Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and adopt resolution amending the Master Fee and Charges Schedule.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Now moving on to our hearing, which is the first item up, we can have the agenda for the hearing. Madam Clerk. Hearing item one is a report from financial management recommendations received supporting documentation into the record concluded the public hearing and Adobe resolution amending the master fee and charges schedule city. And. Q We're going to go ahead and turn this over to staff. Mr.. MODICA Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report will be given by Leah Erickson, our Assistant Finance Director. Good afternoon or evening met and members of City Council. City Council's approval is being requested for mid-year changes to the master fee and charges schedule. These changes are identified an attachment to the Council letter for the mid-year adjustment process for departments. I've proposed a total of 30 fee changes to the schedule, along with eight fee deletions. The master fee and charges schedule is updated at least twice a year to allow departments to meet City Council's stated policy on user fees, which calls for full cost recovery whenever appropriate. City Council last approved an amended master fee and charges schedule on September six, 2016 as part of the FY17 budget process. Some examples of fee changes in the report include changes in library room rental fees in order to encourage public use of under-utilised spaces. Fees charged to transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft operating on temporary permit at the airport. And an adjustment parking permit fees that aligns the city's fees with prevailing market rates. The full list of fee changes and deletions is available in the Council letter. That concludes my staff report, and Department of Representatives are here to answer any specific questions you may have on any of the proposed fee changes. Thank you. We'll start with Councilman Austin. You know, just have one quick question. Obviously, this is a staff report is pretty voluminous. What are the what exactly are the feed deletions that you mentioned and where are they at? So count Councilman Austin, the attachment A has a two page list and on attachment A page three of three is the list of proposed fee deletions for fiscal year 17, and it includes some changes in library services related to eliminating fees for compact discs, video DVDs and other media type of charges. And this is being aligned in order. These fees were collected by the library on behalf of Friends of the Long Beach Library, who pays for the media. And so the Library Department had requested two ladies with books which are being provided free of charge, and so these fees are being deleted. In addition, there was a couple of coffee urn charges that are no longer being offered. So those fees are being deleted as well. I see. Thank you. Council member are actually based on. Richardson. Do you have anything? No plan. Customer Pearce Yes, I want to support obviously a lot of this. I did have a few questions that I wanted to just ask quickly about the TNC. It says here that our fee structure is based on the cost of providing the services. And so I wanted to understand a little bit more what the cost of providing the services are and whether the $3 fee both for dropping off and picking up came from. Yes. Councilmember Jess Romero, Director, I want to just first frame this up, that this is a pilot program, as we had earlier explained to the council when it was approved. The fee itself is based on a number of factors. There's a range of fees that we looked at at competitive airports, all in California, most of them here in the L.A. region. And there's a range of fees. They go anywhere from about $2 to $5. And a lot of that is reflective of the fact that each airport is different in terms of its cost structure, what it needs to support, or what they call the landside element or the roadways, parking areas that are out, you know, outside of the fence, if you will. So with this research, you know, we believe that the $3 fee for a pick up or dropoff is appropriate. And really what this is doing is this is helping us continue to diversify the revenue that is required at the airport. We heard from the council very loudly and clearly when there was a discussion on the FISA vote that financial stability was extremely important. And the more money that we make through these programs like this, the less we have to rely on other funding sources, specifically passenger facility charges, which are entirely driven by activity at the airport. So will there be these fees be used to invest back in the airport infrastructure parking? Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Absolutely. And to your point, this year alone, this fiscal year, the airport has spent about $550,000 on roadway improvements for any recent visitors to the airport within the last few months. They'll notice that the island area that separates the inner and outer curb was lengthened and shrunk to allow for more traffic lanes in front of the terminal to ease congestion. We do resurfacing projects all the time, so this actually is just going to go part of the way toward helping us fund or landside element more appropriately so again, that we don't have to rely on funds that otherwise could go to securing debt on the bonds that are outstanding at the airport and other projects . Last question. I see that the yellow cabs, they have a one time fee and this one is pick up and drop off. Can you just elaborate? And I promise that's my last question. Well, again, this pilot here was specifically intended to focus on the T and C's. We just completed a ground transportation study through a consultant. And our goal is over the next several months, but also dovetailing with this pilot period, to gather more information and examine fees for all commercial ground transportation providers. The legacy fee, I'm calling it from Yellow Cab is a fee that's been in existence, I think, since the 1980s. There's no doubt that it needs to be updated, but we'll be looking at the appropriate fee structure in the coming months. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. I want to thank city staff for this report. I know that they have to do it twice a year. It is a lot of work. We appreciate that. I do want to, for the record, just put on note that and ask a rhetorical question. Leah, can you confirm that any fee made to the fee schedule, which is very lengthy, is outlined in the letter? There are no changes that were not specifically called out in the letter that a constituent who was trying to read this would be confused by. Is that accurate? Councilwoman Mango Between the the letter and attachment a to the letter, every single fee change or deletion is detailed. Just not exhibit A because that seemed a little bit overwhelming to some, but I wanted to make sure that I was accurate in what I had stated. That is correct. Exhibit A contains the full list of all existing fees and charges, including any. Amendments that were already that are singled out and identified in attachment A to the memo. Perfect. And then secondly, I just want to thank the city staff for their creative approach to parking. Splitting the day, parking, parking in the evening parking really will open up. And then the hire. Option in terms of our ability to properly sell parking at those locations currently without actually knowing how many days versus night users you have, you have a limit to how much you can sell. So we've a shortage of those permits. And I know that the community and I personally who use some of these downtown lots will really appreciate that they have that differentiator. I think it's a great solution. We've heard the community asking for more parking. This is a way to get there and I think it was. Creative and I appreciate the hard work. Done on that. And then finally, and to echo the comments of Councilman Pearce related to taxes versus cab and legacy fees, I'd be interested in aligning the legacy fee. I think what's good for one is what's good for all I know in meeting with the cab providers, they said they wanted a level playing field. I think the more appropriate way to level the playing field is that everyone move to a per pickup, per drop off fee. And then I would also like to see us explore. The neighborhoods who are around the airport have recently been significantly impacted by people parking on Friday in their neighborhoods and then now there's not any parking for their kids birthday parties and utilization of those areas. They're there and parking there for more than the 72 hour limit, which is allowable. And so then they're taking either an Uber or a cab from a nearby location to the airport. So they're trying to skirt the fees. They're also parking at our local hotels that are in the area, even though they are not guests in the hotel. So I've seen this and they will park at a local hotel. They will get in a cab and go to the airport even though they are not a guest. So I'd like to see a little bit of that money in the first year set aside to alleviate the pains that are being caused by this, as long as it's allowable under the federal rules related to airport revenue. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Price. Thank you. I, too, want to thank staff for the report. And I have a couple of questions. I first wanted to point out that I like the proposed changes, although they don't impact my district with the parking fees and the lots having consistent daytime and nighttime parking fees I think is appropriate. And I've talked with Mr. Beck about that, that we shouldn't be charging more for nighttime permits or daytime permits. We should try to have some consistency there. So I like that that's at least being proposed in regards to some some lots that are mentioned in there. And the master fee staff letter I did. I have a few questions about the TNC fees as well, and I want to thank the airport staff for taking some time to talk with me earlier this week about it. And my concern is really this, and that is if this is a pilot program and we're using it to collect data, why are we not waiting to determine what the fee should be based on the data that we're collecting? And if we believe that there is going to be a need to increase revenues in order to offset some of the detrimental impacts of having this additional flow of traffic through the airport, then where did we come up with the $6 amount? So if there's any answer to that, I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Staff Councilman do to clarify it's some the fee is is a an either or fee. So the way it would work operationally is the customer would be brought to the airport passing into the Geofence system. $3 is added to that fare. They have to go out, either leave the it will leave the airport and go on their way to another pick up. Or we have a under the pilot program, we have a holding lot and they can stay there. So it's it's it's $3 for either a pick up or a drop off. You know, they won't necessarily do two transactions during one visit to the airport. Again, as I said earlier, as it relates to the fee, we know that it is costing the airport money to maintain the roadways, to do repairs, to do enforcement. All of that is is ongoing. That's just as it relates to the expense that up to this point, the airport, other than through what I'm going to call it, fairly nominal fees that are assessed for the permits for these commercial providers. We have not kept up anywhere near to what it cost to run the programs. At the very least, you know, it's the goal of the airport at the very least to achieve cost recovery, which I'm not even convinced that we'll get there when this program is complete. And again, part of that is collecting the metrics, the data and determining whether or not these fees need to be adjusted at some point in time. So I think it is very appropriate to go into this with a fee. It's bracketed by the other fees that are being assessed at the other airports. And again, each airport is different. But based on what I know, we're expanding what staff what I've seen staff information, the data and what we're expecting based on these these trip fees, it's not going to cover these costs. It'll get us in the right direction. And as I said earlier, what we're trying to do is diversify the revenues from many sources so that we don't have to rely on fewer revenue centers like parking, airport concessions, things like that. So this is really going to help our overall program. And I appreciate that because your answer clarifies to me that it's not an arbitrary fee. It's a fee that is designed primarily for cost recovery. So do you envision that after the pilot program, there will be an adjustment to both the TNC fees and any fees assessed on our cab services based on data obtained? Or is this is this fee estimated to be able to be sufficient and cover what we think it's going to need to cover? Quite honestly, I think it's a little too early to tell. I can I can tell you this with reasonable certainty that the $3 fee, I think, is is a good cost point, if you will, a price point for the operators. Again, I think that it's going to help move us toward cost recovery as it relates to the cab drivers and the cab companies. You know, obviously, it and it was mentioned earlier that, you know, the goal is a level playing field and we would we'd obviously support that as well. What we'll have to look at is their cost of operating that particular enterprise versus the TNC, which are you know, they're measurably different. So we don't want to discriminate by, you know, necessarily setting one uniform fee it. May turn out that that's what happens. I want the data to show, though, you know, what what really is defensible, what is appropriate. And again, our eye is toward really making sure that we're protecting revenue streams and growing revenue streams at the airport. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Councilwoman. Next up, we have Councilmember Supernova. Thank you. I think Mr. Romo just answered all of my questions, but I'll just frame it a little differently. And that is your your wording was the fees are bracketed by the region, almost like a market driven fee. But to clarify that there is no correlation between Long Beach and a lake size airport in the region. Cost could be drastically different. Would that be correct? Well, I would say we're looking at, I think, within the fee range or the cost or the fee assessed at the airports that we're looking at, especially the airports there between two and $5. So percentage wise, yes, you can say it's drastic, but from an absolute dollar amount, it's you know, I think it's not as big of a spread. That said, you know, each airport is a little bit different. And I believe that based on the characteristics and the the cost burden and the requirements at bay at Long Beach, that $3 is a very appropriate fee to start this program. Okay. And then that's just on the function of the service. And beyond that, we have the cost of the airport. Not all airports in the region have a new terminal, a new parking structures, etc., to pay for. Yes, that's correct. I would say this, though, is that it's not necessarily even in the newness of safe facilities or assets at an airport. In our case, we've got aging assets and things that need more attention. And again, if we don't have to take money from other sources of revenue, that's not much more. We can invest in other airport projects. So I believe I'm a firm believer in making sure that elements at the airport, whether it's on the airfield or the landside, that they are being able they're able to generate and extract revenue from various sources in this case, because Long Beach Airport, really, for all intents and purposes, has not had a ground transportation program up to this point. We need to do that anyway. And part of that is making sure that it looks at appropriate funding, you know, to meet the burdens, to repave the roadways, to improve, you know, ingress and egress to the airport. And really even what we'd like to do, if possible, is use some of this revenue to help fund what I'm going to call wayfinding or beautification projects at the airport. That's a that's a longer term goal of ours. But I think that anything we can do to help fund that and offset that from other funding sources that like, for example, PFC, I'd like to make sure that we could keep PFC in place, firm and center on our bond obligations and use these other revenue sources for what I'm going to call operating expenses. Okay. Thank you. One last question or just a comment. I concur with Councilmember Mungo's statement about the issue with folks having an Uber or Lyft pickup within a neighborhood or a hotel parking lot. If there's any way to get that into the contract, we'd appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I just wanted to highlight one additional line that is also changing the reservation based around transportation and non reservation based ground transportation. Just to be clear, is that, say your limousines, your bus services that are for hire when you drop off six or eight people at the airport, all of those. And it seems as though the permit is only being increased for the one time, but not necessarily on the per pick up or the per drop off. It's on one of three of attachment. Yes. In the case of the other, ground transportation is really this pilot program because of the technology that's available and because of industry standards, where it is a per trip fee, that's we're going into this focusing on the tax ideally. And if you've had a chance or do get a chance to read the ground transportation study, one of the recommendations is for the installation and investment of what's called an ABI or automated vehicle identification system, because ideally every commercial vehicle that goes into the airport should be paying some fee based on activity. I said earlier, I it may be that it it results in a single fee, but I know this from my time at L.A. World Airports, they actually have different fees, trip fees for different types of vehicle. I'm not saying we would do that. I'm not saying we wouldn't do that. Part of this exercise is to collect that data. So these fees here relative to the permit fees. Again, in my experience, they were greatly under charging those service providers. We weren't. We are we have not, to this point being, been recovering the administrative time that it takes to process these documents , get them signed and sent out. So this is this right here is is really just to cover the paperwork. I appreciate that. I, of course, would prefer to be fee free. I do understand, though, that this program and other programs has an impact to our neighborhoods, which is why I brought that up specifically. I read the memo. I appreciate the research done, and I recognize that it is the industry standard and we're not the first into this market. And so for us to take a major diversion from that might be difficult for both the consumer and the the industry. So I appreciate your work on this and I'll be supporting this item. Thank you. Thank you. And just to just as a clarification, also, Mr. Remo, I mean, I think almost every airport that has implemented the rideshare program has has a fee, correct? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. There's a motion and a second public comment on the fee schedule issue. Please come forward. Just a quick question and a good point Councilwoman Mongeau made, and I'm not sure I followed all of the details, but if a neighborhood is being impacted by that, can there not be what some neighbors have, some neighborhoods have as a parking permit that the neighbors would have and that anybody that has a car parked there that does not have that permit would be towed, period. Thank you. Q Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Max Gellar. This is Diana, my colleague. We're from left. We look forward to picking up passengers at the airport, but we have some serious concerns, namely the trip fee. Just a point of clarification, these trip fees. All airports do have a trip fee where we're permitted. Some of them don't have both a pick up and a drop off fee. Especially airports besides Burbank, San Jose, San Diego, a bigger one. It's just a pick up fee. There's no drop off fee. So what we're asking for is for the pilot to begin to gather this data to then determine a more permanent fee structure. And it's not Lyft and Uber that pays these fees. It's the customers themselves. We're sort of a conduit. We get these fees and then it goes straight to the airport for the cost recovery that they're seeking. Also, generally, airports that we've dealt with have provided a really sort of annotated detailed description of the TNT operations costs and where these fees will go down to the point of the salary of the people who point to where a taxi pickup has to happen. We want this pilot to start tomorrow, but we have concerns that if we sign an agreement with a double sided, $3, $3, it will set a bad precedent. And we haven't sent back the agreement for that reason. So what we're asking is that the six months start with all the data being collected and then a more appropriate fee is sort of determined based on the data we haven't been picking up at the airport, so we're still confused as to where they're getting these numbers from their client, you know, all the sort of numbers that they're citing. But we're here for any any questions you have. As a resource, too. And a follow up for any past experience. We have California airports and experience with airports, the size and that's all. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me go back to Mr. Mr. Romo, because I know I just want to ask a question. The regional airports of the five regional airports, I believe we are the one that currently doesn't have the TNC program in place. Of those five, do they all have which only have one or the other or both? Can you? I would say Ontario Airport currently does not allow TNC. I think they're working toward that here in the coming months. L.A.X. charges $4, pick up and drop off for dollars. Pick up and drop off. Orange County, I believe, is $2 for pickup and $2 for drop off. And I defer to staff. I don't know. Burbank, I think is three and change. I'm not sure if it's just a single fee. So but L.A.X. and Orange County, both do both pick up and drop off. Yes. Okay. And can I get a response? Do we know about Burbank? It's a we can. It's $3 only for pick up fees. And one of the reasons actually. I'm sorry, I'm in the discussion. Thank you. So. Okay, and and I know that Ontario right now is doing the same thing we're doing, which is moving towards a policy, correct? Yeah, they're looking toward it's supposed to be from what I hear, it's supposed to be go into effect next 60 to 90 days. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Councilman Mango and work here. Thank you. If you have a question. Well, thanks, guys. Appreciate it. So I know one of the things that's a challenge is we want to continue to maintain the quality of the options available. And we would, of course, love for people to get to the airport in any means they like. But one of the things that comes in, at least my discussions with staff related to the drop off fee, is that every drop off sub vents a parking at the airport. And so to Mr. Romo's point related to the budget, I saw in our fee analysis that we actually believe that parking revenue is going to go down because of a lot of factors. Actually, people are using other transportation. People are parking at the airport as long people, the destinations have changed. So they're not going away for as long. We don't have the flight to D.C. anymore, etc., etc.. So these shorter hauls have less days at the parking structure. And so we never want to put ourselves in the red and we don't want to create new fees if we don't have to. But I think that with the pilot program in mind, if we could just encourage the staff to keep in mind that the bottom line , they think that that's really important to our community so that we have a safe and stable airport. And some reassurance. I just want to respond to Mr. Good Hugh's point about creating preferential parking districts, at least in my district. That's not free. It starts with a 1400 dollars traffic study. The residents would have to pay for signs and also an annual permit. And I don't think I'd ever ask my residents to subsidize a private company doing business in their neighborhood like that. But thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. There's a motion in the second. Members, please go and cast your votes. Motion carries.