around the petition. So I know that there's probably a lot of question, which is the point of this economic impact report. But I just wanted to at least get the basics around how many signatures are needed and, and to qualify for this to be on the November ballot. And how many have been submitted so far? So I think our city clerk is coming back out. So that will be something that she would be in the best position to answer. She's been working directly with the L.A. County to do the actual vote count and can give us some more information. Monique. Thank you. So the petition needs approximately 27,000 signatures, 28,000 signatures, which is 10% of the registered voters in the city of Long Beach for the petition to be successful. And they submitted their petitions and they have approximately 47,000 over 47,000 signatures that need to be verified by the county. And so what happens if they're verified that they've received enough votes and. If they're found sufficient, then we would come back to council and present that to the entire council. And then there is three actions that can be taken. One is just to adopt the ordinance, as is with no changes. The second option is to submit it to the voters on the November ballot, as is with no changes. And third, you can request a study to be done on the on the ordinance. And I think you are currently doing that right now. So and then after that study, when it would come back, you have ten days to then take one of the two actions again, adopt the ordinance or submit it to the vote of the people. Great. Thank you very. Much. Mm hmm. The councilman. Councilwoman Allen? Yes. Thank you, Councilman Ciro, for taking the lead on this and for allowing me to co-sponsor. I think it's important that we understand the possible impacts, both positive and negative, of broad measures like this one, especially when we're dealing with essential services like health care staffing. I understand that the county is examining the signatures that have been submitted for the petition to be eligible for the November ballot. Thank you for answering the question. 47,000. I think the last I heard we were like a fourth. They were at 41,000. So 47,000 is a significant number. So thank you for that report. It seems to me so far that the community is is ready to stand up for health care workers. And these workers have put themselves in harm's way for the rest of us. And they've endangered themselves and their family members as they're taking care of so many people in our community that were being hospitalized. I know from many of my conversations with them, they're often overworked and understaffed and often make barely more than minimum wage for their sacrifices. They have acted heroically through the last several years. And I know that so many of us are very grateful for all their efforts. So I look forward to hearing back from our staff on the estimated effects of this potential ballot measure. Oh. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I echo the comments of the councilwoman who authored this item and brought it forth in terms of our support of health care workers and obviously all of those in the medical profession during COVID. I think that's definitely something we all agree on. As a council, I love that we're doing this report. I think that's a great idea, and I think that's more information as we move forward with this potential ballot measure. But I'm wondering if the report can also include a couple of other items and. To the city manager who would be who would be conducting the report? Would we be contracting out for that or is that internal? Yes, we would certainly be contracting out. We are trying right now to get a sense from our internal contracting or groups that we have already on retainer if they are available and have the ability to do this. This is a very large report that we're asking for them in a very, very short period of time. So tonight, we'd like to really get your input on the things you'd like to get studied, but it really is going to come down to how much can we physically get done within the 30 to maybe 60 days to have this come back to you by August 9th? Okay. And so what do we know how much the report is going to cost? Because. We don't have any idea how much it's going to cost. We don't have a firm number. Right now, we're estimating that it's probably in the hundred thousand dollars range. Could be a little less. Could be a little more. You know, normally it's scope dependent. We already have the rate set through our internal contractors, but it's it's how much work we want them to do and how much capacity they have to do it or bring on other people to help them do that work within the compressed time frame. And then we also need to do some legal analysis as well through the city attorney's office to make sure we understand the legal implications, which would be part of this report. The legal implications on the city. Well, we understand just we got a lot of questions. Who does it apply to who? You know, what is the definition of worker? What is the city's role? So all those questions would be answered as well. Okay. Got it. So I think some of the questions that I have then might be answered by our own city attorney as opposed to needing to go to outside. So the question I had was what the impact on the city might be, because the measure could potentially place upon the city the requirement for enforcement. I don't know if that's financial, human resources, probably both. So what would the impact to the city be? And so review should definitely include that so that we're mindful of that because obviously we're going into some difficult years financially and we want to make sure we have an understanding of what additional responsibilities we'd have to take on as a city. The second question that I would want included and again, I think again this might go to exactly what you just said to the city manager in terms of who's actually included. I just would be curious what percentage of Long Beach health care workers are excluded versus included when we consider, you know, community clinics, skilled nursing facilities, you know, other facilities that might be excluded. It's very technical. So I would like to know, you know, what percentage of Long Beach health care workers, you know, would be included ultimately? And I think that if we can include that in the report and then obviously this is a report that we had budgeted for. So where do you anticipate the money for this report? What what part is that coming out of? Yeah, I'll do my best to answer those for the impact on enforcement. It certainly is written in the measure that that the city would enforce. So that means we would have to come up with a staffing model or or contract with somebody like L.A. County to do that. So that would be part of this study is trying to determine the workload. We do imagine that would be, you know, you know, several employees because we're now taking complaints and also investigating them and following up with the legal forces to to make sure that the wage is paid appropriately. The other question was. And so it was about the report of the $100,000 or so to do this. So normally when you we get asked for reports like this, we take the report, we come back to you with a report on what it will cost and how long it is and where we think we might find the money or ask you for direction. This is different because this is something coming directly from from proponents. We are required to put it onto the ballot potentially there you'll see will walk through the options in a little bit. But we need to if you're going to ask for a study, I do need to move forward like right away. So we would essentially make this a priority expense item that would come out of a year end fund balance. Whatever savings there are from salaries, savings or others, this would have kind of first call on those dollars. And we believe they will be there. They just, you know, it would be money we wouldn't spend on something else. Okay. Well, I fully support doing an economic impact report. I think any time we have a big policy like this, whether it's on the ballot or before the city council, having that economic impact report is a very good idea because it allows us to inform voters. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman, Mongo. Thank you. I think that this is been a a great group of people who have come forward. And I've learned a lot in talking with individuals. And I think that some of the discussions that we've had, people have learned a little bit about me and my background, and many people don't know that I worked on the nursing pay plan for L.A. County, and I'm really committed to knowing and understanding how we can best support our health care workers. I think it's really important that we talk through who's covered and who's not covered. And I really appreciate that the perspective is to do a study, and I would really find it valuable to ensure that it's a broad review of the potential health care costs as well. I know that when we in L.A. County looked at what positions needed to be adjusted back in, gosh. 0508 we really took a hard look at which additional positions needed to be included. And I, I worry that there are some people who are left out that we don't want to leave out. So I would just request that the report include the potential impacts and health care costs related to the variance. Not all hospitals are included. What does that mean on uninsured? What does it mean on disadvantaged and underserved communities? If you go to one hospital versus another hospital, how are insurance companies impacted? What does that look like for a system of care? I think I would be more supportive of a health care worker living wage where we know that it's broadly applied across all areas. I know that in talking with my colleagues today, we kind of talked even about like, what about a chiropractor? Are there workers included? What about a dentist? Are there workers included? I mean, they are part of the health care system, but they're not really included in this measure. And so who are we to pick winners and losers? We want to make sure that if we're lifting up an industry and that industry is all within the context of the purpose that we're we're doing it fairly and equitably across the board. So I would just ask that the economic analysis include a clear explanation of or a clear recommendation, I would say, on who else should be included. If we as a council want to come forward and and bring an item to have approval for the for the council to approve instead of having to go to the voters, what does that look like and who else should we include? I would also ask that we just seriously look at the impact on our uninsured and disadvantaged and underserved communities working for the fire department of L.A. County. Our statistics consistently show that individuals and you'll see in a television show that's coming out in the fall, a lot of our patients don't even want to go to the hospital because of the costs. And so if this is only going to be an additional burden on our most disadvantaged communities, I have serious concerns about that because we're already having a huge challenge getting them to take medical care. And so how can we either. Make up for that. How can we make sure that this doesn't impact it negatively? So if Councilman Soros open to it, I don't know if I need to get a friendly or if if I see City Manager Modica taking notes, are we just generally giving some feedback and ideas and the consultant will do the work? Or do we need to actually move that into the item? He's an American. So what would you respond to that scope? So I think tonight we can hear some of the general thoughts. I think at the end of the night, it would be helpful to hear from the maker of the motion that the things discussed and generally meet the items that she's putting forward. If they don't, then I think we would need to go through some parliamentary procedure to accept friendlies. I do want to speak at the end about expectations, about how much we can actually get done. These studies could take months and months and months, and we did our own minimum wage study. We contracted with the LDC and that process took almost a year to go through all the different economic studies and get all the public input. And this is something we're trying to do in 30 days to maybe 45. So we'll have to set some expectations about what we can do. And a lot of it's going to be the capacity of our consultants to to do that work within that short time frame. So since it is a short time frame, it sounds like you would pull from a consultant pool that you already have available to you. And are there any consultant pools that have already done studies like this that could be a deeper dove and applicability to Long Beach specifically? We haven't come across that yet. We've already reached out to our our local pool and we've had a number declined, saying that they don't believe that they could meet the task. So we are going to have to continue to find ways to narrow the scope to give them a little bit more time. Again, we're just getting into this because we haven't gotten formal direction yet to start. But I was getting the sense that the council is going to want to have some sort of study. So after today, tonight really is going to be important to get the general idea of how much how much public involvement, how much scope the general terms. And then we really need to put our nose to the grindstone to find someone who can help us do this. Well, I appreciate that. I think it's it's really important to also understand the impact on our non-covered entities, because we talk a lot about the shortages in health care right now. I know that many of you know, I've been in and out of Memorial Hospital caring for a family member. And we're borrowing nurses from all over the region. And the hospitals that we're borrowing them from are in a really tough position. And we want to be in a good position in Long Beach, but we also recognize that are part of a bigger system of care. And so I want to make sure that we know the the broader impact on. Private hospitals at a time when they're already struggling and also on the business community and what that looks like for wages of all businesses and how that will change the marketplace. Thank you. Councilwoman. Councilman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. So, Mr. Modoc, I heard you say that this is a large report in a short period of time and it's compressed and, you know, working with your contractor, working with the city attorney's office. So it sounds like even having your contractors say they're not interested this 30 days is 60 days. 90 days. What what are you what are you thinking? That you need to get this done? So we're somewhat constrained by the the election schedule. So by 88 days before the election, the item you'll need to make a decision to move that item to the city or to the county. So really, we're looking at August 9th as the very, very last day, Tuesday before the 12th, that you're going to have time to make decisions. So that's what we're shooting for. That's a little less than 60 days, if that helps, that would help a lot if we didn't have a 30 day time frame. But we could use as much as that time as we can. Gearing up to the August 9th meeting, if we can get it done a week earlier, we'd prefer to do all this a week earlier so that you don't have all that action happening just with two or three days before the deadline. Okay, so I'd like to make it friendly for a 60 day. But not to exceed the the county deadline. Correct. Got it. Yes, I said. But thanks. So I'm next. Just a couple of things. I would first just acknowledge that this is, you know, a citizen driven petition process. And there are options, only a few options. And the city council even has once that process has begun. So. Mr. City Manager, could you just walk us through what you understand is those options? To be sure, I can try to summarize and then I can ask the city clerk or city attorney to jump in if I missed something. Sure. So we understand your option. Once you get the the ballot back and knowing that it actually qualified, you have the option to just adopt it as it is. So you can say as a body, we are going to adopt it. You can't make any changes but just adopt it. And that would not go to the voters, but it would become kind of the law in Long Beach. A second option is you can forward that on to the county and put it on the ballot for the voters to decide. Again, in that scenario, you may not change any of the wording, you may not make any any adjustments. It's just passing it on and the voters vote on it as it is written that signatures were collected. You have the option that we mentioned before to study it, at which point then you have to make some decisions. And I and Monique can probably explain that a little bit better than I can. And then the fourth option is one that is sort of a hybrid. You can pass your own companion measure so you can forward on their measure, but have your own measure that you have voters consider. Or alternatively, you can propose something at the council as an ordinance, and the the proponent can actually withdraw their item if they believe that that is, you know, in their interest. But it is solely at their discretion. It is not at the city's discretion as Charlie or Mo, if I missed anything there. No, I think I think he covered it. The the the council could put on a competing measure, a measure that is similar but different. And then if both items go to the ballot, the one with the most votes would control. Other than that, I think Tom covered it. Okay, great. Just a just a few questions that we evaluated. How much the election would cost to add this question on the ballot. Adam Clark. So each additional ballot measure after the citywide office of mayor is on the ballot is approximately 100 to 150000. So if we were to add another measure, it would be approximately 100, 250,000. Okay. And in I would just say, particularly after what we just went through, I think, you know, lifting up our health care workers as much as we can is incredibly important. And we also should acknowledge that a significant job driver in our region, in our city, is the health care industry. So we we need to make sure that we listen to and acknowledge that sector that we want it to be healthy. I think I've heard good and bad with the measure, but I think we need to as a council, we absolutely have to study it. I think we everything that's come forward, we've always done a study. So thank you, Councilman Ciro, for doing that. I think that's incredibly important. I think we also need to look at what our options are in terms of options for if there is an opportunity to fix some of the issues that were raised and look at option four. So I know we can't do that tonight, but that's something that I'm interested in exploring. But thank you so much. And those are my thoughts. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and actually before we show a couple more comments, but without objection, I'm going to turn over for public comment that will come back to Councilwoman Sara. So if there's any public comment and Madam Clerk, please go ahead and go through those. Will the following speakers people line up at the podium Suzanne Jimenez, Dave Shukla, Adina Tessler and Braden Phillips? Can you please line up at the podium? Suzanne Jimenez, Dave Shukla, Adina Tessler and Braden Phillips. Good evening, counsel. My name is Suzanne Jimenez. I am the. Proponent of the measure that you guys are speaking about. And, you know, I really. Want to thank Councilmember Zero and Councilmember Allen for requesting this impact report. We think it's an important part of this process so that we can show this is desperately needed for our patients, our communities here in Long Beach. You're going to hear from health care workers today about what they've been through the last two and a half years. And it's just gut wrenching. And so, you know, I think it's important for us to do this this report. But I also want you all to really consider what health care workers have been through. And I appreciate you all. And just for the record, I am a Long Beach resident. Obviously, I'm the proponent and I live in District three. So thank you. Good evening. Dave Shukla, Third District. I'd like to speak in support of the motion as well as to ask a couple of specific questions on what the report will do. Hopefully the point of the report or the study is to understand the risks, the costs, the liabilities not only to the city, but to to the workforce or to affected parts of the industry. I appreciate the staff the way the item was written, and I'd like to highlight the last sentence of the size of this. Low wage health care workforce exceeds the size of most other occupational groups and includes more people than transportation and warehousing and twice as many grocery workers. It would be helpful specifically to know if we can get good data on which employment sites, not just what types of workers, but which sites. In Long Beach, as written, the already submitted ballot measure will effect, one hopes that an alternative put forth by the city at cost 100 158 cost won't be just to compete with it or to try and confuse voters. Hopefully, a study will include not only the four scenarios laid out by the city manager just express adoption or modification or an alternative ordinance. But also. The cost of not doing some kind of wage increase. I mean, West Hollywood as of July 1st is increasing health care sorry. A hotel worker paid $18 an hour, San Francisco City and countywide $17 an hour. Santa monica as of July four, it's also $16 an hour. Health care wages, especially for the groups that were mentioned in the staff report, have not increased city wide. It would be great to see support for actually raising their wages. Thank you. Hello. My name is Adina Tessler and I'm here on behalf of the Hospital Association of Southern California. We are comprised of over 180 member hospitals and 35 health systems, plus numerous professional associations and associate members, all with the common goal to improve the operating environment for hospitals. And the health status of. The communities that we serve. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all today on this very important matter. We've also submitted a letter to the city clerk that should be before you. We strongly urge the City Council to conduct an economic analysis prior to acting on the $25 minimum wage ordinance for certain health care workers . The $25 an hour minimum wage measure would set a standard for certain workers only at private hospitals, hospital owned facilities and dialysis clinics, but completely excludes workers who do the exact same jobs at public hospitals, community clinics and health care facilities, including all of the University of California and county hospitals, federal qualified health centers, and Planned Parenthood . In fact, the majority of health care workers throughout the city of Long Beach are excluded by this measure. We all agree health care workers are heroes. But this measure measure is not a way to show our gratitude because it is deeply flawed. Inequitable. And will ultimately hurt the health care workforce. It will create deep divides. There are. Many unintended. Consequences of the proposal, and it is vital that we understand the potential impact for the city workers, health care providers and communities. For instance, understanding which health care workers would benefit and which are excluded is central to understanding the measure. For example, at the facilities being targeted only non-clinical, workers are actually going to get a benefit. We're talking about very important members of the hospital community, like food service workers, security receptionists, not clinical workers. It also applies unequally to different types of providers. The city should understand which health care providers are required to meet the new provisions and which are not, and what the fiscal impact and staffing impact will be on both covered and non-covered facilities. This analysis should include a broader. Review of the potential impact on health. Care costs and access to health care in the city of Long Beach, including the impact on uninsured, disadvantaged and underserved communities. The measure requires the city to enforce its new requirements. A comprehensive analysis should be done to determine the feasibility and cost to the city for enforcement and implementation. For these reasons, we encourage the City Council to require an economic study prior to acting on this measure. Thank you for your time. After Braden Phelps, if we could have Alex Mercado, Kate Gutierrez, Jessica Hondo and Gregory Shorter, thank you. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and members of the City Council. My name is Brayden Phillips. I'm a third district resident. My address is on file. I'm currently the chair of the governing board of the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and the Miller Children's Women's Hospital in Long Beach. Like many in our community, our board is both proud and appreciative of the professionalism, hard work and personal sacrifices of all our employees that they made to treat patients in our community during the COVID 19 pandemic. All essential workers, including those outside of health care, across the spectrum of services vital to our health, safety and quality of life, truly are heroes worthy of our unending gratitude and continued recognition. Unfortunately, the proposed measure to increase the minimum wage of private health care workers is not the way to go. It is deeply flawed, inequitable and would ultimately hurt access to care, especially for the disadvantaged communities. The measure picks winners and losers losers among the essential workers, even among health care workers. This initiative specifically targets only private hospitals and dialysis centers in ten California cities. At the same time, it excludes similar workers at public hospitals, community clinics, federal qualified health centers, Planned Parenthood clinics, nursing homes, medical centers, and many other health care facilities which represent the vast majority of health care workers. These arbitrary omissions are inequitable. Furthermore, this ballot measure does not does nothing for those essential workers in our city, including those who work for the city of Long Beach in every customer serving department. While I think this proposal is not in the best interest of our hospitals or community, I applaud the City Council recommendation to conduct an economic analysis to better understand the negative and inflationary impact it will have on our health care. Our city and its workers. Singling out private health care workers could have a profoundly negative impact on meeting the employment needs for similar employees throughout our local economy. I also urge the City Council to include in the proposed economic analysis the impact of the wage increase on private and public hospitals and health care facilities in our city . Thank you. Hello. Council members Mayor and Vice Mayor. My name is Greg Shorter and I have been a Long Beach resident for 30 years. Thank you to council members, sorrow and council members Allen for your leadership on this issue and requesting a report. I am an orthopedic technician and I am here to urge you to pass to health care worker minimum wage as an ordinance. For the past two years, my colleagues and I have been on the front lines of this pandemic from the beginning. We have shown up to care for patients despite high risk of infection, insufficient protective equipment and long hours of work. Now we are dealing with mental trauma and burnout. We are unpaid and too many of us struggle to afford housing and other basic needs. While our employees are sorry. While our employers are making record profits, I have seen coworkers leave from other jobs and many others are considering the same. That leaves us understaffed and overworked. This measure would actually help many health care workers be able to afford homes, be able to pay their rent, be able to pay for gas, be able to actually support their families. This measure is important to me because even as someone who is working in health care, the cost of living is so high, just paying for food, like I said, and rent is a struggle for so many workers, people like me. My daughter is also a health care worker and it is hard to see her struggle to afford an apartment, let alone a car and all the other things she needs. It's been horrible being a health care worker lately that are call that call that we are so-called heroes while we are working in hazardous condition and risking infection from COVID. At the very least, we should be paid fair wages. This minimum wage increase will help a lot of people to survive in this time of this pandemic and this crisis. I urge you to support the healthcare workers, the minimum wage, to retain and recognize outstanding health care workers in this beautiful city of Long Beach. I think each and every one of you. Can I just say a correction on my name. If you record it is just a Tondo is an apple tis and Tom. Oh and is a Nancy DS dog. Oh. Sorry. Okay. Hi. My name is Jessica Kondo. And I have been and I have been a Long Beach resident for over seven years. Thank you to Council Member Sato. And Council Member Alan for all for your leadership and all your work here in the city on this issue requesting a report. I'm a health care worker and I'm here to express my support for health care workers minimum wage. I made personal sacrifices during the pandemic, working in COVID unit and worked double shifts and took the time away from my child. It saddens me to say that the last two years with my child is a blur because I was so invested in working just to make ends meet at work. We are constantly short staffed. The workload isn't as intense. Sorry. And my current rate of pay isn't enough to pay for childcare or child camp for the summer or to do any other activities. I would be working overnight and double shifts with only one N95 mask to wear for each week, regardless of how sweaty and contaminated my mask got. Health care workers were making $19 an hour, and it's absolutely not enough for food, gas, power and all of life essentials. However, at $19 an hour, I make too much to qualify for any type of public assistance. It's impossible to live in that situation and just to be in it. My daughter is starting first grade this year. At my current rate of pay. There is no opportunity to save money for a car or to pay for things my daughter needs to get for school, let alone to do the things that mothers long to exist to do with her child like to send them to any other extracurricular activities, dance, karate, whatever it may be. Health care workers deserve to be paid fair wages, especially with the conditions we work in. I'm here. Because I believe it is wrong for. Any working person to struggle to meet the most basic needs. That is why I urge to for you to support the health care workers minimum wage, to retain the recognition outstanding health care workers in the city because it's the right thing to do. We support an impact report. Everyone's job in the hospital. Everyone's job in the hospital is just as important and vital one cannot do. Without the other. I'm sure you would never put a price tag on your family member when it comes to their care. You have to take care of the ones that take. Care of you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and members of the City Council. My name is Alex Mercado and I'm here on behalf of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. We want to urge you to complete an economic impact report concerning the private health care minimum wage increase. An economic study would numerically relay the risks and ramifications associated with the $25 an hour wage for all health care employees. We believe it's important for city council to consider the impact this measure will take on the non-covered and covered providers alike. Beyond the health care industry, the proposed measure may also impose financial burdens on the city as a whole to the strain of resources and increase the wages for all businesses. For these reasons, the Chamber believes an economic study will be an effective method of determining all the impacts the measure will take on the health care, business and underserved communities. We therefore urge you to collect further insight through the economic study. Thank you for your consideration. That concludes public comment. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm going to turn this over to councilman. Sorry. I just got a couple of just brief comments, a question, and then I'm back to the council. First, I do want to thank everyone that spoke on this issue, particularly, of course, the health care workers. I think there's no one in this room that doesn't admire or uplift the work that our health care system, our workers have done, particularly in these last two years. And it's been incredible and heroic to see what folks have gone through and what they've done for our community and getting us past the the most difficult moments of this pandemic and are still working every single day to keep people healthy and safe. So a huge thank you to our workers. Also, one thing that's that's I think we're proud of in our community and our city is of our health care system. We have an incredible hospital system. We have an incredible group of nurses and doctors and technicians and health care workers that make up. I try to remember, but Mr. Murdoch, I think it's the second or third largest industry as it relates to jobs in the city of Long Beach. And so when you talk about any time you talk about health care in our community, you're actually talking about not just a sector of our economy and of workers. You're talking about a sector that impacts our city greatly from economic development to jobs to workforce training. And so the discussions around health care are are really important to our community and certainly have impacts in many ways across not just here, but across the region. And I think those numbers are probably correct, Mr. Murdoch. I think from if I remember from the last economic report. Sounds about right. And and so I want to thank everyone. I also just want to I just want to note, of course, as a as a son of a health care worker, I know. And I just wanted to to the particular healthcare workers that spoke. I just want to just thank you personally. I hear a lot of of some of the struggles my own mother went through and my own family members have gone through. And I just thank you for your courage in speaking at any time a community. And this has happened multiple times here at this body. But any time a community or a collection of workers organization is able to collect and bring forward the amount of signatures to put a petition in front of the people of the city is an important discussion that this council should have. And I do commend and thank all the members of the Council, including members of the public on all sides of the issue that want to see and want to encourage a study and to ensure that we're getting all the information that is necessary to make good decisions based on the facts in front of us. I also just want to remind the public that Mr. Modica did lay out some of the options, but at the at the end of the day, if signatures are collected and a ballot measure qualifies, if it is placed on the ballot is up to the people of Long Beach to make those those decisions. There are, of course, other options which I'm sure we will discuss as a body. But those are those are things that are important to to highlight in this process. With that, I had a question. I know there were a couple of comments about and I don't know, honestly, all the details of what's been submitted yet. I'm sure we'll all learn in the weeks ahead. Mr. Marquette, I know that there was some discussion about private versus public hospitals in Long Beach. We don't have do we have public hospitals in Long Beach? I don't think. Besides besides, we're. I'm not recalling any besides the VA. Okay. And so. But maybe I can get them more information. I think when the discussion about private and public at around the region. There are there are similar efforts in other cities or other communities where there, of course, are additional public hospitals or the county system in other systems. So I think there'll be what are called the federally qualified health centers, which actually are more like public institutions. So those are will be ones that we would need to study of. We know which ones are they? Are they covered? Are they not covered in private versus public? So that's what we would look at in the state. And that's the information that the some of the information that you would bring back to the council as far as what exactly what's covered or not covered? Yes, I think we would get a legal definition from read the measure through our legal team of who is covered and who is not. And then we can start looking at what are those businesses and language, the ones that would be covered, the ones that would be not, and try to get some basic economic information from them to to get some magnitude of of who is covered, who is not, and what the impacts would be. Right. Well, thank I appreciate that. Well, thank you. I do want to think, of course, councilman sorry. And Councilman Allen, for for bringing this forward for us to take a look at this. It's absolutely the right the right step for and I'm grateful the council for also weighing in on this process. So let me turn this over to Councilwoman Sara. I think the city manager is also looking for some for some direction to ensure that the study is done as presented. Mr. Monica, do you want to make some comments first? Would you want Councilman Sara to first make a comments? What I'd like to hear from Councilman Bizzaro, and then I can make some comments at the end. Just I'd like to help set expectations of what we can do and can't do and get some direction from council. Great, Councilman. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank everyone for their comment, my colleague, as well as the public comments made. I just wanted to share that, you know, if we had more time, as Tom has shared, our city manager shared, I would love to have been able to include not only private, but the nonprofit, all of the health care workers possible. But because we only have such a short window, I decided to at least narrow the scope in order to be able to get something in return for us to be able to make a decision when it comes before us in August. So rather US have had something that could be narrowed, but obviously I think we're going to do our best to include others. That is my initial desire, but I just wanted to clarify that it had to be narrow based on the timeline that we had and locating somebody that could do this in such a short period of time. So I, I also agree with our city manager that we would love to be able to include so many information to be able to inform voters as well as our council members. But I know that we're going to get as much info as we can to make a decision by by August. So I just want to thank everyone. For their. Feedback and their comments. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I just want to request I appreciate the councilman's urgency, and I think it's really important that we come back quickly because we do need information to do the analysis. But are you stating that you're excluding, including the broader impact on the business community and wages for all businesses that are in the competitive hiring market? Or are you open to that being included in the narrow scope that you have? Well, I think that there are different levels of impact to be considered. I think for the purpose of how we will have to make our decision, I like to be able to make sure that we prioritize it. So, of course, I'd love to see how this would impact our local economy, how it impact our, you know, our business community. But I just want to make sure that we're able to get the crucial information that's needed for us to make a decision as a council body. So does that mean that if it's possible to get it within the timeline and the vendor is able to do that, Mr. Modica would be given that direction. Yes. If there's time to include all of that within 30 to 60 days, if we're able to find somebody that can do it. I appreciate that because the loss of talent and the recruitment and retention issues that could become a part of this, which we're seeing in the market now with the shortage of workers, is is critical, especially on the health care side. We need to be able to provide health care in all different ways. And so I just want to, again, coming from a place of wanting to broaden the measure and recognizing that we can't really change the wording, as Mr. Modica said of their measure, unless we were to put up a different measure and then they were to withdraw their measure. I think that that could at least help us to understand and potentially broaden the measure appropriately. So I appreciate you including those two things for me. Thank you. Councilman. Anything additional before I turn to Mr. Modica? Yes, I just wanted to clarify that as much as I do hear Councilmember Mongo wanting to broaden the measure, that is not up to us as a council body as far as why it is at least laid out in the petition. So I was focusing the economic report in order for us to be able to make a decision around the measure that is before us. And I have you know, I agree with all the council members that we as well as others, that we'd like as much information as possible to make our most informed decision. But again, it's back to the timeline that we have. I just wanted to share earlier, the city manager share took a year to be able to get an economic analysis of their minimum wage. We have 30 to 60 days, if not less than 60 days to get a report back. So I just want to make sure we're being realistic. So I'd like to hear from the city manager what's a realistic scope of work we can get done? All right. Thank you, Councilmember. So I did go back and had a chance to look a little bit about what we did back on minimum wage back in 2015, 2016, which I think will be helpful. So my memory said it was around a year. It was it probably felt like a year, but it was a little more compressed than that. So I, I want to let you know the timeline. So this was a process that the city started. So we had a different process. This is now being brought to us by an outside group. So we're reacting to their proposal. When the city did this process, it was proposed in about July or August of 2015. We got direction in August of 2015 to do the study. We hired the L.A. EDC, who is already doing studies like this for other agencies. So they were already kind of the main contractor and had a scope of work that took about four months. So we got the report back. Having them already had done this for other cities in about four months. Then we did about two and a half months of really solid community outreach and getting lots and lots of input through the Economic Development Commission. So they held multiple, multiple meetings, hours and hours in order to get that to craft recommendations that came back to the council in in January. So that process, the total was about six months. So obviously that is a different process. That's one that we were in control of and we created. So what I think what we can do, because we do have that that slightly less than 60 days in total, you will need to make decisions by August 9th at the very, very latest. So within that time, we will need to create a scope very quickly and start the work and identify the group will be looking to our internal bench that we already have qualified to do that. If at all possible. We will include a legal analysis and spend some of the dollars to get an outside firm to come in and help us really do that. Legal analysis. I do believe the questions we heard your night are the general economic data. You know, what is a wage like that, you know, due to the worker? What does a wage like that due to the business to try to get some general sense. And we would be following the metrics that we outlined in the L.A. EDC report, which I think was kind of considered by both sides, as has information that was helpful. We will do an analysis of industries covered and facilities covered and not covered so we can get a sense of of who would be in and who would be out, as well as if we have the ability and the time to do some economic data on those. We would do a study of the cities enforcement model because there is a provision in the in the in the item saying that the city would enforce it and give you some ranges there. I do think public input is is an important part of your item. We will likely, just given the timeframe, probably have the time to do one input meeting with the Economic Development Commission to have input all there that will gather. And then we'll need to schedule one for them to actually make recommendations, which, you know, maybe right before the council hears it. So in a typical system, we are giving like, you know, two weeks notice between those. In this case, it might be one or two days between some of these steps in order to stay on schedule. We then I do recommend that we keep it at $100,000 or less, because that is the extent of the city manager's purchasing authority. Anything above that, we're going to have to spend a couple of weeks to get it to council, and that's time that we will lose. So that is kind of my summary. I'll turn it to Charlie if I missed anything that he would want to add. No, I think he covered it. We would be doing a help. On the legal analysis to help define who's in the legal provisions of the of the measure so that we can help the city manager under defining the scope of the of the economics. And the one thing I do want to add is like the L.A. EDC report, that was not a report that really provided recommendations. That was one that provided facts. And then it was the Economic Development Commission that kind of took it and provided some of their input that would then come to the council. So we would follow that model as well. Thank you. I do have a couple more council members. Council. Councilman Supernova. Thank you. I do have a couple of questions because as this discussion started, we weren't in the friendly amendment mode. And I would just like clarification on whether Councilwoman Price's ideas or requests are incorporated in this. Also, I'd just like to make a comment on the concept of limiting the study. We're paying 100 grand for a study and we don't know what the impacts are going to be. That's why we're paying so much for it. For example, we don't know if this wage increase would impact home health care workers. For example, we don't know if they will be taking from that industry into, you know, an area where they will get a higher wage. I'm not speculating that. I'm just saying we have no clue what the impacts will be. So any type of limitation from this body as to the study, that doesn't work for me. So I don't know if that's where we are, but that would be my my friendly to say, look, let's not limit the study in scope because we don't know the territory we're getting into. So to respond to that, councilmember. Yes. The items that Mrs. Price put out there are I had those down as what is the impact on city enforcement? Who does it cover? What are the workforces? Who's included and not? And the cost of the study. So all of that would would be included to the question of who would be included or not. I do believe we'll get a good answer from our legal analysis of who is included. What I think might be harder is the level of sufficient detail on the exact economic impact of all the different subpopulations, you know, so we will get try to cover all sectors at the same level. But the deeper we go, the more, you know, granular information you need, the longer the study actually takes. I think, Councilman. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I think what I'm hearing is you can include the feedback that you got from the council. You have limited time, less than two months, and you're going to go as far as you can with whoever is going to take on this job, because so far everyone's said no. I think it's I think we should be clear, this is very, very different than when we proposed minimum wage increase at city council. It's about the path to $15. We had months to go when it's a ballot initiative. We have a very limited amount of time because we have to meet certain deadlines to place it on the on the ballot. So I think it's fair to understand that you're going to give it like Pat Wetzel, say, the good old college try. You're going to give it the college try. You're going to include everything if you heard up here. You're going to do the legal analysis. You're going to do the analysis on who you know, who does include what is the fiscal analysis, who, you know, the impact of the city, all of those things you would include? I would I would just say we have actually had a minimum wage measure in in Long Beach in recent history. Measure in now, I believe the city council did a did an economic study on measure and before it went to the ballot. And that just took a short period of time. Did I am I right? I think I seem to remember there was an economic study. The council did. I don't remember, but I believe it was when we had measure in and. Oh, right. I think that's more similar to this than the larger $15 minimum wage because that was targeted to one group as opposed to, you know, the entire workforce. And whatever approach we took then because we were able to get a report, I would imagine we would take that that same approach. That's a great idea. I did not I can't recall one way or the other what we did on that one. So we will certainly look that up as an idea. Okay. So just just clarifying, it sounds like what most folks have asked for up here. You're going to give it the you're going to try to include that in the scope of it. Is that correct? That's correct. Councilmember, if I could, I think the scope this evening is going to be a little bit broader because if I recall correctly, the measure in study was asked for out of the election code option that the council has when it comes before you. And in the vote there were you had a shorter periods, you had a shorter period of time and you had a more. Of a limited scope because. Of that code section. Tonight's item is not limited by that, so it. Will be a little bit broader than. That. But it's a good point. Thank you. I just want to clarify. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Thank you. I want to appreciate Councilmember Supernova's comment. $100,000 is a lot of money. I don't know what it takes to ensure that all of our questions are answered because it is a very serious question and we are spending this amount of money. We want to make sure to get everything that we need. Is there a way to make an amendment on the floor tonight to give you the discretion that's necessary to make sure that all of our questions are answered, and if a little bit more money needed to be spent because whether it's 100, 110 and obviously everyone who wants to potentially bid on this contract is then. Seeing this meeting tonight and knowing what's available to bid. So it's a it's a very uncomfortable potential situation for that. Thoughts, Mr. Manager. Anything over 100 and 100,000 is going to be is going to just take time to get to your will. We could make that as fast as possible, but you're going to have to declare, you know, a sole source. You're going to have to get that on an item. Couldn't even do it tonight if we want to do. Yeah. And I think we're going to our our consultants who had already bid on fixed prices. So it's really just more of time and materials, how long it takes them to do that rather than, you know, and then putting in a competitor like just adding in profit, that type of thing. I would just say that if it's necessary and I would obviously yield to Council Member zero if it needs to be broken into two pieces and sourced out at lower amounts to each of them that get put together at the end because you have to use two different vendors or whatever. That's not allowed either. Okay, good to know. Thank you. I see the I see the head shakes over there just trying to come up with solutions, less barriers. Thank you, Councilman Price. So just for the record, I think spending $100,000 on an economic impact report is a significant amount of money. I think it's important that we're doing the report. I want to do the report, but we have so many competing interests right now at the city. I'm just thinking about the hundreds of projects that residents bring to our attention with potholes and street paving and sidewalk repairs. And I mean, we're having to say no to people for $5,000 as Ali repair. So I'm not in favor of spending more than $100,000 on on this economic impact report. So I'm hoping we can get it done for $100,000, which I believe is already way significant. But if it goes beyond that, I would like it to come to council for approval, because we we just this is we're not just talking about the economic impact report. We're also talking about the analysis of what our future costs and commitments will be if the measure passes and couple all of that up. That's a significant amount of money. And I just think we need to be very mindful of that. Yes. And what it would have to come to council so it would not be more than 100,000. And if again, if we can do it less, we would. The the study with L.A. EDC was about 65,000 and that was in 2015. So we're we're using that as a as a benchmark. It may be a slightly less complicated study. If we can do it for less, we would do it for less. Thank you very much. I think that concludes council comments. There is a motion and a second. We did public comment already. I think, Mr. Murdoch, I think you're aware of where this landed as far as the requests. Mr. Murdoch, any of the final questions? Are we ready to vote? No. Thank you. That's very helpful. Thank you. Members, please cast your votes on the motion. Motion is carried out through.