Recommendation to adopt the Mayor's proposed budget recommendations to the FY 19 Proposed Budget.  (A-11)
Most motion case unanimously. Thank you. 1.11, please. Report from Financial Management Recommendation to adopt the Mayor's proposed budget recommendations for the FY19 proposed budget. So this one would have been as amended, but I would like to amend the amend amended. She's going to change the recommendation. For a change in the BRC recommendations on the mayor's proposal. But I'd like to finally myself, if possible. Yes. Let me find that motion. Just before the presentation. Okay. Motion to support Mayor Garcia's proposed recommendation with the following adjustments, including to bring back any staff recommendations for fee schedule changes to the B or C, including the results of the Parks and Rec and Development Services. Fee studies use 315 of General Fund one time savings from health care cost savings and 315 of the projected f y 18 fiscal year close to fully fund the Mayor's General Fund recommendations proportionately with the other minor amendments as stated by the PSC. And Council Member proportionately. Is that a word that you mean to include in there? That sounds to refer. It seems it. Doesn't. It's not necessary any more. Thank you. Thank you. And for, you know, for clarification sake as well. So essentially that restores the the budget proposal as is. And it's not I know that there's a minute and everyone may not know what the f 18 you know sort of semantics. It's semantics it's it's basically the fully funding it's not split in half or any of that. And so it's it's a recommendation as proposed initially. I do have a couple of speakers. Councilman Pryce, do you want to say anything? No, not on this specific one. But is this the. Okay, so have we did the is it appropriate time to talk about the money for the seniors or. No? Not yet. Okay. All right. Because I'm in Kansas. My first one, I think the Budget Oversight Committee. I know this is not very easy to go through this every year. And I want to thank our city departments for proposing many of these for adding these proposals so the mayor can recommend them fully to the city council. And so I appreciate all of that work here. I first want to and I also think many of the community members, of course, that have been here for so long, I know some of our youth have stayed since 4 p.m. and all of you have been here for so long. So thank you for your patience. In that I will just say I appreciate the justice fund immigrant rights. What I will say about that is, you know, everyone looks at it as a very black and white issue. But I think for many of us in the city who represent these large communities, it's very important. And these dollars will not only be a dollars for an issue, they'll be dollars that will actually be supported by the matched by the very institute. But they also have some transparency elements, matching dollars. That's when before you keep going, I just want to talk tech folks or something going on with your voice that's so out of our tech folk and just take a look at it. As you can tell. You know, hello, hello. Provide matching dollars from private philanthropy. Number two, it will provide in-kind support, program management, tech assistance and training. And number three, which I think is very important, it's research for evaluation. So key performance indicators to ensure that we are on track. And this this fund is transparent and it's actually going to individuals who actually need it. But it also keeps and holds the city of accountable. There's currently 12 cities, 12 cities in eight states that have this justice fund in place, and they call themselves Safe Cities Network. So I just want to make sure that we put that forward. In addition, we know that this will enable people to be more civically engaged, especially as we have this Census 2020 coming up. And we know that many of these populations are afraid to call and ask for city services. So we really appreciate this expungement services. We talked about that in detail that primarily people of color, especially men of color, are being targeted or have low level records that deter them from. Educational opportunities in obtaining a. Job. And the Youth Opportunity Fund, I just want to say this is a great proposal. It's a strategic plan for youth by our youth, especially opportunity youth in all districts. This fund can be leveraged with private dollars as well. An additional grant funding. The youth, from my knowledge, are creating a mission statement and a formal framework to create parameters for the strategy. So it's not just dollars that we don't know what to do with, but parameters for the strategy that will touch all parts of our city. And it's also inclusive of many generations, from seniors to the youth. So we see the. Language access plan in the safe housing plan. So the safe housing plan, I will say I have a question on that and I know I already spoke with development services about this. I know that's not specifically proposed in the mayor's budget. I think the mayor has proposed the city prosecutor element for about $100,000. But I would like to ask our development services a couple of questions. Lynda. How does that work? Maybe this is better. So ads are coming up. And I know we've talked in length and I know currently few things are happening. So relative to the people's budget, the safe housing plan, our Hanson software system is being updated. And we are working as well with tech and innovation to upgrade that system for better results and make sure we have it all set. Do you know at all when we can expect updates to the software, the system? I know it'll probably be a little bit down the road, but do you have any sort of idea on when that? Councilmember Gonzales. Thank you for the question. And I would just like to clarify that we have just started the conversations with the TIDE Director regarding taking a comprehensive look at the program and making sure that it has the capability to meet our needs. And if it does, we would then need to go through a process of reprograming that system to take the data that is going to be able to help us facilitate the inspections and all of our not only in code enforcement, but in the Planning Bureau as well. So if I were to give a rough estimate, I would say between about 3 to 4 months for us to do a full assessment. And after that point, we would start to probably take another 60 days to actually make those changes to the system. Okay, great. And I know in conversations. We've had with the public. There are other systems that may produce additional elements that could maybe be compared to Hanson. So there's SLA. I know that City of L.A. uses SLA and concrete, and those are two that offer additional options for public visibility when it comes to code enforcement cases. So those maybe just things to throw out there to leverage or compare with the current system after we update it. And that is correct. And staff is also generally familiar with both of those systems and actually there are others as well. However, where we're starting from is to make sure that the system that we currently have, because we are under the understanding at this point that that system does have the capability. However, until we can actually do an assessment of that system and the anticipated upgrade of that system, we want to make absolutely sure that before we look at another system, that this system wouldn't be able to handle our needs. If it would not, we would then be open to looking at those other alternative systems. Okay, great. And I understand that we don't exactly know how many code enforcement officers we may need, depending on what happens here tonight and then down the road and even after the system is updated. So I would like to ask if we can receive a two from four to the city council that talks about the updates, provides progress on the updates, and also progress on what we envision the code enforcement additional personnel would look like, whether that's 60 days after, you know, we've had some sort of idea or a down the road, but continual updates in a to form four would be really great as we go through this process certainly. And I know. So the mayor's budget specifically calls out the city prosecutor, city prosecutor funds for high level code and nuisance issues. And I love this. I think it's absolutely needed. What we've talked about and I know I've mentioned this to you as well, Linda, is we currently have a link on the Development Services website that tackles or basically lists property owners who have violations above 120 days. And those may or may not be in sync with the city prosecutor program, but perhaps we can a make the link a little bit more visible and be add these cases additional cases if they are city prosecutor cases that are have hit their limit. And I will say we see that a lot, of course, with people that have major quality of life issues. And then, of course, the historic districts that have had many issues and complaints even over a period of time, they've just never been never been pushed to the city prosecutor's office or right before that. So this program will hopefully help those issues. So I just wanted to throw that out there for you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And then lastly, I will say with language access, I know Tommy had mentioned about a structural plan that we would be receiving some information coming back soon. Do you know when we can expect that? The awesome timeline question. So this is for prep? No, I'm sorry. I'm going to language access. Structural point. And. A structural plan for language access. Yes, I believe we asked for that a week or two weeks ago in our last few council meetings, and we had asked to see if we can get some sort of plan back to the city council on how to make this structural. Councilwoman Gonzalez. There was a TFF that was issued on Friday, late Friday, that responded to questions from the August 14th and August 21st. BOSSIE And or hearings. And that doctor. Had. Some questions on the structural funding. And I just look at it for you. If I could find that. Yes. I think the the making the permanent position to full time. Right now it is a part. Time position, a temporary part time not temporary, but. A part time position to make it a full time position. It was around 30,000. Oh, yes, it was around 32,737 would be needed to make the LEAP position full time. Okay, so that's great. All right. I'm done with all my questions. Thank you very much, Grace. I appreciate that. And what I will say is that if we can add that in this year's proposed budget to make this full time, I think that would be really great. I know Council member Wodonga has fought for this for some time, so just throwing that out there. But thank you very much. I'm glad we're moving forward. Thank you so much. Customer Pierce is way better, huh? Hello again. Yes, the mayor's budget item. I want to say that I think I said it last time when we sat down to go over this budget. It really did ring true to me that this was a reflection of an attempt to get at the people's budget. And so knowing that we've done everything from tapping into language access to youth, I know that all of these deserve to have more money. But working within our means and I want to say how much I appreciate the community organizing the efforts that have gone on. I know that while we see you here for a couple of hours, that it's all of your jobs all week long to get this work done, to do the community outreach, to to really invest in that that it's building community and not just coming up here with the piece of paper. And I think that as a council, it is our job to I don't want to say reward, but to work with those that have invested the time to make our city better. And it's not making something better for one resident, for one constituent. But as you guys do this work, we are getting on the map for other nonprofits, for the Ford Foundation, for organizations like that to send money to Long Beach to invest in Long Beach becoming a more equitable city. And so I want to thank you for all those that don't even know that you're doing this work. I know. That. It's a labor of love for you. And so having a budget that reflects that is something that I'm really proud of. I'm really proud of the mayor's recommendations and the work that this council has done to try to get to the heart of what your recommendations and your work has done. So I do I think you guys all know that I fully support the mayor's budget. I want to talk about that. Outside of the people's budget, the slumlords with the prosecutor's office, I think is something that we haven't really talked about before. But I'm really happy to see that and I look forward to hearing a report in the next year about how that went and what that process looks like. I'm not asking for anything additional. I also really want to talk about how important the expungement efforts are and the money that we're using to make sure that we address some of the changes for the African-American communities, communities that have disproportionately been put away for marijuana use, and that now that we have made that change here in the city, I'm really happy to see that that effort is going forward. So with those changes, with the senior changes, adding some dollars that are coming forward, it is a really robust budget and adding more police officers, particularly the officer by the officers that are on bikes in our downtowns and around our beat areas I think is going to be a great change that we should all really talk about . I know for the last five, six years in District two, it's been an issue that's come up a lot and we have been told, well, we don't have the resources. So again, looking at a balanced budget where we're both adding PD, but we're also adding a youth budget, I think is something that we should really celebrate after today. I want to echo the comments of my colleague, Councilmember Gonzalez, in reference to the software. I know that we've had lots of conversations with development services, just trying to get that turned around quickly. I know that it's been a topic that we've talked about for a few years, and so whatever we can do to try to get that to come back to us sooner rather than later. And you had asked for a two from four. What did you ask for? Two from four on on the language access or on the housing? Just the code force. I would. The code enforcement. Okay. I know. I was like I took all my notes. Sorry, guys. We have so many topics we want to talk about. We're so excited. I would ask that it goes beyond a two from four and that we come to council with it. I love all the two from fours, but some Fridays we get like 15 of them and it just, it sometimes they sneak through and I know it's because we asked for them. What I would like for this one not to be a two from four. I would like to have a discussion council led by development services. That way we don't have to re agenda is it is that a big change that too much so the fiscal policies that we just approved a minute ago actually require that when we ask for a report back that the staff have the opportunity to tell you that will take 24 hours of staff work or 13 hours of staff work. And the reason that this policy was also very controversial and took two years to pass is because sometimes, let's say, just in order, Councilmember Gonzalez and I make a proposal about digital inclusion, and we believe it'll take 15 staff hours and we asked for it to come back 120 days. But the next week, councilmember supervisor asks for something else from the time manager and wants it back in 60 days or 30 days. What ends up happening is people's items get bumped and the staff resources are being moved around based on timing, not based on priority levels. And so I'm not putting a time limit on it, I get that. But to ask for anything to come back to the council, I would just say that in light of the policy, the staff should get the opportunity to tell you that's going to take us 20 hours of staff time or 15 hours of staff time or when they can get back to us. And I recognize that there's a lot of two from coming, but my my alternative would be. The community comes to lots of community meetings and ends up waiting till 11:00 to hear the second council item because we're waiting to go through all of our other items. And so I'm just hoping and I know that some of us have talked offline about this, but it's never been agenda is that we kind of each keep an eye on all the things that are coming back to council and how long that list is getting and where are our priorities as a council and making sure that things that we've set as priorities like tonight we made a motion to review the positions that were grant funded. We made that same motion a year ago and they never came back to council. And why is it that certain things make it back and other things don't? It's just if we want to report back, maybe at the end of each council meeting, we take a vote. And if you have five people that want to hear it back or if they want to move it to committee or what you want to do, I would just say that. My community of seniors that comes to council don't often get to stay until the end because they drive a very long distance at night. Well, neither did the youth that were here earlier. I agree. And that's unfortunate, especially it's I mean, we had to drive. People don't care. Let me just make sure. Let me go back. So let me just go back. Councilman Pearce, you have the floor. I think so. Let me go back to Councilman Pierce. You have the floor, so please continue. So my comment my comment is that housing continues to come up. It is a priority for, I believe, this council based on the votes that we have taken in the past. I believe that tonight I could say, hey, I would like to make a budget adjustment and ask for, you know, the 250, $350,000 that the community is asking for. But instead of asking for that $350,000, I'm asking for development services to come back not with a two from four, but to come back to council with a report on the fee schedule and the changes to the technology that we need to be able to do code enforcement the way that that I feel is necessary . That's what I'm asking for. Thank you. Let me just also just just to square Sylvia, we're back to the next item. When we talk broader about the budget and the BFC, I think there's an opportunity to have some more discussions about different parts of the budget. I just want to make sure that we're focused just on the recommendations as presented in the mayor's recommendations. I guess because there's some crossover housing piece, what I. Would have what I would ask is that we pass the mayor's recommendations as is, and we can add in the next item. When we talk broader about the budget, there's going to be some additional changes read into the record by by Councilman Mongo. There's an opportunity to have, I think, some of these. I think I'm getting nervous that we're doing it one by one. So I just want to make sure that by the end there's an opportunity to make sure we address everything that I don't miss because it wasn't included in one section of the other. The the broader budget discussion is the next is the next item. Okay. So on the mayor's budget, I support the mayor's budget and I will save the rest of it for the next question. And I hope that we are all understanding that we weren't supposed to pass this budget tonight. Right. Our deadline isn't supposed to be till next week. So having a full discussion tonight, I hope that I can feel free to do that without, you know, feeling tension about it. So I think absolutely. I mean, every member of this body can say their comments and speak as long as they would like on on each item. And so I want to make sure that everyone feels that way, or maybe not according to some. Okay. But let's let's continue. So, again, the ask is just to keep these recommendations, as is began, some broader discussions. Next, there's a variety of additions that Councilman Mongo is still going to be going to be making. So, Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Reserve most of my comments for the next item when we jump in. But one of the recommendations in the mayor's budget is the 200 K for the the youth fund. Now, in the mayor's budget, it says you fund through participatory budgeting. We heard from the public tonight that what the public wants is that funding to be toward a strategic plan, a youth strategic plan, and secondly, for it to be housed within the Health and Human Services Department. So is that reflected in this budget? I mean, is that reflected in this motion that we need to offer friendly. So that that's not what I what I would say is is is this is I'm actually in support. I think the idea of doing a strategic plan is actually great. So I absolutely support that. I think it's the right use of money. I've also said publicly that I have I'm not married to it. Going to any one department or going to any party supported budgeting process. It was just as a starter fund. My recommendation is going to be that our staff is interested in bringing this issue back to the council after kind of talking to some to the community and the council members. So as well as the commissions themselves are interested in giving some suggestions. So what I would say is that we set aside the $200,000. It doesn't have to be just a pre budgeting. It could absolutely be for the strategic plan and have council come back in as when they have the conversations as to how that should be spent in words and where it should go. It does not matter to me. But I also want to make sure that the council has a chance to weigh in in that process. Mr. Mayor, we went to the public and talked about it and the public has given input. So I think I guess. I'm just I what I'm what I'm saying is, is that I'm just I'm just communicating what staff's I interests has been is to do. It that I in asking staff they said they want council direction. So is this the time for me to give council direction? Because I'd like to make that. So if I might. Well, hold on. Actually, Councilman Richardson has a floor, so council has a floor. I mean, we had a youth budgeting meeting first. Let me take a step back. So I worked on nine budgets, and this is the most organized youth effort I've ever seen. And they've been clear. About what they want. And I'm not grandstanding, but I feel like there may be other agendas for this funding that I think we should just be very clear. You know, at the it was actually called out at the the budget reveal that, you know, we want to get input from the groups who proposed this particularly my girls in action was called out. I've gotten emails. I've heard it time and time again at the dais. What I don't support taking it to a process to figure out how to do a strategic plan. What they said was Give it the health department, apply a health lens to it, and go and go about that process of establishing a strategic plan. That's clear to me. What's not clear to me is saying staff go back without giving direction to them and say, come back with a two from four. On what this process might look like. That's more unclear for me. Okay. So let me first got to say, if. We if we want to make if there are concerns and making sure it's inclusive of all youth, I think that stuff's fine. That's more direction. Mr.. Mr.. Parkin, you wanted to comment. Thank you, Mayor. Just from a technical standpoint on addressing the issue of changing the funding, I believe this was originally in the city manager budget and supported by the mayor. I'm looking at it right here. I agree. But means B or C is recommending A changing of the funding on it. So if you are adopting. That's right. No, no, you're right. Item 15, you could change it in a way I want to. So. Well, that and you're actually right. So it's actually part of the city manager's projects. It's it'll be the next item. Next item? Yep. Okay. Thank you. Councilman Austin. Honestly, Mitt, I'm confused at this point. I think we all are. I want to support the mayor's recommended budget, I think. I mean, obviously, A, B or C did some some some very I want to say forensic type work. I mean, we went deep did did a deep dove into the budget, into the city manager's recommendation, as well as the mayor's recommendations, and came back with a recommendation in a few hours ago that was, I thought, very prudent and very thoughtful, but a budget that probably is not going to pass muster this evening with the majority of the council. And that's clear. We we listen to the public. And I, again, commend all of those who are present who have advocated very, very vociferously for for a youth fund, something that I support. But I also want to just be very clear that this whole idea of of funding, senior programing, you know, I brought it forward in B or C, I brought it forward to my colleagues . And I think I've talked to too many of you about some of the challenges we have for our seniors in our community. And when we talk about equity, we want to be equitable with with how we how we treat folks who have lived in this community and contributed to the city for many, many years. And so I want to be clear that that I support further funding senior programing because I've seen the benefits and how it builds communities, particularly in my district. I also want to say maybe this is part of the next next item and I'm happy to speak more to it then. But in February we made a commitment to community that we would explore. That is the next item, but we'd explore, you know, establishing an African-American arts and cultural center in the city. I know I've been talking offline with many of my colleagues about doing that. And so in this next item, I hope that we can we look at putting forth some seed money for for outreach and visioning, that visioning process that would include the development of a task force comprised of stakeholders who are very much interested in helping the city establish that. So I just wanted to put my voice to that. And aside from that, I will be supporting the mayor's recommendations. Pick a councilman. I councilman place. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and to my colleagues. So a couple of things that I'm hearing that I want to make sure that we clarify. I'm all in favor of us allocating money to the youth. But I cannot and will not support a program that doesn't have or funding that doesn't have a city wide approach to it. I just want I understand and I appreciate and I respect the outreach that has been done. However, many of us have had community meetings where there has been no presentation on the topic regarding where the money would be spent. It's been presented very much as a broad category of funding to be determined in terms of expenditures with stakeholders, including youth throughout the city. So I am completely in support of supporting youth programing, but it has to be a citywide effort for me to support funding it. It's got to be something that touches every single district. I want every single one of our districts to be involved. I want the youth in every single part of this city to thrive regardless of what. Let's not make assumptions about what people's obstacles in life are. Let's just not make those assumptions. I've learned how to speak English when I was seven, was raised in a single parent family. Let's not make assumptions about what what youth need. Youth all over the city need support. They all need support to thrive. And they might need it in different ways. Some youth in parts of the city might need help with drug addiction issues right now. Huge issue in my district. We want those individuals to thrive. We want them to be involved in programing. So I'm not going to support anything. I will not vote on anything if it's going to go to a specific group with specific programmatic aspects to it right now. And I'm also not going to support anything that's kind of this loosey goosey. Let's just put money out there and come up with a plan. If we're going to come up with a plan, great. We're not going to spend any of it until that plan comes to council. And we talk about where that money is going to be spent. But I cannot at a time where $100,000 or $200,000 might mean additional core services for our residents support, something that I don't completely understand in terms of how the expenditures are going to be made. So I support money going to the youth. Absolutely. I support the mayor's recommendation as it was drafted. I support our commissions being involved in recommendations because they too are major stakeholders in the city. And I support us having a discussion about how we can make sure that general fund dollars impact all aspects of the city. So that's that in terms of the mayor's recommendations. I want to hear my colleague's recommendations on some of the other topics or their thoughts on some of the other topics. I will say, and I've shared this with the community that's come forward on the justice fund. My personal opinion is that tax dollars should not be used to fund individual legal battle battles. That's my personal opinion. I do not believe that we should use general fund dollars to fund individual legal claims, whether they be expungement of a prior arrest record so that people can get jobs, whether it be in the area of immigration , whether it be disputes among neighbors. I do support us seeking grant funding. For us to be able to support our residents. And if that means that we we put forth some money to help that grant funding. That's something I could live with. But I do think it's important for us to recognize that this is the first time that we're funding this. And we need to be mindful that the estimates of how much money might actually be drawn down from it might be less than what we're predicting now. So I'm I'm in favor of putting forth. And look, I'm mindful the vote you know, that vote will probably pass with or without my support. I get it. I've been very honest with the with the community that I that I've met with. And I very much appreciate them meeting with me. I've been very honest with them about it. So there's nothing and there will never be anything to face in any communications I have with them. That's my opinion. But I do think that we should maybe and I know it's something that's going to pass by council, but let me just put it out there. If it's really, truly a grant that we want to get to help fund these efforts, why don't we put forth the money that we think we need to get the grant, and then if we need more, we can reassess it at that point, instead of putting forth a large chunk of money that we may not need in order to meet the needs, we don't even know what the needs are yet. I am aware that other cities have established this fund. I'm also aware that in a lot of those other cities, because of the support of a lot of privately funded legal aid institutions, they have not drawn on general fund or taxpayer dollars to the level that they thought they were going to need to, because they've been able to use a lot of resources that are pro-bono in nature. So I think my preference would be what's what is the minimum that we think we need to do if this is the effort that the council wants to support to get a grant? And if we're able to get that grant, then maybe we reassess at that point. If we get $100,000 grant and we're putting in 250, do we really need 350 to fund this program for the first year? Are we going to get $350,000 in legal fees that we're going to have to pay? Maybe we're only going to get 200,000. I'd rather we we take a look at that and address it later. I think there's a lot of pro-bono services available. I see them every day in the courthouse that I work at. I think that we should be trying to explore those to help our residents. So the other thing that I say to council is, look, I understand the issue. I really. Do. But at what. Point are we going to say now if we have people come and say we would like right now there's a there's a program whereby you can get your arrest records and your criminal conviction records expunged for the purposes of future employment. If someone comes and says, I want the city to help me with getting my ex, my prior conviction expunged so that I can get a job. Where do we say to them, No, we can't do that because we're choosing to support this legal battle as opposed to this other legal battle? Because I'll tell you, for people that want to get a job and they have a misdemeanor or a felony, that they can easily get expunged with very little legal resources and assistance. But they don't know how to do it. They might want the city to help fund that. And at what point do we say immigration's more important to us than you getting a record expunged? Which is a very simple procedure. But if someone doesn't have understanding of the legal system, they won't know what forms to fill out. So I just think it's a slippery slope. When we start using taxpayer dollars to fund individual legal battles, it has nothing to do with the content of the legal battle. Nothing in my opinion. However, it's a slippery slope. Let's say we get a special interest group tomorrow that's organized, that comes to council meetings, that that that perseveres. And they say, we want help expunging our criminal records. What do we say? No, we don't want you to have job opportunities for low level misdemeanors. Are we going to say that? I just think that's an important conversation that we need to have, because if we're willing to do it for one group, we should be willing to do it for another. And my recommendation would be, let's figure out ways as a city to help find these pro bono resources, help educate, help, do outreach, all of that I'm in favor of. I just think when we start funding individual legal battles, it's a huge slippery slope. But maybe we can do outreach. Maybe we can do connect. And services. Maybe we can do other things that connect people to the services that might already be out there, or to that establish a limited fund for us to be able to get matching funds. I just think we can't pick and choose winners in terms of who gets tax dollars to help fund legal battles, because there's a lot of people out there who can't get jobs because they have convictions that an employer won't overlook. And I know that right now they have people people have all manner of convictions, whether it be, you know, a conviction that's currently eligible for diversion that maybe four or five years ago wasn't eligible for diversion. And now in order for them to get it expunge, it literally is an hour of an attorney's work, but that's 1500 dollars for a person. And it's not fair for that person because they don't have 1500 dollars. They could go into a self-help clinic and figure out how to do it, but it's hard for them. So and I get that I'm just I just you know, I respect the opinions of everyone. I just wanted to share mine. And I don't know where that all falls, but I wanted to share my opinion. So thank you for the grace and the courtesy. Thank you, councilwoman. And yeah, and I think it's important to remember that we can all have different opinions and that's okay. And that we're on, we're all getting through the budget and that's fine. And I want to thank everyone for for, you know, having these important conversations. And so I appreciate that. Let me just also, as a reminder, because I know we've had a few folks chime in on this, and it's been I've been reminded by the city attorney again, which I appreciate that the budget on youth the youth budget line item is actually in the city manager's budget. I mention it in my recommendations, but it's actually it will be part of the next discussion. And so I know it's been brought up a few times, so we can have that discussion next. And so I just again, this is just to the items that are funded in the mayor's budget. Councilwoman Mingo. Okay, so I'll reserve my comments on the Youth and Senior Fund for the next item, but I will provide some context and comments to the comments made by my colleagues. Any item that comes before the city council. We often get both pro against and alternatives, and alternatives aren't necessarily pro or against. And I will say that. This year's shortened budget cycle due to elections and committee changes and all those things is particularly frustrating because when the mayor's budget came forward, I was approached by several interest groups that wanted to help. There were. I was actually called by the president of the Long Beach Bar Association, who said we provide free legal services every Tuesday at the courthouse for immigration and expungement. And how is it that there's a community that's unaware of this? What have we done that we could have done better to provide that information? They actually then, through a dialog over several weeks, proposed a couple of different things. The President wasn't able to be here today because he has a case tomorrow in Sacramento. And so he flew out today at 2:00. But he had actually even stated, similar to what Councilwoman Price had said, related to the amount of money sometimes being leveraged from our our most vulnerable constituencies. Those constituencies can often be charged upwards of 1500 or $4,000 for an expungement, an expungement that could be filled out through one single sided, one double sided piece of paper. And so what I also recognize about the process tonight is it's a step. It's setting aside money. There's still a second component of the process. One is that we, in the current effort, 18, the 100,000 of the justice fund that was discussed was actually put into a grant proposal to Vera . Vera has not come back and let us know yet if they will be matching that fund at that time, whether they do or don't. That's when the next dialog starts. And so I hope that the individuals who approached me because I was chair of Budget also take the time to approach other members of the council to put forward their opportunities. Because if we have a group of lawyers who are willing to pro-bono on Saturdays, go to different works or centers or different locations throughout the city on weekends or times that people are actually available to fill out their forms, that's great. It just means that the fund would be utilized less. And in talking with some of the lawyers from the Long Beach Bar Association, they even talked about the number one barrier to getting an expungement. Is that the penal code listed on a ticket and the penal code on the conviction aren't the same. And it's actually a multi-week process for a resident to go get their own records where a lawyer through the Bar Association can just put in a list to the judges and get them all provided, and so that a constituent who needs an expungement could literally get it done in 20 minutes and the paralegals can go and do all the other work for them and save the fund the 1500 dollars, because the Bar Association can do it for about $45 a person. And so there are these other options that need to be explored. But again, as mentioned, I think that it's important to see that the mayor's priorities have funding set aside. It does not necessarily mean that it'll all be used because, again, as Councilman Price said, it's used on an as needed basis as the funds are drawn down and or leveraged through grants or other things that have not yet come to fruition. And so for those reasons, I appreciate and respect the mayor's messaging on the matter and recognize that. Just allocating the money doesn't actually implement the process. And so for the Expungements, that works through Doug Albert's office and then the legal fees are through the Viera program, should we get the grant? And if we don't get the grant, that's another discussion that would have to be had at that time. But just for everyone to know that both sides are being heard. I know that some of the constituency groups that reached out to Councilman Price also reached out to me and that those discussions and dialogs are robust and continuing to be considered. The same will be stated when we get to the next item, specifically for the Youth Fund, because there was a considerable amount of input that came in not just from the people's budget but others that were considered. So thank you for that. Thank you. And then Councilman Rangel, have the final comment. Let me let me just add, I think I think everything that was said is correct. With all programs like this, by the way, we're going to work our butts off to get grant funding, as much grant funding and outside support for these funds as possible. And so absolutely, if we're able to fundraise a significant amount of dollars, which I'm intending to do and hopefully others will as well, that's that's true in all of the types of funds that we set aside that we if we can if we have if there's if there's less need and we're able to get the funding in place, I absolutely we plan on doing that. I know the community has also been bringing grants to our attention in these areas. And so that's our plan. And so we're going to do whatever we can to to do these funding, cut through your income, and then we're moving on to the next item. Thank you, Mayor. And actually, I think this discussion that we've had thus far is a precursor to the next item, because actually this is this item right here is just looking at the mayor's proposed budget. When I went to his first budget meeting, when he introduced his budget, I thought it was a fantastic which I thought was great. A lot of great ideas were put in there. We're hiring people, we're reestablishing some programs and we're adding some new stuff. And I thought that was great. Now we're going to work. Now we're here at the point where we're looking at it with a little finer tooth comb. We're trying to flush out some of the good stuff and flush out some of the bad stuff. But I think that the budget at the Metropolitan is the item right here adopted the next budget. So I'm ready to vote on this and let's move forward to the next item when all this other discussion will take place. Because I have also I want to talk about the the the language access program and we look at actually more money in that, but that's in the title. So I will I will hold that back on that until that comes up. So thank you. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. What are we voting on right now? The mayor's proposed. As amended by the Bossi. Okay. Motion case. Okay. Thank you very much. We're going to make sure post-budget also included the restorations to the fire engine and the new police officers. Just as a note. Okay. The next item we're going to take, I know that I'm talking to the chair. We're going to take a one minute, one minute break and two minute break, and we're going to start with the next part of the budget. It's also really it's also just really important that this is the most important decision that the council does every night. And so I know that it's frustrating. There's a lot of back and forth, but it's okay for us to have dialog and so we have a long night ahead of us. We always do with the budget. I just want to make sure for the council it's like a two minute break. We've got a lot of work to do. This is the biggest decision we do. So let's continue that work. Okay, so we'll take a two minute recess. We'll come back to the next item. The. That's. And. Fits. That was part of. And. And I'll hold on for. But. And. Okay. I'm going to I'm going to ask the the clerk to please go ahead and. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Pearce. Councilwoman Price Councilmember super not here. Councilwoman Mongo. Vice Mayor Andrews. Councilmember Miranda. Presented. Councilman Austin. Councilmember Richardson. Mayor Garcia. Thank you. Can I please have guys. Everyone in the in the chambers, please. Either grab a seat or please take a step outside. I got to have it quiet for the council. So if I can have the council back first, I'd like to ask for a motion to reconsider the last item, which was the mayor's recommendations. So first, if I can get a motion or second to reconsider that. Got it. Kate. Thank you. Point of order, Devon. To the mover in the second half to have voted in the affirmative on the. Affirmative of the reconsideration. Okay. I'm looking at the second question. So hope so. Is there a public comment on the reconsideration motion saying none. Our members, please go ahead and cast your votes. Motion case. Thank you very much. I'd like to now also ask for a motion. There are some. I want to make sure that people are able to vote for the things they want to vote for. And I think there is some confusion as well as to what the last vote was and maybe wasn't. And so what I'm going to do, because I want to make sure that folks can vote for the things we support in the budget. And so I'm going to ask for the mayors recommendations to be voted on with the exception of the justice fund, which will be voted on in the next motion after this after this vote . So if I can get a motion in a second on that, please. Mr. Mayor, can I just ask for clarification on the mayor's recommendation for the youth fund? Is there any specification on what departments are going to handle that or what's going to be used for? No. Okay, great. Okay. There's a motion and executive mayor. I think to answer the council person's question. I call it out in the mayor's proposal, but it's actually in the city manager. Yes. So it will be discussion that night and the next night. Okay. Okay. There's a there's a motion in a second to pass the mayor's recommendations separate of the justice funds so that folks can can vote on the whole thing. Please cast your votes. Wait. Wait. Oh, yeah. Motion carries. Thank you. And so, just to be clear, everyone voted on those. And now we're going to have a vote on the justice fund. So please cast your votes. Wait. Wait. I want to queue up to comment. Okay. Yes. It's moving very fast. I'm going to be voting no on this. And the reason is because I do not believe public funds should be used to fund personal legal issues regardless of the content of the personal legal battle. Thank you. Thank you. Please cast your votes. I wanted to just to add something on this as well, because I do know that the state legislature passed legislation in the last year to establish legal defense funds statewide. And I was just just curious, wanted to hear from staff whether or not those are those funds are available to us on a local level to perhaps help leverage what we are we are doing here this evening in this this budget. And I can I can add and step one said so I think something I mentioned to one of the councilmembers members. Absolutely. And so I think our goal, as is with any fund that we establish, is we're going to reach out for grants, state funding that is looking like it could be available as part of the state process, as well as nonprofit grants. And we will always use those funds that we can acquire elsewhere first and always use those funds as as best we can. The funds that we establish that if those funds don't become available or if there are their immediate issues, those can be used immediately. But absolutely. Councilman Ashton, we're going to be looking at those at that process as well. And so, Mr. Modica, did you want to add to that or someone from our team? Yeah. Kevin Jackson, our deputy city manager, can talk a little bit about the strategy for securing funding. Thanks for your thanks, Mr. Walker. Yeah, the, um. The intent is to, I mean, at a baseline to apply for the matching funds for. From the very Institute of Justice. So any any funding that the city allocates to this fund, we will apply for the match from the Institute of Justice in a matter of $100,000. And certainly, as we talked about in March, when we talked about the Long Beach Values Act in setting up the fund, the strategy would be to work to identify a philanthropic philanthropic contribution, set up the fund so that we could facilitate the investment of philanthropic contributions, whether it be from the nonprofit sector or individual contributions as well. And I do want to add that while the staff had set aside $100,000 and therefore I 18 in order to apply for those that $100,000 matching fund, then the recommendation you're considering now is another 150. That is all coming back to the council. So even if you vote tonight, there is going to need to be a vote on the actual contract with the IRA to move forward. And so we would be coming back to you with that if you choose to move forward. That's great. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. But, Mr. Austin, that got your question. Thank you. Customer prices. Customer price. Yeah. So I'm wondering if there's any way this was the mayor's recommendation. So obviously it's the intent of the mayor and proposing this. And, of course, the council colleagues who have interpreted the mayor's recommendation. I'm wondering if there's any interest by my council colleagues to add in some further parameters on this that would allow for us to be able to support it. Taking into consideration some of the concerns that some have, such parameters could include such things as we would apply. We would use fundraising dollars and or money that is obtained through grants, through matching grants, through fundraising dollars. First and foremost, that that would be the strategy and that if we did needed to tap into the general fund, that there would be a recommendation to council about what that general fund moneys would be used for. Because I'll tell you in my mind, there's two different things. And I guess for me I'm not quite understanding because I deal. I'm a work in a courthouse all day long, so I'm envisioning that individuals are going to have legal claims and the city is going to be allocating money for individual legal claims. Perhaps that's wrong. Perhaps there is a model where we are allocating funds that may be city dollars, that may be general fund dollars for us to support a program that encompasses legal defense as well as education and outreach, which is something that I would be more inclined to support than a fund that is designed to address individual legal, personal, legal issues. So I think if it were to come back to council and we were able to find a partner. Whereby. It's a broader scope in terms of what the money is used for, I would be more comfortable with it. I'm just putting that out there. If that's something people aren't interested in. I understand we can agree to respectfully disagree, but I firmly do not believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to fund individual legal expenses. But I am open to the issue coming back to I'm fine setting the money aside and not spending it and spending it only after council has more direction and more clarity on exactly what the money would be used for. And I don't know if staff has a maybe a proposal that encompasses what I might be referencing since you have more expertize on this than I do. But again, the recommendation is a very short recommendation and there's a lot that could be read into it or assumed from it. So what we understand about tonight would be what would to be that is setting aside the funds, it would be showing that there is funding set aside for this. And then we would come back for a separate discussion on the contract with Vera and what that would mean and how that would all be done. That would all be coming back to you for another vote. So by by allocating this money, we don't have a staff mechanism to to put this money out. We would be using a partner and there needs to be a contract with that partner. So that would be coming back. And, and so Mr. Modica and I did read the TFF on this. What kind of services does Vera provide that would be funded through general tax dollars? And are the services that they provide such that they could be that they could be bifurcated so that private funds could be used for individual legal defense and public funds could be used for outreach and education? I asked Mr. Jackson to respond to that. Please. The members of the County Council on Price and members of the Council, the Institute of Justice. They are expertize in facilitating the provision of legal services to undocumented immigrants in need of those who are facing deportation. They in doing that, they serve as a program manager and a program evaluator. And so their motto is to work with a Y, a nonprofit community legal services provider or group of those providers to provide those direct those legal services directly to the community. And so they partner with city organizations to receive grants, and then they in turn match those grants and then hire a nonprofit legal services provider or a group of providers to provide those services to the community. They also provide education and outreach services to support the legal services. Okay. So so we could. Theoretically speaking, we would be able to use privately funded dollars for aspects of the very contract and publicly funded dollars for other aspects. I think theoretically we could we could structure a program in that manner. I think the primary service partnership with Viera would be the community legal services for it, for immigrant defense. But in terms of the agreement that we bring back that Mr. Modica spoke of, we could work to structure the fund in a way that that meets our needs locally. However, I just want to you know, I want to be clear about the the Service that Bureau provides, the primary service that Viera provides is to support the community legal services. And our idea, as well as this idea and working to provide this this service is to leverage the funding as much as we possibly can. So with the primary sources being a city, a city, a city allocation along with the the canvas grant from Viera with any other community funds. So it is it is possible to structure it that way. And certainly when we bring the item back, we could talk about that. But the way that it's actually done typically is the funding is blended and the primary service is community legal services. I mean, that's. And I understand that. So what I'm asking because I would be inclined to support this if staff were to commit that we could at least try to structure something when it comes back so that it does not blend the funds. Because because I think there's a you know, there are some tax dollars that go to fund legal defense, but those involve constitutional rights of individuals who cannot afford their own legal representation and are in a situation where their liberties are at risk, such as in a criminal matter, in a civil matter, we do not have such constitutional rights. And it's it's it's again, as I've indicated, it's a slippery slope in terms of what causes we want to fund with public dollars. So if if staff believes that, should this come back, there might be a way that staff can work with the service provider to structure an agreement that allows us to be able to support the efforts of outreach, education, advisement of rights, direction of resources, translation services, all those things, but not funding an attorney to actually represent an individual in court through public dollars. If we think there might be a way we could structure the funds that way, then I would support it. But if staff is saying we don't know or that's not going to happen because that's not the way they do it, that's I'd like to know that. Okay. Well, Councilwoman Price, members of the council, I mean, I can say confidently that that that does not reflects Vera's model. Their model is to facilitate the provision of community legal services for undocumented immigrants facing deportation. That is that is simply the model. And the idea is to leverage local funding and other community contributions in order to provide that service through a partnership with either one or more nonprofit legal community legal service providers. So that that is the model with the other, you know, with the existing 12 Safe Cities Network participants, you know, including the cities of Oakland and Sacramento and others. Okay. So so what I'm hearing is that if we were to vote for this, what we would be voting for. I understand we're just setting the money aside tonight, but we're not voting for something directly right now. And I get that. But I don't know why we would pass the buck so that we can have it easy night tonight. I'd rather have the realistic discussion tonight. What we're voting on is we would put the money aside. Once there comes a time to use the money. That money would be most likely used in a partnership with Vera, and Vera's model is limited to using local dollars to fund individual lawsuits. And there's really no way for us to structure a different model. And there's no other partner we can work with. Well, there, there there are additional partners and there's no other partner at this point in time. I think the best approach at this point in time, the most efficient, effective way to do it, given various expertize, is to partner with Viera and their model includes working with community based service providers so they don't provide the service directly . They oversee the service to ensure that services provide it correctly and that it's evaluated to determine its effectiveness. And they partner with the participating cities to do that. So the relationship with Viera is to procure the expertize, to identify the the appropriate partner in the community, to provide the service to the intended beneficiaries. Okay. Okay. So simply said we would be using money from Long Beach taxpayers to fund legal expenses of unnamed individuals. Unknown unnamed individuals. That is correct. It would be a combination of city funds, funds provided by Viera and funds provided by citizens of the community, as well as any foundations or other nonprofit organizations that are interested in participating in the fund. Okay. Well, I appreciate that clarification, and I still maintain the same concerns. And I think while we can say we're not really voting on anything tonight other than just to set the money aside, I think that would be disingenuous. I think if we're going to vote in favor of this, it should be and it should be a very strong and powerful were voting in favor of this. And we understand how the money is going to be spent and we're okay with that. Or it should be we're voting to put the money aside and we're not comfortable with how the money is going to be spent. So that's why we're voting against it. At least that's my thought process, because I think the, you know, constituents who are advocating for this need to know honestly where folks stand. And like I'll say it again, and I know people are going to interpret things how they want. It's not the content. I just don't think we should be funding individual legal claims, period, using public funds unless it's for a constitutional right such as a criminal defense. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Brown. Thank you. So my understanding is we're not approving Vera tonight. We're that's what I understood, Mr. Modica, to say that tonight we're voting to set some funding aside. Then city staff will have to come back to us with a proposal from Vera. Yes, that's correct. We have sent up a two from four. We've done our research. We believe this is the way to achieve the goals that the council directed us to do. But you are not approving that tonight. You're going to prove that later in the process. Okay. So the scope of my knowledge of Vera is is a two from four memo from staff to myself. And also whatever research I could do online, my meetings with my constituents, I had to tell them that I had serious doubts about this meeting. The needs are their expectations based on the parameters or encumbrances set forth by Vera. For that reason, I think there's a lot of scrutiny to be done with this with this program. And I'm not saying staff didn't do the very best and come with the best company at all. I'm not saying that. But there may be another company out there who more closely aligns with the needs of our community. So I can support the funding being set aside tonight without locking into a particular vendor. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Councilman Mongo. Is it my understanding that if he did not receive the grant, you would explore other options of other nonprofits to work directly with? And is it also my understanding that you only explored VOA and did not reach out to Long Beach nonprofit organizations that provide free legal services for immigrants already including but not limited to the Long Beach Bar Association. Councilwoman Mongeau and members of the council. We we did do research on other potential partners for this effort, and it did not include the the Bar Association. The we evaluate it, the L.A. Justice Fund. If you recall, we talked about the gaps in the L.A. Justice funding last March. We also provided some information on the very Institute of Justice, who is pretty much the pioneer in establishing Justice Fund across America. The very Institute of Justice is also a participant in the L.A. Justice Fund. But the L.A., what we found is that the L.A. Justice Fund has particular sort of rules and guidelines that limit our ability to target those funds here locally. So hence the idea of setting up a local locally based fund. So VRA is sort of the leading edge organization in in the Nation, actually, and here in California, facilitating the provision of these services. We did look at you know, we looked at the other community foundations that are participating in the justice fund. We looked at the Long Beach Community Foundation. And we just found in the end that the Vera Institute of Justice, from an expertize standpoint, from an experience standpoint and from a cost standpoint, was the most efficient and effective option in front of us at this time. And, you know, it's obviously a relatively new service. And with Vera being a pioneer, particularly in evaluating the effectiveness of these funds and also being in a position to oversee the program management so that the city does not have to do that. They were they were very unique from any other organization here in the region as well as nationally. So I think the recommendation that we're making is is is is based upon that analysis and and the fact that Vera is sort of the pioneer when it comes to administering these type of programs. So my comments are, I hope, in alignment with some of the things that my colleagues and I have promoted. First and foremost, I know that Councilwoman Gonzalez and I strongly encourage Long Beach local nonprofits and businesses to receive priority. And so if there's any way that Vera would focus on a Long Beach based nonprofit for the support of their funds, we don't know how they would be as well. Vila chooses the nonprofit, and so if there's any way for us to, through our application, encourage them to choose a Long Beach nonprofit that always is, of course , preferred for a couple of reasons. One, they know the Long Beach residents best. They're more local. They're more accessible. They also can create longer term investments in the community. Second, I think it's really important to recognize that the California Police Chiefs Association, our Local Police Officers Association and others have very strong belief systems that are completely counter to the belief systems and the action areas promoted by Viera. And again, like on this dais, we don't all agree on everything, but it's important that when we fund an organization in the six figure category that we take into consideration all the things that the money can be used for. And so what I am always a supporter of is setting aside funds to figure out how to leverage other funds. I do also have some conflicts when we have members of our community who come forward and say, I'm a veteran with a Section eight permit and I was at the Section eight office and I received a parking ticket on Veteran's Day, and I'm looking to get a waiver for my parking ticket. And this is an individual who's low income, all of these things. And they are asking the city for a reprieve from a fee that we give. And we as a city say no to those things, even though in our values we want to appreciate veterans and their service and not take money from low income communities and not take money from individuals who are struggling to find housing. But we as a city have a policy that we don't waive those fees. And so then on a small level, we're saying no to our priorities of of are you going to $55 fee of a veteran in need? And then here as a council, we're talking about setting aside a quarter of $1,000,000 for individuals, which we will have very little context of once the money's given to Vera. And so. Or any other organization. So I. I would love for staff to explore options within our own legal community including but not limited to the currently provided free legal services. The third Tuesday of every month at the courthouse by the Masters Long Beach Bar Association. And looking at those opportunities as well, because there is a chance that Vera won't give us the matching funds and that that would not be the recommendation as you bring it back. Of course, we have hope that we would be able to put up 100 and receive 100. I actually had hoped that we'd put up 60 and receive a hundred like some other cities have. And I know Mr. Jackson and I have discussed that extensively, but that isn't the direction that it is today. And so what I will say is. I'm open to setting aside some funding to show a an understanding of it, a commitment of a possibility of a funding through an outside organization. But I. I have serious concerns about. The totality of what the funds could be used for, because many members of our own community and city staff don't agree with the complete action areas of the Vera Institute. And so if staff are able to bring a report back on alternatives at that time, it would be appreciated. But I recognize that. That's at Steph's discretion. Counts one of the longer members of the council. We can absolutely do that. Thank you, Councilor Pearce. That was a great answer. Done, huh? I'll be showing I. I want to say two things. One is that I think when we first had this conversation, the direction was clear in our goals and what we wanted to to be able to do. I think we each have different reasons for why we support this item. For me, when we talk about using taxpayer money for legal support, both this item and expungement, it's around public safety, right? It's not about giving one community, you know, a handout, giving them some money just because maybe they don't have it. It's about public safety. When we talk about governing for equity and making sure that we're not filling our jails to the absolute capacity when somebody doesn't have their record expunged or they don't know where to go, they likely are going to get back into that system. If they're somebody that is struggling with their immigration status and they have some some past history, they might not trust local PD as much as they would if they actually had a process with an immigration attorney. And so for me, this item is about the whole picture, about public safety. So for the council members that have some challenges with this, I just as we after today when this item comes back, I hope sometime between then and now we can have some one on one conversations around the public safety continuum and how we can have some measurable outcomes about what public safety looks like in Long Beach outside of PD and Fire. So I hope that we can vote and just get this get this pot of money moving forward. And we will have a full discussion when the next report comes back from there. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. So I want to spend the next half hour explaining my position. I honestly, I wasn't here for the Values Act debate that took place a few months ago. But I was able to to watch from a hotel room and and my thoughts about this this item I believe in. We are we're experiencing unconventional times as a result of, you know, very draconian policies coming from Washington, D.C. And I think those those policies and these unconventional times call for unconventional policies on an even a local level. And it's it's a fact that many of our residents, our families are are living in fear here in our city , throughout Los Angeles County, throughout the state, throughout the country, for that matter. This council actually approved state legislation for for us to become a sanctuary state. And I think it was it was like, okay, you know what? We support that in Sacramento. We see commitments coming from and in Sacramento actually committed, I'm reading close to $30 million, $30 million to to legal defense for for those particularly Dreamers. The L.A. County has made commitments. I think it's only responsible for us to make a commitment. And what we're talking about doing here is not it's not going to break us. I think it's it's it's unconventional. So definitely unconventional. But it's it's it's a I think it was a social responsibility that we have to have as a city council. We can't pass the buck to other public agencies and say it's okay for Sacramento, it's okay for L.A. County, but not okay for Long Beach. And so I support I'm going to support the justice fund. But however, I'm not married and I've heard some good conversation here this evening. I'm not specifically married to any specific nonprofit or funding or specifics on on how we fund this. If this is any preview of what this this item will be when it comes back, I'm sure it's going to be a robust conversation. But I think we need to move forward this evening and just just just pass the mayor's budget, as has proposed for the justice fund. And and we will deal with the details a little a little bit later on. I think it's just a good use of our time tonight. Let's make it make it happen. They could make a councilman. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes. I first want to just thank Kevin, who may or not may or may not be here, but I really want to thank. Oh, there you are. You're hiding. I just really want to thank you, because this was a lot of work. Both you and Katie worked very hard with many community members over many months. For the. Last almost year, actually. And there were many community meetings that happened. Both with you and PD in the room as well. And Will, they'll continue to be discussions with PD from these stakeholders as well, from what I understand. So I really appreciate that effort. So this was not like this is just slapped together. This was very thoughtful. You went through many different iterations of what nonprofit partnerships could look like. And I'll explain to you why. Just really quickly to. Clear some things up that have been mentioned, and I appreciate the comments from my. Colleagues, but there was. A lot of of. Thought. That went into this Central CHA Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition. They all hold citizenship workshops and the Long Beach Bar Association doesn't necessarily hold workshops either. And much of those are 30 minute consultations. They're not going to pay 4 to 5000 or $7,000 to stop you to get deported. That's just not going to happen. So actually, the Long Beach Bar Association, 30 minute consults two times a month, first come, first served. There's usually a line outside and very few people get seen and they only get 30 minutes. So they get information and they still have to put up 5 to $7000, if not upwards of $10,000, just to stop from getting deported. So I just want to make that clear. The Long Beach Bar Association, when you go on their website, not once does it say that they offer immigration services, family law, LGBTQ law, all these other elements. But not one is really an expert in immigration. So I just want to make sure we set that out there. We also have if we're looking at. Local, we do have the Legal Aid Legal Aid Foundation there on six and Pacific, and that's a great resource as well. A lot of people do go there. But again, we want to make sure. That we're being as understanding of this process as possible. And that we don't discredit the work. That so many community members have done because they've done a lot of work when it comes to this. Cambodian, Latino, Filipino and supporters. So just want to say thank you very much again to Kevin, to Katie, to all of our to the police officers that were there. We did a lot of great work on this. And I look forward to seeing more work and what the institute can do. And I did mention in that maybe it wasn't heard, but there's key performance indicators when we if we were to get this grant. This is there's a lot of transparency that goes on with Visa. And I think that's why a lot of cities utilize them. So I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll get to Councilman Mongo and then we're going to get to the vote. My only last comment was I know that we often think that the direction is clear and we all comment on what we think we heard at any particular agenda. And Councilman Gonzales and I had a lot of talks about the Long Beach Values Act and going into that night. And one of the things that when I vote, I'm always open to exploring options to get funding. But what I think is a differentiating factor oftentimes is the difference between grant funding, general fund funding. Legal Aid Foundation is funded through government funds. They're funded specifically through a completely different type of funds that come from the state as well. And so just knowing and understanding, typically I'm more likely to vote for general fund money that draws down grants, but not for general fund funding that doesn't yet have that on it. And I think that part of that goes to when when you sit on a committee that gives grant funding, if you have to make choices between where the funding is getting leverage and, you know, when agencies are going to put up the money no matter what, you sometimes don't give them the matching. And so those are the kinds of concerns I have when we try to go into these competitive processes. So I look forward to hearing what drawdowns were eligible for from the 30 million and from other allocations. And I appreciate hearing the discussions of my colleagues and I look forward to the report back and the opportunity to have , again, a robust discussion both with the community and the stakeholders in advance of it returning to council and including my colleagues. Thank you, Councilman. And let me just say and I know we're going to a vote, let me just say first that I think it's important that we all respect each other's perspectives and opinions. And I think it's a complex issue. And so we're all I think everyone is able to voice where they stand on this issue. And I respect everyone's opinions and where they come from. I know I haven't mentioned this. And I you know, I've been compelled with all the conversation tonight just to say this. For me for me, the justice fund is about my personal experience. And when I was a kid growing up, not being a U.S. citizen, having a family there as immigrants, we were cheated multiple times by attorneys, people that were picking on us that set us back. We were Spanish speaking family. And we needed we needed legal assistance, we needed help. And very few people would help us through many horrible experiences that I went that we went through as a family. We finally got help and and we got assistance from from people that were that were doing the right thing and helped us get through that legal process. And so I think that while we may not have been citizens at the time, and I'm honored that, you know, today that our family is we we contributed to our city and to our community, and we're hard workers. And so I really for my where I come from in this support is I know that there are so many people in our community that have incredible language barriers and experiences that need that I believe need our support. And I and I that's why I support this fund. I think it's I do think it's the right thing to do. But I also respect where people are coming from. So thank you. And the motion is there. Please cast your votes. Ocean Case Council member Sabrina. Motion carries.