Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary for a Sublease to Lease No. 9351 between Million Air North, Inc., a California corporation, and the City of Long Beach for office space at 4401 Donald Douglas Drive, to house the Engineering, Accounting and Security Divisions of the Airport Department; and Increase appropriations in the Airport Fund (EF 320) in the Airport Department (AP) by $303,036. (District 5)
Motion carries. Okay. So now we're back at the items. Item 13. Item 13 is a report from Long Beach Airport recommendation to authorize city manager to execute all documents necessary for sublease between Millennium North. And the city of Long Beach for office space at 4400. Donna's Donna Douglas drive to house the Engineering, Accounting and Security divisions of the airport department and District five. IT Councilman Austin. Yes. And I would love to get a staff report on this this item. I have a few questions as well. Assistant City Manager Tom Morgan. So I will do my best to give an overview of this item. Essentially, we have been looking for some space at in the airport's area regarding some of our staffing needs. We currently have staff in the third and fourth floors of the terminal. It is a historic terminal and there are issues. There's only stairs. There's no elevator access. And so we've been looking for some appropriate accommodations for our city staff. The item before you outlines a lease or that we've identified a building and gives you a sense of, you know, what that amount is. It's about $302,000 for the lease and the annual base rent costs will be $152,000 and will increase annually by 3%. We can certainly try to. Answer as many questions tonight or we can bring back additional information later. So is this a time sensitive matter? We do want to be able to move staff at some point, but if we need to take another week to answer questions, we can certainly do that. I move to continue this for another 30 days, to gain some more clarity and allow for new information to to come up and help and instruct our staff to look at potential alternatives. Okay. The motion on the floor is to take another look at this, to bring this back in 30 days, in addition to look at other alternatives. There's a motion, I believe Catherine Herring is at the second on that. Okay, Catherine, your anger. Yeah. In light of the new information that we just received today and factually that we did have a busy agenda at the beginning, it sort of got by everybody. I totally supported the motion. Councilwoman Mongo. I to support the motion. I guess my question. To city staff would be what their opinion is on the potential conflict of interest. As I read some documentation from the city attorney that they believe there wasn't one. Mayor members of the council. Yes, we have been advised of the potential issue. We have looked at this under government code 1090. We have discussed it with the SPC on other issues, not this particular contract, but we had a Planning Commissioner in a similar situation. I received an opinion from the NPC which found that there was no conflict because the Planning Commission did not and was not involved in either recommending approval of the contract or in the making of the contract. And that same situation is true here. The Airport Advisory Commission, this lease is not presented to, nor do they recommend, nor do they refer or have any input into the contract. The contract is approved by the Council as a body, not the Airport Advisory Commission. So in his capacity or as a seat on the airport advisory commission does not create a legal conflict, in our opinion, under 1090. So I guess my my thought would be that this is a member of our community who we believe to be an upstanding citizen, so much so that this council chose to put them in a position to represent us and to. Volunteer their time. As mentioned at several community meetings. Recently, we're always looking for people to stand up and volunteer to participate. I mean, there is quite a bit of data that they need to provide and put forward, including form seven hundreds and go through trainings and the such. And so I just want to make sure that we do our diligence and we. Look into this and that. We don't punish someone or put them in a less favorable position for volunteering and for it to be looked at and other considerations to be taken. But perhaps bring it back. Whenever city staff feel confident that. The situation is significantly similar or completely similar to all other situations, and that we. Are clear that there's no potential risks. I see you have a. Mayor and members of the council. If this motion, the substitute motion to continue this item for 30 days is passed, we would have an opportunity to reach out to the NPC and talk to them. That would be great. But if it came back sooner, Mr. Councilmember, would you be comfortable if everybody responded more quickly or even later that we wait until that comes back? Yes. The reason I pull the item and ask for a continuance was just to make sure just to make sure it better safe than sorry. Absolutely. And you know, there's been an allegation and only an allegation that's been looked into. And so it sounds like Mr.. Mr. Parkin wants the consultation with the LPC is kind of complete. You'll bring that back to the council in some form. We will certainly do so. Okay, great. I see no other council comments. Any public comment on the item? Laurie Smith, third district. I guess I'm just curious why the city managers did not. It doesn't sound like the staff report had any other places that they looked at to be leasing from. So that is a curious, curious thing. Also, I met with the city attorney Mays when I did my. A administrative review of the last airport director for 4 hours in a facility that housed airport staff. So I'm just curious why that would not be something else they'd look into. This lease would be for upwards of $800,000. And the conflict of interest is not just about the vice chair of the airport commission and the city. It is also that he's part as a board member on a lobbying group with JetBlue. He's also filed an annual report in which he has worked with the commission to recommend the FISA facility to you, and that has been filed on your website. So since we had a JetBlue issue on tonight's agenda, as well as his lease for $800,000 over five years, it seems very, very interesting. A conundrum. So this would just be something else that, you know, the California Fair Political Practices Commission, as well as the L.A. County DA's Office of Public Integrity will be alerted to. I'm happy that you are postponing it. I wanted to make you aware that the L.A. County D.A. does not talk about current investigations until the investigation is through. So I would really like to have the this motion held over until we until possibly the city attorney or we could check with the L.A. County D.A., Alan Johnson, to be sure that there is no investigation going on. It apparently it is a confidential thing. I understand that once they've been alerted to something, that they're not allowed to talk about it until it's done. So that would be something that I would recommend that they hold off until they are absolutely clear that the L.A. County D.A.. Public Integrity Division looks into this. So I appreciate you allowing me to speak about this. And I. I hope that you continue to use good judgment. Thank you. See no other public comment on the item? There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries.