Recommendation to adopt resolution Calling for the Placement of a General Tax Measure on the Ballot of the March 3, 2020 Special Municipal Election for submission to the qualified voters of the City of Long Beach an ordinance amending Long Beach Municipal Code section 3.64.035, to increase the rate of the general purpose Transient Occupancy (Hotel) Tax from 6% to 7%, and making findings of fiscal emergency pursuant to California Proposition 218;
I have you down for consent. Next. So 27, please read the item. Is there a mover and seconder for the concerned calendar items? We're going to 27 and then consent. Okay. Item 27 is a communication from city attorney recommendation to adopt a resolution calling for the placement of a general tax measure on the ballot on the March 3rd, 2020 Special Municipal Election for submission of an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to increase the rate of the general purpose transient occupancy tax from 6% to 7% and making findings of fiscal emergency pursuant to California Proposition 218 Adobe resolution providing the filing of primary and rebuttal arguments and adopt a resolution requesting the Board of Supervisors to consolidate a special municipal election for a local initiative measure to be on March 30, 2020 with a statewide primary. I think we had a pretty extensive presentation on this last week. This is just the documents that we already approved. I do have some public comments. Let me get to some to get to those who have signed up. If I can have Kelly Lucero, John Thomas, David Bunker and Cantrell and Christiansen and Lourdes Ramos, please come forward in that order. Good evening. My name is Kelly Lucero, president of the Long Beach Symphony. And I'm back just to share with you what an exhilarating week this has been. This community is buzzing. My phone has been ringing off the hook with people so excited about the opportunity for you all to and for the voters to choose to strengthen arts organizations, to put diverse and cultural programs into our communities, and to better serve those children and families and our community as the grunion. Harry Solskjaer's said two weeks ago he wrote, The arts are the soul of the city. I'd like to thank you all for your enthusiasm, your creativity, your courage for making the bold decision. To feed the soul of this great city. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Sierra. Mr. Thomas. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of City Council, I want to thank you all on behalf of the cultural arts community that continues to thrive here in the city of Long Beach, both the performing and the cultural arts. This major will really help sustain and grow and cultivate the arts community for the future and in the long term . We're very lucky to have your leadership, your support and your vision to enact this agenda item. And everybody that I've talked to in the community is very, very positive for it. They realize the need for the revenue source. So we we thank you very much for your support this evening. Thank you so much for your comments. Mr. Duncan. Hi. My name is David Bunker. I am the board chair of Long Beach Camerata. Thank you all for the opportunity to speak on this. For our audience and our city council, we are proud to serve the Long Beach as the primary provider of choral music here in the Long Beach area. Studies have shown that in the United States that more people participate in choral singing than. Any. Other artform. And we found that to be an exciting aspect. And we also found that to be part of what Long Beach Camerata has been about as a community builder. Even within our own organization, Long Beach, Camerata Singers provides those musical opportunities to both the singers and its audience. We have The Kingdom Concert, which is an educational program. We have the new piece for Youth, which is a program for middle school individuals. The new TOT measure will help us expand these educational opportunities for the children here in the Long Beach area. In conclusion, I would like to thank all of you and particularly Mayor Garcia, Steve Goodling, for their work on this measure thus far. And we urge the city council to approve the measure for the ballot, and we urge the citizens of Long Beach to approve the measure in March. Thank you so much, Ms.. Ms.. Kantrowitz. And then he'll be Ms.. Christiansen. Good evening. And Cantrell. And as I said last week, I am totally in favor of all of these art projects. But I. In reading the ballot. I see that nothing is mentioned in there that this money, this extra hotel tax will go to the arts. Or anything else. In Long Beach. Not the libraries, not the police, not the. Roads. It will go into the general fund, just like measure a tax increase did. And so I urge you, when you put this on the ballot to add. That this. 7%, at least part of it will be used. For arts or some other thing than just putting it in the general fund. Thank you. Thank you. And Christiansen, please. So. Yeah. I kind of have to agree with Ann Cantrell. I mean, I don't know how many people are jumping up and down in Long Beach about a new tax. My sense of things is that what I hear is that we are the most taxed city, one of them at least in the state. I mean, we already pay so many taxes when we pass that other tax, we didn't really have to pay very much of it because we already had reached the max. So I know a lot of people that don't like to pay taxes to anybody. So I would think you would want to have a reason other than an emergency you got here, I guess, in the bill. So I think just to be asking for more money and not seeing where it's going isn't it's not very smart. If you want if you want it, then tell people how you're going to spend it. Of course, as an artist and retired art teacher, that would be a great way to spend it. But I don't think you're going to have much. Like, of course, if you put on that campaign real effort like you did for Measure M or that other one that you wanted and, you know, really push to send out all those mailers and spend all our money out of our regular general fund to get more money for the general fund. Maybe you could swing it. Miss Ramos, please. Hello, everybody. My name is Robert Ramos, president and CEO of the Museum of Latin American Art here in Long Beach. I have to say that in front of the Coast Guard sector, we are on celebration for these visionary project that certainly come together with the expansion of the city and the international obligation of our leaders. Diversity, inclusion and culture is part of the economic factor and the future of the city, not just of the future, but the city of now, of the citizens of quality of life. So I encourage everybody to be part of this marvelous opportunity and endorse these marvelous project. Thanks, everybody. Thank you very much. Members, please cast your votes and this will send this to the voters in March. Ocean carries. So Boehner can have it on. Thank you. Voted much. Voted Bush. You. Thank you very much. Thank you all. We will now go just two things. So we're going to do, uh, there's an item just to make sure we just get out of the way we're going to consent. And then item 28, there going to be a motion to change to the motion on that item.