Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Chapter 9.16 in its entirety, relating to abatement of public nuisances caused by illegal conduct involving sale or manufacturing of controlled substances, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Vote. Motion carries eight votes. Next item this is a recommendation to adopt declare an ordinance amending the municipal code regarding the abatement of public nuisance as a rental properties and related to controlled substances and manufacturing. Read the first time lead over to the next regular meeting. Second. Okay. There's been a motion and a second. Councilmember Turanga. Yes, I had a couple of questions also with the city attorney earlier today and he satisfied my my question in regards to the involvement of the property owner in this in this thing, because I'm sure that there will be some future concerns from property owners that they are having tenants evicted without their knowledge or without their support . So I think it's an opportunity to give property owners an opportunity to evict nuisances if they if it's so fun to be that way. And City Attorney Park in LA satisfied my questions regarding that. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any public comment? Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the City Council. My name is Clive Graham, and I'm the president of the Apartment Association, California Southern Cities. Three, three, three, West Broadway, right across the street. First of all, Mr. Mayor, no members of the city council. Congratulations on your election. Welcome aboard. Good to have you all here. For those of you who are returning, it's good to see some familiar faces, too. Our association is a nonprofit professional association for apartment owners and managers. We are composed of over 3000 members in the 56 cities surrounding Long Beach, the Greater South Bay area. And we want to be here to help you in your jobs. And we do plan to meet with you all and get to know you personally, all the new members, and and be on your team, too. Regarding this particular ordinance. Mr. TURANGA This is nothing new to the apartment owners. This is a blessing to the apartment owners. This is why it has saved some apartment owners lives. This pilot program has taken offenders who need to be evicted, who have threatened the lives of their landlords and property owners and taken it off the back of scared landlords. And the city attorney's office has taken it on. The city of Long Beach has done a marvelous job with this over the past many years. We applaud that this item has been renewed and encourage it being continued. We do, however, request that a couple minor changes be made to it. There is in the State Assembly Assembly Bill 2485 Dickenson on the same subject. We would request that since the city ordinance is almost word for word verbatim of that bill with a couple of minor exceptions, those exceptions be included in the city ordinance. One simple one. The city ordinance calls for the notice of the tenants to be in 13 point type. The state law calls it to be an 14 point type technical problem, but a defendant could use that as a great defense and have the whole notice process thrown out because it didn't conform. Secondly, we request that paragraph 19.6030. Paragraph E include the additional language. An owner shall only be required to pay the costs or fees upon acceptance of the assignment and the filing of the action for unlawful detainer by the City Attorney. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay, Councilmember Richardson. Thank you. So I'm just curious, Mr. City Attorney, would you mind walking me through, just step by step, how something like this happens, how you use this ordinance? How this ordinance works? Yes, sir. Mayor. Members of the City Council. Thank you. As I've mentioned. The city has been. Doing this process or processing these types of evictions for over a decade. We've been participating a participating jurisdiction in evicting landlords using the unlawful detainer process. We are one of three cities that were the pilot program Long Beach, Los Angeles and Sacramento. And over the term of this pilot program, Long Beach has used this program more than any other city. We allow it allows us to file against tenants for illegal drugs and illegal weapons. The ordinance before you this evening only deals with the illegal drug component. And the goal, of course, is to eliminate nuisance and improve the community and to assist. As you mentioned, there are certain landlords maybe who are afraid of the tenant or. Other tenants who are afraid. To come forward with their complaints. As mentioned, the city attorney has to provide the landlord with 30 days notice prior to filing the legal action against the tenant, the city attorney. And we also notify and provide the tenant with the documentation supporting the eviction or the reasons for the eviction. And then the property owner may move forward after we've notified the property owner. So they have a choice that they can move forward or they can request that our office brings the unlawful detainer action, or if we don't hear from them, we can move forward and bring the action on behalf of the city to. Eliminate the nuisance at that location. So we in the last year, I think we reviewed almost 3000 police reports, and I think we caused about 280 or 290 relocations during the last year in which the records were kept. And I believe that's calendar year 12. So we have found this to be a very effective tool in working with the police department to eliminate certain problems at certain residential locations where the tenants are known to be dealing narcotics in this particular case. So we have found we can and to address the two points raised by the Speaker. The ordinance, as it's currently written, is Sunset has sunset, but it allows cities to adopt their own ordinance. We were currently or previously following authorization under the Civil Code. So the Civil Code allows us to adopt. Our own ordinance. So we don't believe, while we could certainly. Change it from a 13 point. Font to a 14 point font, we are substantially compliance. All of our other city notices are in 13 point font. That's why we went with that notice font provision. And then for the filing, we don't actually file. Until after we've completed, so there's no chance of us running afoul of the state law. In fact, if 24, I think it's 85 passes, it's currently pending. So we don't know if that ordinance is going to pass or that legislation in Sacramento will pass, but it's currently pending as indicated. So we believe this is a good opportunity for the city to maintain this program, that we have code enforcement, we work closely with code enforcement also and the police department. And we would hope you would support this. Thank you. Got somebody, Ranga? Thank you. Is there a threshold in violations that would trigger an eviction or is there a low tolerance or no tolerance? So whatever on this, whatever others. May are members of the council. That's an excellent question. There is a a balancing test. If you will, on the eviction of the offense. We as I said, we reviewed almost 3000 police reports that were submitted for potential action under this program. We only have one attorney handling it. So we do try and take the most egregious cases and deal with those as fast as we can. But there is a a balancing test so that if there is if they're cooking it on the stove, it's pretty obvious everyone in the house knows what's going on in the house. And so we would we would move that forward to evict if it's something that's hidden in one of the children's backpacks in a bedroom where there wasn't any a notice and the parent has that person leave the house. You know, that's another that's the opposite in a situation where there maybe wasn't notice and then we would not move forward with that. So we do look at each and every case as an individual case and depends on the facts and the circumstances, a situation that we can feel, that we can go to court with the officer's police report and that officer's testimony in order to withstand the scrutiny of the court. Thank you. Q Mustache. Thank you. Concern over a price hike. I'm fully supportive of this this item. I want to commend our city attorney's office. And I'm sad to hear that we only have one deputy city attorney working on this, because when it comes to quality of life issues, if you live in an apartment building with a drug dealer that is sharing space with your child, that is the worst condition to live in. So and for the landlord and for anyone else who is involved with with a an environment where there is drug dealing and drug possession going on, it's it's a really terrible way to live. So I support our city's efforts to do everything that we can. I absolutely would support a zero tolerance, but I understand that because of staffing, we can't go after every single situation that comes up. But I certainly think we need to be aggressive. And I had no idea that our city was working for so many years on this effort. So I commend you for that and I fully support this item. Thank you. Councilman Mongo. Also, I want to I also want to voice our support. We were lucky enough to utilize this at a particular instance in our district, and it was a lifesaver to the family and the community. Drugs are not welcome in our community, especially in these kind of situations. So thank you. Thank you. We've had public comment as well as council comment. There's a motion on the floor, so please, members, cast your vote. A motion carries eight votes. Okay. Moving on to the next item. It's a recommendation to amend the municipal code relating to the distribution of handbills or other printed materials or written matters of merchandise. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting.