Recommendation to request City Manager to engage regional stakeholders, including the Gateway Cities Council of Government and the Southern California Association of Governments, regarding the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s efforts to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulatory framework; and Request City Manager to participate in the commenting period by articulating the City’s vision for a modified CRA.
That's why we're doing it. But seeing that I'm a first and second place girl of Kosovo. Item 17. Communication from Councilmember Richardson. Councilmember Urunga Recommendation to request city manager to engage regional stakeholders regarding the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's efforts to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act regulatory Framework. Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So a few comments on this. So we have a unique opportunity on our hands, and I want to walk folks through what this is. So in response to this investment in redlining certain neighborhoods, Congress enacted the CRT Act of 1977 to promote financial reform. CRT encourages banking institutions to meet credit needs of all communities they serve, including low to moderate income communities through decent, through investment and lending. Here's the problem. Within its 41 years of activity, the CRT has only been modified two times. Unlike the banking industry, which has undergone extensive organizational and technological changes such as interstate banking, internet and mobile banking. Current CRT regulations do not fit the banking landscape, does not adequately meet low to moderate income communities financial needs. So here's our opportunity. In April 2018, the U.S. Department of Treasury released recommendations on how to modernize CRT using four categories one assessment areas to examination clarity and flexibility. Three The examination process. And four performance. Following this outline, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency entered a 75 day comment period in August to gather input from financial actors and community stakeholders regarding these focus areas. The comment period is. Extremely rare as. The C.R.A. has only been revised twice in the last 40 years. The recommended the recommended changes will shift CRT framework from a narrative based framework to a qualitative assessment, ensuring that that the CRT Act is in alignment with its original intent. Here's a few statistics to consider. So in the U.S., there are approximately 9 million unbanked households, 43 million people without without bank accounts that rely on alternative financial services, such as check cashing and payday loans. The average and annual cost of not having a bank is roughly $500 for people who rely on a prepaid debit card. Currently, the L.A. Sierra assessment area monitors all of L.A. County and Orange and Ventura Counties. However, nearly one in five neighborhoods does not have a bank or credit union. In the L.A. County area, which means approximately 600,000 residents in 46 neighborhoods across the county are unbanked. Locally, speaking here in Long Beach, nor the ninth District was the only council district without a bank, and the West Side still doesn't have a banking institution. So thank you, Councilman Rangel, for signing on in support of this. In closing, this is a critical and opportune moment for us to enhance the accountability and responsibility of financial institutions that the responsibility they have in our communities. Historically, Serra's impact on low and moderate income households has resulted in affordable housing, economic development, neighborhood revitalization and lending to the underserved. Updating the Sierra is in alignment with the city's adopted 2018 federal legislative agenda, and it's consistent with the Long Beach economic blueprint. Support of this effort advances economic inclusion opportunities and financially empowers the low income communities. That said, I want to just acknowledge this letter of support and say he couldn't be here today to express his. He sent a letter of support from Randall Hernandez, a chair of economic development. And I want to thank James Alba from City Community Development for bringing this to my attention. Thank you. Thank you, councilman. Councilman Miranda. Thank you very. I want to thank you for bringing this forward. This is an opportunity for a revitalization of our neighborhoods through improved lending and business opportunities. And I totally welcome the opportunity to grow this. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next council. Woman mother. Yes. Earlier. I appreciate that. I was asked to sign on to this item. I'm interested in a project like this, but as I've stated, I'm really concerned about our allocation of resources. So it's hoping the city manager could tell me how many hours of staff time they think that it would take to participate at this level. From what we understand right now. We've we believe this would be a very short period of time. It simply would be to get a letter in that summarizes what our feelings are. So probably just two or 3 hours, we believe. Diana, do you agree with that? Yes. Wonderful. Mr. Richardson or Councilor Richardson, are you open to a do not exceed 5 hours of staff time? I think that is incredibly disrespectful of the intent and the opportunity we have in front of us. My district doesn't have a bank area is filled Long Beach. We have a unique opportunity to express how we feel about this. We've attempted time and time again to partner with banks and institutions. And what message do we send after item after item tonight? We just allocated the item of $70,000 for deal was Muertos. We just had a whole conversation about resources in our parks and recreation. And what we're talking about right now is simply a comment letter give putting Long Beach in a better position for C.R.A.. Here's what else I'll say. We always talk about the cities that are our size Atlanta and Miami. All of those cities have their own C.R.A. assessment area. We are lumped in with all the county of Los Angeles and Orange County and Ventura County. What that means is if a loan is is deployed in Pomona, it counts for Long Beach. If a loan is deployed in Ventura. That counts for a Long Beach. If a bank branch is deployed in Santa Ana, that counts for Long Beach. The industry wants to modernize these standards. We would like to modernize these standards. Staff is aware of this. It takes 3 hours. So, no, I'm not open to that. Well, I think that your response to my response is disrespectful. I warned your staff about this when they brought me the item. I've been very supportive of everyone's items on the agenda tonight. I gave double the amount of time the staff requested for. All I'm trying to do is, as I stated four weeks ago and as a policy that this entire council. Should always be. Tough law. This council unanimously approved. You guys excuse me. I think he was asking him and he said he gave you the answer. That's fine. Yeah. Okay. But as a response, as a policy that this council unanimously approved, that we would start to discuss and send things to committee, which I was not asking to do at this time. I'm very supportive of the item. I think that this is a good thing for us to do. But what I do not feel is appropriate is that we continue to toss stuff to staff with no controls over when, where or how and what other items are being put where. The item regarding the deal, Los Muertos was her funded item, and one of the things I'm definitely interested in for the future would be to say that every councilmember has $100,000 of staff time available to them and they can allocated as they wish. If that were the case, that would be different. But this is not the case. Currently, the cases, whatever councilmembers bring, the most items receive the most allocation of staff time to their priorities. And that's not necessarily a fair and equitable way to distribute staff resources. I'm very supportive of the item. I'm just trying to, on a consistent basis, starting last week, quite frankly, I believe with Councilmember Price's item, sending things to committee because I would like to get controls over the over prioritization where everything in the city is a priority one. I believe this is important. I believe a letter is a great thing to do. I wouldn't be surprised if staff had already crafted the letter because it is so important. If it was so important, I'm surprised that it's October 9th and the comment period has been open since August. But what I would like to say is I'm very supportive. I don't think giving double the number of hours. I'm trying to set a framework, a framework that I thought you were very supportive of when it came forward from Budget Oversight Committee. It seems like to respond to that because then those. Okay, fine, Mrs. Pierson. I queued up before the back and forth. Well, that's. What I was trying to. Say. So I know. I just want to say that I'm I queued up not to engage in the back and forth, but to say that I think it is absolutely essential that our neighborhoods have access to banking and that we as a city need to do everything we can. Myself, where I live, I, you know, my closest bank is downtown, takes me 5 minutes to get there based on lights. I understand that one is the challenge of not having banks, and two is the challenge of having predatory check cashing agencies. And so I wholeheartedly support those. And I think I hope everybody just focus on this. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Councilwoman Margo. Is there any amount of staff time limitation that you'd be open to discussing? It's not to put a limit on the fact that we don't do it. It's more to set a standard of it's only going to take 2 to 3 hours. Why not? Councilwoman attempted on one of your items? I don't remember the tonight of every week I barely bring forward item. Councilman, there have been 16 items we've heard and in two different hearings. Correct. All of which were brought by this. Bring on someone, have a conversation in advance. You cannot legislate relationships, Ernie Hudson. You don't have the floor. Do you? Just ask me a question. Thank you. No, you just asked me, was I willing to open so that warranted response? You didn't answer the question. You just started a dialog. That's how I answer my questions. Okay. You know, I think we should have a better conversation about about how we go about this. This is a fairly. Ministerial, small. Thing. And I think we're sending the wrong message at this point. I agree. And I'm. Hopeful that the minister for small things, because. This is an approach. No, the answer is no. So to my point, the reason I feel it is most appropriate is because it is a ministerial and small thing. And one of the hardest things is that our big giant items, it's so hard to get our arms around them that we're never going to be able to get to that point. And so just as a side note, your staff were notified that this is how I felt about the item and it was discussed with them. Chief, the chief last week. Thank you. Thank you. Any more. Okay. Fine. We. Please. We've only had a public comment, so would you please cast your vote? We've already called it. There's no book. Excuse me. Any public comment? Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to develop the item 18, please. I need the vote. Okay, let's get.