Recommendation to request City Manager to provide to the City Council a review of the City's Unlawful Harassment Complaints policy and procedures, how city employees are informed of how they can file a complaint, a breakdown of the complaints the City has received over the past 5 years, and to reexamine the existing policies and make recommendations on any possible changes to the policy to ensure it is victim friendly.
Okay. So it'll be, it'll be item 20 then public comment and consent. I don't know, item 20. That's not the item. You wanted to name Mr. Aston, because it's not quite 19. It's just 20. It's item 20. Go ahead. What do you think? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And obviously, I want to thank all my my colleagues also for signing on to this very timely and important issue facing workplaces throughout our country today. In the past two months, the nation has seen a transformational moment and how we address the magnitude and pervasiveness of the problem of inappropriate sexual contact in the workplace. Numerous high profile reports of harassment and abuse in fields such as entertainment, media, hospitality and government as well as through the MeToo social media campaign, have prompted many organizations to reexamine their policies and procedures to make sure that we promote a safe work environment. The victims of unlawful harassment feel comfortable coming forward and reporting. This is about ensuring that we are fostering here in the city of Long Beach a work environment and that we do not. A respectful work environment. And that we do not tolerate an abuse of power or a lack of respect or professionalism. I would like to thank our Director of Human Resources, Alice BASKAS, for for being here this evening and would ask that she provide us a brief overview of our existing policy and procedures regarding unlawful harassment or sexual harassment. Thank you. All. Good evening, Mayor. And City Council members and the City of Long Beach has several policies regarding a EEO related to unlawful discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Those policies are posted online and they're also provided to city employees when they're onboarded as new employees. We also provide mandated sexual harassment training to our supervisors and managers. And also employees can file a complaint at five different places if they can file a complaint informally with their supervisors or managers, with the EEO counselor at their department, or directly with the H.R. department, EEO citywide counselor. They can also file complaints with outside agencies such as the State DFA or the federal EEOC. They can file those directly with those agencies. Employees can also file complaints or lodge a complaint with the city auditor. And if that happens, those complaints are then referred over to H.R. for investigation. I think I covered basically what is a just a high level overview. And if there are any specific questions, I'm happy to cover that. Okay. Follow up with a couple of quick questions. Does the city's. Policy currently address bullying and intimidation in the workplace, whether or not it's due to a progressed protected class? So in broad terms, our policies do cover harassment in the workplace. So if an employee came to us alleging harassment in the workplace, we would investigate it. And that also is covered in the state policies. And is our. Is your department currently looking at doing any ways to provide any sort of additional avenues for victims to report harassment, such as a. Hotline? So we are currently exploring the feasibility of of user utilizing a hotline type of avenue for individuals to file complaints. I recently came back from a H.R. conference last week and talked to my colleagues from the City of Los Angeles who are also looking at that. And we're going to be collaborating together and looking at the feasibility of having such a such a process for individuals to file complaints using a hotline or a one 800 number. And how can you explain how such complaints are investigated? Are they done internally or are they done by outside investigators? Yes. So there are various different types of investigations. We are policies called for and we prefer that complaints to the extent possible can be resolved informally with the supervisor and manager. However, if that's not possible, we will conduct a formal investigation. If someone wants to file a formal complaint. We will use either inside or outside neutral investigators to conduct an investigation, including conducting an intake with the complainant and also interviewing any witnesses, reviewing any documentation. And we also consult with the city attorney's office in conducting our investigations as we are progressing through the investigation or need assistance. Okay. Thank you. And I just. Wanted to just address some some of the comments that that were made earlier. And, you know, in case anybody wants to twist this issue into something else. As chair of the city's Personnel and Civil Service Committee, I really felt a need to have this discussion this evening and the responsibility to bring it forward along with my colleagues . So I'm and I'm really glad we have a very diverse council to have this discussion this evening. Recognizing that the employees understand the intent of this item is to discuss and reaffirm our city's policy on unlawful harassment and sexual harassment to make sure that we're sending a clear message as a council that such misbehavior will not be tolerated in any workspace in this city. We as a council also have a direct responsibility to our city's workforce, and we have a responsibility to the taxpayers of our city. And so this is why we I brought this item forward. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues. I would ask that you go ahead and and and but but also I wanted to also point out that the motion tonight requests that the city manager report back to the city council, in addition to review the city's current policies and procedures. What we're doing this evening and look at how the city and how city employees are informed of how they can file a complaint. A breakdown of the complaints the city has received over the last five years, and recommendations on possible changes to the policy to ensure that it is also victim friendly. And so with that, I ask for my my councilmembers colleagues to support this item, and I look forward to hearing further their comments as well. Thank you. Councilman Price. Thank you. I want to thank Councilman Austin for bringing this forward. I know that there are many organizations and entities who are reevaluating their policies around the nation based on the national conversation and what what I think I hear the intent of Councilman Austin and from what I know of my colleagues to be, is that it's not just about creating a policy or revising our policy. It's about the culture. It's about the type of culture that we're setting as leaders and the type of environment that we want to create. And so to the extent that city management, the city manager and his team are listening and identifying some best practices that can be utilized to not only identify areas where our current policies can be strengthened, but also areas where we can provide additional training for our department heads and possibly even our employees of how to create spaces that are safe for the employees. One of the things that I have often said in regards to trainings that I've been involved in for with managers for H.R. related issues, is that when people come to work, most people go to work because they have to in order to support their families. And so to have to go to work and be in an environment where you are subjected to things that are offensive, the where you're being bullied, where you might be feeling uncomfortable in terms of your space every day is definitely not an environment that should be tolerated. So to the extent that city staff can develop best practices to not only make that culture known, but also provide ways to investigate corroborated claims where such policies are not followed. I think it's important for us to be able to do that. So again, I commend Councilman Austin for bringing this forward and making sure that we are keeping at pace and in some instances ahead of the national conversation regarding workplace policies designed to prevent this type of incident or. Behavior at. Workplaces. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes, I just want to say that, of course, I will absolutely support an item that looks at sexual harassment and sexual assaults. It's absolutely something I believe in. It's something I'm passionate about. And as this item starts, it actually starts with over the past two months, numerous high profile reports of inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace that prompted a national discussion about sexual harassment. What I find a little troubling about that is that why it took high profile reports for us. Actually have a discussion about this item to actually bring this forward to this this council. And so instead of being and I don't feel and absolutely I'm going to support this and I have a question relative to what we can make do to perhaps make it stronger. But what I would like us to do when we're looking at policymaking is to be more proactive versus reactive, because now this just looks as though we're reacting to everything going on because a celebrity decided that they wanted to come out with a high profile issue. And so I don't believe in that type of policymaking. I want us to be able to get in front of something before this happens or when people start coming out in various industries, not just the municipal industry . So I will say that and I hope that we can stand committed to making sure that whatever this policy is, that we look forward, as I mentioned, to other industries and and especially as we brought forward the hotel housekeepers to ensure that that stays the topic of discussion. I will ask, though, that I believe, Alex, that the state requires sexual harassment training each year. Is that correct? That's correct. Every two years, supervisors and managers must go through a two hour training course that is meets state requirements. And we actually just completed that in 2017 for our supervisors and managers. Perfect. And so that's just supervisors and managers, though. So is there any way for us to expand that above and beyond what the state requires, to require everyone to do some sort of sexual harassment training? I do that on my private side of life. Everyone does the training, whether you're a manager or not. So that's something certainly we are looking into also expanding, providing some type of a course to all city employees, non supervisory non-management employees. We're we're right now exploring the feasibility of doing that, whether that be it on an online type of system or in classroom type coursework. So we are looking at the added ways of delivering that type of training. Great. And I was just going to ask about that because I know that video. I mean, if we can make it easier on people to take a at least a video so they can see scenarios in which they can understand what sexual harassment and assault actually mean in the workplace, I think that would be great. So other than that, I extend my support. Thank you very much. Thank you. I do want to, you know, recognize that the conversation we had several weeks back, one of the discussions was making sure that we take care of our our house first. So I want to, you know, applaud us for doing that. I have lots of thoughts and I did a PowerPoint, but I'm going to save it and I'll share it with you guys at our next meeting. What I do want to include are some talking points and some facts. So we ground ourselves. We're having a conversation about policies and procedures which sometimes can be very dry and pull us away from the reality. The reality is that over 50% of people that have said that they've experienced sexual harassment on the job do not report it for fear of losing their jobs. That 80% of those that experience sexual assault on the job are women. That we spend over $120 billion a year as a national government on workplace violence cost. And so I just want to ground us also in the fact that it's not just sexual assaults that we're talking about with the hashtag MeToo, which was cited in the item, but that there's other types of violence and bullying and yelling and threats that can happen. And we need to have an H.R. policy that understands that violence and understands the trauma that people experience, men or women, when they go through violence at home, as children, as adults, and how that trauma can be triggered in the workplace . And so while I would love for us to have a policy that is inclusive of gender and inclusive of making sure we have a one 800 hotline, which I support, making sure that we have a video training that is not just for supervisors that all of us have to take. I want my staff in my office to understand how to deal with those that have experienced sexual violence or bullying in the community and in my office. So a trauma informed policy is what I hope that you can come back with, because I know in my experience it. There are spaces that do not feel safe that are supposed to be safe. There are processes that are supposed to support victims that do not support victims. And while we say as a whole that we want that culture to be there, unless we're talking about it and doing it every single day, it falls through the cracks. And if I felt that way, then our lowest paid staff person at City Hall, I can't imagine how they feel if something happens, whether it's a offhanded comment and making sure that we're being trained. I'm not assuming because they had poor work habits, that they're just complaining and blowing something out of proportion. So I believe after a lot of conversations that this council has had, that our city attorney's office has had and directors that a trauma informed our practice is what we have to do in in the city. And so I wanted to make sure that we feel that gravity, especially with the fact that in our management we are 60% male in management and that we are 39% women. Then in Non-Management, it's 39% male and 60.8% women. And with the numbers of statistics that we have around that abuse that we have to recognize, we have to go above and beyond trauma. I just want to make. Sure I don't. And I want to also call out and recognize that as a city, I want to ensure that our legislative department is treated the same as all of our departments whenever it comes to training, cultural sensitivity and expectations for processes. If a complaint is made that that goes into someone's file, that their process is fully being run through, and that the 14th floor is not treated any differently than any other department. I'm not saying that's happened. I just want to ensure that that is a process that is there. And then again, I want to echo what my my colleagues said. Councilmember Gonzalez. It's about prevention, creating a safe culture, trauma informed practices, and exploring options around safety and health managers. In the policy that we have, I don't see, I didn't know. And so I asked my staff to give me this policy that we even have a equal opportunity office that will notify and that there is an actual counselor or designee. How do how does each department know who that designated person is? So each department has an administrative officer so that the they and that person is usually the EEO counselor for that particular department. And then there's also a city wide one. We just recently revamped our brochure that is provided to city employees, and we also translated it into Spanish and we have that available online. We're looking at disseminating that to each employee and with a piece for a pay stub staffer. And so it also, as I indicated before, employees are informed when they're onboarded initially about our policies and and provided the brochures. Thank you. I don't think I got any brochures when I came on, but, you know. Thank you. I would also like to say one thing that was in the sexual harassment piece that we were looking at for the hotels included having a third party, whether it be a nonprofit, their own attorney or the police present whenever filing complaints that when you come back with recommendations of, you could see if there's some best practices out there that allow an employee to have a third party present when they're going through the investigative process. And that's it. So thank you, colleagues, for bringing this forward. It obviously is a timely issue. Because we're going to take you there as a former manager and administrative officer in the city of Long Beach. I had instances where I had employees come to me with complaints about harassment or potential workplace violence. And I dealt with it. And it's it was at the time that I was employed here that we were the administrative officers were the individuals that employees could go to. But there's not always that level of trust, I have to say. And unfortunately, with every department, within every department that that had an employee can go to an administrative officer and lodge a complaint and feel comfortable that it's going to be taken care of, because that's not always the case. So I would I would agree with my councilmember colleagues out here that we probably do need some kind of additional way of having employees report harassment. Or intimidation or bullying or whatever it is that that bothers them in the workplace when they're working with either a colleague or us or a subordinate or a superior. Because it's not always possible to know if your item got taken care of. I mean, that one of the things that I think it's unfortunate and it's I know it's probably the law because you're not supposed to reveal that. But sometimes a police don't know if where their complaint when they might have lodged it but then it's gone and there's no feedback for them in terms of whether there was a resolution to their complaint. And they continue to work. And and the person that they may have be having an issue with is still working or still supervising them or still a colleague or still in the workplace. So we need to know, have a resolution on that and hopefully that when this comes back, there's going to be some kind of recommendation or suggestion or a policy that addresses that, because I think that's that's the most important thing is that is harassment is reported. And the reason it's not reported and we get that high percentage of individuals that don't report it is because there's a lack of trust. And we need to build it. We need to build that trust for our employees and anybody to come to us or to go to, to, to our office of h.r or a or whoever we designate to report those come to our senators. So I will support this. Adam, I want to thank Austin customer roster for bringing this forward. But at the same time, I want to address the fact that if we don't address it now, we're going to have a hard time addressing it later. So it is unfortunate that this conversation is not taking place because of what's taking place nationally and locally. But it's it's an important one. And I'm glad that we're having it now. Thank you. Thank you. In that clip this hour, Councilman Councilman Austin, I thank you and. I appreciate the comments. I want to just follow up on a couple of of items unlike any future policy and like staff to look at, including bullying and intimidation. And in this the harassment policy specifically calling out those actions because there are situations and as a employee advocate, I deal with all the time situations where people are not necessarily being sexually harassed or harassed, but they're being bullied and intimidated to the point where their their work environment is completely hostile. And that does open the door for other problems to the point that, you know, we're having this conversation today instead of being proactive about it, this and I think we're being proactive because the city has a policy. We are reviewing our policy. The city of Los Angeles is reviewing their policies right now. The county of Los Angeles are reviewing their policies right now. The state of California is reviewing their policies right now. This is what good government is all about right now. And if we don't have this conversation today, as Councilmember Jauregui said, we'll be regretting it later. This item, this issue is specific to employees in the city of Long Beach, the employees who are within our purview as a city council to to to to govern. And they they we we we vote on their they're collective bargaining contracts. This is within our house. And again, the responsibility is not only to making sure the workplace for the employees here is safe and healthy, respectful and professional, but also that the we also have a responsibility to our our taxpaying public, because there are liabilities that come with us not taking care of business in that regard. And so I'll in my comments there, I appreciate the the discussion, the fact that council my council colleagues were reading this policy and discovering new things and things that they didn't know about in terms of city operations was well worth the time spent this evening. And so thank you very much for the colleagues and look forward to voting. Thank you. Thank you. Any comment on this? Please come forward. Please come forward quickly so we can. Thank you very much. When I heard Councilman Gonzalez's comment about why suddenly because of celebrities are down being paid, they are called on the carpet about their internal behavior. I immediately thought, what difference would that make at the moment when we first heard the first celebrity, whether it be Bill Cosby or and now our president making statements that were harassing toward women. The people who follow suit. All the other. Celebrities who were found to be in conflict. They knew bringing in these men was called that they had a behavior that was adverse. They started calculating when. There are. Oh, at some point my may be uncovered. When Mr. Austin brought this up and now hearing that it was his call, I thought, okay, if the city has existing behavior now, that's going to be revealed. This is the call out now. You may hear about it next year. It may start being rolled out. Things that you didn't know. This is the call coming from Mr. Austin that, oh, we need to relook at this. Based on all the other behavior of people, we never would have thought statements such as this would have come. So I. I wasn't called to answer that. But I say. Yeah. It needed to be done now because other cities are examples, because other people are examples, because celebrities are role models to our children. Because Mr. Cosby was a role model to many black family families. So I took it. I took an aversion to that. Why now? Yes. Now, because now the city of Long Beach may give its employees the go ahead in just that statement to say, okay, now I can start talking about what has been happening to me for the last five years. Where before I wouldn't have felt free. This is why. And it doesn't matter that it took a celebrity to bring it forward. The issue is. It hadn't been done. Until all of the other individuals that affect our city, in our view, came forward. Tonya, seven, district resident. I want to applaud you for bringing forth this policy review, a policy review that you labeled as a victim friendly policy. I'm not sure what motivated you to bring this policy review forward now, other than the many victims who have recently come forward in the media to report inappropriate conduct and and who, quote , did not feel there was a safe environment in their workplace for them to come forward to report harassment. What pains me is that a couple of months ago, some of you did nothing for the many victims or more appropriately called survivors, who indicated that they, too, did not feel there was a safe environment for their in their workplace for them to come forward to report harassment. As council members, you're not elected just to put forth public policy, but you're elected to make a difference in people's lives, to make their lives better. As past director of the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency, I too agree that there is a need to ensure that all employees have a safe work environment and feel safe to report incidents. Emphasis on all employees. Yet reviewing and updating policy alone is not what will ensure that employees feel safe. Workers need to know that you understand what they are going through and how their working conditions either increases or lessens incidents of abuse. You must understand that what workers are going through. If there are no women in management positions, it can be difficult for some to understand what's going on. While working in the city 29 years ago, my water broke at work and I drove to the hospital. My boss asked me if I was going to return to work later that day. And now, an hour later, I gave birth to my youngest child. And no, I did not return to work that day. Don't get me started on pumping milk while at the city of Garden Grove. While I was working there, the public works department had all men employees. When one man who is transgender and showed up as a woman after her surgery, they worked hard to understand her circumstances and in what way work, environment and behavior need to change. First of all, you need to show you understand why some survivors do not report abuse. Three months ago, many were saying and were troubled because there was no record of reported incidents. That's not understanding. Saying that policy will result in litigation or that you see no nexus between harassment and workload. That's not understanding. Secondly, you need to engender trust. I can't see my time, Dick and I just have to talk faster. Thank you. If you engender trust, if employees don't trust you to believe their claims, or that those claims will not be investigated, no amount of policy tweaking will help. If they don't trust that, you will protect them. After reporting, no policy review will help. And finally, you need to acknowledge that working conditions play a major role in setting the stage to allow harassment to fester and continue. For example, here in the city of Long Beach, many years ago, no fire stations had separate facilities for women firefighters to shower or use the restroom. A separate restroom. I hope that has changed. When a few months ago, a couple of you were concerned about nuanced details that about treating differently. One class of employees. Please recheck next time you're dealing with public safety because they do have unique needs. Also, the employees are represented by a bargaining unit and they should have a say in this policy because it is about working conditions. I applaud your attempt at this policy review, but understand that work environment also means work conditions. And I hope that when you receive the requested breakdown of complaints the city has received over the past five years, and if there is only. A victim ensuring. That you continue to seek improvement in the policy. Thank you very much. A few more seconds for someone given eight years. That I got to treat everyone the same. Thank you so much. Mic speaker, please. My name's Nader Tushnet and I live in the third district and I am very pleased about this policy coming forward to City Council. I'm particularly pleased that we are looking at changing the culture. I worked for 50 years and in men in a largely male industry and it's not easy to change the culture. It's also important to note that the more managers there are who are women, the better it is for women to work there. I know that it's not only women who feel harassment. I am concerned, however, that you are looking only at your house. Your house is important. It sets the tone for the city. That is true. But your house and leaving other houses alone. And I'm speaking particularly about the hotel workers, leaves out the most important people in our city. And I want to say it's Hanukkah. So I can quote a rabbi. And I also was with my my extended family this weekend, and we were raised in a particular way. Rabbi Hillel said, If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself. What am I? And if not now, when? Thank you. Q Next speaker, please. I'm also closing the speakers list, so I think. That. Mr. Murchison, for the last speaker there was no other speakers. Is that correct? No other speakers besides Mr. Murchison. Okay. Great. Next speaker. Please. Thank you very much. Zoe Nicholson. I live in Rose Park, second district. I can understand that. You might think that I am writing tonight to congratulate you on agenda item number 20. In fact, I would be if this was 1999. I've been an elected leader and am the president of your local now chapter and W is the largest organization advocating for the rights of women and girls. It is celebrating its 52nd year. I find this moment absolutely astounding because you are differentiating between the workers who work for you and the workers who support the industry in this city. I want to ask those five council members. Who voted no on. September 19th to do me a favor. Should anyone in your future want to shake your hand? Over one of our. Citizens being honored as Time's Person. Of the Year. I hope you will stand tall. I hope you will square your shoulders. I hope you will look them right in the eye and tell them. You voted no. Because that is the fact. One failed panic button out of thousands. Three years isn't long enough for a study or the comment. Well, it is Grand Prix weekend. Our people deserve protections and workloads and sexual assault. All human beings deserve this. You should be leaders in this culture. This is not progressive. Progressive means that you lead. You don't wait for the hashtags to pile in and how many people you love. Can now say me to. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I'm with her. My name is Linda Calderon, and I am president of National Council of Jewish Women of Long Beach. And I represent over 400 members who live in Long Beach and in the surrounding areas. One of my priorities is to advance the well-being and status of women, which includes developing laws, policies, programs and services that protect every woman from all forms of abuse, exploitation, harassment and violence. I would say that your mandate as a city council is the same to protect all employees from all forms of abuse, exploitation, harassment and violence. And I would commend you on looking at your employee policies again. That also should include the hotel workers and others, the majority of whom are women. Although they may not be under your direct supervision, their rights to work in a safe and secure environment are in the hands of the policy makers. That means you and I would like to give you some feedback about the meeting that we had in terms of Claudia's law. We had been told that you studied this hotel issue for almost three years. Was this not enough time to pool your research and unearth every possible question and solution to the issue? Each of you had that responsibility. There should have been no excuses about coming to a conclusion. You are a leaders. You're looked to as leaders. And when you receive testimony that there were incidents and actions that created a hostile work environment such as sexual assault, you are obligated to review the facts, not your opinions. And you did, as you did at that city hall meeting that met about hotel issues. It is your responsibility to inform yourselves about the circumstances surrounding sexual harassment and sexual abuse and make informed decisions. Did you know how difficult it must have been to publicly testify to these acts of aggression? Do you recognize the testimony of a supervisor standing up and saying he was present here as one of intimidation? Do you think anyone would publicly describe their experiences that they were not true? And yet one of you said that you did not believe them. You said it again tonight as well. In addition, many of the words that the five people who voted against this were dismissive and self-serving and lacked human compassion. Your leading means to listen, study, evaluate and make a decision that is the best possible decision for all parties. You are the leaders. I might also add that I'd like you to be part of the solution. I noticed that some of you, at least one of you is on the telephone right now, gave us your back for a few minutes. This is dismissive again and it is rude. We are here to try and come together to do something for people who feel that they don't have a say. Thank you very. Much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening, everyone. My name's Christine Pettit. I'm the executive director of Building Healthy Communities Long Beach, and I'm also a sixth District resident. And I'm here tonight to speak in support of the item and also to echo some of the sentiments that were said that policies are one thing. I definitely agree with Councilmember Price Price's comment that we must look at culture. And one of the things that is telling about the culture and City Hall are some of the comments that were made on September 19th and the discussion around Claudia's law. I heard hotel workers come up and share their experiences of sexual harassment and assault, and I heard council members say that there wasn't enough evidence. Why do we need to act right now? Let's make sure to get it right. Even though we've been talking about this for years, those comments from the dais actually made me sick to my stomach and it lingered throughout the week as someone who has experienced sexual harassment. And I think that. You know, if I was a city employee or council staff, I would think that maybe if I came forward with my experience of harassment, that maybe it would be dismissed. And so while you might think that this testimony is twisting this item, what you say up here on all items sets the tone for the culture in Long Beach. And I want to say to that. If anyone else had been recognized as a time person of the year in Long Beach, we would be celebrating. And I haven't heard a peep about that. Our brave silence breaker from Long Beach. So I just want to say that, you know, it's good that you're looking at your policy. I ask you to look beyond what is written. Look at the culture you are promoting here. Sure. Get your house in order. But I also encourage you to take action to protect workers in the taxpayer subsidized hospitality industry and frankly, wherever else you can. Thank you. Thank you. Next week if we. Your name's David Garcetti. It's a g r c t. I just came up here impromptu. But there's an issue with this sexual harassment that really kind of hit a nerve. The one person that made a big issue about policies and reviewing stuff is somebody who apparently is not. Has had issues at the workplace with working with or with coworkers. In the question, though, I was having is that with this new reviews that you're doing here, are you going to be looking also at workplace relationships? And both sides of the spectrum, if somebody comes to complain, whether it's a subordinate or a supervisor, and also if it's male or female, different genders, now that we have to deal with all the different genders, it can also. I'm talking about being going across the board with everything and not just looking at which is what. What's going on now where it's a female saying that, oh, I've been sexually harassed, but men aren't coming forward or even gay or lesbian or anything else. I think that when you're looking at this now, when you're looking at this now in this day and age, it's not just, oh, let's look back at something from the nineties and this update. This is new stuff that we have to go across all genders. And just like they said, if somebody doesn't feel comfortable, you might have somebody who's doesn't feel comfortable talking to this particular person because of their sexual orientation versus that one. There's age differences. But the biggest thing that was strange to me is that I've I've worked in the military, I've worked in the government. We've always had these sexual harassment classes. And for it to be something like new is kind of strange. I don't know how it's been going on Long Beach where you don't even know if you've been doing it once a month. You don't even know who to go to. That's just seems kind of weird to me that you wouldn't be able to know your chain of command and everything you're supposed to be doing. But just but just in point, the thing that the main question I'm asking is that if there's issues of workplace relationships, let's say, and it feels something is something goes wrong, and then somebody out of retaliation goes and says, well, I was harassed. Are you going to look at it just because of that person is a male or a female or subordinate or supervisor? Are you going to take it seriously and be like, okay, wait a minute, we need to look at this and we need to use this as an example for, like Dan said earlier, as an example for the rest of the city where you're not taking sides just because it's somebody in a position of power or somebody who is more favored. And that's the thing that I'm saying. If that if you're going to be looking at this, look at it, there's a big giant spectrum now. So you have to start looking at. Thank you, sir. Next week, please. Good evening, councilmembers. My name is Brian McGinnis and I'm a Long Beach resident and constituent of council member supervised district. I am here to say that I commend city leaders for taking steps today to address how city staff can be protected from abuse on the job. However, I also want to point out a contradiction. Recently, the Long Beach City Council had an opportunity to help hospitality workers get much needed protection in the workplace. This council and the mayor failed them. Council Members Price, Mango, Austin and Supervisor. Well, I appreciate you bringing up this important item. The four of you, along with Councilmember Andrews, were responsible for voting down protections for hotel workers this past September. This hypocrisy lays bare one of the defining questions of our time. Will you, as empowered individuals, side with the most vulnerable members of our communities? Or will you serve moneyed interest and callously try to justify unnecessary human suffering? Long Beach bills itself as a progressive city. But it strikes me as cynical that some of you favor political expediency over workers health and safety. The time has come to protect all workers, regardless of who they work for. Thank you. Thank you. And the final speaker. Good evening, Mayor. Council members. I want to applaud Councilman Austin and the rest of you for bringing forward this item tonight. I know that we had a very robust discussion several months ago. I do want to point out a couple of things where I don't disagree with Councilman Pearce and Councilman, you're wrong in indicating that people don't come forward necessarily that have been assaulted. One of the things I did hear from our chief, our deputy chief at a public safety committee meeting, was that reported there was one incident in five years. Now, I grant you that there's a lot more that happens. I grant you that we don't want that culture in Long Beach. I get that. But statistically, there's one in five years. It's hard to focus on an industry like that more specifically, and I need remind everybody, including the audience, that proposed ordinance was focused on hotels of over 100 rooms. So it wasn't like it was going after the hospitality industry, quote unquote, in general. It was focused on a very specific group, a group that hasn't had a problem in the past. And yet, if we're all that concerned about sexual assault, why not go after the motels? Those seem to be the ones that would have bigger problems in Long Beach than the big hotels. The big hotels have H.R. policies. The big hotels have security. The motels don't. So why wouldn't you go after them? I don't see a policy in Long Beach when you're looking at your in-house stuff that says, gee, let's target this at development services, but we'll leave the IT department alone. It doesn't work that way. It's across the board. So if you're going to do a policy, take it across the board all the way and make sure that when you focus in on it, you can back it up. Now, I understand that things happen like that and people have incidences where they don't want to discuss it. Totally respect that. Totally respect the fact of the woman that mentioned don't want that culture in Long Beach. I get that. But on the other side of the coin, when you're going to propose an ordinance, let's make sure that's across the board for every industry in Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you. Public comment is closed. We have a there's a motion in a second on the floor. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I wasn't going to speak again, but I feel very compelled to do so because it's a shame that the item that is being brought forth by Councilman Austin tonight, an item that's being discussed all over the nation by municipalities and public entities alike to evaluate not just sexual harassment policies, but all types of harassment policies is now being somehow connected to a. A political item that came forth in September that really is being spun in a very, very unfortunate and inaccurate way. So the first thing I will say is one of the blessings of being a city council member in Long Beach is that every single one of our meetings is recorded. And one of the benefits of that is that people who want to repeat what you have said have the option to do it accurately by going back and listening and watching the video to find out what you actually said. I have been reading a lot of the social media posts, not all of them, because frankly, some of them are just garbage because they're complete alternative facts. But I've been reading a few of them, and it's absolutely unbelievable to me how blatantly they have misrepresented what happened at that meeting. Some of you were in the meetings that I had with Unite here before the item came to council. You know, you know, in your heart of hearts what my issues were with that item. If you didn't know them from being in a private meeting with me, you certainly had the opportunity to learn them by listening to me talk about the items on the council floor. The issue for me was never about panic. Buttons are providing public safety for hotel employees. Was I concerned that the proposed ordinance only protected employees? Housekeepers. Not all employees. Housekeepers in hotels of 100 or more. Yes, that was a concern to me because I think if housekeepers are vulnerable. Which they are, they should be. Protected at all size hotels. I don't believe that people who stay in hotels of 100 rooms or more are more violent or aggressive towards housekeepers than those who stay at a local motel. So I asked whether or not it was possible for us to consider an ordinance that required panic buttons for hotels of all sizes. And those of you who were in the meeting with me heard me ask, because there was a connection made between public safety and workloads. And what I said at the council floor was how is it that. Workloads will. Reduce the number of number of public safety issues in the room? Is there some correlation between the number of square feet that an individual cleans and their likelihood to be sexually assaulted? That was a simple question, and there was no correlation between the two. When I met with the organizers and I believe. But while they indicated that they had authored most of the ordinance, what I was told is that sometimes the hotel rooms in today's day and age are harder to clean. The mattresses are heavier. There is more glass on the surfaces. And so the question that I asked was, well, then why is it that we're including other types of rooms in the work load limitations, like a conference room or a dining area? And they said, no, no, no, that shouldn't be in the ordinance. And I said, No, no, that is in the ordinance. And they said, Well, we'd be okay with that if you want to make that change. And my response was, You'll be okay with it. What about the councilperson who brought the item? Shouldn't that be the person who's making the decision about what's okay and what's not? It was very, very clear to me, as it was to everyone, that the the item that was brought to council was a package deal that included many different elements, not related specifically to public safety. And my public safety, I mean, an attack on an individual when they're vulnerable with another human being. There were several items that were included, including the opportunity. For the housekeepers, if they are. In a union, to be able to. Completely waive. Those protections by vote of the union. So if there's only let's say there's. 100 people in the union and 30 of them are housekeepers and 70 of them are not. They could vote to. Completely do away with those protections. By vote of the. Union. That to me didn't make sense, and that is what I said. I started off my comments that night, as I did, as I know many of my colleagues did, saying that we should absolutely protect public safety, safety, and that I would do anything possible to figure out a way to change that ordinance, to make it public safety. It was very, very clear to me that the ordinance was a package deal. There was no room for compromise, and that's why it failed. So let me just be clear. It is okay. If you want to summarize people's arguments, it's okay if you want to give their arguments a certain meaning, but it is not okay to falsify people's statements. It is not okay to say that someone said something they did not say. It is not okay. It's absolutely improper, unethical and in some circumstances. Illegal to attribute words. To an individual who did not state those, especially when those words are on video and can be evaluated. And so I hear what everyone is saying. But please, the problem that we have in many situations with women and there there are opportunities for advancement is women not supporting other women. And I think it's very, very important that if we're going to criticize one another, that we do it fairly. But we do it fairly and honestly. We all know we're all educated enough to understand the nuances of policy that's presented to council. If one aspect of policy is something that's objectionable, that doesn't mean it's okay to walk away and accuse someone of disagreeing with every aspect of the policy. That's just wrong. It's just wrong. So let's call it what it is. If you feel compelled to summarize what happened at that September meeting, what you should be saying is that the five people who voted against the proposed ordinance completely agreed with the public safety aspects. They had trouble with the other aspects because that is what was repeatedly stated. And in fact, what you should be saying is, for the first time ever in the region, the Long Beach City Council passed a resolution supporting collective bargaining for an industry, a private industry. That is not something you see every day. For that, my colleague, Councilman Austin, should be commended. And there is no other way to spin that. And I know let's talk about adding bullying to our policy here. Bullying comes in many, many forms. I know bullies. If you're going to criticize someone, criticize them for what they actually did, not what you want to sell to the people. Thank you. But the councilwoman. Councilmember Pearce. I wasn't going to queue up again either. I respected the voices that came to speak. They had a right to speak. They had a right to voice the pain that a lot of us felt after that day. I felt. Like a certain day in November for good month after that vote, and we can debate what happened that night to clarify. Mr. Marginson For the 100 rooms. I made an offer on the floor that night to make it cover everybody. I made an offer for us to have several months to do the work and those offers were denied the opportunity to work on this long term, whether or not that's what the union wanted, that's what I, as a council member behind the dais offered, and it was denied. And so that's that's what hurt the residents and the workers. They didn't care about the politics of what happens up here. Five, four, nine person vote. It takes courage to speak up. You guys know, for me, it takes courage to speak up. And the reason why I spoke so passionately about this is because I know what the process is like in the city. And I know that to have a council that says, we heard you for 3 hours and we weren't willing to do something out of the box, whether or not our union partner wanted it or not is it is painful for the other people that work in the city. It does send that message whether or not that was the intent, that was what happened and that's the action. However, we set our words or spun those words or how passionately we got. The fact is, there was a vote that said, we're not going to work on this anymore. And that's why it's so hard because hashtag me, too, takes courage. And it is you know, I disagree with the idea that this is the wrong time to do it. I agree with my council colleagues. This is the right time to do it. I saw the item and said, Dang, I wish I would have done that first. You know, so I applaud them on that. But we can we have to recognize that the culture in this city is is by all of us. And so I don't like when we school, the people that come up here to have courage to speak up, correcting the record, I agree with, but there's a lot of assumptions and it just demonstrates how difficult it is to talk about assault. It demonstrates how hard this item is and how much we could commit to it and not just make it a policy review like we did in 2015. So I urge us to really dig in and do this the right way and change our culture. I worked for a nonprofit who is. All about. Culture first, and our leadership development is there. It's not a question of whether we offer a department head some opportunity for a grant for leadership development. It's a given lane. I had every two weeks, an hour with a personal coach to talk about any issues that that's the type of organization that has leadership, that says we care about you and your partner. So I just want us to ground ourselves. And this is passionate for a reason. It's very personal and politics is personal and sexual assault is political. And we have to make sure that we do the right thing by everybody in our city. This is the right first step and I look forward to more steps in the future. But you to continue. Gonzalez I would just like to say to that, you know, it's it's unfortunate this took a turn. Absolutely. Support this item. Absolutely. I do a 150%. But relative to what Councilmember Price was saying, which I feel is really unfortunate, but we have to reprimand the public for coming forward, I don't feel that that is respectful in any sense of the word for us to be talking to the public in that sense for coming forward and speaking how they feel. We should never dictate how they should feel and we should just accept it. And sometimes as council members and elected officials, we have to take it. Trust me, we have to take it day in and day out. And that's what we do and that's part of our daily routine, is being able to hear things that maybe are not comfortable regardless of the situation. And clearly we're on different ends of the spectrum and on what we feel about the item that came forward in September. I don't think it's an item that will go away, and I'm glad that this will not go away within the city inner workings. But when we say a resolution, it's almost like saying nothing is going to happen. And so while highlighting that there's an issue, unfortunately, I don't believe a resolution did anything. And then to talk about, you know, that this last item was a package deal, I feel was also disrespectful. It's not a package deal. There was a lot of work that went into that policy. I write my own policies myself, personally. I do the work and the research myself. Yeah, somebody may give me an idea for a policy, but I put every ounce of energy and I research quite a bit to make sure that it's the right policy for Long Beach . So while we said that, I again appreciate the the public being here and speaking about this issue and supporting this issue as much as possible for men, for women, for all of us. And I hope. We can get it right. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I appreciate, Councilman Gonzales, that you do your own research. I would also like to say that when this does come back, that in the meetings that I had before that policy was brought, I, too, proposed several changes that would have made it a policy that could have been a huge success for Long Beach and hotel workers. And my meeting ended with and I wish it could have been recorded like council meetings are because you could go back and check the tape. But it ended with that's not something we're open to taking out of the policy at this time. At a time when I was told that the policy had not been written yet, a version of that policy was circulated in the community. And I went to community meetings and I went to meet and talk to and hear from the hotel workers. I appreciate that, my colleagues. Councilman, at the time, both Mayor Richardson and Councilmember Durango were very welcoming to me at these meetings. And many of you know that in downtown Long Beach, my mother was assaulted at work, but nobody's stepping up to protect her or her rights. And she had a panic button and nobody came for 47 minutes. And so when I write a policy, I'm going to write one that's actually going to make a difference. I've gone and spoken to hotel workers and worked with hotel management to provide self-defense classes and trainers, the same providers, the same trainers. That provided me defensive tactics training after I was assaulted on Vermont Avenue in my workplace as a county employee. The reason I am a deputy sheriff today is because I didn't want to be defenseless. And there's no better empowerment for any woman. Continue. How to protect herself because it takes a long time to call 911 and it takes a long time when you press that panic button. And so I want to thank. Those that are in the community that are doing the hard work and making the compromises. It's not about Facebook posts. It's about the actual work on the ground and talking to the people who are actually cleaning their rooms and walking to their cars because the likelihood that these people are attacked is actually most when they are leaving or going to a place of business, not not significant which type of business it is . And so I want to thank all the hotel jams who paid for free courses for defensive tactics training provided by the same trainers that L.A. County Sheriff's Department uses at their own cost and on their employees paid time. Because I believe that makes a difference. Thank you. Councilwoman Pryce. I just want to say one thing, and that's really we have yes, we're public servants. We put ourselves out there, but we also have the right and, in my opinion, the obligation to defend ourselves. And when we hear comment after comment, that is a complete misinterpretation of something that we said. It's important. And it's I have a duty to my constituents to make sure I set the record straight. I would do that in a court of law, and I will do that in here. I will not allow someone to misstate something I said. I will always defend myself and stand up for myself. And we talk about a culture of support. We really should be starting with our city council, because for whatever motivation any of us have for bringing an item forward, if someone accuses us of doing something that our colleague knows we didn't do because we had a private conversation with them, we shared with them what our concerns were. And if they stand there idly while someone accuses us of having an intent they know we didn't have, we should be supporting each other. We should be saying, you know what, I hear what you're saying. But she actually didn't have an objection to this part or this part. What she did have an objection to was this part. But they're not doing that because you know what? It's really, really fun to watch a train wreck when it's not happening to you. It's fun to watch someone, one of your colleagues get attacked or something. You know, they didn't mean you know, it's not in their heart and sit quietly and allow them to get attacked. It's much, much more difficult to stand up and say, you know what, I understand your passion and your frustration, but I got to tell you , I work with this person. I may not agree with everything that they do, but that wasn't their intent. They don't want women to get attacked. They do care about public safety. We need to support each other. Just because we don't agree on every aspect of a policy doesn't mean that when someone else defames us or slanders us or says something that's inaccurate, that we shouldn't be standing up and doing the right thing and saying, You know what? I understand you're frustrated, but that's not exactly what they said. We're all educated enough to be able to do that, and it takes courage to do that. And I want to say something because I know I was hoping that this item wouldn't turn into this. But when the comments were made and and frankly, they were instigated by some of my colleagues before they went to public comment by referencing Claudia's law. This item today is not about Claudia's law, but it was made to be about Claudia's law. And at the end of the day, it is not okay for any of our colleagues, one in particular, to be taking the heat that my colleagues who voted, who were in favor of Claudia's law. No. His intent was not about. It's just not okay. People are getting bullied. And if we're going to stand by and pretend it's not happening and be part of the we're part of the problem, I think support creating a culture of support means we also support each other. Just because we don't agree on every single aspect of a policy doesn't mean we're not the enemy, doesn't mean we are. We hate whatever the topic was that was brought forward. Please, please, please. If we're going to start talking about creating a culture of support in this city, we should start with the city council. We should keep the facts straight and accurate and operate from a place of. Facts. And fashion our arguments based on facts and not emotion. Thank you. Councilmember Pierce. Hold on. Councilmember Price. So I wanted to make a comment in reference to Councilmember Price's comment. I'll give her a second. What I'm trying to make a comment with, you know, Councilmember Price, I want to recognize that your comments and feeling like you've been bullied, whether it's by the folks in the audience or I'm. One of our colleagues, has been bullying. Okay. Well, the comment that you just made made me feel like you were saying that about yourself based on the comments we made. So I wanted to apologize. I don't like the idea of bullying, and I don't like the idea that our colleagues feel bullied. And I. I just want to highlight that again. It's something that's very passionate for a lot of people and for you. And any comments that were made by the colleague, by the audience about your comments that you were defending your right, you supported all hotels, you supported the sexual assault pieces, you supported that. My frustration is that we were all told by a third party that we weren't okay with dividing it up and the vote didn't happen. And so from my record, my recollection is that people felt like there was a decision made before we came to this body to be worked out behind the dice. And that I believe in us as a group behind the dais to trust each other, to have a conversation. And so I don't want my colleagues to feel like I'm in the bullying business or that people that are passionate in the bullying business, but we owe it to ourselves to have a full process. And, you know, I hope that we can put this to rest right now and just recognize that it's something that's very emotional for a lot of folks. So. Okay. Thank you. I know you've done public comment already on this item. So there is a motion on the second floor by Councilmember Austin and Councilwoman Price members. Please cast your votes. Jimmy. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We're going to we're doing public comment now. I'm one of the first three speakers, Kenneth Roth. Jonathan Crouch and Larry Boland. Please come forward. Kenneth Roth. Jonathan Crouch. And Larry Boland. I've got to put on my prop here first.