Recommendation to receive and file Fiscal Year 2019 Year-End Budget Performance Report and increase appropriations in several funds across several departments for various purposes to reflect final expenditures and carryover clean-up.  (Citywide)
Washing cars. Thank you. We are going on to the next item. Item 19 is a report from financial management. Recommendation to receive and file fiscal year 2019 year end budget performance report and increase appropriations in several funds across several departments for various purposes to reflect final expenditures and carry over cleanup up. I thank you. I think actually Councilman Mongeau is going to this is the BSE report, I think. Mr. Monica, did you want to start or do you want to turn over? My God. Sure. This is a staff report that's coming back from the Department of Finance. And then it was heard by the Budget Oversight Committee last Tuesday, I believe. And I think they have some recommendations as well. So I will turn it to Grace Yoon to give the report and then we'll hear from the U.S.. Evening, Mayor and members of the city council. This is the year end performance report for FY 19 for all funds. We have some good news to report as the general fund ended the year with approximately 7.98 million surplus and the Uplands Oil Fund ended with 222,000. The general fund surplus is less than 1.5% of the general fund budget. However, the surplus is larger than typical this year, mostly due to higher revenues than budgeted. Major contributors to this surplus were unexpected one time revenues in general positive economic growth and sales tax, as well as proactive management of the budget to generate departmental savings. One time sales tax revenues typically come from construction materials and from equipment purchases by companies, but can also be due to other factors. In the past, one time revenues have not been built into revenue projections due to their volatility. However, in a strong economy, one time, revenues as a whole can repeatedly occur, typically by businesses continuing to make major capital investments. This is what's happening in this economy and a change in projection methodology to provide some consideration of one time sales tax revenues is appropriate to consider. The budget staff is working with our sales tax consultants to develop a methodology to project and include one time revenues in the budget in a prudent way. The Performance Report provides a list of recommended uses of the General Fund and Uplands Oil Fund funds available. In summary, the funds are recommended to be allocated towards addressing homelessness, operational carryover, underfunded council approved initiatives and infrastructure and other liabilities. The ability to fund some critical projects is great news, but many important needs still remain unfunded, including the operational cost of funding. The FY 20 labor agreement costs currently estimated at 12 million. Only a small uplands oil fund surplus has been allocated towards these labor costs. To pay for FY 20 costs associated with labor agreements, the city will need to use as first priority any surplus generated in FY 20. And if that is not enough, the city will need to draw down from reserves. There's also good news with measure revenues, as with the similar sales tax measure. Revenues have shown excellent revenue growth and one time patterns at FY 19 year end, there is 4.3 million of unallocated measure surplus funds. The recommended uses of the surplus are to support a police academy class costs associated with converting a former landfill site to the new Davenport Park Eldorado Field Turf Conversion Project, 100,000 for irrigation pumps and 100,000 for tree stump removals in accordance with the direction of the City Council and the Bossie as part of the FY 20 adopted budget. In addition, staff is recommending that the first 3 million of unallocated measure a FY 20 surplus funds be allocated to support the Police Academy Building Project. These measure recommendations will also be reviewed with the Citizens Advisory Committee on March 20th. The report provides additional information on key non general fund funds. Overall year in spending came in under budgeted appropriations for all other funds. After factoring in technical adjustments requested in the performance report. This concludes my staff report and I'm available for questions. Thank you. Let me turn this over to B or C chairperson councilman, mongo. Thank you. I want to thank the staff for their diligent work this year. I also want to thank the voters for their approval of measure. And I further want to thank my colleagues for their continued support of important projects. I'm the Bossi met and reviewed all of the priorities as listed. We grilled some of our department heads on their questions and priorities, and I'm very comfortable with the recommendations before us now. I'd like I as at my understanding, I need to read these recommendations. Yep. Great. They're a little lengthy, so bear with me. First, I'd like to make a motion to approve the staff recommendation in the FBI 19 year end performance report with the following clarifications for the 100,000 allocated to irrigation pumps under measure, recommended uses of unallocated funds include that the funds can be used for filtration, circulation and irrigation . When the appropriation request comes to City Council, allocate the 100,000 to the appropriate department. Has that been completed in this allocation here today? A Council member. The actual budget appropriation will come back in our first budget adjustment report for FY 20. Great. That's slated in March. And for my colleagues, that is some of the work will be done by public works. Some will be done by Parks and Rec. In the past, there's been some back and forth that has caused delays. And so financial management is getting ahead of the game by making those allocations in advance with a recommendation that the first 3 million of unallocated measure, a fiscal year 20 surplus funds be allocated to support the Police Academy Building Project, and that the recommendation should that if the recommendation should come in under cost, that funds can be spent in the areas adjacent to the facility for improvements for the 200,000 allocated to support the work of the Office of Civic Innovation as it addresses homelessness under the General Fund, the recommended uses for funds available. As you may have seen, staff recently provided a report to the City Council on those proposed uses of the funds, so they have met the requirement of that before spending for the 100,000 allocated to the preparation of the Strategic Vision for 2030 Plan . Under the General Fund, recommended uses of funds available staff should provide a report to the City Council on how the plan will benefit the entire city and what steps will be made to ensure city wide impact. Included in the report include in the report any elements of the communication toolkit that can be utilized to ensure city wide involvement and impact city manager is also is to also request support from other departments, including harbor and water as appropriate to support the effort and provide a report to the City Council for all elected officers of their five year budget and actuals. Ensuring that any accounting errors needed to be corrected are corrected in advance of the circulation of the report. Those are my motions and I'm also available for questions. Councilman Austin. Thank you and I appreciate the staff report. I want to just say to the entire team, city manager, financial management, as well as the city council, congratulations. Because, you know, we don't get this kind of good news each and every year. This is close to $13 million of a surplus, which is pretty, pretty amazing. And I think that speaks to a lot of the good decisions that have come from this council, the conservative budgeting that we've put forward, and estimations in terms of returns, but also some great progress with our economic development work throughout the city. And so congratulations to the entire team all the way around. Does it mean that we don't have great needs still and every bit of these surplus dollars are now accounted for because of many unexpected issues that have come up priorities for this Council over the last year, year and a half as well. And so I'm glad to see as committing resources to improving our building homeless shelter and continuing to be innovative with the on the services of the magnolia trees is something that I'm hearing more and more about from constituents. And I know other council offices are well are as well. And so to see that we're committing resources to dealing with that, that issue is something that I know is going to be welcome to many of my constituents and as well as a thank you. I certainly support this because we do need funds to complete the Davenport Park Project, which is also called out in this in this recommendation as well. And so I'm encouraged with that. And then the police academy, these are one time funds and we've been doing and funding our police academies and fire academies for the last several years with one time funds. And so this is, in my opinion, appropriate use because I'm hearing from constituents that, you know, police public safety, safety services are extremely important to them. They maintain and continue to be a high priority. And of course, I see Chief Espino there in uptown. We want to replace Fire Station nine. There's no money in this particular recommendation, but in the last budget through Measure A, we have appropriated, I think, a significant amount of money to to put us in the right on the right track to to making that happen expeditiously. And so I certainly support this this item. And again, I want to congratulate the entire city team for being able to to realize a surplus in FY 19. And and I think we are are spending this these resources, these public resources wisely as priorities have been set by this council as well as the public. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I don't have the list of those folks that signed up for public comment. I know that. I do. You have it. I did see it. It was a. I think it's for members of the public that sign up to speak. It's Larry Goodhue and Cantrell carelessly and John Shultz in that order. So please come forward. Why don't we have Miss Cantrell mostly come forward? May I make a comment while they're coming forward or. It may also be supportive, supported by our colleagues. I really appreciate city manager, acting city manager Modica and his support and recommendation for the divide by nine. Many don't know that when we did the budget last year, every council office was very supportive of how lean we were and how tight the budget was and we did not have any available. And so the ability to fit in just a little bit of that funding is a big help to many of the council offices and I know they're appreciative. So thank you again for that. Mr. Modica. Thank you. Let's hear from the public. Lose control. Good evening. In control. And I'm pleased that you have a surplus this year. This is wonderful news. I agree with all of the things that you have come up to spend this on, except for the $1.5 million for an artificial. Turf field in Eldorado Park. As you remember from this poster, I have been fighting artificial turf for over five years. Professional soccer players prefer natural grass. In fact, the Women's World Cup complained because the men got to play on natural turf. They had to play on artificial artificial turf. Creates more injuries. It is so hot that it has to be cooled with water on even a mild summer day. My grand daughter, who plays soccer, says that her feet burn through the her the soles of her shoes, even with cleats. I agree. We need a new soccer field in Eldorado Park. The one that's there is full of gopher holes. It's dangerous. But for the $1.5 million, you could put in a natural grass field that's well prepared. You could put in two so that they could be rotated. And there could be play year round. Eldorado Park uses reclaimed water. This cannot be used to cool or wash artificial turf. So I'm assuming that the 1.5 million is going to pay for a new sprinkler system. Also, the plan includes boulders around the size of the field to keep out bikes. These are a hazard for play for soccer players. Long Beach Unified is putting artificial turf in all the high schools and many middle schools. NYS O should be allowed to use these fields on weekends. Plastic is bad for the environment. It shreds and washes into the gutters and storm drains which go into the ocean. And disposable of these feel the spoils of these feels after 5 to 7 years when they're no longer usable is becoming a huge problem. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. There are better uses for this 1.5. Thank you, Ms.. Control. Mislead. Please come forward. I'm also pleased to see there is a surplus this year. Let's see. Where am I? Here. Okay. If we have surplus funds, they should be spent on bringing back the police and doing the street maintenance. That was what was originally promised with Measure eight funds or the two things that people are most interested in. If you look at what we've gotten back for that money, we only have 22 officers funded, 19 of those positions filled and three of the positions being used for overtime. But GLASSIE Mailer said 200 less police equals a lay, a less safe Long Beach. And that's true. So I'm pleased to say that the police academy is going to be funded. But what I don't like is looking at the transactions and the use tax spreadsheet that shows that there's 22 million going into public safety maintenance in 2020. Public safety maintenance was defined for me by the Finance Department as being wages and compensation for existing officers, not new hires. So I feel like the people didn't get anything for that 22 million that was supposed to have come out of the original general fund streets. If you look at street maintenance, we only used 15% of the money that has come through so far on streets and that's looking at mobility. 43 million of the 222 million received since inception. And that's another thing that I hear repeated over and over again by the people. Let's see if we have more funds. I'm also opposed to the artificial turf soccer field, mainly because I'm a part of of the group, the Friends of Eldorado Park East. And we've submitted extensive documentation on what's needed at Eldorado Park. And we have big maintenance issues. We have non ADA compliance and we have dangerous conditions. I personally fell in November trying to take a picture of it. So, you know, it's that's for real in terms of visioning this artificial turf soccer field seems to me like it's another case of commercializing park space. The real beneficiary of it is the air. So contractor, not the kids, not the players. So if we're going to do visioning, we should include the neighborhoods. There haven't been any outreach meetings on this that I know of in six years on this artificial turf soccer field. And if we're going to be doing I've also seen the RFP where there's additional commercial enterprise being sought. And right now there's 12,000 people have signed a survey for Save the Parks having looked at this. Thank you. So it's serious. Next week, police. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council members and city staff. My name is John Schulze. And I'm a 19 year resident of Council District five. I'm chairman of Play Long Beach. Which stands. For Parkland Advocates for Youth. Play Long Beach was formed to partner with the city and its playground projects. Our next being Long Beach's first all inclusive playground built in Eldorado West. Not too far from the proposed turf field. I look forward to working with all of you on this and other future projects. I'm also an Eldorado Park annual pass holder, but spend most of my time outside the gates with my 11 year old son, JT at Eldorado West. I'm here to advocate. For the proposed state of the art artificial turf playing field. It's beautiful, thoughtful, accessible and safe. Design would be a major improvement to the current rundown space. Our youngest residents deserve a quality field to learn, play and compete on. I've spoken to leaders of local youth organizations, and their members are overwhelmingly in favor of this project. This includes my family. Other local residents who support and appreciate the investments our local leaders continue to make. I'd also like to note that the Parks and Rec Commission also voted to approve this project. In closing play Long Beach not only builds playgrounds, we also support quality, open play spaces for our youth. We support and encourage. Your approval for and construction of the proposed artificial turf field at Eldorado Park West. Thank you for the opportunity. It's really been an honor. First time speaking in this big room. Thank you. Let me address you this evening. And for your part in making Long Beach a better. Place to play. In live. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Mr. Motorcade had a couple questions. Maybe a park staff wants to answer, if you can answer, because I've had a number of conversations with parents and kids that play extensively on the other fields that we've installed in our other parks are artificial, and in fact, they are heavily used, heavily welcomed . I constantly get parents and young kids asking to install more of these fields across the city. The school district is putting in these fields all across the school district and have been they've been wildly successful as far as I can tell. I also know that the kids are playing a WYSO at El Dorado are are a complete reflection of what the city looks like and the parents and the kids involved are looking for more places to play. The one thing that I've always believed in when it comes to Parks and I and and I said this oftentimes at the Coastal Commission when we talked about park space in the coastal zone, is that to really activate our public spaces, including parks, you have to create spaces that people want to come to and that people want to enjoy. And oftentimes it's passive space and it's open space, and often times it's rethinking our spaces to ensure that we're bringing in young people that can experience the types of activities and sports and and and and interactions that encourage them to wants to be within that space. And so the fact that this addition to Eldorado Park, in my opinion, is going to bring a lot of new people to that site and a lot of young people and a lot of young kids that are reflective of this entire city. Do we think that's probably the case? I can have Steve talk about more of the specifics, but I absolutely believe that that's the case. We have seen several of these being done. This has been about a five year program where we started this concept. We actually started it at Eldorado Park was one of the first discussions. And but we've moved throughout the city. I want to remind everyone that this park was actually originally funded. And then because we did additional community outreach and discussion, we actually delayed it and the council member actually donated those funds or said we can move on and do the ones in the other areas, the cities that we have constructed, many of these, they are very well used. Now this is coming back in and creating the one in Eldorado Park. We do hear from the users that they love them, that they are fantastic. We again, we went with a Corgan sand model rather than some of the chrome rubber, which definitely helps with the heaters. We don't have that black material that sometimes can can warm up. And so the one thing to remember is when you have fields, you have to take them down for maintenance. So having a field like this up has it the ability to have much more play all the time rather than having to take it down for maintenance as much. So I will ask Steve if he has anything else to add, but we think your comments are. Spot on and. Mr.. Exactly. Mr. SCOTT. I know that these this field work will actually ensure longer play and longer use of the space because you don't have to actually tear it down or replace the field over, over multiple months. And so if the goal here is to activate the park more and bring more children from across the city and more users of all types to the park, this is going to achieve that, in my opinion. If the goal is to not do that and to keep the space more passive and maybe not encourage these young kids to come to the park, then we can continue to not create these additional types of spaces in across the city. So I strongly support this effort and I also really want to thank Councilwoman Mongo for spearheading this project. It's been something she's been working on for, for many years, and I would go beyond just that, that we need to continue these types of creative uses. I believe that soccer and those that play soccer currently is the height. We have the highest need and requests for more soccer fields across the city right now in our public and park spaces. Is that correct, Mr. Scott? Mayor, members of the city council soccer is probably our largest sport in terms of play, in terms of play both at the youth level and the adult level. And we have four artificial turf fields already in our rotation in the city, and we have heard nothing but positive comments about those spaces. As the acting city manager mentioned. It allows for greater playability because we don't have to take the fields down for maintenance to keep the fields safe. We would need to take them down for six week periods at a time. With artificial turf fields, we don't need to do that. That downtown downtime, maintenance. And we'll be able to use those fields year round. And so certainly it provides for greater playability, but it also provides a safer playing environment. And I think it was mentioned earlier about gopher holes on fields. And, you know, that's something that artificial turf fields really help us avoid are some of those trip and fall injuries. And so certainly we are excited about the opportunity for a field for artificial turf because it's a safer environment and it allows for greater playability in a sport that is growing. And it reminds me of the discussion that we had, for example, over the additional running, walking on the beach or adding additional active space. And in places that maybe have been passive, there is absolutely a place and a time to to preserve a complete passive space. But there's also an opportunity for us to bring more people to that space and activate them in new ways, particularly with young kids. And so I'm very supportive of that. And I thank you guys for your work on this. Councilman Marengo. Thank you. Mary and I have an artificial field in my district in the Advocate Park, and I like to thank the EEOC and more specifically, Councilwoman Mungo, because she sacrificed her field before I got mine. And I can attest to the fact that that field is used from daylight to day night to nighttime. And rise to something. Still too dark. And it's been utilized a lot. And I think that it's been basically a a nothing but a positive influence on what went on in the West Long Beach area, especially with these kids who want to play soccer and also for the adult teams as well. So a very supportive of this. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Thank you. I just want to clarify that measure A and the promises of Measure A have consistently, year after year been fulfilled. The promises that this diocese, this board made were for infrastructure and public safety and maintaining our parks and libraries are as important as our streets. You will hear me at community meeting after community meeting, fighting for streets, streets, street streets. But one of the frustrating things about street repair is it's a long planning process and we can only do so many streets a year because there are only so many asphalt vendors. I'm very fortunate that the fifth District has had nearly 200 streets repaired, but we were also double the detriment of other streets in other districts. So I think the next close is at the time when I was elected was Councilmember Oranga with about $20 million in street repair need and I was at $40 million that I inherited from my predecessor. Additionally, in relation to the extensive amount of maintenance and repairs needed at Eldorado Park, both west and east, I've consistently helped form friends groups I have consistently requested, and the groups to maintain a list of their needs and the items on the lists that are easily identifiable and maintained and communicated to our office have been funded. We're doing a $2 million duck pond restoration and enhancement. We've replaced and funded new tables. There were 40 tables identified throughout the park that were in disrepair. I went to one of the friends group meetings and proposed where we should place them and talked about the different strategies on how we could repair other benches throughout the park. I'm not using injury funds, but using council district funds for something that was on their list. And then the 100,000 in filtration pumps that were allocated tonight with this vote, that will be helpful. And then millions of dollars throughout the city. But several of them will be for park bathrooms in Eldorado Park done this summer. So that's about $6 million in investment in just Eldorado Park, east and west. And that is with a list that's just not maintained as actively as some of our other groups like Play. And one of the things that that's very helpful is when a group like Play or Friends of Wardlow Park get together and keep a list. When funds become available, it's really easy to find out. This is a small dollar amount. What small dollar amount items can we make significant progress on very quickly? Even so much as say that it's been almost a year and we allocated over $10,000 for trashcan lids, but the group hasn't really come together on what solution they want yet. And so those moneys are kind of tied up. So I look forward to meeting with those groups again potentially as early as this Friday. But I hope my colleagues will support moving forward on these items tonight because the community, as I have heard them, are in huge support. So thank you very much for that support and and your leadership on many things in the city. John. Thank you. Councilwoman, there's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Thank you. Motion carries. When do we think this project will start? But in a few weeks. The the artificial turf in Eldorado Park. I'm turning to our partners in public works to see how quickly we can start. I know there's still the funding vote that's going to be required coming up shortly. Um, it's about 30 seconds away for that funding vote. So we'll get back to you on when that will be. I had heard it would be about six weeks. Is that correct? Okay. Okay, great. So then how long is that going to be? Mr. Modica and Apr.