Recommendation to adopt the Budget Oversight Committee’s proposed funding recommendations, as amended, to the FY 16 Proposed Budget.  (A-11)
Item 16. I'm sorry. Yes. Item 16, this is the budget oversight committees proposed funding recommendations to the fiscal year 16 budget. The first part of of the motion is a affirmation of what we just did, which is a motion to approve Mayor Garcia's recommendations as originally proposed. Even though we took action on it. I do want to share that the Budget Oversight Committee felt it was important to articulate. Mr. City Attorney, I have one, two, three, four, five, six motions under this item. Do we take them separately? It would be helpful for me to follow that. And I want to be helpful. Thank you. Okay. So the first motion is to approve Mayor Garcia's recommendations as originally proposed. And Mr. City Attorney, I believe that we can do public comment. Can she just read all the motions and then we do it as one? Yes, you could you could go through all of the motions, take public comment on any of the items of the six, and then walk through and have individual votes on all six. Okay. So let's do that. Item two is a motion to appropriate any unspent fiscal year, 15 year and general funds surplus in the city prosecutor's office up to $250,000 for the PATH Program and other city prosecutor programs. Item three is to fully restore the proposed fire department's reduction of one full time FTE Marine Safety Sargeant boat operator in the Tidelands Operation Fund and to offset the cost of $140,000 by reducing the Tidelands funds in the city manager's department by $25,000. The Parks, Recreation and Marine Department by $46,000. And the Economic and Property Development Department by $69,000. Item four is a motion to forward to council from BFC the appropriation of a total of $2,666,000 for capital infrastructure programs to be divided by nine for city council districts. From the following sources 950,000 of supplemental funds for streets and sidewalks, 675,000 of unallocated fiscal year 16 temporary surplus. $341,000 of general fund fiscal year state mandate reimbursement funds $300,000 of fiscal years 16 General Fund Beginning Funds Available $200,000 of fiscal year, 16 uplands beginning funds available and $200,000 of funds for document imaging project. Item five is a motion to recommend using fiscal year 16 General Fund Beginning funds available to appropriate $50,000 for Rancho Los Alamitos Plan Check and to appropriate up to $30,000 for municipal band to match 1 to 1 additional funds raised above $85,000. In addition. In addition to those to those amounts just mentioned, we would allocate $50,000 to Rancho Los Cerritos, as well as $50,000 to a weekend to instate to initiate a weekend graffiti abatement program citywide. Thank you. And I think the last part of your motion is the last sentence. Correct? Yes, I have the motion to recommend using $200,000 fiscal year 16 General Services Fund Beginning funds available for the Document Imaging Project. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. I just I clarified with the city attorney. And so we can actually take one vote on all these items and put one public comment on all the items. That's correct. Mayor and if I could just ask for a clarification from the vice mayor. I was given a sheet with the items, but I, I don't have the two items. There's two items missing on that sheet. So it's everything on this sheet. Post edition of 50,000 for Rancho Los Cerritos. I So. The Rancho Los Cerritos is there for. The top and top on top of the Alamitos. And I failed to mention the source. I apologize. Okay. So the 50,000 for Rancho Los Cerritos and then the $50,000 for weekend graffiti abatement citywide. And the source would be from the Small Business Incentive Program, which has just started. And so in the start up, we anticipate that there would be about $100,000 unused. And so that's the source. If if the program itself becomes highly subscribed, we will make an adjustment that during the year. The thought is, as per staff, because the program just started, we're only going to use 100,000 of the 200. So that's where to go. And then we can always do the adjustment later on. So that is the motion. So you have those two additional pieces. Mr. CITY Attorney. Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry. And on the municipal bond item, there was a friendly amendment which was accepted at budget oversight that if the matching funds are not fully utilized, the balance of the funds would be used to improve any park locations hosting the concerts so that there would be improvements to the concerts, I'm sorry to the parks made as opposed to releasing the funds. Okay. So that's the that's the motion on the floor. And I'm going to first take public comment and then I'm going to add, is there any public comment saying none? I'm going to go back to the council. Let me start with the second or the motion, which is Councilman Mongo. I want to thank city staff for working very diligently to find ways that we would be able to fund all the priorities throughout the city. I think that it's important that when constituents reach out to us and tell us their priorities, that we are able to respond. And so I thank you for your hard work on this. I also want to appreciate the members of the committee who we've worked alongside one another for such a long time to get it right, to make sure that the community felt involved, to give them their voice and to get to where we are today. So thank you to everyone. This has been a very worthwhile process. Thank you. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I have a question for the city manager on the plan tracks for Rancho Los Alamitos. I understand that they have a potential seismic issue and that they have to submit plans to the city. The city has to review the plans, determine the scope of the project, what the potential costs of the project would be. And, you know, in terms of the city's maintenance requirement, make a determination as to, you know, what those infrastructure needs are. Is this this money contemplated to go to the city to fund the costs associated with obtaining a permit and and having those plans checked? Or is it to go to the entity? Mayor councilmembers. This money will actually go to the ranch, on the ranch, and will use those moneys to pay the fees for the plant checking. So during this seven month process, as we go through that. So at the end of the $50,000, at the end of the process, we should have the ability for the rancher Apollo building permit. I see. Okay. And so I think it's it's definitely my desire. And I know there are others on the council who obviously believe that maintenance of the ranchos both ranches is an important priority for the city. And so I would be supportive of the motion. And I want to thank the vice mayor and committee member Mongo for their efforts in getting us to this point. So thank you. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have just a few comments and some questions. So within these recommendations, there are a number of things that I'm really excited and eager to support tonight. One of which is, as most of you would remember, we came to city council with a proposal to fund a program, a young adult, 18 to 24 year old diversion program called Path. Promising adults tomorrow's hope that uses that uses education and workforce as a means to and in lieu of criminal prosecution in certain cases. And so I'm glad that over the last few months, we worked to craft this program and we proposed a a budget solution to help get the program off the ground. And so I'm glad to see that the EEOC recommendation includes that solution. So so that's something I'm eager to support tonight. Secondly, I know that I've met with the lifeguards and a number of I know the council has met with the lifeguards. So I'm glad to see that there's a solution to the lifeguard issue. I have a number of questions with some of the other bills or recommendations. So first, I see that we have a number. We have 2.6 million allocated four divided by nine, and that all exceptions to this must go to city council for approval. Now we. Every year it seems like we've had different rules to the divide by nine resources. And fortunately I've been able to see how that's impacted certain vision, certain goals. Like if, if I have a train trust, train trestle, whatever it's called, and, and it gets painted with graffiti or if I have a utility box that's, that's been vandalized, a lot of times I have to figure out which year of resources we can use to actually impact or improve that. And to me, the condition of our the actual esthetic condition of our infrastructure is just as important to many folks as whether it works or not. So I'd like to make sure that and I want to hear from some other council members on this, but I want to make sure that whatever isn't legally restricted and also there are some sidewalk funds we want to make sure go into infrastructure, but I want to make sure that council offices in conjunction with departments are able to make flexible decisions on how these resources are spent without having to come to city council. For every small decision, every small decision here. So so that's something I that's a question I would say I would pose this to the EEOC chair. How would you respond? Councilmember Richardson I think that's a very fair question. And if we can ask Miss Erickson to identify how much of the 2.666 million is absolutely restricted and where there might be some flexibility. Vice Mayor Lowenthal Right now, the boss recommendation was for capital infrastructure programs. As the Council member stated, in past years, City Council has chosen to have a carve out of a certain amount for program existing programing. So last year that was $50,000. So right now there's the recommendation stands. It is for capital infrastructure programs and it would be up to city council to to identify if there would be any exceptions to that. It should be noted, and the city attorney can speak to this more. There is a process for how this funding can be designated. It really does need to be department. Existing programs, existing capital, infrastructure needs. And and so that would stay and no matter and so any exceptions to that would need to come to city council. So before Mr. Attorney answers, I just to be consistent, I think that portion that we had slated for economic development, I think that was the catchall flexibility. I'm sorry. There was I'm not sure that there was not approved in the economic times. But in our conversation for the carve out, examples of economic development projects came up, such as developing bids along new business corridors, major business corridors. And so I think if if the council member would like to see that retained in this process, we could ask our council colleagues to consider that. Mayor and Vice Mayor. The the problem with having the carve out for the economic development, those would have to come back for a vote of five members of the council to spend that money. You couldn't make that decision tonight under the charter because under 208, the body acts as a whole to identify those projects and approve those projects. The individual council officers doesn't do not have the authority to make those decisions and spend those funds here. How will you divide by nine? You have the capital infrastructure program divide by no money, which is approved by the council and then existing programing which has already been adopted or approved. But outside of that exception, you while you could bring those projects back, you do need five votes of the council to act. Okay. So just to give some examples. Last year we didn't see it coming, but we were blessed enough to receive some funding to host the beach streets. And the whole city came to North Long Beach and the funding received the 250 $300,000 was fantastic. We received it, but the investment was much greater. And so we had to go through the process, identify which of our one times was flexible, which we're not to be able to support our business district to actually host an event of that magnitude. And it was good that I was able to look back, identify some of those resources that have flexibility to do to respond to those things. Another example would be, I know that there's been sort of inconsistencies about whether one time resources can be spent on planning efforts. Right. So I know there's been a number of planning efforts across town and know that I'm planning to I'm working on a planning effort now. Some of those years we did not have that. Some years. We do. And there's a direct impact on infrastructure. But the interpretation, you know, depending on who you speak with in city staff, is that doing a master plan for a corridor is not necessarily infrastructure, whereas it has a direct connection to infrastructure. Right. Another example I brought up an example of murals. Well, I've heard inconsistent examples of of of murals, whether a mural or using art to mitigate graffiti is an accessible use of your one time infrastructure. So what I'm asking is if there's a if we have the legal ability to do tonight, I think we should say no more than say I would propose something like no more than 50% of your District nine funds, no more than 50% can be spent. You can have the flexibility in partnership with your with the appropriate departments to have to basically have that flexibility on those things. So like a fifth. So instead of like a $50,000 threshold for whatever is divided tonight, 50% of it infrastructure as defined by our city attorney, the other 50% can still be infrastructure, but if it ends up being murals, programs, anything that does not require direct vote of city council, like if you're going to give away money to a rancho or something that probably would need to come to city council, a public, public benefit projects. That's the way I would define it. So how would you respond to that? Ms.. Madam Chair. Vice Chair, Budget Committee Chair, Vice Mayor. All of it. All of that. All of it. So when we've had this discussion before, the 50%, because we have such a dire need for infrastructure. Council members have been reticent about that. So I think it's helpful to hear from Alice. Um, um. I just know that. When these resources are used for infrastructure, it has such a lasting impact and we don't have the infrastructure repair and restoration schedule that we'd like to. There was a time when we talked about whether it was tree trimming or the streets or the curbs, you know, can we be on a certain number of years doing it? Every certain number of years. And so being able to spend it as council districts really helps carry us through until the public works department can take the overall approach. And so. I think it'd be helpful to hear from other colleagues, but I, I struggle with that 50% because it's such a small amount as it is. I mean, you can spend $200,000 on one ADA block, right? So I think that becomes challenging. So. So I'd like to come back to that. Just have one or two other things I'd like to just comment on and then we'll hear from the rest of our colleagues. So. So I think it's important that we do invest in things like our like our Rancho. And I hear the the information about plan check and that all make sense. We've got a number of facilities across town that absolutely need those sorts of resources. I would ask, what would be the difference if, let's say we wanted to do some other plan effort, right? If we wanted to do a master plan on a corridor. Versus right now. I need to use my district nine one times to do a master plan or a plan check or something like that. I have to use that. So why are we taking a different approach here? By allocating $100,000 to something that our one times can be spent on. So maybe we can just elaborate whoever the maker of that motion is. Maybe just elaborate on why these particular projects are exceptions to the way that the rest of us treat our district assets. Yes. Can I. Yeah. Okay. So the question was, what is the difference between the corridor planning efforts that may be funded through one time funds? Is there a certain particular reason? And it's not a huge deal to me, but is there a particular reason? We've carved out these two specific locations and I get their historic significance relevance to our city. You mean the ranchos? Yeah. Right. Why did. Why did we specifically spell these out? Whereas. I just think we're not necessarily and I would like to for the sake of conversation, I'd like to be consistent. I understand that certain people feel that certain things are citywide assets. But the reality is, some people would say that the restoration of the clubhouse at Houghton Park is a citywide asset. Or so some. Would say, a public art piece of city. Warehouses. And I knew that. I'll go ahead. Yes. So if we as council members determine something as a priority in our district, I've seen over the last five years we've spent our own one times to make that happen. If that's so, I'm guessing what I'm struggling with is how is how are these two projects different from any other projects important to a district that might have a citywide value? And I know Councilmember Austin and Price might like to address that. If I can just briefly state, because there are several of those examples in the second district as well. You have the aquarium, you have the Queen Mary. And how I've regarded that is their city owned property. You know, we talk about assets, maybe having financial value as well as other benefits, but when we just look at them as city owned property, if we don't contribute to their upkeep, it's deferred cost, right? It's deferred maintenance, it's deferred costs. And at some point that dollar amount becomes larger. And it's still our responsibility because they're city owned properties. And so maybe assets might not be the right word to use because we're not clearly specifying that we own these pieces of property and it is in the city's best interest to ensure their upkeep. So I think that makes that makes a lot of sense. I don't I think that's a good response for me. And I would say I can absolutely support that. Let's make sure we remember that to forward the whole council. Well, let's remember that, because I would say there are projects that maybe haven't received that level of maintenance that are very significant to our city and maybe we just haven't had the exposure to it or the education to it. So let's just remember that moving forward, the last thing I would say is I think it's great that we're investing in municipal band and in those things. I would say that just to provide a little bit of context, the concerts in the Park series have really emerged and local communities have adopted them and embrace them and put their own brand on them. The communities that do not have municipal band performances, and I can say that to a municipal band performance, would likely be like into our Latin Jazz Festival at Highland Park. It's to me it's the same thing. Thousands of people show up. It's a great way to to get involved in your community. So in the same spirit of the last of the last item I think is great we invest in our ranchos I think is great we invest in municipal band but this is yet again two items here in these recommendations that have that are not like they're geographically not located in certain portions of town. And so I would say I can support. Making investments in municipal bond. But I'd like to hear how we can also invest in our concerts in the Park series and the way and the way that we've done it here that incentivizes raising funds, external funds. I think that's great. There are actually fundraising efforts going on around town to support things like our festivals. So I'd love to hear Madame Vice Mayor, like, what could we do to support our concerts in the park in the same way that we support our municipal band? I think that's a fair question as well. You know, we have areas throughout the city that the concerts in the park are just better received. And I agree that we should provide some level of support currently. How would you say it's currently funded? Is it? I think that would be a better question for for park staff. I know that personally that some of the concerts in the park were not as well-attended as, say, a muni band. So we invested in certain ones to bring in the art, bring in the the talent and the entertainment that really brought it up to that level . So I think there was a memo that Parks and Recreation sent out that said that a muni band I mean, excuse me, a concert in the park, they they likened it to about $6,000, was what it cost to really invest in that. So even so, if we were to make some sort of an effort, I would like to look at those areas of town that aren't particularly impacted by the Muni band and see if we can find some resources maybe that recommend that number that staff put out in the memo, the $6,000 per area would be something to help support those efforts and think that would just be fair. Absolutely. And I think Mr. Scott is sitting right behind you, if we can hear from him. Mayor, members of the city council, Councilmember Richardson. You are correct. The community band concerts or community concerts run roughly $6,000. I do want to point out, though, since 2012, the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine has not provided a community concert series. Any of the community concerts that occur throughout the community are either led through community organizations or other fundraising activities. Council officers and council officers? That is correct. Do you know, Mr. Scott, how many concerts we had this last fiscal year? Four concerts in the park series. Five. Four. It looks like about five. Okay. So. I agree with you, Mr. Rich. Councilmember Richardson I do think that and I can point out communities where a concert in the park would go a lot farther than than a municipal band. And I think this council should look at that. Great. Let's say we hear from more councilmembers, but thank you for acknowledging that. I think those are the rest of my comments at this point. Okay. Thank you. We're now moving on to Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes. Thank you to the bossy Vice Mayor Lowenthal Council, Stacey Mungo and Suzie Price. I know this has been you know, you have to be very diligent because so many different priorities come about. But this is, I think, a very fruitful discussion we're having. And I see here where it could be very, you know, important going forward and how very important it is for much of our district, but again, city wide. And so, uh, I want to. Sorry. I'm just losing my train of thought here. My apologies. So first I wanted to clarify, actually, as we're talking about the municipal band, I believe there was discussion about adding it to other districts. So Stephen, can you discuss that a little bit more? I guess I'm not clear as to I know Districts one, District six and District nine do not have concerts in the park currently by the municipal band. From what I understand. Mayor, members of the City Council, you're correct. There are several districts that do not have municipal band concerts, council districts, 167, they'll close to Los Cerritos Park and Council districts nine. And so the series right now. Is split across the third, fourth. Fifth and eighth districts. The additional week of municipal band is slated to maintain the existing schedule or nightly schedule for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But that's something that we could look at for the additional week for that Tuesday night concert in additional location outside of the five week schedule. Okay. And that would just be one additional location. So perhaps rotated between the the districts that do not have or what I mean, is there any thought in that as to what would how that would be implemented? Well, there would there would only. Be one additional concert through this six weeks. So we are all very hopeful that the friends of the municipal band are going to be extremely successful with their fundraising efforts. I think they have goals to even exceed a six week and I think in the future. As we look. At those at their fundraising, if it's an opportunity to expand even. Further, there would be additional. Opportunities to expand. To other areas of the city. Just to clarify, I know we consider a concert, but we're really talking about four additional performances. If you include the 30 and the 30 will be fundraiser. That's I think that's right. Sees that every Tuesday four. So that would be every Tuesday of the month, correct? I think it would depend whether you add an additional week and multiple concerts or whether you added an additional concert to every week. So it just would really depend. Right. Great. Um, okay, good. So I just wanted to clarify to ensure, I mean, again, I kind of reiterate what Councilmember Richardson is saying. I do believe, you know, we should have it widespread. And I think it's also a very big city asset. And people love seeing the municipal band and it's very apparent. And to have that in different areas would be would be great. Um, so secondly, I have a, let me think here had my notes and then now they're, they're gone for some reason. Okay. I also wanted to mention the appropriation for PATH, which I think is very important. Our city prosecutor does some great work, and I think it's been very important to to have this this program available. And then lastly, the graffiti abatement, I just wanted to thank Vice Mayor Lowenthal for bringing that up, because I know that graffiti abatement in all of our city sometimes oftentimes does not happen over the weekends. And I think it's important to get tagging down, especially if they're gang related and get them down in a very fast and a very expedient way and I think are a million for for for that information actually are if you want to come up , I just want you if you can just clarify what that will mean, because I know some residents all over the city have asked about graffiti abatement on the weekends. And so this $50,000, what that breaks down to in terms of weekends and what that looks like. Honorable Mayor and honorable council members are a graffiti program currently is between Monday and Fridays. This additional 50,000 basically will cover the weekend. So we're estimating about $500 a day. So weekends will be about $1,000 and 52 weeks. Our original estimate was $52,000. We're grateful for 50 if it's approved. And that will take care of all the graffiti abatement during the weekends. Just want to give you some more data. We're averaging about 250 tags a day, translates to about 7000 a month. And that's that's the effort that's being to to to mitigate the graffiti. And unfortunately, you know, I don't have the data with me, but it's it's tags. It's by location. And we we use square footage to cover them up. We have a very robust graffiti program. I'm very proud of that. It's very advanced. And we use Go Long Beach. We use different methods of transferring that information to the contractor to abate the graffiti. We are even to a point that we match the colors when they're painting. This is high level of service compared to the other city. So I have to say that we have a great, great program and buy this additional 50,000 of council awards that we will be having a seven day a week program. Great. That's wonderful. Thank you very much for the information. And what I will mention, I think Vice Mayor Lowenthal and I were discussing this is a better outreach program to let people know that there is this opportunity now on the weekends should this pass, because I think that would be very important for our residents to know and feel like they will call they will do go Long Beach and it will actually be taken care of. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilmember your income. Thank you, Barry. First of all, obviously, I want to thank the BBC for its work. It's difficult work. It can be very contentious, obviously, and can be very. Important in terms of what we come up with. But I got to say that we got it right. I mean, the B or C got it right in terms of making some adjustments that needed to be done, providing money for the additional for the additional rancho that we have with that did not exist before and also for funding the municipal band. However, everything comes with some with some issues in regards to the ranchos and the discussion that that had previously, I think it's important that when we fund these kinds of of city assets that we put some, some, some restrictions per se. I can't find the right word right now. But to put some some elements of citywide responsibility, for example, making sure that there are opportunities for our youth to visit the ranchos, to provide additional educational programs there, to provide additional historical perspectives of what the ranch was mean, where they came from. We originally know that they were Spanish land grants, Mexican land grants, in fact, back in the day. That is not adequately shared in that. Well, no, I think we need to expand on those things and we need to have the ranchers be more receptive to providing additional feedback. Let me rephrase it. Additionally, additional educational opportunities for people to learn about the history of the ranches and their and and the history of the Californians as a whole. The the municipal ban. We're adding some money there for them to expand their opportunities to have more concerts, which is fine. I totally agree with that. The issue I have with that is that I think they've been such a bit ingrained to visit only certain parks and on certain dates, on certain times that certain music. We need to have a variety. We need to diversify where the concerts in the park are held. I share as an example, I share a Municipal Ban concert with the eighth District at Little Cerritos Park. I have nothing in the website. I would love to see something happening in the West Side in West Long Beach. And you will always hear me talk about West Palm Beach, because when you look at my map and you look at my district, the West Palm Beach area is isolated. It's an island in Long Beach. You can only reach through crossing some bridges. And they have a lot of needs out there and there's a lot of cultural activities that don't take place out there because they're simply not provided. And we need to have that outreach out there. And I'd like to see some additional money go down there. Councilman Rich Richardson had a great jazz fest at North Long Beach that he put together himself with his. With his. One time funds. You know, I'd like to be able to do that, something like that in West Long Beach. I have a very diverse community in West Long Beach, something that I could provide if I had the resources. A great concert that would that would focus on that diversity of that West Palm Beach community. So I would love to see something like that. Which brings a final to my third point, which is, are these one time funds that we're talking about divide by nine? You know, if it's divide by nine and I have responsibility in my district to use those funds, I want to use them like I feel like I can use unrestricted. I want to be able to decide if I need it for for a sidewalk fight, if I needed to. A tree, a trip tree, a trim, trim, a tree. I want to be able to use it. Or if I need it to knock off a mural, put a mural up there, or do something beneficial that's going to end up being beneficial for the community or for public safety purposes or whatever. I want to be able to have that discretion. Now, does it mean that I want to do it on my own or that I'm going to do it unilaterally? Of course I would talk to my two department staff, those that are involved. Of course I would do that. It's my responsibility to be responsible as a council member, but I also want to be responsive. To my community. And my community has a lot of needs. They they want to see a lot of things happening out there. I met with a constituent today who wants to put put a Christmas tree in the middle of Willow and Santa Fe. I can't do it. Not right now. I don't have the discretionary funds to do it. But if I were able to have that discretionary fund in the future, certainly I could help support that because it would be a public benefit not only to that community, but to the city as a whole, especially when it's a main artery like Willow that comes into the city of Long Beach. So I. I'm going to support this budget, no question. But I do want to raise those issues for future discussion. We do have a fiduciary, fiduciary responsibility to accept it tonight. And and delaying anything would put us in trouble. I know that. But certainly something for future discussions of future royalties, maybe even a mid-year adjustment that we could make come March or so that we can put some aside money to to address some of the issues that that have been raised by my colleagues here today. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Andrews? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank Councilman Richardson to bring it up. You had him about two divided by nine. I think all of us, you know, would like to think that if we got that, we would be able to spend it as we please. But we doing it with responsibility. And I think in your communities, everyone would like to you to do things that they ask to. But you have to understand, we don't have that type of money. But I think right now we'll get in there. This budget is one of the best I've had since I've been on this council deal because all of a sudden we're solving for 4 to 6. The biggest point I'm asking for right now is that. Lena, I know you were talking about the graffiti program. This that you just brought up, I think is one of the best things that we've had here on this council since I've been here, because when I leave on Friday and all of a sudden I can go down the street and see graffiti everywhere that needs that. We probably won't get that until Monday. This I missed. Or I would just like to know where do we call in? Who do we get in touch with? If in a situation we do get this money in order to be able to do it on the weekends? Who do we get in touch with? The vice mayor or Ms.. Who I think Mr. Malloy in was clear from Councilmember Gonzalez's request that that has to be part of the promotion, because most of us don't know now that it would be available on the weekend. And so we hope to test that with him and his department to make sure that residents are aware that they can call the graffiti hotline on the weekend as well. But I think Mr. Malloy is here to answer that. Well, no, that's that that's that's fine. That's good to know. But I just want to, you know, really thank you, Lena, for doing that, because I think it's a great idea. And I think it really benefit the city of Long Beach because some of it's really out of line. So those are the only thing I have to ask in this budget. I would totally support it. Mr. Mayor, may I ask just on Councilman Andrew's point, are most of the requests coming in through go Long Beach or are they phone calls or. Mr. Malloy. Honorable mayor and honorable council members. But 90% of the calls go through the hotline and about 5 to 10% goes through the language. So on the hotline, is there an outgoing message? For instance, you know, you've received you've reached the hotline and. Wait for a customer service rep. Is that what it says? I don't know that. Okay. The answer to that question. But to also expand on Councilmember D's question, this will be an extension of existing programs. So whatever's happening today on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays will occur on Saturday and Sunday. So. So there are ways internally that we can promote this one is the scrolling messages on our city TV. Two is when you call City Hall, there's that hold time message. And in that message we could say and now we're open on weekends as well. So I think there are lots of ways that Mr. Malloy can identify that this could be marketed. Absolutely. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Then I'll make some closing comments. Councilman Orson. Thank you. And I want to thank my colleagues for all of their great comments and been a lot of insight here. I do. You know, as a as a district city councilmember, we are very fortunate to have a lot of great tradition in our community. We do benefit in my community. It looks forward to the municipal band playing every year. It wasn't just a few years ago that we were talking about eliminating that from the budget altogether. So to be having a conversation about restoring and actually doing extra more, more municipal band concerts is a says a lot about where we are as a city today. And I think the I actually would support expanding this tradition to to other areas of the city. Hearing from council members Gonzalez in Urunga and in Richardson in that regard, I think this budget actually can accomplish that and seeks to do that with provisions for extra concerts matching with the municipal band, doing some fundraising themselves. And it would only helps them by expanding their scope to other areas of the city. And so that's something I think we should look at doing. The tradition that I talk about is rich with the ranchos as well. I mean, these these ranchos are really the the genesis of our of our city and require our attention. Those ranchos are no longer maintenance then managed by the city of Long Beach. They are managed by the foundations, which I think make them unique in that regard. They don't get a whole lot of funding. They do get a an annual allocation. But when it comes to some of the maintenance issues with these these historic gems that we have in our cities, I think it is our responsibility to to pay attention to them. And so I'm glad we we're doing that as well in this budget. And I wanted to speak to the the the conversation regarding discretionary flexibility for council offices. I think that's important for us to have that in our infrastructure. I don't I've been a big voice for for infrastructure on this council since I've been here. I'll continue to do that. I know we have dedicated a great deal of one time funds and even our discretionary dollars, the eighth District, toward infrastructure improvements, streets, sidewalks. We're making progress. However, I do agree that the one size fits all model isn't necessarily the best model for for our city. Our districts are are different. Our city is diverse. We have different needs. And I think as council members, we should seek to to to recognize that as well in this budget as well. So I would hope that we can get to a place where there's a little bit more flexibility with the discretionary dollars that are coming our way. And I look forward to to supporting this budget with those. Thank you. Councilman Price. Thank you. I'll be very brief. I think it's important to I agree with the comments that my colleagues have made. I would encourage my colleagues to to. Really look. Holistically at the things that we do do as a city council, the projects that we support one another in. Sometimes there are projects that are very important to a specific. Group. Of residents in our community that may not impact other residents at all. And yet we support them because we understand that this is a very diverse city with different interests and different needs and different services that their constituents take advantage of. And I think it's important for us to all support one another. And and rather than saying, well, remember this, the next time something comes up, we should think more holistically about how we're allocating money citywide and supporting one another in the programs that we're trying to bring to the communities. I do want to highlight, we do have a legal contractual relationship with the ranchos that requires us as a city to provide some maintenance to those two facilities. And, and I completely agree with Councilman Yarrawonga regarding what the ranchos do in terms of giving back to the community. I know he knows this, but I think it's important to highlight that every student in the Long Beach Unified School District goes to both ranchos every year. It's a mandatory requirement and it's something that the ranchos put on in addition to the free tours that they give to the community and the fact that they open up those two facilities as a museum to every single member of the public. So I think that's really important. But the fact that our children tour that facility and learn about the history of and of that facility and its roots in Long Beach, and that that's part of the curriculum. At Long Beach Unified School District, as is the Long Beach Museum of Long Beach Art Museum, is also part of the Long Beach Unified School District curriculum, as is the symphony. So those are it's not just city resources or city assets that we've called them. They actually are facilities that our partners in the Long Beach College promise are utilizing to help deliver our end of the Long Beach College promise, which is inviting our children into those facilities. So I think that's really important. Never mind the liability that we may have in terms of these being city, city actually facilities. So with that said, I agree with all the comments that my colleagues made. And I think it's important that we, you know, support all the different programs, services and facilities that help every single one of our residents. I don't think you'll ever see me opposing something that any of my colleagues feel is going to benefit their constituents and their community in a positive way. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry. Yes. May I make a slight amendment to the verbiage of the motion? Yes, I was actually just. Trying to address that. Thank you. No, but I'm going to let I was going to just have the city attorney kind of repeat that piece and then you make the the adjustment that needs to be made. I just want to say a couple a couple comments. One, I want to start out by thanking the BBC. They've done really great work. And I think it's it's a lot of additional work to be part of that budget process. And so I want to thank all three members, especially Vice Mayor Lowenthal, for for walking us through that project. The second thing I want to mention is just so that everyone's aware, the municipal band is actually very much interested in expanding their programing to other parts of the city. And so I think that is a core part of what they're trying to do and discussing is how they expand their reach. And so that's something they've talked to me about. I know they've talked had a conversation with many others as well. And so we we all encourage that. And we're we're very hopeful that that will be occurring. And we want to thank them for for their commitment to doing that. Just a quick note about our ranchos. I think this is something that's always interesting to me is, you know, our ranchos are literally the birthplace of Long Beach. That is where our city's history was developed. And the great the great assets, of course, for for the entire city. And so I want to I want to thank both the council members who've been advocating for both of those of those ranchos as part of an important part of our of our history. Mr.. Mr.. City Attorney, there was a friendly amendment in discussion about the the amount of of the discretionary one time divided by nine money that the Council's proposed. I know that legally we want to make sure that we're working within the legal framework right now as the motion is presented by the boss. Can you just repeat at one time. Mayor remembers that council. The motion as proposed by the Bossie allows the use of the $2.666 thousand for capital infrastructure programs divided by nine. And that would include programs that, you know, are consistent with the city staff recommendation, with the normal capital and maintenance programing and decisions. And I think Vice Mayor 11,000 is going to do a perhaps a friendly amendment to that. Yes. So in addition to the language about capital infrastructure programs, can we add and existing programs. If I understand the existing city programs? So that would include operational expenditures for programs that are originated and developed by city staff and directed. Yes. Perfect. Okay. All right. Public comment on the item before us. Say Nonmembers, please go ahead and cast your votes. I do. Where do I see somebody from the left. Please come over here. Actually, you have to come up front if you have a comment. I just. I didn't prepare anything. You have to just state your name and converse. And what? State your name for the record, please. Carl Gunter. Okay. I have not prepared anything, but I. I was I had an issue of concern. So I'm also not really familiar with your program here, but I wanted to speak to these gentlemen of the room. I wanted to make a comment to the gentleman, if I could please. To the gentleman. Actually, right now we're only dealing with the the Budget Oversight Committee's recommendations so that you can comment on that. Or if it's something else, it would have to wait till the second public comment period. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I see no other public comment. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Thank you. Next. Exciting Vice mayor.