Recommendation to receive and file a presentation and report on Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) “Year in Review,” highlighting the President’s 2020-2021 work plan, including Connect So Cal Plan adoption, the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, the Regional Equity Framework, the Regional Data platform, and other key milestones.
Thank you. I think our last item is item 35. Item 35 Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson. Councilwoman Cindy has Councilman Allen Councilwoman Zahra recommendation to receive and file presentation and report from SCAD year in review highlighting the President's 2020 make through 2021 work plan. Of Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As one of the just concluded my year as president of SCAD. I want to thank my colleagues for allowing me the time since 2014 be a part of this board, the great regional board. I've learned a lot and I've become a better leader as a result of the experiences being there. And, you know, traditionally when you serve on a board or you go to a study tour, you come back and report back to city council. So I'm happy to attach my year review report and I have a video just to show this. This year has been a you know, it's been a hard year. You know, I've been in the past, I've been able to go study alternative forms of transportation in Australia or, you know, the challenges around clean air in China. And, you know, we got you know, we got invited to Israel and Hawaii and all those things. This wasn't the year for that. This year was really local government folks hunkering down and getting work done. And so I want to thank Councilmember Allen. Also, Councilman Austin serves on the committee for being good members of of for being good members of SAG. And I want to take a moment to show the video of the year in review video. Thank you. When I think back of the events of the past year, I go back to the moment that we learned that COVID 19 was here in our communities and that we needed to respond. It's a strange world, the space between things. What we learned was that essential workers still need to go out and provide basic services. And we learned that schools may be closing and that if you weren't essential worker, you may not have had the means to provide for your family. So it was a very scary time. Now I know that when we get out of this, I. Want to help. When we will. But during that time, local government still needed to provide its basic needs and basic services. And so local leaders needed to step up and find a pathway forward without a lot of certainty about what the future looks like. I think about the Southern California region. We're already a region with tremendous opportunity, but also great meaning. We were in the midst of a housing crisis, a regional housing needs assessment. Next, local plan, setting our goals and vision for the next 25 years. And that work couldn't stop. So this regional council of local leaders from six counties continue to work through the challenges to make sure that we're setting the stage for a Southern California that's inclusive and strong. And think, get this. Ordinarily, our year is busy at SCAD because we have a lot of things that we get involved with as a regional MPO. But to have the combination of two primary assignments that SKOG has, one that's done every four years, and one that's done over eight years, to have those two come together in one year, obviously was a lot of work to get done. Where we had the most significant impact is not what we were able to do, but how we were able to do it. We had every excuse in the world to not meet our deadline on Connect somehow or not adopt the methodology on Rina or to not address the economic recovery. But we did it all, and we did it all in a fashion that built a real consensus across the region and helped place our region on a stronger, more firm footing for the future. A lot of decisions have been made in the last year and a half that have been very difficult, that have required a lot of regional thinking as opposed to parochial thinking. And I think that's where you have to celebrate our regional leaders, our board members that have come from these various cities and counties able to come together and actually fight for what is in the best interest of the region. This last year was a little harder for Skaggs than other years because we had to work on the RTP or Connect SoCal as well as regional housing needs assessment. You know, this plan is almost a half trillion dollar plan, planning out the regional transportation needs for the next 20 years. This is really important that we do advanced planning so that local entities such as my city of Ontario and the County of San Bernardino can aim all of its projects to what would be beneficial for the entire region. This year, we developed and adopted a final allocation plan for the six cycle regional housing needs assessment, which will help cities meet anticipated things in the six county region over much of the next decade. In the process, we gather input from throughout the region, examined a variety of methodology options and in the end challenge ourselves to come up with a formula that addresses our housing needs in an effective and equitable manner. And now PSAC is focused on providing communities with the technical support it needs to meet that challenge. During this past difficult year, Scaggs staff, it's really stepped up to develop tools that we can all use in our cities and counties to deal with complex data that we need to make better plans and figure out how we're going to get to where we want to go, including the regional data platform. The housing element parcel especially directs us to solutions for our housing challenges. Additionally, we have COVID Vulnerability Indicators Dashboard again helping us figure out how COVID has affected our communities, which particular segments are really having challenges, and what we can do when. We learn where those challenges are. So with this technical assistance that our brilliant staff has come up with, we can work better for a better future for all of us with our different challenges. Last July, SAG declared racism as a public health crisis and in the months since has led region wide discussions on ways to eliminate barriers that reduce opportunity for millions of Southern Californians. The results of this effort include a draft framework for the agency's action plan on racial equity and the development of an inclusive regional economic recovery strategy for Southern California to make a true recovery from the devastation of this public health and economic pandemic. We need to close this historically large racial equity gap and factor in the importance of long range planning for transportation and land use in creating more inclusive communities. Research is always a big part of what's kept us. But this year, COVID changed our lives in ways we could not imagine. As a result, many of our studies took on a new sense of urgency. Some of these studies included an early preview of the economic impacts of COVID on the region, a last mile freight study addressing the very real surge in both business and home deliveries, and analysis of changing transportation demands, and a sophisticated economic forecast that illuminates the need for an inclusive economic recovery strategy. One of the biggest. Successes this year has been in the support we've been able to give at the local, city and county level. Millions of dollars in funding are being invested across many different areas of land use and transportation planning. Some of these include a series of local technical assistance programs that will invest. Nearly $65 million in local plans and programs. A subregional partnership program allocating $23 million to local governments to prepare and implement local housing elements. The Sustainable Communities Program, which is supporting projects in the areas of active transportation and safety. Housing and sustainable development and smart cities and mobility innovations. We also. Have the 28 mini grants awarded through the Go. Human Campaign to Fuel Community. Active Transportation Safety and Engagement Initiatives. We have multiple programs geared towards. Accelerating urgently needed housing production throughout the region. All of this local level support is emblematic of the collaboration and partnership that is so central to who SAG is a win for our cities, a win for our counties. That's a win for Skegg. It's a win for the Southern California region, and that's what we're here to do. The COVID year, as I call it, the year 2020 taught us a lot of things and we did a lot of things that we had not done before. And so it's been a very instructive year for us to on one level, to find that we have capacities that we didn't even know we had. But I just want to be very grateful for all of our stakeholders hanging with us, being with us through the changes in our processes and approaches to our work, all of them , I think we're able to adjust to the new beat that we sort of began to dance to. It's Greg. Skog has the opportunity to help shape the future for Southern California, and the future is uncertain. When I think about the future, I think about my daughters, my six year old and my three year old, and the future that they will have growing up here in Southern California. I want them to have clean air to breathe. I want them to have clean water to drink. I want them to have access to affordable housing and jobs, education, economic opportunity. And we want this for all of our children. These are things that we all agree on. And as long as we continue to focus where our interests intersect, the future of Southern California will be bright. You do? So thank you. That concludes my presentation. It's been a it's been a great year. I plan to conclude my year is immediate past president and hopefully recruit one of my colleagues who wants to, you know, have the experiences that I've had. And it's going. So thank you so much for this opportunity to share this report. And it is attached. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Sarah. Thank you, Mayor. I want to congratulate Vice Mayor Richardson. Ah, former president of SAG Richardson, on a job well done and representing our great city at that level and said thank you so much for your service and your leadership. Councilman's in the house. Yes. I also want to. Congratulate. You, vice mayor, for a great job in representing the city of Long Beach. I know that you have been a great value just scad for for several years now. So I'm really excited for you and the experience that you've had and and also the leadership that you will continue to bring to us because of your experience there . So, again, congratulations. Thank you, Councilman Allen. Yes. I think that was a great video and I just can't pass up on the opportunity to say thank you to our vice mayor for his service to Scott. That was an awesome video. Mr. Vice Mayor, you are absolutely the right leader at the right time. And you have led the charge on racial equality and inclusion as a gag as well as our city. And I know this to be a fact. Our our communities are going to benefit from your leadership for generations to come. I'm going to say this again. You are you are bold, you are fun, and you are hella passionate. And I applaud your work at SCAD. You are just an incredible chair. I learned so much from you. So just great work. Thinking, Counselor. Anger. In short, thank you for your service, Benjamin. Thank you. So what's gag again? I'm just kidding. Oh, I'm just joking. Well, no, listen, I'm just giving the vice mayor a hard time, so if you like, I like to do that. So congratulations, Rex, on your year of service. And I think I think, Councilman Allen, I think you serve on Skaggs also or the alternate. And we've had a long tradition of this body being involved on on Skye and at the Gateway COG and so many of these regional boards, which are always very important for the city. So congratulations. And with that, I don't believe there's any public comment. So we'll do a roll call vote. Councilwoman Sundance. Right. Councilwoman Allen. I'm Councilwoman Pryce. I can swim in super. I'm Councilwoman Mango. I. Councilwoman Sara. I. Council member oranga. I. Councilman Austin. All right. Vice Mayor Richardson. Yes. Washington. Thank you. And with that, we have a new business, as we called Mayor Carlos, the man before we close. All right, Mr. City, Attorney, you have a ruling. Thank you, Mayor. This evening, in closed session, council authorized the settlement of the Anthony Garcia versus city of Long Beach litigation in the amount of $250,000 by a vote of 9 to 0. Thank you. Thank you. With that we're going to go ahead and ahead this. Sorry. Sorry, Charlie. Any business?