Recommendation to conduct a Budget Hearing to receive and discuss an Overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2017 Budget for the following: Library Services; and Department of Development Services.
Thank you. Let's go ahead and continue to the budget presentation. For that, I'll turn it over to City Manager West. Vice Mayor, council members, if we can get the team down here. So the we're going to have to budget presentations today. One is going to be from library from the director. Glenda Williams We're also going to have the Development Services Budget presentation by Amy Barak, the director. We're going to focus on development services, on the general fund, portions of development services, which are code enforcement, and also the Neighborhood Services Bureau. So if we go to the first slide. Again, we the the departments that you've been seeing for the first three meetings are what we call the public safety continuum. It includes labor, it includes development services and code enforcement and neighborhood services and includes the city attorney, city prosecutor, areas like that. So with that, I wouldn't turn it over to our first presenter. It's Glenda Williams for the library presentation. Good evening, members of City Council, it is my honor to present to you the proposed NY 17 budget for library services. We have 12 libraries conveniently located throughout the city that provide services and resources to improve the quality of life for all our Long Beach residents and meet the learning needs and goals of our community. From babies and toddlers to adults and seniors, we are proud to be a part of the city's public safety continuum, assisting with prevention. It bears repeating that many studies studies have shown that there is a correlation between literacy and crime. 85% of youth in juvenile hall cannot read above a third grade level. Another thing another sobering statistic. Two thirds of the children that can't read by the fourth grade will either go to jail or be on welfare. That's two out of three. This results in a definite impact on the cities and communities resources. For our core services. The library has print media and online resources on a variety of topics and viewpoints. We have something for everybody, and everyone is welcome. At the public library, we provide convenient access to services and resources. There is no charge to attend. Library classes and workshops are use resources. It's free. We are proud to provide learning for a lifetime reading and enrichment opportunities for our community. Early literacy services and homework services are provided to help our children succeed in their education. Our array of public computers, along with Internet access and staff assistance. Our first point of entry for many new adult technology users. We offer opportunities to use and build technology skills and help people manage vast amounts of data to meet their information needs and support their personal goals. And of course, we strive to provide library services in an efficient manner by using library technology to select, organize and deliver information to our residents. We have automated many manual tasks and processes to save the time of library users. So we have some accomplishments. I'm very excited about our two building projects. Our buildings range an average of 50 to 60 years old, and Alamitos is actually pushing 90. And the most recent building is the Mark Twain Library that was built in 2007. The new Michelle Obama library is on schedule to open on September the 10th. The state of the art facility both three community rooms, wi fi and huge. A huge number of computers. It's almost 25,000 square feet of community space. And we hope to see all of you there. A new main library is part of the Long Beach Civic Center project. The new facility is almost 93,000 square feet and will provide expanded areas for our children, including an art studio. We'll have a larger information center for people with disabilities, as well as a high tech studio for all ages to learn, create and collaborate. Personal or shared mobile devices that provide connections to a library. WI fi is an increasing choice of connection. This year alone, more than 10,000 downloads occurred each month, and the goal BPL mobile app averaged 50,000 searches soon. Long Beach residents will be able to experience new high speed Internet access by connecting to the Kalman backbone, the same network that services California's K-through-12 schools, the University of California's and the California state universities. And while the digital age is definitely upon us, the physical public library remains a destination for many users, serving many purposes from personal, quiet time for reading or research to makerspace and collaboration spaces, as evidenced by 1.3 million visits this year. With City Council support, we were able to expand sunny hours to three neighborhood libraries, which has been welcomed by the community. This year we offer the career online high school through a partnership with the California State Library. The response has been overwhelming. Participants can receive an actual diploma, not a GED, and at the same time receive a career certificate in one of eight industries. Last but not least, we just finished our annual summer reading club. Reading the summertime is especially important for kids in school so they won't experience the summer slide and we'll be ready to hit the ground running when school began. The FY17 budget for our department is 13.4 million with 125 FTE is. Almost all of our funding comes from the general fund and 3% comes from grants which consist mainly of the money raised by the Library Foundation to fund the Family Learning Centers and the studio at the main library. There are several notable changes proposed for the new fiscal year that include staffing and investments. Library Services has a has a proposed net budget reduction of $135,000 for FY 17. In order to meet this goal, we took another look at the way our communities are changing and analyzed current staffing to be responsive to those changes, to provide flexibility to meet business operations. We made all department librarians equal. We are proposing not to fill a vacant general librarian position in two clerical positions, and we reclassified some non-career positions to assist with providing services as well as attend outreach events in the community. We also asked for more page hours at Main Library to get items off the shelves quickly and support the branch libraries as needed. Investments Proposals for FY 17 include another year funding for Sandy hours at Bay Shore. BURNETT and the new Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library. This has been great for individuals and families that want to use library resources on the weekend. And with the passage of Measure A by the voters. There's almost $450,000 of capital improvements projects slated for five libraries. We have some significant opportunities on the horizon for library services as part of the project team for the new Civic Center . It's been great working with city staff and plenty more civic partners. On the plans for the new 93,000 square foot state of the art main library, with grants from the community to the Library Foundation. We are very close to launching the mobile studio. It's a van that will feature steam classes at all of our branch libraries and community groups as well as participate in outreach events. Will also launch a book by a book bike service due to a grant from the 880 Emerging City Champions. The idea for this service was piloted during the recent Beach Streets event and videoed for the successful application. Library Services is well positioned to provide learning for a lifetime for our little ones. We provide preschool classes and resources to increase the vocabulary and get them off to a good start for kindergarten. We also partner with preschool without walls at the BURNETT Mark Twain and Mark Twain Libraries. Early literacy services are a key foundation for long term economic success, and this is the first link in a chain of investments needed to build an educated, competitive workforce. Our school age children receive homework assistance through our family learning centers. They have books and reliable online resources to help them be successful in school. As stated earlier, the career online high school is underway to help our largest residents obtain a diploma, as well as a career certificate in one of eight industries, including child care and education , office management and retail. Research shows that individuals that obtain a diploma have increased earnings than those with a GED. The career certificate program provides real life skills to increase take home pay as well. We also have educational resources that can be used by anyone with a library card. McGill courses are available 24 seven and our online classes taught by instructors on a variety of topics, including including business, health care, law and personal development. I personally enrolled in a QuickBooks class, completed my homework assignments and did my quizzes and interacted with my classmates. Of course, now I just need to take the final. And there's also an intercom which uses videos for individuals to learn technology, creative and business skills online. If you were to purchase this resource yourself, it costs you $25 a month. A free library card can save you $300 a year with just this resource alone. Lee Rainie of the Pew Research Center said As people march through their days with their smartphones, persistent education and learning are the reality. I think the mayor and the city council for you support of learning for a lifetime, for a community and your investment in our human capital. The residents of Long Beach. This concludes my report. Thank you, Glenda. City managers there. You want to go ahead with the next one? Yes, we do. Mr. Vice Mayor. Members of the city council. First, I want you to know that we do have the Parks and Rec Community necklace. If we need it tonight, particularly for council member super or not. So when we get to the question and answer period, Glenda and I will be passing the immunity necklace back and forth. It's also available for other departments to use as well. Thank you. That heads up to our video director here to get a shot of that in. All right. Here's the immunity necklace. It's very effective. All right. So thank you, Mayor. Members of the city council. Tonight, I am presenting to you two different divisional budgets within the Department of Development Services. But before I do that, I do want to just briefly mention development services as a whole, which is a department that includes the Planning Bureau Building and Safety Bureau, Community Housing and Community Improvement Bureau, Neighborhood Services and our administration. We have over 200 staff and a $122 million budget. Approximately 4% of that budget is general fund, and that's what I'll be talking about tonight. The two specific divisions that I'm going to be focusing on are specifically in the public safety continuum. They play an important role in that continuum, and we are very proud to be partners with the other city agencies. The first one that I'm going to be addressing is our code enforcement division. Code Enforcement is a very specialized program that does require a very dedicated staff for efficient operations in and a large span of control. And the code enforcement division is made up of 50 full time employee equivalents and approximately $7 million budget. It sits currently within the Neighborhood Services Bureau and we'll be talking about that as an opportunity for change for code enforcement. Each of you knows probably a little bit about code enforcement because you or your constituents have had involvement in either dealing with a complaint or or looking at potential code enforcement issues and how they're handled within the city. At its core, mission code enforcement is responsible for compliance with the Long Beach Municipal Code for zoning and building code violations, as well as property nuisance issues. Code code enforcement works quite extensively with other departments in resolving issues, including public works, police department, the fire department and the city attorney in order to address neighborhood nuisance issues, which have typically included both code building violations as well as potential criminal activities or public safety issues. Staffing Code Enforcement also maintains the city's foreclosure registry program and the vacant program, the vacant building program as well. We operate the garage resale inspection program in parking impacted areas, and we also implement the proactive rental housing inspection program known as Prep. Lastly, code enforcement staffs, the Board of Examiners Appeals and Condemnations, which is a very small board but deals with complaints or appeals on disability access issues, as well as complaints or appeals about citations that may have been issued in a code enforcement capacity. With 50 staff. We have handled over the last year, 11,000 calls for service and opened to 10,000 cases that are currently being handled or have already been handled. Of those 10,000 cases, approximately 85% of those cases have been closed within 120, within 120 days of the initiation of the code enforcement action. Importantly, this is clearly on the public safety continuum and is also a health issue. We have issued approximately 75 citations in 81 known cases for illegal conversion of a property into a dwelling unit. This could include a illegal garage conversion, people living in sheds, people living in storage containers, those sorts of things. As you know, there have been issues in the past with the city and we do take this issue very seriously and respond immediately when we are called about illegal conversions. We have processed over 1000 registrations in the residential foreclosure registry in the past year and have inspected approximately 11,700 units through our proactive rental housing inspection program. We have found violations and open cases in approximately 33% of those inspections to date. You can see on the slide behind you, the proposed budget is approximately 53% of the budget is general fund. We also receive funds through the drip fee program, which makes up our development services revenue. And then we also receive about 18% in community development block grant moneys for CDBG eligible areas. All in all, as I said, we have approximately a $7 million budget and 5050 is. Notable changes for fiscal year 17 are elevating the code enforcement division to a bureau and creating two divisions one, the standard code enforcement division, and then the other the Multifamily Housing Inspection Division. They are two distinct programs, and as we get more involved in them, it does make much more sense to have it created into two separate divisions. We are also proposing a fee increase for the multifamily housing inspections to ensure full cost recovery at existing service levels. I want to make a point that we are just trying to get to full cost recovery. We are not expanding the program, nor are we raising the fees to expand the program. But it is essentially just to pay for itself. And we are proposing to eliminate Saturday code enforcement activity in order for us to achieve our general fund target. This program was enacted in fiscal year 15. It has not received the response that we expected it to receive. We receive an average of two calls on a Saturday, as opposed to 40 calls a day during the week. So we have determined that this program could be better served if we were to just handle those complaints during the weekday. So if a call still comes in on a Saturday or a Sunday, we would still handle that call on the following week. We do have significant issues as well as opportunities. One is the continuous education of both tenants and landlords on their respective rights and responsibilities. One of the other issues that we have are developing appropriate technology responses in order to have better reporting capabilities and tracking mechanisms to help us enhance our own services. We would like to have a closer way, a better way of minimizing inspection delays when we make appointments to schedule an inspection at a building. If we are not able to get into that building, it does trigger a reinspection and it does result in a lost opportunity. And then we would like to look at the prep program and the fee structure to develop one that is more equitable to owners of all apartment sizes. The current fee structure is is very it's not balanced, I should say. If you are in a four unit, if you own a four unit building, you pay the same price that someone who owns a ten unit building pays. And so we think that there is a more equitable way of distributing the cost. And we are working with the Apartment Owners Association in order to look at something that is more equitable for owners of buildings of all sizes. Next, I'm going to talk about the neighborhood relations bureau excuse me, the neighborhood relations division. This division is also within the Bureau of Neighborhood Services in Community Development Services. They have some very important commissions that that really fall into the public safety continuum. They focus on implementing the safe Long Beach violence prevention program citywide. As part of that, we are the entity that does respond to administer the U.S. Department of Justice, National Forum and Youth Violence Prevention Grants. We manage the Cal Grip Grant program. We have received this grant from the state seven years in a row and we are their longest running city that they've had a relationship with and we're very proud of that relationship. And then also what this call group program is focusing on this year. In particular, this grant is focusing on a program called My Sister's Keeper, which is very important in that in that public safety continuum. The neighborhood relations division also assists other departments in administering their grants as it relates to reducing youth violence and improving community relations. We are focused on working with the police department on a recently approved grant that they received, and we're also working with the prosecutors department excuse me, the Office of the City prosecutor on a recently awarded grant that they have. We also are in connection with the school district and often administer a portion of their grant that they also receive through these same types of programs. Our staff in the Neighborhood Relations Division administers the Human Relations Commission and acts as the city's human dignity coordinator. And then we also implement the city's formally adopted language access policy. Some of the recent accomplishments that we had in this fiscal year are convening the safe Long Beach Coordination Team and work group again to reduce violence and focus on intervention policies. As you know, this Council recently developed and launched the the all important My Brother's Keeper program, and it is a local action plan that we are now in the process of implementing. We've hosted several community safety fairs and community watch fairs where we actually attend these meetings and focus on on police safety, health issues, violence prevention issues , and provide a conduit for neighborhood groups to focus those issues with city staff. We have worked with our National DOJ Forum Group and the Long Beach Unified School District to develop an individualized all in truancy response program. Continue the implementation of the Language Access Program and through our My Sister's Keeper program have actually worked with the police department to rescue a number of victims of human trafficking and have worked with several gang members or former gang members that are dealing with these these same very issues. And then recently as recently as a few weeks ago, we did assist the police department in securing a two year, $600,000 grant for implicit bias training, as well as violence prevention activities. Our proposed budget for fiscal year 17 is heavily focused on a grant funding. Approximately 79% of our funding does come from grants, and so that is a quite a challenge for us. That leaves the remaining 21% to be funded by the general fund. Note Most notable changes are for the language access policy. In previous years, we suggested that the funding be one time funds and this year we are moving from one time funds to ongoing annual funding to support the language access policy implementation. We average about $80,000 a year. Hence our request is that we convert this from one time funds to annual funding, which will continue to allow us to continue to get rid of that backlog of documents that need to be translated, provide interpretation at public meetings both in the community and at formal community meetings or formal public meetings such as the Council or the Planning Commission or other commissions. We are now doing annual staff training on translation techniques and ethics for employees, receiving bilingual skill pay, providing notification of the availability of lab services in all languages, and then continuing to update the 25 most frequently used web pages and the 40 most frequently called telephone lines . Lastly, as I said, there are some significant issues that relate to the instability of these funds on a on a going forward basis. As as I said, approximately 80% are funded by federal, state or local grants. So while funding is available through the fiscal year 17 program, a large part of our staff workload is essentially looking for new grant opportunities that we can continue to bring programs, but also to continue to staff these functions. We do believe that safe Long Beach is a tremendous opportunity for us to continue those dialogs and discussions with non-governmental partners in the same room to focus on commonalities in the public safety continuum. And for that, we think that is the biggest opportunity that safe Long Beach program brings to the city. That concludes my presentation on the Code Enforcement Division in the Neighborhood Relations Division. Both Glenda and I are available to answer questions and we'll be passing the immunity necklace backwards, back and forth. Thank you. Thank you. So we'll go ahead and begin with city council deliberation. So let's begin with Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you both so very much for your, uh, your information and of course, your work on both in both departments. It's definitely to be commended. So thank you both. I will start with Glenda and Library Services. Thank you so, so much for all you do. I know that you are working very hard and you're out there and you're in the community and I see it a lot. Can you describe the book bike that we will be receiving? Because that's very interesting. I think of like the Washington middle school area and maybe delivering bike books to them. But I don't I'm not sure. Thank you for the question, Councilwoman Gonzales. So this program was actually pioneered when we did Beat Streets. And I believe there was always twice tricycle that had some books and just riding through the neighborhood. So we can envision doing that, taking our services on the road. People will be able to borrow materials and also register for library cards and just really getting out into the community and making those community connections, especially for people that may not want to come into the library or not aware of it. It's thought we'll also use it as a marketing tool as well. That is wonderful because I think of that central area that doesn't really have a library to close. So it would be great to to do that. That's wonderful. And services to seniors. What are we thinking to expand our services to seniors? There is a plan that's being worked on, I believe, with the Health Department and Parks Rec Marine to provide services to seniors who will be joining them and their efforts, you know, kind of combining forces together and letting me know what processes and programs we have available for them, like our program, where you can have books delivered to you through the mail. So we have that available. And then we're also going to be working with the Library Foundation and we have some funding to provide some additional programs and classes that way. So it's in its infancy stage, but we'll be working on that. This is great, very creative. And then I know a resident in the past has talked about kind of back to Washington Middle School because I am very, you know, focused on that particular school. They had mentioned a book drop off opportunity, and I remember talking about it maybe a few months back. But would there be an opportunity to add a book drop off at that location? Maybe working with the school district, is that even an option? That's something we will have to take a look at, counselor. Okay. We'll talk. Definitely. Thank you. And then moving on really quickly to Amy. Amy, thank you for your presentation as well. I have a few questions to ask, so I know we're looking to upgrade technology and code enforcement. And what does that look like? Is that our software? Completely. I know Hanson was included in that report. It's actually Hanson. So we have we have the capacity right now where we roll out and function exclusively on Hanson, which is our information management system for property ownerships. However, we do want to add additional categories and checklists in order to help us run reports and collect more information about the types of of nuisances or the types of violations we're seeing and then categorizing them. Also, part of our technologic technology push is to get handhelds out in the field, which will reduce the amount of paper that we use and then reduce the amount of time that our staff have to come back into the office and then manually input data. So we are trying out both for code enforcement and for building inspections, some handheld opportunities that would still be linked to Hanson, but allow us to increase our efficiency. Okay, great. That's wonderful to hear. Great. And then I know we are looking to eliminate the week in code enforcement, which I understand the numbers don't quite pan out. But I also have a very strong push from our historic districts because a lot of the vinyl windows that go in are coming in over the weekend. And then we get the calls, you know, on Monday about, you know, they've completely just turned the historic district upside down. So how do we work through that? And I know it may make more sense to have staff Monday through Friday, but. Right. So of the two calls that we get per day for per Saturday, one of those two calls is in a historic district. And of that call, only 50% of the time is it an actual violation. So we do feel that we can continue to offer that service during the week, but it's just not responding the way we expected it would respond. I myself am responsible for several of those calls on weekends, so if you take me out of the mix, it probably goes down a little bit more. I know my my Long Beach numbers are through the roof, so definitely understand that. Thank you. That clears that up. And then lastly, I know the $11.7 million budget we have for the community investment company for affordable housing stock. What percentage or what portion of that would be used for new development, new housing construction? I'm sorry, can you repeat the first part of that question? Yes. I believe there's $11.7 million in the Long Beach Community Investment Company. Yes. And that, of course, manages some of our affordable housing stock. So how much of that would be towards new development, new opportunities? So they're actually for all four new opportunities, whether they are for new construction or to assist on an acquisition rehab project, acquisition rehab projects. We actually get more bang for our buck because they're existing units that probably do not have covenants on them. And if we're able to financially assist in rehabbing that unit to being a habitable unit, then we are able to put a long term covenant on that property to make it truly affordable from a long term perspective. And that requires a, a, um, a smaller subsidy than new construction. So for fiscal year 17, we do have that dollar amount coming in. It is available for both new construction as well as acquisition rehab. But historically, I guess my question is more aligned with like how what does that look like in percentage wise? How much are we doing in acquisition and habitability and what percentage would you say is new? You know, off the top of my head, I would say it's probably 60% new and 40% rehab. But we can actually go back and give you a summary at a future Boise or through a memo on what that has been over the last ten years. Okay, great. Thank you very much. That answers my question. And thank you both very much for your. For your presentations. Appreciate it. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you. And I'll start. With the library. I want to first thank you both for great presentations. And you both do so much to make Long Beach the great city that it is, your departments do. And so I salute each and every one of the men and women who work in both the library services and the Development Services Department. My question number one is for the librarian, Glenda. Glenda with the. The new Michelle Obama neighborhood library coming on board in September. Do we expect a greater number of library visits and if why 17? Absolutely. Okay. And are we prepared for that? We hope that we are with. So we'll have the adequate amount of staffing for that library and the libraries throughout the city with the increase in visits. Additional staffing was requested for the opening of the library and that request has been granted by City Council. Proper. Variety that that is that's most important to me. You mentioned no, some notable changes with the library services and one was a reclassification of non-career positions. Can you you may have explained it already, but can you explain what that what that means and how classifications are going to be? Non-career positions going to be reclassified. Basically, we are meeting the requirements for human resources to use staff. That's not from. Excuse me, I'm having a tough time hearing you. We're basically reclassifying staff to meet human resources definition of a staff that are not permanent. We'll also be using library assistants to get out into the community and provide programs and services as also as well as working inside the building. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And I'm going to keep my comments short and questions short. My next question is for Amy Burdick. In the the accomplishments under code enforcement. And first of all, I think creating a bureau to separate bureaus is smart because there seems to be two separate responsibilities for the proactive Reno housing inspection program and other code enforcement violations. But you in the prep in its first year, one third of the inspection violations. Well, one third of the inspections were violations were actually found. Is that that number that we expected to have is unusually high? No, frankly, we were really weren't sure what we were going to find. And one of the issues that we have with Prep is that the inspections are taking much longer than we expected they would. Part of that is technology issues. And then also there's the scheduling functions in working with landlords and tenants to to do these inspections. So we do have good data on this, but I do think we need a good, you know, running total as we move on to see if that is going to be a continuation or not. I do want to say that when you look. At the. Standard code enforcement, where we get 11,000 calls for service and 10,000 of those turn into cases, that's 90% of those turn into cases. Those cases range from weeds and trashcans that are visible on the street to substandard buildings. So the the degree of violations that exist in standard code enforcement cases is very broad. And the degree of violations that we see in the prep program are much more narrow and focused on habitability issues. So the violations that we find in Prep are actually much more focused on health and safety and welfare than I would say the 90% of violations in the standard code enforcement. So I think I was reading in a recent article and one publication that talked about inspectors looking at esthetics as opposed to livability issues. Is that something that can be validated with the actual? We do look at the whole building, but we are first and foremost focused on habitability. So if there are habitability issues and there are also issues with peeling paint, we're going to we're going to focus we're going to check those off as well and say that that's included. But we're not going to be necessarily focused exclusively on peeling paint during a prep program. And what is the methodology to actually go about doing those type of inspections? I mean, is there a methodology we're going to look at this district or this community first and then move on to the next place? Or is it this is not complaint driven, though? No, this is not complaint driven. We are focused on areas that the housing element have suggested that we focus on. So it is where the housing stock may be older. So we're certainly not going to be scheduling a prep inspection for a unit that has been constructed within the last five years. We're talking about districts or census tracts that have overconcentration of units that have aging housing stock. So that is going to be where we're going to focus our resources first. Okay. And I know you're proposing a fee increase for multifamily housing inspections. What is that the increase going to look like so that you said you're looking to recoup cost? Correct. So I believe we charge. Let me get to my sheet. We currently charge $230 to inspect four units through ten units. Our fee increase that we're looking for, for full cost recovery will go to $254. So we're talking a, you know, a $24 increase to a property owner that may own a unit, a four unit building or a ten unit building. So we're talking very minimal fee increases. $24. $24. Okay. Thank you. And I want to move on to the neighborhood relations component. Obviously, I salute the department for its great work on the violence prevention plan and of the the managing account group grants and My Brother's Keeper and My Sister's Keeper, all the great work that you are doing in that arena. I'm curious to know what new grant opportunities are on the horizon for Cal Grip or gang reduction or intervention programs in FY17? Are you aware of and. We are we are actually in the process of looking at a couple of grants, both with the school district. But because we are part of the DOJ National Youth Forum, we actually get opportunities sent to us by the Department of Justice where they are suggesting that we might want to participate in those grant opportunities because we are a DOJ National Youth Forum City and because we have the MBK program, we actually score points and have grant opportunities sent to us. And so we are looking at a couple with the school district. We are looking at a couple right now with DOJ as well. All right. Thank you. Best of luck. Councilmember Ringa. Thank you. A lot of the questions that I had councilmember asked and asked. Who keep. It going. Yeah. Who has the necklace right now? It's sitting between us. Okay. Would you like to borrow it later? In regards to the library, there was a mention and a customer asked us to refer to it. But I was very clear talking about the reclassification of non-career positions. Is it a reclassification from non-career to full time or is it a reclassification or just simply a change of title or duties? What? Explain that a little more. I'm like, I'm not clear on that. Sure. Councilman Muranga The duties are basically the same. The classification is a non-career for human resources. They have a particular definition of using non-career seasonal employees. And our non-career people kind of stick around for a little while. So we just making sure we fall into line to what their definition of the classification is. That's basically what it's doing. Okay. So you're basically the classification classification is from basic non-career to non-career seasonal, which allows people to come back every summer or that type of a responsibility. Well, a lot of our council member, a lot of our non-career people don't come back. They stay. Okay. So we changed the classification to to make that the way it should be. Well, that's what I'm not understanding, because if it's a non-career in this day, isn't that a full time job? And they're part time, sir. But we do have we. They're part time positions. The part time positions. Full time, part time positions. They're not any full time positions. These are all part time positions. And that's where I'm confused, because to me, as I see now, careers can work only a maximum of 960 hours or something. That's correct. Less and less than 1100. Because if you work more than that, then you're due benefits and other. A minority of employment. So when you're saying that they never leave, so basically you work them up on a year to year basis, up to 960 hours. And then don't let them work anymore than that. That is correct. A lot of them are in school. So we have some students that are I mean, three employees that are in school. We have some people that have different have changed their job careers and they only want to work part time hours. Do we do we have non-career. Employees who have been there more than 20 years. 1 to 15. Not to my knowledge. I just want to be made aware of that. Then that in that case, if you're using our careers in a continuous basis like that, then that's not in our career. That's a position. And that should be converted into a full time position to provide a full time job, because that's what you're doing, and it's not fair to the employees to do that. I didn't know how to answer that, like. The other point that is mentioned, you mentioned that same page is at one time funds to continue Sunday hours at the branch libraries. What do you mean, one time? Would that be like one time funds for this county, this fiscal year? And then will you revisit it again the following year? Could you clarify that for me, please? Yes, sir. The funds that are being provided are one time funds for this fiscal year for FY17. Okay. So next year, hopefully we'll have the same amount available for more openings. That would be very nice. That's the plan, right? Okay. Okay. I guess I'll go to the other half of that necklace. And I talked to Amy and I really don't have much in that area other than to laud the the institutionalization, which I have always loved to see and hear of $80,000 in an ongoing funding for the support of language access policy . And I want to commend you on that. And I think that's great because that's what's really needed. If we're going to really commit to language access, we need to put our resources where our mouth is. And that's excellent. I want to commend you, sir. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We have a. A long list, starting with Councilmember Pearce. All right. Here we go. Okay. Thank you guys so much for the presentation. And I just really wanted to say how much I appreciate all the work that we've done to try to open up our libraries and making sure that we have some branches with weekend hours. Not a lot of questions. I mean, I want to echo what Councilmember Ranga said and also Councilmember Gonzalez around the bikes, which is fascinating. Would that be something that we would be able to use at community events hosted by the district to have you guys come out? Yes, ma'am. All right. That's exciting. All right. I'll leave that there. Go on to development services. I have a lot of questions, Amy. A lot of questions about HRC. Are you ready? Tracy's ready. Just kidding. Just want to commend you guys and commend Tracy for all the work I had the privilege of serving on the HRC. And there's a great opportunity to get to know the department. Really. Thank you for that. Couple of questions. One is the neighborhood cleanups and partnering. I had the privilege of doing a neighborhood cleanup in AOC seven this Saturday and had our city staff out there and just wanted to see what type of support resources are available to continue to do those. Is that something that's ongoing and always available? Actually, it is. We do partner with the Environmental Services Bureau and Public Works. They are a huge partner on that and we do AOC and seven in particular. I believe they hold a cleanup once a month. They do. They are almost self-sufficient with it. So we do a very minimal coordinating with that particular group because they are so versed and experienced in doing neighborhood cleanups and has such a dedicated following. We also do work on a regular basis with scheduling neighborhood cleanups, typically twice a month throughout the city. We can handle two separate cleanups in a day throughout the city. From a staffing perspective, we do work with, as I said, the Environmental Services Bureau and then also private haulers as well, if it's going to be a significant event. But we do have those resources available to any community group and if the district also co-sponsors, it makes attendance increase and that increases invisibility. But they're very active and they're all over the city doing those cleanups. Great. Yeah, definitely. We'll be partnering with some of the neighborhood associations. Good. Thank you. Forward. Of course. I actually was very meditative. If you guys haven't done a neighborhood cleanup, there's nothing as calming as putting on some gloves and just picking up trash for 2 hours. So thank you guys for that. Facade improvements. I've had a number of requests in my district for facade improvements, but typically it's only one business in the part of, you know, a bigger building. Can you describe what resources are available for an individual tenant or if that needs to be done through ownership? Certainly, we do have some programs where it can be the individual tenant, particularly if it's a new business. We do have $2,000 startup grants that they may be eligible for. We also do have if it is a tenant and a property owner, we have the ability to do two $2,000 grants in order to potentially repaint and add new signage to those buildings for larger structures or a block of structures. We have been having some recent success in programing those through our annual CDBG entitlement. Those do take a lot more time because they typically are 50000 to $100000. Facade programs, it does require owner consent, but we do have the opportunity to focus on those. We're doing two this coming fiscal year in District nine and those have been in the works. I would say vice mayor for at least 18 months. So so it is is very lengthy. Our next one after the District nine, one is one on Anaheim Street in District six as well. So we do have those opportunities to look for new facade projects, but those must be in CDBG eligible areas. Great. Thank you for that. I wanted to ask and I didn't see it listed in here, but I believe it's under code enforcement short term rentals. Is that your department with code enforcement? Because I know they're currently illegal and I probably get a call every day about them. So certainly they are currently illegal. According to our zoning code, we do not have the ability to to permit them. And because of that, we're not able to issue business licenses for that type of use as well. I believe there was a request. For a two from four memo, and that is being processed right now. It will involve input from development services, both from planning and code enforcement perspective, business license, city attorney. And then we'll also be looking at what other cities are doing as well. Great. And right now, if one is you know, I mean, we've like I said, I get calls every day and we've called code enforcement. Can you just describe just briefly what we're currently doing? Certainly, we do. What we do on short term rentals is we like to hear it from two different complaining parties, not from the same household. So we when we get two complaints that are verified as not being from the same household, we then do a computer search of the various search engines, whether it's HomeAway, VRBO, Airbnb, all of those. Sometimes that's where we run into difficulties because you do have to search, you know, very narrowly on in order to see if there are rentals available. If we do find that there are rentals available, we do send out inspectors to see if that's occurring, if there are neighborhood nuisance activities, that certainly contributes to our inspections . And then we work with the city attorney's office to issue cease and desist letters to property owners that continue to do this. Great. Thank you so much for that last area of questions I just wanted to ask about with a pair of I want to say, you know, congratulations on codifying that. I know that was a little bit of a process a couple of years back and it's good to see that where that 33% that demonstrates that there was a need for it. I think it says that you guys are working to educate tenants and landlords. Which stakeholders are you guys working with directly? We are actually we did an RFP and selected fair housing counsel out of Orange County and they are working with both the City Apartment Association and Housing Long Beach and other stakeholders, including Fair Housing, Long Beach, to focus on what areas of town we should be doing our outreach. And so if you're if you are interested in us trying to reach out to a certain contingency, we're happy to to focus on that as well. Great. And last question. Sorry, guys, for we finding that there are we tracking possible landlords that are repeat offenders? And if we are, I guess that's the first question. Yes. Yes. If we are, is there a different fee for coming out or can you describe what we do if there's a repeat? Certainly, we do have a reinspection fee that is triggered after a certain number of visits to the property if they are continually not making the improvements. We do have other tools in our toolbox that we can implement as well, but we do have a reinspection fee as well. Great. Thank you so much, everyone. Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. I wanted to say great work to code enforcement. I know on the chart at the two community watch meetings, but I also know that you came to community meetings organized by neighborhoods as well that was not counted. And I know especially in our community and the work that you did related to some problem neighbors, homeowners, actually, not just tenants, but homeowners. That were problems were. Exceptional work. And I think that your team needs to be commended. Again, it was exceptional. I'd like to also give praise to the library. I think anyone who has not utilized Linda Morcombe is really missing out on an asset that the library worked really hard to bring in house and that is a tool for our workforce to learn and understand nearly anything. You can you can take a course on developing websites and over six weeks become proficient. It's remarkable the amount of courses online and the resource available. I know that many of my staff have broaden their skill base because of their library card, and so I thank you for that. There's so much good work being done in the continuum of public safety. I want to thank both of you, and I appreciate that. My colleagues asked every possible question so I have no more. Thank you. And I am next. So I want to I think it's interesting to have the two of you sitting next to each other, because I feel like we've been engaged in the Michelle Obama library, the two of you, for who knows how long. But I want you both of there. I just want to say to you that you guys have both done a fantastic job and we cannot wait for September 10th to you know, I got to take a sneak peek, but I got to tell you, the community is going to be thrilled at what they see on September 10th . So. So I just want to start off by saying that the both of you on the library side, I know that a few months back when we launched the My Brother's Keeper plan, the school district gave a contribution, I believe was $100,000 to support afterschool programing and My Brother's Keeper programing at the new Michelle Obama Library. Do we have an update on that? I don't know which department he went to. It's actually mine. So even though it's in libraries, we're programing for her. So we did get a $100,000 grant from Long Beach Unified School District split, I believe 50. 50. So $50,000 specifically for afterschool programing at specific libraries. And then $50,000, I think went to Parks, Recreation and Marine to subsidize bussing, I believe, or subsidize swimming at our local facilities. So we're in the process of working with the school district and libraries to figure out the best way to implement that programing through My Brother's Keeper, and are working very closely with library services to do that. Fantastic. Thank you. And I'll I'll ask to Glenda because I thought it was a question for her. So I'll just make up a question for Glenda. Glenda. How's the staff transitioning from the North Branch to the Michelle Obama branch? It's a lot of hard work, but they're having a blast. Councilmember Great. The Vice Mayor. Glad to hear it on development services. You have a lot of accomplishments and that's that should be noted, given your department has that. I mean, since the elimination redevelopment, some of the most changes of all our departments. So it is really impressive to see what you've accomplished. And so I guess my first question is one of the people who was really instrumental in making a lot of that happened was Angela Reynolds. And I know that's a vacant position. How are we looking at it? I know it's really important positioning your shop. How how how are we looking in terms of filling that vacancy? I have about 30 days before I can introduce you to Deputy Director. Very, very excited to hear that. And I was I was also in here some of your accomplishments. I do want to acknowledge that you are structurally supporting language access. It's not like and I think that's smart because it's not like people are going to begin to speak less languages in our city. So I think it's it's smart that you did that. So thank you. I want to just ask a couple of questions. I know that you've taken on a lot of big planning efforts. What are the next few big I know, like the downtown plan and seated study and all that. What are the next big planning efforts on the horizon that we can look forward to? Because frankly, I want to get a north along, be specific plan, roll in at some point. So we are focusing in the next few months in wrapping up a sea trip plan in East Long Beach. We just you just recently approved and adopted the Midtown specific plan. We have the C-17 site that we're working with, Workforce Development and a Department of Defense grant to do some planning work along Cherry Avenue and that industrial zone. We also need to wrap up our land use element, which is a very significant effort in that ERs should be coming out in the next month or so, and all of your offices will be updated on that as well. Once the land use element is out, we need to focus on fixing our zoning, particularly along our commercial corridors. And we've had a number of discussions with your offices related to that. And then also the topic of resiliency and climate change needs to be dealt with as well as our an adoption of our local coastal plan. So that's really what we're going to be focusing on for long range planning efforts in the next 12 to 18 months. Great. With I'll say that with a lot of the focus on development and those things that are taking place in North Long Beach, that's a quarter of the Atlantic corridor. I want to work with you over the course of the next year to start identifying a timeline and a scope to start putting together something really specific for North Long Beach that helps guide some of this some of this movement. So I hope that's something we can work on, identifying a funding source and a timeline that that makes sense for folks. And then the final thing I'll ask, I know that we're in the process of the five year update on CDBG. How's that coming? So that will come to you next summer as part of our new consolidated plan. And we are doing a lot of community outreach right now that we've been working on. I would say it's pretty late. So we're working on that as well right now. And that should be coming to you and rolling out over the next 6 to 8 months. Okay. I would just say and I look forward to meeting the consultants on board with that. But as you know, CDBG is a really important funding source, but it's gotten even more important with the lack of redevelopment now. So I would I would like to just make sure that we are learning from what we've learned through these participatory budgeting pilots and integrating some of those elements into this. And I want to make sure that we you know, we really give it fresh eyes, because I don't know that we're going to have another source of revenue like CDBG. So we want to really get it right. And I know you can do just that, but thank you. Thank you. That that concludes my question. Is Councilmember Suber not. Thank you. I have three questions from council member Susie Price to read. So and Fur Council member Mungo will forgive me if these are boring. I have more than 3 minutes. They're not mine. Okay. The first question of this for the library services. How much does it cost to offer Sunday? Library hours at the branch library. Council members have been after the branch as the cost about $65,000 for a larger branch, about $73,000 annually. Okay. Thank you. The next question on the same topic, if we were to add Sunday library hours to a district that does not currently have them, what library would the department recommend? And before you answer, I think Councilmember Price would want me to state that. Los Altos Librarian Council District four IS has the largest readership in the summer reading program even more than the main library. But go ahead. Answer. Council members loop. Now, I need to do some analysis on that question, and I'd like to come back to you with an answer with the recommendation. Okay. And then third question is what is the data we have accumulated on Sunday library hours telling us about sun usage? Computer use included. If we have that information. Councilmember Slipper. Now I would like to provide that information to you at a later date and probably a two from four for the entire city council. That's okay. That's fine with me. It's it's fine with Councilmember Price. I'm sure she's watching right now. Okay, then just one question or comment for Ms.. Bodak. And in your in your violations, you failed to mention bedroom splitting. And I have knowledge that you got a personal thank you from fourth district resident on your recovery covering in that. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Andrews. Yes. I also have three questions for Mrs. Price. It won't take that long. And then I'm just going to go right down the diocese. No, you guys, really? Seriously, it's been a long night and it's going to be longer. But I just wanted to tell. I just want to tell you guys, you're doing a great job. Keep up the good work and we see the money. All these things come to fruition. Thank you. Thank you. I think that concludes council comments. Is there any public comment on the budget hearing? Karen, recite again, just a couple of things for the library. Well, first of all, I want to commend both of these departments, because their employees are the most customer service oriented groups, I think, in the city. Their employees are always helpful. And the Neighborhood Resource Center is a wonderful resource for the neighborhood and the community. I wish we could have one in every council district. Your staff there are fabulous and they've been so helpful in a number of instances. So I wanted to mention them up front for the library. We're talking about Sunday hours and I. I hope you all have been to the library when the library opens. I counted as many as 50 people during the week waiting to get into the library when it the main library. And to me, it seems like if we're talking about Sunday library openings. We should talk about the main library. And I really think we need to look at libraries as community center instead of just literary pieces. Books that I've been to almost every library in the city, and the main library has the major majority of resources. And to me, it seems like with 50 people waiting to get in, probably some libraries don't have 50 people all day. That that's a large group of people that are not being accommodated in this discussion. As seniors, we have over 6000 seniors in the downtown area. And you're right, many of them do not understand the services that the library office offers. I know I did a survey in my building. We have almost 200 people. Only 30% of the people in my building have a library card. And many of them. And it's because they're mobility impaired. And we only have a couple of people that get book deliveries. And there's 23 buildings just in the immediate downtown area. So that's a huge service area that's not being served. You probably would run out of books in certain categories and. It warms my heart when city departments work together with these other city departments. And you two seem to do more integration with city departments than any other department. That needs to happen more across the board for cost efficiencies. That's all for the libraries, other than we love you and wish you could be open 24 seven and Amy, the Neighborhood Resource Center. I know for seniors we have major issues with the. Seniors in the community and tenant associations in the building. And I know Margaret has been really helpful, and I've gone to a number of the fair housing workshops, and they are just fabulous. The fair housing people. Thank you so much. They are every tenant and every landlord should be required to go to one of these workshops before they get business license, depending where they move in. Thank you very much. We have to move to next week. Thank you. I always had this on file. I guess my comment really echoes the previous speaker. I remember when libraries used to be open. The main library used to be open up on Mondays. It used to be open six or seven days a week. That was not that long ago. The reason why it was closed was because of what was called at the time. Necessary. Budget cuts, however, were no longer under those same fiscal restraints. We recently proposed a tax. Introduce a tax and I support the tax. I just want to see some of that money go to opening the library on Mondays. I think everybody. Behind the dice understands that a library. Especially the main library, the second largest library in Los Angeles County after Los Angeles, should be opened up on Mondays. Opening the library Tuesdays at noon is not an acceptable time to open up the library. The library offers critical services to many people, people who are looking for jobs, students. And when you have a report do or you have a job interview, you need the library open, not on Tuesday at 12:00. That's not acceptable to an employer. That's not acceptable to a teacher. And so for the students who depend on the library, whether it's printers or the other many services that the library opened offers, it's important that. The library. Is opened up on Mondays. I believe that our city is capable of that. I don't think that I'm asking for much. I don't think it's a very high standard to ask for the library to be opened up on Mondays at a decent time. Monday morning closed sometime in the evening. I know that we're capable of doing it. I know we've done it before and I'm not even going to send an email or anything like that. I just hope that you are, you know, can can somehow figure out some way to do that. Thank you. Thank. Thank you. Next. Good evening. My name is Kate Azhar. I'm the executive director for the Long Beach Public Library Foundation. First, I wanted to thank you, Glenda, for your report and also your leadership and advocacy for the libraries. Obviously, we support everything that you do, and thank you to you all for, again, funding Sunday hours at three of our libraries , Bayshore, BURNETT and Michelle Obama. Obviously, Sunday hours are very popular this evening. And I recently heard that Bay Shore had 400 visitors in 4 hours on one Sunday. So that's just an example of how popular Sunday hours are. Therefore, I'm here tonight to ask you to not only make this funding permanent for these libraries, but extend that funding to additional libraries in addition to the hours and not instead of the hours that are currently open. As the previous speaker said, Mondays and other days during the week are important to folks who have. Job applications. And resumes to work on during the week. And there are some families. We know that weekends and Sundays are the only days of the week they can take their children in the library. I know I'm a working mother myself, so Sundays are important day to bring my young son to the library and teach him the joy of reading. So I ask that you expand this access. I'd also like to ask that you consider using your discretionary funds to open the library additional. Libraries, open additional hours on Sundays. The cost. Is relatively modest, as Ms. Williams said, and I think in relation to the. Benefits that we'll see. In her community, it's really a worthwhile investment to provide residents with free access to education, technology, information when they need it. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Thank you. Good evening, Vice. Mayor Richardson and members of the council. My name is Elaine Hutchison, and I'm here on behalf of better housing for Long Beach. Thank you very much. I listened with a lot of interest to this Botox report, and I greatly appreciate it. And I know that your department does just a lot of work. We know that. I know that you mentioned something about the prep program. And so I had maybe. One or two questions. I don't know whether it's appropriate for me to ask questions or not. But maybe if I just put them out there, you'll let me know. I would like to know how many inspectors are as currently assigned to the prep program. I don't think we can. It wasn't his body. You want to answer. Quickly. If it's the pleasure of the report. So, Mayor. Excuse me, Vice Mayor Richardson and members of the council, we currently have 12 people assigned to the program. I guess as the matter of a budget question, my question would be whether you are planning to budget for additional inspectors in this next budget. Vice mayor, members of the city council. The answer to that is no. Thank you. And we won't have it any. What we can do other questions on to you know, to the site. Thank you very. Much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Seeing no other public comment, we're going to close the budget hearing. So thank you to all the finance staff and everyone else that's been very patient throughout that. Good work on that. So we're going to go back to the council agenda and we're going to take items 16 and 15 that are tied into one another. We actually need to take item 16. First, Madam Clerk.