Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Chapter 2.50 establishing a Technology and Innovation Commission, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Report from City Attorney Recommendation to declare ordinance adding Chapter 2.5 to establishing the Technology and Innovation Commission met for the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Okay, there's been a motion in a second to accept the motion. I'm going make a few comments on the motion. This over have a question. First of all, I do want to just begin by thanking the city attorney for for working diligently on this on this item. And also, this is a continuation of a budget item that was already passed by the council. So the council has already, as part of the budget, funded the establishment of a new commission, which is the new Technology and Innovation Commission, which is something, as we know, is greatly needed in the city of Long Beach. This commission is going to be charged with looking at innovation in government technology, working with our Technology and Innovation Department, as well as the new director of technology and innovation. And there's a lot of exciting things in this area. Cities across the country are bringing and putting together commissions and groups on technology and innovation. And this will ensure that we are a 21st century city and that we're leading the way. And so it's and it's an exciting time. And I want to again thank the city attorney and the council. Councilmember Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to first of all say that, yes, I did vote for the budget. I passed it. And I have no problem moving forward with the Technology and Innovation Committee. I was a commission. I was on the issue enough when this particular item came before the and commission committee several months ago. But when this agenda item came to the City Council to establish the Technology and Innovation Committee, the makeup of the commission was supposed to be 11 members, one from each council district and two At-Large members. And on this, this particular ordinance reads it, read seven members. I can can somebody explain how we how we changed? Well, I think the initial ordinance was presented by the city attorney's office. And certainly we reviewed the ordinance. I don't remember the or recall the exact language of the of the motion. But Mr.. City attorney, the. Mayor's member of the Council of Councilmember Austin, you're correct. In September of 2013 and the item that was referred off to the committee, the the composition was 11 members, one from each district and two at large. Then the item was went to the committee for the analysis that was done. It was received and filed. Then the item was brought back as part of the budget approval process, as the mayor mentioned. At that time, we did not follow this recommendation from council. We were working with the mayor's office on the new composition of the committee that's before you tonight. So there is an inconsistency in the from what came from the council to what you have here before you tonight. I can't explain exactly how that happened, but our office was working with the mayor's office and we thought we had it, however, how it was supposed to be. But you point out that we do not have that, as you indicate. So we have two options this evening. You can consider and adopt the commission as presented. We could certainly take it back and revise the makeup of the committee to reflect the previous actions of the council and bring that back to you for a new first reading. Thank you. And actually and Councilman Brosnan, I appreciate that. In retrospect and looking back, I made the motion I brought the agenda item to the council, including what you're describing as the makeup of the commission. So I obviously, I that's where it where it began in the discussions with the city attorney. And so in what the attorney presented to us initially was a seven member commission. We looked at that. We're supportive of that. Looking at the other commissions, they are set most most are seven member commissions or smaller. They're not. Well, I think we have one with one exception or two. We have 11 member commissions. I think that's why the number was was set. As far as the makeup of the commission, to be quite frank, I'm not married to it either way. If we want to go back to another system, I have no issue with that. The only thing I would caution is in the discussion with the city attorney's office, because this is focus on innovation and technology, and it's such a specialized type of of experience and commission. We want to ensure that we're kind of putting together the brightest minds on innovation in the city. And certainly, like every commission, we want to make sure it's diverse and has representation from the whole city. So I think that as presented by the city attorney and in the discussions, I'm very comfortable with the seven member commission as laid out here. If there is interest in having those also be the Council District piece, I'm open to that, but I want to make sure that could limit. I think some of the the ability of the commission. Well, I don't want to second guess you and your wisdom here, but like you said, you brought it forward to begin with with 11 members as a city council member. And the city council was the policy setting body of the city. With all due respect, the mayor's office has a lot of influence here, but we are the this is the body that that does that. And so I don't in terms of form, I just like to to respect the the the the vote and the position in the direction that the city council laid down to to establish this commission. And we respectfully move to to amend this to include the 11 members as originally laid out by the city council last year. That is a second on the amendment. I think there's a second councilmember mongo. Having not been privy to the 11 member original. Counsel item, did that have the flexibility that this one has where some of the technology gurus of our region may not live in Long Beach at this time, but could be huge contributors? Because one of the things I really liked about this was that five members will live in the city of the seven. And instead of really trying to divide by nine, again, it really thinks about the city as one whole, the way we kind of talked about at the original visioning session. And it talks to the different components of our city mobile applications, networking, technology and education. I just watched on the screen a presentation about our districts and the one that they showed was about the airport commission and the airports in my district. And I don't have an airport commissioner living in the fifth, and I'm okay with that because we've done an excellent job selecting people with a city wide vision. And so specifically it was nine members that live in council districts and two members that live in the city are at large but don't have to live in the city , have expertize in what area? I mean, where the expertize is required. I just know that having served three years as a budget director for Community and Senior Services, which manages one of the largest bodies of commissions, which is a 40 member Workforce Investment Board, fulfilling all the requirements and maintaining a quorum is a huge component of being able to be successful. And so I want to be mindful of both of those balances. Q Vice Mayor Lowenthal. And I agree with that. I know that there are several commissions where I would definitely advocate for representatives from each council district. But as it relates to technology, I am not wedded to having someone specifically come from the second District. I am open to having these experts coming from outside of the city, as Councilmember Mongo indicated. And I also would support having a much more manageable size. It's hard to I think this may have been said earlier, it's hard to get a quorum when the group is larger. I think that's difficult. We found that maybe not in all our commissions, but it is difficult to get a quorum when the number is larger. So I'd support it as it's presented today, even though as a council we did approve it. I don't feel that I have to approach it in a formulaic way as a divide by nine, make sure every council district is represented, especially when it's a very specific commission, especially specific to an industry and an expertize. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Richardson. So I, I seconded this because I was a little caught off guard on the disparity between the 11 versus the seven. I thought it was worth discussing. You know, we had to use the airport commissioner as an example when we found out that we have a vacant ninth district position for the airport commission. We found a pilot in the ninth district and he was really excited about it. And it was a and so he's one of the people on the commission that comes back and reports, notes from the meetings, and he's interested in serving other capacities. So from that standpoint, I could certainly and totally see the value in ensuring that we do have representation not only geographically but from different perspectives, because who knows who could benefit from being at the table in these discussions? But also, you know, I'd like to see a point of order. I seconded both motions. Is that okay? Yes. Okay. Got it. So. So the other thing is, I know that like the planning commission gets they've got, what, seven commissioners on the planning commission. Right. And thereby planning district. No. Is there a way to ensure that there's or maybe some other commitment we can make without creating an 1111 person commission to ensure that we still have balance across the city? Because I can tell you, of the 100,000, 95,000 residents north of the Alamo, I'm sure there are multiple people who could, you know, represent on this commission very well. And I would want to make sure that we if seven if is nine, is this 11, that we do maintain a commitment to to ensuring that we have some diversity and is the standard, because as a new commission, I think is the first new commission we've put together as a new council. So my question, Mr. City Attorney, is, is there some other standard that we could use, some compromise standard to ensure that? I mean, is the planning districts something we can do? We could certainly look at various options and with the mayor's office on how the selections are brought forward to the council. But yes, there are other options. Because what I think I might want to do is substitute, substitute, I guess, to see if there's if there's like another way to if it's a nine person commission, maybe seven of them, by planning, planning district or ten, you know, and two citywide so that we can bring in expertize from maybe the colleges or different areas. So I guess that would be my my substitute to look at a different formula. So maybe by planning district with some at large just thrown in there as well. Mr.. Mr.. City Attorney Yeah. He, he can substitute items seconded, right? Is that correct. That yes. Okay. Okay. There's a substitute substitute. I want to just say a few things in Mr. Mr. Park and then and we'll go to the rest of the speakers. There's I'm sorry, there's a question by Councilmember Mongo on the action that the councilmember from the eighth District referred to. And yes, they would be comprised of Long Beach residents. The 11 all 11 would be required to be Long Beach residents of the former. And I think that one and to be I mean, to be frank, I think when the discussion came forward from from the city attorney, we wanted at the time with information, we had to make the best commission possible. We certainly there are some there are some folks in in the city right now that are doing incredible work with innovation, that aren't residents. And I think when you look at economic developed commission, I think we have two or three commissions, including the Web and others that encourage those that work in the city but not necessarily live in the city. And so the original motion also kind of limited that. So at this point, I think the commission makeup right now will allow for us to put together seven outstanding commissioners. And I think we'll do everything we can to ensure there is diversity of all types on the commission. But we want to we don't want to, I think, at this point want to keep that as innovative as possible. And I think as presented by the attorney, I think that that presents that. So those will be my comments. Councilmember Austin. Thank you. And so I'm not wedded to 11 I'm not wedded to a number. I'm not wedded to the makeup. What I am wedded to is the process and making sure that the integrity of the processes is clean and clear and that when we put forth when we make a decision as a council, that that that that's what the decision is. I've never. This is the first time that I've experienced a council decision. Being something different. So that said, I'm not stuck on anything, but I did have a couple of more questions. Did the city council receive a copy of the Fiscal Impact Analysis report that was prepared when this commission was was proposed? Mr. City attorney, I I'm not aware of yet. Yes. The city manager prepared the fiscal impact report on November six of 2013. That was presented on April 1st of 2014 to the EDF Committee. Item two. Okay. Well, when we adopted the budget, it was $100,000. I believe the mayor's recommendation for this commission and the the when reviewing the fiscal impact report identified the cost for staffing for the commission to be between 142 and $221,000 annually. Where are we going to make up the difference? Mayor. Council. Mayor Council members. When the mayor put forth this in his budget message, we produced a budget of $100,000 that we felt we could manage this commission on a pilot program for the first year and then sustain it in next fiscal year. Okay. And it also discusses how there's currently a citizen technology advisory committee that was created in 2004. The SeaTac advises technology services on identifying and applying new information and communication technology to improve service delivery to the city and the public. This commission is established. Would we be eliminated in eliminating the seat tag and is a separate council action required to do so? No, sir. We would not be eliminated in that. That Cabinet committee will will still advise technology services. And the Information and Technology Commission will act on this on a separate track and do something altogether different. Is that correct? I don't want to say all something altogether different because it will still be technology and innovation, but definitely two different tracks. Clarify. The Citizen's Commission to refer to Council member advises the Director of Technology civically when it comes to staff projects or staff initiatives at the department level. Solely in the Technology and Innovation Committee will advise the council. Like all commissions, it will be a body that brings forward council issues. We could think things could be asked of them to provide reports for us, but certainly there will be tasks that looking at ways to innovate, not just the confines of City Hall, but looking at technology innovations, city wide, like all commissions do. Well, I think it's worthwhile for us to move forward in this direction. Like I said, I'm looking forward to to consistency and integrity of the process in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Thank you. And I'm sorry, what was the substitute? Substitute, just so I can be clear on that. And did you get a second for that? Yes, I got to say. Okay. I just wanted to make but. But, you know, I cued up because, I mean, after I made my motion, the mayor made it said that he would make a commitment to ensure that we bring in different perspectives and we make sure there's geographically based as well. If we can do that, then I'm comfortable withdrawing my motion. My second, whatever. I mean, I'm on every every motion and I'm comfortable. I'm comfortable going back to the original motion as long as we have that verbal understanding. Absolutely. And absolutely. I think certainly support the original motion. And we would absolutely look like all commissions. And I think you're going to see in all commissions diversity of every type, especially geographically. All right. So to be clear, I'm withdrawing my substitute. Substitute. Okay. There, there. It has to be the second has to agree to the withdrawal of the substitute. Substitute it was in. I agree. Thank you. And now we have the substantive motion of Mr. Austin to send that back to the city attorney to prepare as presented by the council and approved by the council in September of 2013. That doesn't seem to be the support from a council to do so. So I will remove that, but I will maintain my position that the process should be reversed in the future. Okay, so now we're back to the original motion as presented by the City Attorney Ordinance. I see no other cues up any public comment on the item. See nonmembers, please cast your votes. Motion carries 80980. Next item.