Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary for a short-term lease (Interim Lease) with MWN Community Hospital, LLC (MWN), a California limited liability corporation (Lessee), for the lease of property owned by the City of Long Beach (City) at 1720 Termino Avenue, 1760 Termino Avenue, and 4111 East Wilton Street (Subject Property); and Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute a Letter of Intent related to the development of a long-term replacement lease between the City and MWN for the operation of an acute care facility at the Subject Property, for approval by the City Council once completed. (District 4)
Great. Thank you very much. And now, Madam Clerk, if we can move on to community hospital and we're going to also move up after coming hospital, the gondola item, so that we will hear it. We'll move that up as well. Give me the hospital. Report from Economic Development Recommendation to execute a short term lease with MWI and Community Hospital and execute a letter of intent related to the development of a long term replacement lease between the city and M.W.. And for the operation of operation of an acute care facility district for. Mayor Councilmembers in November of 2017. You handed us a very difficult I like to call it a homework assignment in dealing with community hospital. It looked like we were going to lose our acute care facility there, which was our emergency room. And we all know how important an emergency room is to any community throughout this throughout planet Earth. So after negotiating, working with the city council and working with the team, working with MWP and led by Mr. John Molina, we have what we believe are the parameters for a fantastic deal that can reopen the hospital and reopen the acute care facility. Before I turn this over to the staff, who's going to give the presentation, I do want to highlight the people that have put so much passion into this during the past year. I want to highlight John Keisler and his team. John, the Executive Director of Economic Development. I want to highlight Dianna Tang. She's our manager of government affairs and she's been working so hard in Sacramento to keep the doors open for this hospital to stay open. I want to recognize Oscar Orsi, who's our deputy director of development services, who has worked faithfully in the seismic issues there . Also, John GROSS, our finance director, who's guaranteed that what we're presenting to you is something that is sustainable and something that we can do. Linda Tatum, our director of development services. Tom Modica, our assistant city manager, has been inside this deal and has been living the still in and out for the past year. And of course, I have to recognize our city attorney's office, Charlie Parkin and of course, Richard Anthony, who's been doing the doing just the yeoman's work in preparing agreements and working with the team and making sure that we're doing everything according to our charter and according to municipal code. So with that, I do want to turn it over to John Kaiser and his team. I see Diana back there and Oscar know Oscar, but Diana and John. Take it away. Great mayor. Members of the city council's pat mentioned. We have been working on this project for quite some time. Before you have a quick background slide back in November 2017, you directed us to do a feasibility study on cost share for the acute care at that site in May. We conducted some very targeted outreach. We found four bidders or I'm sorry, five bidders for later dropped out. And we have one before you today who we are very confident in. And in June, you allowed us to enter into an INA with and and so with that I'll go into a quick progress update. You'll recall memorial care while they were leaving allowed us to establish a transition agreement which set the stage for what we have before you today in the state. A number of state agencies have been incredibly helpful to us. CDP approved the hospital license suspension while we work through these issues. We at the city have completed the feasibility study, as I mentioned. We also worked with Ashford to complete the nonstructural seismic compliance work required to reopen the hospital. We've also engaged CDP and they have allowed us to begin at the middle of the hospital license application, have been approving each form individually as we send them in so that when the last piece goes in, hopefully in the next week or so, we may have the hospital license approved. We've also been working with Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell, who has introduced AB 1495 state legislation proposing to extend the deadline for seismic compliance so that we have time to achieve that. And then last but not least, we have been working with Ashford and they have allowed us a six month extension through the end of this year for continued use of the USB-C one rated buildings while we work on a longer extension. So tonight I'd like to introduce you and we'll have them stand up in a little bit. Molina Wou networker M.W. N Molina you are very familiar with. We've got John and Mario Molina with 30 years of experience working in Long Beach health care. We've got Dr. Wu. Dr. Jonathan Wu has 30 years in hospital management. He has seven community hospitals with over 1200 beds and over 7000 caregivers in Southern California. So very, very well established hospital operator. And last but not least, we have Dr. SIM of Network Medical Management, who has 25 years managing physicians and managed care organizations to improve patient care. So we're very excited to have him for you today. Molina Wu and Network. And with that, I'll turn it over to John Keisler to go over a summary with you about the preliminary agreement and the recommendations before you today. So the preliminary agreement, which was recently announced, is I'm going to read some of the terms into the record. So bear with me. But this is. It recognizes the operation of a community hospital as a public private partnership between the city and our partner NWN. The agreement also establishes a 45 year lease term with the option and your extensions at a lease rate of $1 a year. The preliminary agreement shares funding responsibility of seismic retrofit costs between the city and MWI in up to $50 million. And the city will be responsible for up to 25 million of these cost over a 15 year term. NWN is responsible for any additional seismic related costs over the CAP, and NWN is also responsible for securing hospital licensing and managing the seismic construction permitting process. The city is responsible for legislative extension to complete the seismic construction. It requires the lease premises to be used for the operation and maintenance of an acute care facility, professional office building and other ancillary medical uses. It also requests our operator to provide sobering center beds, medical detox beds, recuperative care and psychiatric beds to address community needs identified in the city's Everyone Home Task Force Report. Subject to appropriate licensure and regulatory approvals. And it also requests our operator to rehire community hospital employees. So the recommendations that are before you tonight are twofold. Part one is an interim lease. This recommendation would authorize the city manager or designee to execute a short term lease. We're calling this the interim lease with our partners for the lease of the property owned by the city at Community Hospital. There's actually three different addresses which are included in the hospital site at Termino and East Wilton Street. This interim lease will allow our partner to secure state hospital licensing before it expires next month on April 28th. This interim lease also allows the city and our partner to finalize our long term agreement for cost sharing and seismic retrofit, which is expected to take anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks. Given all the details that will be hammered out, the interim lease will also provide the city and our partner up to a year to complete the long term lease under an agreement at $1 per year and provide for reimbursement of up to $1 million. In the event that this process takes some time and our partner incurs costs. The second recommendation that we're considering tonight for vote of the council is to establish a letter of intent. This recommendation would authorize the city manager to execute a letter of intent related to the development of the long term replacement lease between the city and our partner for approval by the City Council once completed. So that means will come back once the long term agreement is hammered out. This letter of intent would document our commitment for the long term agreement to operate an acute care hospital and cost sharing for seismic compliance as described above. It provides state regulatory and legislative agencies with a plan to reopen and rebuild the facility. This will be essential as they're considering or licensing or operating or business and financing plan, and it will provide time for both parties to negotiate detailed terms of the agreement while the hospital reopens to the public. It also will provide time to secure state licensing and permit approval, even as we're working out the details. So in terms of next steps before you take action, ultimately, we're hoping to execute this interim lease this month. In fact, perhaps even as soon as this week, we're hoping to submit our seismic rebuild plan to the state of California this month, maybe over the next couple of weeks, submit our legislative extension to the state. This could be a bill that would have to happen sometime this month and secure hospital licensing, probably as soon as April, before the April 28th licensing expiration. We have to also move forward with finalizing the long term agreement. Our city attorney has said this could take 4 to 6 weeks. We're hoping to to to really jump on this and get it done as soon as possible. And then we would come back to the city council with a finalized agreement so that the public, the council and everybody could review and comment. And we would hope that once the state licensing is secured, that the rehiring of employees at the hospital would begin as early as this spring with a hospital reopening sometime within a few months after licensing is approved. That would all allow us to begin our construction planning for the seismic retrofit. We would need to approve those plans in mid 2020 and then we would need to complete construction in different phases with the hospital rebuild either by 212, 2022 or 2025, depending upon the response from the state agency. Before I introduce our representatives from NWN, I wanted to hand it back to the City Manager, Pat West. Council members before we conclude. I can't conclude without recognizing the passion exhibited by Councilmember Supernormal, whose district the hospital is in, as well as council members Susie Price and Stacie Mongeau, whose districts are immediately next door to this hospital. That said, a hospital transcends district boundaries. I want to assure everyone here that the entire city council, including Mayor Garcia, have been intimately involved in every step of this way. So, again, this has been involved by the entire city council because a hospital is so special in a city. So with that, I'm going to turn it back over to John to introduce the MWI and folk. Thank you. Pat is the the representative spokesperson for NWN in Mr. John Molina is here tonight and I wanted to give him a chance to speak as part of the staff report and to introduce his partners, which have been incredible through this whole process. It's been an extremely collaborative process with a lot of difficult reports and and decisions to make throughout. So with that, I'll hand it over to John Molina. Thank you. Thank you, John. Mr. Mayor, city council members, I want to introduce my partners in this project, Dr. Ken SIM from Network Medical Management and Linda Marsh from M.S.. They do not have the deep ties to language that I do, but you could not have asked for better partners on this project. H.M.S. operates seven community hospitals here in Southern California. Network medical management manages thousands of doctors and importantly, helps 650,000 patients navigate the health care system. And I think to show you how attuned they are to this community. I also want to introduce to you Virgin Arbutus. Who's going to be our CEO? Verge is a Long Beach resident. So you have someone at the helm of the hospital who really is got his finger on the pulse of the community. This has been a very long process, and I want to thank the staff for putting up with us. Most importantly, I want to thank you, Mayor Garcia, for your unwavering support and leadership and to the city council. All of you, as as the city manager said, hospitals transcend council boundaries. This is a hospital that belongs to all of the city. And it will help relieve a lot of the pent up demand that we're experiencing at Long Beach Memorial and St Mary's. And this wouldn't have happened without the the leadership of councilmember supernova price and Mongo. He did a fantastic job of mentioning the city staff, and I don't want to repeat that, but it's just been a pleasure to work with evokes. Everyone has been optimistic, everyone has been realistic and everyone has been very forthcoming. Community Hospital has a wonderful foundation led by Matthew Faulkner and Ray Burton, who are here, and they have been with us every step of the way, and I really appreciate all the help that they've given us. And most importantly, I want to thank the people of Long Beach, the folks who came to meetings such as this, the folks that came to the listening sessions, the folks that put their signs out that said, Save our hospital, save our E.R.. Without their support, we wouldn't be here tonight either. And it is not just the support in the past, but it's going to be the support when they use the hospital and the services going on in the future. That's going to make this a financially feasible, financially viable, long term solution for Long Beach. I want to go over some of the next steps, so maybe answer some of the questions and then I'll be happy to answer any questions along with with verge on what happens next. We will be submitting our license application by the end of this month. That's a big step and we need this lease. In order to do so. We expect to start hiring people end of April through the end of May. And I'll get to the hiring in just a minute. And we expect that the state of California will do a license survey sometime in mid-June. And if all goes well, as we expect it will, we expect to reopen in the summer, probably July, maybe August. Believe me, we would like to have that date sooner rather than later, but we're not going to open it until we're ready in terms of hiring staff. We're going to give preference to those employees who used to work at the hospital. We welcome them back to the family. They never left. I am sure that you either have received or will receive calls from the unions. At this point, we feel a little premature to talk about the unions. That's really an employee issue and we want to make sure we get the hospital open first. But we're not going to do anything to stand in the way. We believe that when we open the hospital up, we'll have about 200 employees as we begin to get more patients in the hospital and in the E.R. and ramp up other services. We expect that we will add more employees and at the end probably have about 400 people working there. This does not include employees who may be working for physicians in the physician offices, in the medical office building or some other ancillary programs that we intend to bring on. So what services are we going to have there? When we start off, we're going to have most importantly, we're going to have the ER open. And I know that for a lot of people who have suffered long waits because the hospital er is closed, it will be great news. And hopefully soon after that we will be able to add an ambulance, run to it as well and paramedic runs. We're going to have acute care beds, medical, surgical and ICU beds, pharmacy lab radiology, including a CT and MRI and behavioral health. One of the things we heard from the community is there is a lack of behavioral health services in the city. And so we intend to do what we can to alleviate some of those issues. Additional services we will bring on over time. Many of these will be to support the Everyone at Home Long Beach initiative, and that will include outpatient behavioral health for both adults, children and adolescents, substance abuse services, recuperative care and again, other services that we specifically heard the community really want, such as diabetes, care, wellness and other holistic services. We are very appreciative of the $25 million commitment that the city has has made or will be making. And I want you to know that we're putting up an equal amount. And this will go towards the seismic retrofit. And we will do everything we can to bring that cost down. We don't want the city to spend one penny more than it has to, because, frankly, that means we have to spend one more penny than we have to. In addition, we're committing up to $40 million as needed to buy equipment. To do deferred maintenance. The hospital's been closed now for a long time. And there's deferred maintenance. And the fact is we have to carry the employees for probably 3 to 6 months before we start getting paid. And so we're going to commit $40 million to make sure that those things can happen. It is our goal. To make this hospital a long term asset to the community in it. I mean, let's let's not beat around the bush. This has been a challenge for the previous owners, previous operators. Whether it was community hospital as a standalone hospital, part of the Catholic Health Care West System or part of the memorial system. But our commitment to you folks and to the folks in the audience is to make sure that Long Beach is proud of this hospital. And I am. Very happy to answer any questions. I think, Mr. Molina, we're going to continue with the presentation and then if raise questions, we'll we'll we'll have you come back up. I guess. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me let me take this back to two staff. We're fine. Are we. Are we done with that? Complete with the whole presentation? Okay, great. So let me first go to I think Councilman Superman might make a couple opening comments. We're going actually go to public comment first. I believe he'd like to do it. And then we're going to come back to the council for questions and comments. Okay. Thank you. You know, the folks in the audience have been waiting for about six months and now six months and 2 hours. So I'd like to invite public comment this time. Thank you for your patience. Larry. Good. You say that. Yes, I fully support this concept and particularly Councilperson Susan off. And I'm going to come up with a suggestion of how the possibility that this and I think there's a distinct possibility of getting federal funds. Are. To start to analyze what you've. Referenced as behavioral issues. And Long Beach, unfortunately, is uniquely positioned. Given the fact we have the most criminally complicit mayor at the current time. We our state or U.S. senator per the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court. R is corrupt. So I think what we could use. We'll use those federal dollars to study and to find out what makes people as corrupt as our mayor. As are U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, who the U.S. Ninth Circuit bipartisan panel. Found that she had engendered an epidemic of corruption. And I think that will also be as they will get inside of it. Our new governor. Who is fawning over. The US Ninth Circuit Court Review. Kamala Harris. So I'll take the lead. I'll contact some people in Washington to see if we can get. Federal dollars to address those behavioral issues. There are far greater. Far greater. Then the issues you referenced here before. That's not to diminish those. Those are legitimate causes. But we're uniquely. Suited for this. We know the most corrupt mayor the city has ever had. We know the slot. The US Ninth Circuit rebuked. And I think it would benefit this city and the country. And we'd be at the this city would be at the epicenter of conducting that study. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is and I can pay. Resident Sixth District. It's council and mayor. It is important. It is important that we as a community demand more transparency in relation to where and to whom are elected officials choose to give our hard earned money to. Here we find ourselves witnessing with too many in the community feel as a prime example of corporate welfare. If we are to exist under the current capitalist system that presides over the American economy, it makes no sense for an investment at this level to be covered completely at the expense of the taxpayers of this beautiful city. For many, it is fiscally unsound and inappropriate for our city to be handing over tens of millions of dollars to a private public enterprise at the meager price of $1 a year lease with no proper stipulations. The federal government didn't operate under these pretenses with GM and Chrysler, and neither should we with w. W. H. Not while there is development at the level that it is today going on in the city. I to use a personal antidote was born at Pacific Hospital in the Wrigley area. The hospital was shut down due to decades of medical fraud and malpractise and the. Property. Was ultimately acquired by a private for profit nursing college. We didn't have the great fortune of a public private enterprise such as this coming in to services and our community. I believe that for the city to proceed on with this project, we would like we in the in the community would like to restructure the deal currently on the books and what it means for this amount of city funds to be involved. I and many others recognize the importance of keeping this hospital open. That's not a question here. I believe the hospital should be opened, and I believe that the east side of the city should be serviced by a hospital at this level. However, that being said, this goes beyond financing and as such there needs to be a more involved conversation about possible public ownership of this space ran by our health department rather than a public private enterprise. And. If there is to be a public private enterprise. Such as the listed suitors of the potential lease agreement here, there should be, instead of especially at 45 years, a mandatory reduction in service and care price controls put into place, and beds specific, more beds specifically dedicated to our mentally ill. A goodwill gesture is simply not enough when public funds are being utilized. Until we see that, myself and others will be writing letters both to our state elected representatives. OHS, HPD, the State Department of Health, as well as. Our current insurance commissioners to see how our city found itself in the predicament we are in today. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hey, everybody. Hi. Ellen Markowitz, former employee of Community Hospital of Long Beach. Long Beach Community Hospital. What else was it called? Oh, it's gone through several names, but you get the gist. I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for all of the hard work. All of the hard work, everybody. This is a great moment right now for us and especially for the citizens of East Long Beach and not just East Long Beach, because once everyone knows that that emergency room is open, that's where they're going. That is where they're going. They are going to have ten hour waits to be seen. And it. It is. I have friends and relatives that have had those ten hour waits to be seen at various hospitals. And I also want to thank M.W. and for approaching the mental wellness side of this project, because the other two mega hospitals in the area, in the city don't. They just don't. So a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you. And I appreciate the 25 million. It's a lot of money to the people who are worried about it. But this decision was not made in a vacuum. It's a big need. And I know you guys put a lot of thought into that. So nothing but respect. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Mike Madani. But he's not my k. Iran is NYC that needs the microphone because I'm the head of the Taxi Cab Drivers Union in L.A. so I'm their voice. So they call me Mike, but they make a mistake. They say, Mike, anyway, I haven't been here for a long time and currently I think my council member would be Rex Richardson, Herman Cherry and Hardy. So. But it's your fault if I don't know, because you never come over the you never knock on the door. You never ask me what's going on. So you just stay in your seat. Not enough. You've got to do work wise. And this is on community hospital, correct, sir? Is about all the hospitals, okay? Not. Not just that hospital. Just. I was currently on Long Beach Memorial in Long Beach Memorial one night. And it was so many people over there that took me the whole 24 hours to get out of there. I got out of there next day, 6:00 in the morning. Why? Because we don't have enough for taking care of the sick people. And that's the major thing. What's going on? And has to be investments. I remember Long Beach before, many years ago. Probably you don't remember. And it was poor city even had a lot of money. But they start investment. And now you see it looks much better and looks really different than Compton or other part of the like, Watts or other part of the L.A.. Anyway, you have to invest. You have to care about the people. You really care about the people. If you're not sick, it doesn't mean that you'll be worry about other people. You have to worry about other people. Why? We don't have no more hospitals in the area. How many hospitals we have. And this is all the same we had before, but we had more people living in this area. In Long Beach, we have more people living recently comparing with ten, 20 years ago that I was going to college here. You need more hospitals. Do you ever think of that? Did you plan to build new hospitals? There is a lot of room. Long Beach. We have a lot of empty spaces and you have a lot of money. Actually, Long Beach after L.A. is one of the richest cities in the area because of the income of the port . Right. But what do you would do with that money? But that money goes if doesn't go to housing for senior citizen, it doesn't go for. I'm on the waiting list for housing for senior citizens. Six years. Why? Because you don't care. I go to the hospital. It takes a long time. Why? Because you don't care. I don't breathe good air. Why? Because you don't care. Thank you very much, sir. That concludes public comment. I'm going to go ahead, go back to the council. Let me start with Councilmember Supernova. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. Thank you to staff for the presentation. John Molina. Thank you very much for your presentation. I'll actually make my comments very brief. I'd like to do some acknowledgments and thank you first to my council colleagues. I'll tell the public right now they have been nothing but totally supportive of this project from the very beginning. Never wavered. Well, there was a couple of weeks ago when that kind of weird newspaper headline came out and kind of shocked a few people. But we got over that. I'd also like to mention that one great byproduct of this project has been getting to meet and work with so many great people, whether they have medical backgrounds or not, they genuinely care so much about the residents of Long Beach. And first, I'd like to mention the nurses. Ellen and Jackie, thank you for speaking tonight and thank you for working so hard on this project. I should I should also mention Patti Eckenroth. I think she's taken every one of my notices in our Friday newsletter and posted it online. So thank you for that, Patti. The doctors, Dr. Andrew Manos, who met with us so many times and Mike Vasyl Mental lack is the only Grammy Award winning cardiologist with a seven syllable last name that I know. So he's been absolutely instrumental in pushing this project forward. And for those who don't know, he caused a paradigm shift to happen in my thinking. And that is we'd heard so much about the legacy of this 94 year old institution. For instance, four generations of my family have used it. So many people say, Well, my kids were born there or I was born there, and we had sponsored the nurses to walk in the Belmont Shore Christmas parade. And Dr. Mike walked along with you and afterwards he said, You know, there are a lot of young families in Long Beach with kids that he noticed down there on the parade route. He said the real story should be what we're doing for this next generation and generations to follow. So I think John Molina hit on that saying it's really the future of this institution that's important here. And that caused us to change our focus from Save Community Hospital to save the East site E.R. And that was our focus from that point forward, because young families, unfortunately, need ERs and it's just a fact of life. I also want to mention the Community Hospital Foundation. Thank you all for being here tonight, Matthew and Ray and Suzanne. Diane. And I also want to mention Ruth Lowell, my neighbor, who I think I've told the story before, but. At our very first task force meeting. She lives two doors down from me, said Darrell, can I get a ride to the house first meeting? I said, Ruth, I'm not at home. I'm down at City Hall. I'll barely have time to get there, she says. That's okay. I'll take an Uber says. But by the way, do you know if they're taking donations tonight? I said, Ruth, that's that's not what we're doing there. But I'm sure someone can take a check from you, but it's a task force meeting. So later I found out that Ruth did donate a check that night for $20,000. So the lesson there is, moving forward, I'll commit to the public that if you want to make a donation of $20,000, I will pay for your Uber to take you to the meeting. Fact I'm going to live here, I'll make it. I'll take it down to $1,000 and we'll do that. I also want to mention staff, I should say CEO, Virgina Brutus up there. He was introduced earlier, but Virgin has been great and patient. I didn't know how patient he could be, but thank you for hanging in there and we look forward to working with you moving forward and then to city staff who've been mentioned. I also want to mention City Manager Pat West. Thank you for recruiting and developing such awesome staff members and kudos to you because they're not too many city managers have a resume that includes a new courthouse, a new city hall. Now you've saved a hospital. So that's pretty impressive. And I'm not even mention that on your watch. City Council approved Meatless Monday, so could it. Yeah. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Which by far was the most controversial item I voted on I supported. Thank you to my colleagues on that. Yes, it was very controversial, believe it or not. So I, too, want to thank staff and, of course, Councilman Supernova and our partners in this Marlena Wu network. I think for me, the most important aspect of the lease agreement was that we have at least the tentative agreement that we have in place very clearly that acute care services would be part of this contemplated agreement between the parties. And so I just want to ask a few questions from staff just to make sure. I know this has been an issue that's been raised by my constituents. And I want to I want to ensure that I'm I'm analyzing the term of the terms of this agreement accurately so. It is my understanding that acute care services are a fundamental part of this agreement, and if for some reason down the road, acute care services turned out to be not viable, not feasible or otherwise unattainable at this location, would that be considered a default by a molina view? How would we handle that situation? Let's say we're several years in. Councilmember. So under the preliminary terms of the agreement, we have a number of contingencies that we have agreed upon that we've put in place and which we'll flesh out in detail over the coming weeks in the final agreement, depending on the cause of what we would consider a default, the inability to. No pun intended, by the way, given that it's a seismic issue that we're trying to address. But there's a number of agencies that will have a say in as to whether or not we're able to license permit and continue to provide acute care at the site. So if if there was a default, that that was because of some sort of activity or result outside our control. Then in that case, we would both look at the situation and it would be a matter of reimbursing NWN for costs that they've incurred to date. So if that occurred, say, in the next couple of weeks when we are seeking pet approval for permitting or CDP licensing, well then there wouldn't be very many costs to reimburse. But if it were to happen later on in the project, then we have both agreed that the restriction to provide an acute care services at the site would no longer be eligible and that condition would be removed. We would also consider the potential sale of the property to NWN at fair market value less the cost that they've invested to date. So that would be a possible scenario if if the default were to occur for reasons outside our control, we have similar scenarios that we've hammered out in the agreement, the preliminary agreement, if it were to occur, that the costs to operate or some issue that was within the control of our partners, they would, of course, you know, be in default at that point. And we would have to consider whether or not we could find another operator. But we would ultimately, if we could continue to operate an acute care facility, we would deal with our options at that time. And again, it depends on how long this occurs, what the cause is, and ultimately whether or not, you know, we consider it to be an act that was in or outside the control of either the city or of our partner. Okay. Thank you. That clarifies it. I mean, I think for me that we're obviously we're interested in having a hospital, but we're interested in having a hospital with acute care capability because that is what's going to take the pressure off of the other hospitals in the region, reduce wait times and assist with the the overall needs. So I want to make sure that that legislative intent is very clear in addition to what's. Articulated in the proposed agreement that we're voting on tonight. And it sounds like that's very clear in terms of staff's understanding as well. I do have a couple of questions that I've received from residents that I want to just kind of run by staff and perhaps of staff doesn't know the answer to those, which is unlikely. Mr. Molina might be able to assist at some point. Is it our goal or is it the goal that this hospital would be a fully functioning hospital such that if there was a surgery need identified in the acute care facility, that we would be able to do the surgery at the at the facility or would there be a transfer? And if so, have we contemplated how certain insurances like Medicare would be impacted by that transfer? It is our goal and our commitment that it will be an acute care hospital. So depending on the type of surgery, if you needed your gallbladder removed, for example, we can handle it. Okay. If you needed brain surgery, we probably refer you to a tertiary hospital that has that kind of capability. Any ideas about cardiology, stents and things of that nature? Yeah, it's probably not. I mean. Long Beach is fortunate that both Memorial and St Mary's have excellent cardiac surgery programs. And one of the things that. Is counterintuitive. In health care, if everybody has lots of services, costs go up. Mm hmm. So what we really want to do is we want to focus those types of services to the appropriate place. Okay. Of course, I appreciate that. And just the last question. Again, I've gotten tons of, you know, third district residents are, you know, heavy users of community hospital when it is open. I myself have gone to the E.R. There once is a, you know, 18 year old college student involved in a traffic collision and another just recently before I had emergency back surgery on the days before the closure. And so, as you can imagine, we've received a lot of nuanced questions. I'm not going to bore you with those details now, but I think an important one is will be will we be working or will you be working with insurance providers to try to keep costs low for transfer from one facility to the other for the purposes of performing a surgery that was identified in your E.R.? Absolutely. That's one of the reasons why network medical management was brought into the group, because they have an extensive staff and experience in handling issues with the health insurers. Excellent. Okay, good. Well, you know, as I've said to my residents and there are there are folks here with whom I've met one on one. And I'm sure there's going to be more meetings from this point forward. I think what I'm proud to say tonight is that the city is doing everything we can. And I know Molina wewe network is doing everything you can to move this agreement forward. This by no means, however, is the end of the road. And there are a lot of regulatory bodies ahead of us that will need to look at what we're doing and make sure that their the compliance is at a level where they are satisfied. So having said that, you know, this is our we are making a commitment, but the details of what the future looks like will come as we move through this process together and obviously address any concerns that come from other regulatory agencies that we'll have to adjust to. I want to thank you. Our staff has been amazing. Our entire staff who the city manager mentioned, Councilman Super, has had countless number of meetings with constituents on this issue. And of course, Molina, we network has been a tremendous partner. But specifically, I want to thank John Molina. Your passion for the city of Long Beach has had a lot to do with why we're here having this discussion right now. Thank you for investing in the city that you live in and love. So it benefits all of us. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Councilwoman. I'm going to make some comments as well. And then we're going to go to the rest of the council. And Mr. Molina, if you want to, you can you can grab a seat if you'd like. I think there's other questions. We'll we'll bring you up. Let me let me just begin by saying that since since day one, the city has been committed to reopening community hospital. I think you've heard that from the council. You heard it from the staff, and you certainly have heard that from the community and the foundation. When the. The notice was received by the city and this whole process started. I think there was a lot of concern across the city about losing a hospital and an emergency room, and particularly in an area that is underserved by these services. You often read in the newspaper or see on the news about hospitals closing and other communities. And I'm really proud that Long Beach is right now leading a conversation about keeping a hospital and saving a hospital within our community. And so I wanted to take the moment for also that to sink in with all of this, that we are at a very special and important moment in the process. I like Councilmember Super A.Z.. I want to thank so many folks that have been involved in this process. Most of all been thanked already. I see members of the community that I have met with and the foundation board, of course, are nurses who have been at the forefront of pushing this every single step of the way, our doctors, the community. I want to thank Supervisor Hahn and her commitment from day one. And I especially want to thank our legislative partners and assembly member Patrick O'Donnell, who has been a strong voice and will need to be a strong voice as we move forward to get this deal done through the state process. And I also need to really give a huge thanks to our city staff, everyone from the management team to the team at Economic Development to Ms.. Tang and our city attorney team. I will tell you that they have been phenomenal in getting this to this point, and I really want to thank them for their work. And of course, to me, when we want to thank you for this partnership as we move forward and know that we're committed to the partnership as well. I want to make a couple a couple notes. The first is that I want to reiterate some of what's been said. This is tonight is not the end of this process. And I think it's really important for us to note that. I think while we should celebrate where we are and celebrate this interim agreement and this framework, the real celebration will hopefully happen once the state process is concluded. And so I think that we should not in any way let up. And right now, essentially, this council is ready to move the ball forward. And we are very close to to the end here. But really, the ball is now in the state of California's court and in the agencies in at the state that will make the decisions to to really reopen the hospital. And so it's important for us to take the energy now to our partners in the state and do all of the the lobbying and goodwill that we have there over the next few months ahead. And so I do want to reiterate, again, like was said by the council, that this is not the completion of this deal, but really the beginning of a of a process that will take place over the next few months. I want to note that our commitment to reopening the hospital is not just about the importance of community as it as it relates to emergency response and getting folks to their to their to the health care they need. But it's also critically important to the city when it comes to firefighting and paramedic service. And so I want to thank the fire department and the fire association that's been involved in this. And I'll tell you that reopening community is critical to ensuring that our engines and our paramedics are able to access emergency rooms efficiently and build the type of trust and relationship that they have with the nurses and doctors that were there at community before. Community was closed, the door was closed. And so I think that is incredibly important. And I want to note that I agree that the community is everyone's hospital. And as part of that, I want to thank NWN for their commitment to meeting the goals of the Everyone Home Long Beach report. It's important to note that prior to two community closing, the services that were there as it relate to psychiatric evaluation and and psych services. This was one of the main centers in the city where these activities were happening and to reopen the hospital with a renewed commitment to the to the psych beds. But also looking beyond that to meeting the other needs that we have citywide as they relate to to sobering facilities and detox facilities, as they relate to serving the recuperative care needs that we need. To me, that is absolutely worth the city's commitment and investment in this need that we have on this facility and really across the city. And so I also say to the foundation, who will be entering a different relationship and a new a new relationship as well. These these are areas that we look forward to working with all of you on. And we know that your your hearts are there in this work. And I want to thank you for your commitment to these critical needs that we have across the city. In addition, I want to be clear, it was brought up. The commitment the city is making financially is essentially going towards the retrofit of the buildings that we own. And the city of Long Beach has essentially a facility that has major needs for seismic repair and investment. And what we're putting our dollars to is not towards ongoing operation of the hospital or some or ongoing operations of the of the personnel need. But it is going to ensure that the facility that the taxpayers of Long Beach have invested in in the past is upgraded and that the regulations are met with the state of California so that we can operate a functioning E.R. and a facility that would make the city proud. And so that's where our dollars are going. And I believe those are are wise investments for us to reinvest and to partner in this what will be a unique public private partnership and relationship with MDA when as a city moves forward . Let me also add that and this is something that I talked to Councilmember Supernanny about, and I want to ask the staff as well. We are obviously going to be looking and using our general fund dollars to maintain our commitment. We're making as a staff report notes, a 15 year commitment to to put our portion of the retrofit dollars towards towards the hospital. And so as staff brings back the final lease, which I know is coming in the months ahead, as we bring back the reports from the state of California on the process and we finalize those items, I would like staff to also come back because I know you're already looking at I'm providing this council kind of the options and the way forward on how we look at filling those those general fund gaps that we know we will have. And I think it's responsible responsible for us to have that conversation as we move forward as well. And so Councilmember Supa and I would ask, is part of our motion that staff also brings back those those recommendations when the lease agreement is back to the city council. Okay. Well, accept that. And and in addition, let me just say in in conclusion that I want to I want to thank, you know, Councilmember Superman in particular. I think you've been a great leader and voice on this issue, and it's been great working with you on this issue. But I also appreciate the numerous hours you have spent personally managing and working with members of the community, which is which has been very hard on this on such a big topic. So thank you and thank you to the staff and thank you to everyone out here for for sticking with us throughout this process. And with that, I want to turn this over to Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. I appreciate the staff and the presentation. For those of you who aren't aware, we've been meeting in close session on this now for several weeks. And so we've had a lot of time to go over a lot of the different components of the agreement. I appreciate the mayor's request for the solutions on how we pay for those revenue options. I think this is a great way to structure the deal as well in terms of how the commitment over time increases when we have the opportunity to find those revenues and grow them appropriately. If you follow any of us on social media, you might know that our economic development team has done an exceptional job, not just growing revenues, but also finding cost savings throughout the city on other things. And so I'm confident that when this comes back with the least, that we'll be able to identify what that looks like and where those things come from. And so I look forward to that. Many know that. More than 80% of our calls for service in the fire department are medical in nature. And so the success of a hospital in our community is critical to the success and health of our community and the families that we serve. And so I look forward to the day the doors reopen. I'm also co-sponsoring some items at council next week that relate to other solutions that will help both before and when the hospital is open. In terms of pilot community paramedic programs that drop off at urgent care centers and other things so that hospitals aren't receiving patients that they shouldn't be receiving in the first place. And so those types of pilots that are going on throughout the state can also be a part of the solution in giving the hospital the best chance at a better survival rate than are their predecessors. So I want to thank John Molina and the team. I know that there's a lot more behind this. And John's been the faith and the spokesperson, but there's a lot that goes into a deal of this magnitude. And so each and every member of your team and your financing and your components. There's a lot of risk. And we appreciate you and the commitment you have to Long Beach and the commitment you have to people over profit and to families. And that's just something that's just so important that we talk about here today. I also cannot let a moment go. And I'm not one who wants to thank stuff publicly as much as I think they appreciate the appreciation quietly, but it cannot go without thinking. Council Member Super. Not publicly. It has been no matter what hour of the day. I get a question on community hospital. I can I can text him and my hours with a newborn are odd and I can text him and he'll usually have an answer for me before 7 a.m.. And so that really that responsiveness and that expertize that he's developed on this matter over time has been a phenomenal resource to all of us. And I can't say enough about him. I mean, I also appreciate working with Councilman Price on this. It's been a big learning opportunity and something that I think our community has grown together with. And when I talk about the community, I appreciate each and every one of you, but a big, big thank you to the foundation, because the foundation and being there and advocating early on putting your money where your mouth is, that's a huge component of what's made parts of this possible. And so I feel like you really need, even if all nine of us say at a public thank you and I really appreciate you again, good time to take a breath, but maybe not celebrate yet. And I will keep on working with staff. I know that we have good hands with Deanna Tang and her work at the state level and a lot of our advocacy from a lot of our local electeds and statewide elected. So let's keep the pressure on. Let's stay positive. And I look forward to getting Lisa back with some of our revenue options. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilmember Pearce. Yes. I want to echo everything that's been said without sounding like I'm repeating myself or anybody on this council. But it goes without saying that something of this magnitude is the hallmark of what makes our civilizations great. When we can take care of our neighbors and our residents and our community members, that strengthens our community. And so I know that when we got the news of what happened, it was heartbreaking and that feeling of powerlessness for a minute. And so I really want to applaud everybody for their efforts for being creative and the fact that we, you know, our city and not a county and not a state, but we're able to be nimble and creative and bring all those stakeholders together. And I really want to applaud everybody. And I know our staff. I just I, I am always impressed with economic development. And I just want to say publicly that I know that, John, this has taken a lot of you coming in and having discussions with us and us, you know, kind of pushing. And so I applaud you for managing nine council members, a mayor, a community that is really demanding the best that we can get. And so I really know that you guys have have worked to make that happen. I agree that our tax dollars need to make sure that they're, you know, put in a place that we have transparency and accountability and that we believe that we're getting the best for our dollars. And there's no better use than than health care at the national level. We have a health care crisis as much as sometimes we're numb to that. And in the city of Long Beach, when this hospital closed down, it meant that, you know, some wait times in the E.R. extend an additional 10 minutes, and that's 10 minutes that can save somebody's life. And so when I think about is this a good use of taxpayer dollars? Absolutely. It's a great use of taxpayer dollars, not to mention doing it locally with with our local nurses, local doctors and our people like John, who continually step up and really are putting their money where their mouth is. And so. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Councilmember Super nono you took. Authority of the meetings. And thank you to everybody on this council for really seeing that this is a citywide asset. And the one other thank you, I'll say is, for know, you guys really work to educate me on thinking about creative funding opportunities and really seeing that while I care very deeply about mental health and recognizing we have a mental health crisis in this country and and in the city as well, that adding those beds to this hospital allow us to have additional funds at our fingertips. And hopefully we when we get to that point, we can see a lot of different funding options to make this a robust, exciting hospital that it should be. So thank you again, everyone. Thank you, Councilmember Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I just want to raise up a few points that resound with me. I think I like the approach of lifting up and implementing some of the everyone at home recommendations. And I think if you look at that and other work that the Council has taken on over this last year, this is really about strengthening the safety net of those in need in our city. And so I think that that is, you know, cities are taking on more of these sort of broader issues that traditionally have been taken on by, you know, counties and states. But across the country, cities are stepping up to lead on these issues. And here this is an example of cities leading to provide a social safety net for the community. So I appreciate that. I also love that there's a commitment to rehire the former employees. I think that's that's important. So I wanted to lift that up. So thank you for making that commitment. I also want to want to reinforce again, you know, we have nine districts, but this is, you know, occasionally we're able to to look and support a project that may not be in your backyard because you understand that it's connection to the broader system. And as it relates to hospitals, emergency rooms, they are a vital component to our emergency response systems. And so adding this or making sure that we have that resource in that area, that helps to smooth out response times across the city. And so this is certainly a citywide investment the entire city council should be focused on. And so I do support that. It's also opened up a broader conversation about and Councilman Longo mentioned the community paramedics, an idea or conversation that that will have at council. But I think if you think about, you know, East Long Beach and where the emergency room is and you put up, you know, you grab a map, we actually have quite a few hospitals where a city our size, but where they are, they're all sort of clustered in a certain area of town. And if you think about Islam Beach, this is critical. They're in Norfolk Beach. We both have access to we have access to Long Beach Memorial. But also Lakewood Regional is is directly on the border of Long Beach on on South and Downey. And so we are our emergency responders, our first responders. They transport folks there. But but the need on that side of town maybe, say, urgent care centers or figuring out how to make sure that we, you know, leverage our economic development department or developments across town to make sure that there's urgent care centers that take a that take pressure off of emergency rooms in general. So all of that is sort of come out of this conversation really how do we strengthen our health care network in the city? And so, you know, I have to say, Councilman Super now, this was a crisis that happened, you know, within, you know, to, you know, within two years you were able to really rally and get the community together and unify the council. And so that that really is a compliment to you and your leadership and your style of leadership, where everyone really felt inspired to get involved and contribute in any way that we could. And so congratulations to you. And I know that there's been a lot of credit given a staff, but I got to say, this was amazing work. I've seen a crisis or two in our city, but the way that the team really formed ranks and and delivered brought us to this position a very different place than where we were and in a place where we've we're comfortable with this agreement. And now it's in the hands of other agencies to execute this plan. I think that's that's really strong. And so I want to just congratulate and lift up staff once again. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Councilman Austin. You know, I always queue up late and so I don't know that I can say much more than that has already been said. But thank you. And I know that the public doesn't want to hear me to say how much we appreciate staff, but we do appreciate the staff and their work on this. It has been pretty, pretty amazing to talk to witness. And as a councilmember, Richardson mentioned, this this deal, so to speak, has evolved and evolved and evolved. There's been dozens of meetings and back and forth negotiations, closed sessions with the city council. But the political will and the will of our private partners nwn to get us to this place has been unwavering. I want to just mention that there are some risk here and let's not be sugarcoat this and recognize that there are shared risk. There's shared risks from the private partners when there's risk from the city here. This is a huge commitment. There's a risk from the community. Our the fate of our emergency health care response system is is really, really weighing on on and on this deal to happen. We we need to ensure that we have that those are services on the east side of our city. And if it's not, there does impact the entire city's response system. And so I am super supportive of this. I want to elaborate on on one point in our staff to to please walk us through the public, through what still needs to happen, particularly from the Sacramento legislative standpoint, to make this deal work. And so the city manager. Can you please address that? Sure. Mayor, members of the city council. So the first thing that we need to do is work with NWN and CDPQ to get the hospital license approved for NWN so that it is taken off the hands of memorial slots. Step one, step two. After that. And when that process there is there are a number of steps that need to happen. The forms, of course, but also the surveys. City does come out and do a site visit so that they see the appropriate number of beds are there, the appropriate equipment that the site does and will support . The eight basic services that are required of every acute care hospital in California concurrently will also be working with occupied on an extension for size. That compliance that may involve the state legislature as well, but certainly occupied as a state agency that administers that type of work. And so Oscar Orsi and his team, along with Perkins and Will and the Molina team as well, have been working together to devise a site plan that will meet president compliance and support a functioning and sustainable hospital long term. Those are two primary goals that we need to achieve in the next, I would say, month or so. And so this project has in a couple of months in the making a little over a year, but we have been working very diligently every single day and every moment has counted. So I would say that those two are critical steps. If we don't meet those deadlines, then we've got a problem. But I am confident that we will. And so with that, I think I'll leave it there before we get too much further ahead of ourselves. Well, I just want to take this opportunity. Miss Diana Tang, I want to thank you for your excellent work in inter-governmental relations, not just in Sacramento, but also with the county and all of our public agencies to really get us to the place that we are. And of course, the action taken this evening by the city council is a continuation, is just gives the authority for us to keep moving this this this process forward. But understanding that there's still a lot of moving pieces that that need to still happen to make it happen. And obviously, the city council, the will is behind it to to to support our staff and doing some great work. And obviously whatever we can do to do that, to make it happen as well. And again, I want to extend our congratulations and thank you, super councilmember super and offer your leadership and Councilmember Price standing up for your communities. And then the workers out here who took time out to be here, that the wonderful folks of Sienna, the nurses who have also been a very good partner in keeping this issue front and center throughout this entire time. And, of course, the foundation board from community hospital. Let's continue to to do what we need to do to make this deal happen. You have my full support. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes. I think a lot of what I was going to say has been said before as well. But I will just reiterate as well that, you know, this was a very mindful approach and we became solution providers. It was all of us together really, really doing this. And I, too, want to thank my colleagues, council members, Supervisor Price and. Go for really putting their efforts together to ensure that this was really looked at as a city wide approach. And we also thank M.W. when we are familiar faces with decades of experience here in our city. So it was for me personally as a councilmember here in downtown, it was really I felt confident going into this approach. And I think that our public, our constituents will do the same thing. And to Sienna as well, I know it's always scary when jobs are kind of on the line and having the opportunity to have those back is really fascinating, especially as as the state level. We're talking about cover, you know, universal health coverage, access to health care, and those discussions will continue to just burden the system. We need to have access here in our city, in Long Beach. And I just want to say overall, thank you to everybody to staff as well for their commitment to seeing this through. I think we've done a really great job tonight, and I look forward to seeing the state's results and look forward to having a great ending to all of this. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Superdome. Thank you. I'll wrap up by thanking staff. Yeah, actually, I want to mention a couple of people because Councilman Mongo talked about me responding all hours a day. I'd just like to mention that Diana Tang, our manager of government affairs, has that same quality answered. A lot of questions for me, and I'm sure the partners and everyone else at various times ask her or see our Deputy Director of Development Services. Thank you, Oscar, for getting us to this point. And the tough part when I think of Oscar's job is so much of the heavy lifting is yet to come, so save your energy. I also want to mention Charlie Parker and staff. Speaking of the heavy lifting yet to come, Rich Anthony has done an incredible job, but he has the task ahead of him, too. So we we wish him well with that. One staff member who hasn't been mentioned is my own staff, Barbara moore, who's sitting. So for those of you who don't know, this all started with a preliminary architectural study that our office funded. We came up those funds through operating efficiencies. That is our off council office operating budget. So we had to cut back. We had to run very lean and mean, and we couldn't have done that without. Barbara moore And she it's so tough to run a council office. And along with that, she puts out a world class newsletter every Friday. And I think in that we had 65 or so community hospital updates in that time that everyone really appreciate. So, Barbara, thank you for all your hard work. And then I want to get to John Keisler, because this is just a monumental task. He's taken on someone once put online that words the effect of, hey, if if Darryl and John pull this off, they should build a statue for them. It's like we were co-equal partners. So let me put that in perspective. If I got a lapel pin for this effort, John Keisler should get recognition the size of Mount Rushmore. And I guess I can't say enough about what he's done. He's always cool under fire, and there's plenty of fire on this one. But what I think is so remarkable is he wasn't a hospital expert when this all started, and I wasn't either. But if you asked him today, what are the eight components of an acute care hospital without looking at notes, he would say, of course, that's medical, it's nursing, it's surgical, it's anesthesia, it's laboratory. Let's say it's pharmacy and dietary services. Right, John. Okay. And I see another. Well, I'll leave it at that. Anyway, I'd also like to thank Mayor Garcia. It's especially quality of leader who lets the staff do their thing. And lets them excel and do the very best and come in right at the right moment to make it all happen. So that's a real unique quality, a very great quality and a leader. And we appreciate that. And finally, John Molina, thank you for stepping up. And if there's anyone who saved community hospital is John Molina. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. And to wrap us up, Vice Mayor. Yes, thank you very much. You know, after listening to all our speakers behind the diocese here, it really at one time, even in closed session, I thought this was just a done deal. And then again, I thought, this is a no brainer. And then all of a sudden I said, What are we speaking about? And then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. But now it seems like this thing is getting ready to come to fruition because the fact that great people have great people just like great minds. Mr. Merlino, you and your staff, and especially Mr. Superman, Mrs. Price and Mrs. Mongo, these individuals, they won't let anything get past them. So I just know that it was going to this is going to work. It had to work. And with Pat, you know, staying honest in a mayor's dinners, you guys and the young ladies who your jobs are coming back, I guarantee you that there is no way that it won't come back, because if this doesn't go through, we probably won't have a consummate career anymore. So I'm pushing very hard for this. I want to thank everyone who got behind this and really making this a really a true, true. Mr. Merlino I just can't tell how much it's you when you get you just like E.F. Hutton. Boy, when you speak, everybody listens. So I want to let you know that you guys are doing a great job. Keep it up and I know we're going to get this hospital open. And guy, Mr. Super now not going to ask you about I'm sick or not you know all these good health care and okay. But I feel good tonight. Thank you guys very much. Let's get this hospital open. Thank you. Thank you very much. And members, please go ahead and cast your votes on the motion by a count from the supernova and Councilwoman Price. With the with the friendly that was accepted. Motion carries. Thank you.