Recommendation to conduct a study session to receive a presentation on The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Metro) Ballot Measure M: Traffic Improvement Plan, and its potential impact on Long Beach.
October 14th, our newest Hall of Fame member, Councilmember Ella Alston. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. So, Madam Clerk, we're going to go to item number 26. We're taking this out of order, but we have at 5:00 time certain. Would you mind reading item number 26. Recommendation to conduct a study session to receive a presentation on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authorities ballot measure M traffic improvement plan and its potential impact on Long Beach. Thank you. So we've allocated 30 minutes for the study session. It'll begin with a 10,000,010 minute staff report from Diana Tang, followed by Signal Hill Councilmember Larry Forester and Diane Hight from the Gateway Cities Council of Governments, who will be allotted 5 minutes. Then the then Stephanie Wiggins, deputy CEO of Metro, who will be a light at 5 minutes, then public comment. So we want to thank our guests, Councilman Forester, Miss Hite, Miss Wiggins, for joining us. We appreciate your time. So let's begin with the staff report. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for the staff report. You will hear from our government affairs manager, Diana Tang. They are members of the City Council. Thank you for this opportunity to provide you with a general overview of Measure M, which is the Metro Board of Directors Sales Tax Measure to fund regional transportation initiatives. So we have for you a PowerPoint presentation tonight that should be coming up shortly. And in this PowerPoint, we'll be going over just a quick introduction of of the ballot measure, which is an extension of Measure R, and it should be queuing up. As we speak here. Those of you I'm sure you all remember measure. Our measure are has funded a number of street improvements in each of your districts. Local streets and roads has helped repave some some of the streets in your neighborhoods and is a vital source of funding for public works. There we are measure. Measure M Centers, County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, sales tax measure. So here we go. I will do an introduction, as I said, a background to Measure R and then we'll go into the details of the current ballot measure that voters will be voting on in November. Measure M proposes to increase the local sales tax in L.A. County by 1%. It also would extend Measure R, the existing half cent sales tax in L.A. County indefinitely. So both of these measures together will provide Metro with a $0.01 sales tax to fund regional transportation initiatives. And the ballot measure also includes an expenditure plan, which we will take a quick look at as well. Just to recap on Measure R in L.A. County, this ballot measure has funded a number of regional improvements, including the Expo Line, the Gold Line, the Regional Connector Project in downtown L.A. that connects Union Station with a number of different light rail lines throughout L.A. County. And then also improvements that you're seeing currently on the I-5 freeway are all Measure R projects. In Long Beach. As I've mentioned earlier, a number of streets in each of your districts have been paved using this type of revenue source. For example, Park Avenue from Pacific Coast Highway to Atherton eighth Street, from Freeman Avenue to Gladys Avenue. The list goes on and I'm sure there are a number that you know of in your district that are not enumerated on this slide. So moving forward, Measure R does expire in 2039 and Metro has identified a number of regional needs that exist now. And without funding going into the future, there could potentially be a shortage of revenues to address some of the major infrastructure projects that would really benefit the region. So as I mentioned before, Measure M includes an expenditure plan. It also projects that are included in Measure M were evaluated by Metro using a performance metric matrix that you see up there that places a pretty high value on using congestion. Nobody likes sitting in traffic on the freeways. And so it appears that that that is weighted at 45%. A number of other criteria that Metro has included in their performance matrix include safety, economic benefits, sustainability, all weighted at slightly less, but still in that performance matrix nonetheless. So what has been proposed in measure are a number of major projects, including the culvert, a tunnel valued at about $7 billion, the West Wing and a transit corridor project at about 2.5 million West Side, Purple and extension, Gold Line extension and the Crenshaw Line extension. These are all light rail extensions in L.A. County, in and around the region, but not in Long Beach. So what is in Long Beach? In Long Beach, a half cent sales tax, as you know, will likely generate about 24 million in in the city of Long Beach. And major projects that we will be eligible for in this funding source will fund improvements to Shoemaker Bridge as an early action I 710 project the Islip and ten Freeway later on in later years in the ballot measure a Wardlow grade separation as as you all know the Wardlow station off the blue line is one of a one of the worst stations that has been rated by Berkeley. And so safety improvements at that location do need to be made. Metro recognizes that, and we've had a number of conversations related to the where the grade separation project. Overall investments in blue line safety are also a part of the ballot measure. Safety on the blue line and other lines in in the ballot measure are all included as operations and maintenance and then potential light rail connecting the green line and the blue line in downtown Long Beach and that residents can get to L.A.X. This is also in there. One thing that we are looking forward to is a direct local return. The measure ballot measure proposes a 17% local return to all cities. Long Beach is expecting approximately 7 million annually from this revenue source. The 17% is an increase from the current 15% local return that we'd get from Measure R so and also based on population. So both of those items are in in Measure M and good for a Long Beach. And so similar to the type of local return revenues that we get currently for measure, our local return for Measure M could be used for streets and roads, active transportation projects, green streets that include stormwater complete streets, the bicycle boulevards that you see, public access to recreational facilities and then transit oriented communities as well. So just a quick look at the funding source or the funding revenues that we can expect you'll see there, measure our revenues. We get about 5.5 in local return annually and that's based on a 15% local return. Allow me to translate currently gets a 20% return as a transit operator in the region. If measure impasses we will get the city of Long Beach will get about 6.7 million or approximately 7 million based on a 17% local return. So in total, that's we're looking close to $12.2 million. And similar to in measure our measure M includes 20% return for me to transit the bringing their total to 8.2. And so before I conclude my presentation, the board of directors did vote to place this ballot measure on the November ballot in June, and voters will be voting on this November 8th. And with that, I'm available for questions if we don't go to presentations from the cog in Metro First. And Vice Mayor, if I can add to the presentation. Clearly, Mr.. Mr. Hang and Arturo Sanchez have been very, very involved in their staff, have been involved in working with Metro and looking at this measure and trying to make sure that if anything is put on the ballot that Long Beach's projects are are on the table and that they're considered as part of the overall strategy. So I want to thank them for their efforts. Thank you so much. And so, Mr. Modica, Ms.. Tang, thank you for that presentation. We're going to move forward to the first of our of our guests tonight, which will be Signal Hill Council member Larry Forester and Diane Hight from the Gateway Cities card. So let's queue up. Once again, I'll just remind folks, we, you know, we have a certain amount of time allocated here. So we're going to set up the 5 minutes on the map. And our guests have been are prepared for that. So let's go ahead and get started. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for welcoming the Gateway COG to present. I am Councilmember Larry Forester from the city of Signal Hill, a member of the COG. I have a PowerPoint. I think you will have a copy of it in front of you. Okay. Let's look at the measure itself. This is what's stated on the ballot book. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that myself and nine other cities sued against this, said it didn't meet current election law, and the judge ruled on a very narrow ruling that this was not put on by the populace so they could put anything they wanted. The Gateway COC voted to oppose the measure in 2000. July of 2016. Oh, I jumped over all the measure. M Where it's going to go. But when we voted to oppose it, the Gateway Cities looked at that measure and said it's priorities for new tax revenue or ignoring many of our cities in the cog in the South Bay. That was confirmed when both in Councilmember Diane De Voice and Supervisor Duncan Harvey voted against it, both on the MTA board. The modeling project moves some projects in different locations, some out almost 40 years. We felt that that was not what Measure R had said. The reconsideration has resulted in multimodal operations for the Gateway Cities that were leapfrogged by many other projects, and this given federal funding is a jump. Outside of the gateway card. It simply is not geographically equitable. Nor is it fair to our residents. Who will be funding these projects for decades before they see a benefit. Under the measure, I-5, which is now stopping and downhill, will go no further. I-405 i6 oh five i7 ten year end and the other end of both won't be completed for 30 to 40 years, despite recent offers of commitment from the regional mayor. It is not written, and I must emphasize that I'm here because what's in the measure. Is what the. Citizens are voting on, not the promises being made to us today. The City of Signal Hill and other cities, its commerce, El Segundo, La mirada and industry pay a disproportionate amount on this tax. When I look at and say Signal Hill, we are high. Sales tax, donate 7 million. We get 168,000 back. That's 2%. You get 23 to 26% back. With that. I just want to summarize that this is something that I personally can't support. Take the Hill City Council voted a week ago Tuesday to not support it. I can't support it because it's not fair to the residents of the Southeast, nor to the residents of the South Bay. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. We're going to save council. Come. You have another minute. If and forgive me, I said Diane Height. It's actually Karen Height, so forgive me for that. Karen is our transportation deputy for the car and. She's my technical backup. But, you know, in the extra minute, it just it doesn't make sense. I've been on council 18 years. I represent the people. I hope where I present represent. Them well. I've been reelected. I cannot tell my citizens to vote for this flawed measure. I've been told by many people Eric Garcetti, Hilda Solis, John Fasano, that I will change it. Well, we've been asking for three years to have those changes put in. What happened? You know, I now have a measure that reads. As such. It doesn't have those changes in it. What guarantee do I have? So there's no way I can tell my citizens having representative for 18 years to support that measure. And Gateway COG has taken the same position. So, again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember. So next we have Stephanie Wiggins, deputy CEO of Metro, who will also be allocated 5 minutes. Welcome. Welcome, Ms.. Wiggins. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you to the city council as well. I believe I have a PowerPoint as as well. Let's make sure we restart the time to. The thank you. Starting the. Okay. Again, good evening to the council and to the residents of Long Beach Metro and the city of Long Beach, as well as the Gateway City City Council. Governments have a long history of collaboration in improving the transportation system in the southern part of the county. And in 2008, under Measure R, metro allocated a significant amount of funding to the Gateway Cities area. And since then, the colleagues, visionary thinking and active participation have supported us in aggressive development and delivery of transportation projects in the region, including within Long Beach. Since Diana gave a great basic overview of Measure M I'm going to skip through some of these slides and try to address some of the key issues of importance to Metro. One, we want to reiterate for the Council that this has been a collaborative approach and process. It's been a three year process with our Regional Partners, Cities and Council of Governments, as well as stakeholders from the business, social justice, environmental communities with a bottoms up approach to identifying what the needs are out there. As Diana said, we are we have board approval for Measure M on the ballot this November 8th, which is a brand new half cent sales tax and then an expiration of Measure R in 2039. The impacts of Measure M is essentially calculated about $0.05 on a $10 purchase. That's an average of $24 per person per year based on average spending. There are a number of major transit and highway projects which are the crux of the expenditure plan. I'm going to focus on the impacts to Long Beach. Dana went over many of these, so I won't repeat it. I will say there are elements beyond the major projects, such as operations that support Long Beach Transit. You have a local street's local return that you're very familiar with. A new one that I do want to highlight for the city council is the state of good repair. Increasingly, we have an aging infrastructure. We know that with Long Beach being at the forefront of rail in L.A. County's history, with the advent of the blue line . And so as rail lines get older, we need to make sure we don't defer maintenance on those lines. Interview Who ride a blue line today. Know that we've had power outages, we're experiencing the impacts of delays and we wanted to make sure that we could have funds available to make sure we can upgrade that system, continue to make it state of the art, improve its safety, reliability, as well as not for a blue line, but all the other rail lines and any new rail line. So our board has proposed a new earmark from this expenditure plan. We've never done it before in our history and that is to actually have an earmark for a state of good repair or ongoing maintenance of the system. Another new element of the program that benefits Long Beach residents is also to have an earmark for our most vulnerable populations. That is our seniors, our students, and our disabled. The seniors, as many of you know, with over 190 senior housing places in Long Beach, it is the fastest growing population in L.A. County. And so increasingly, mobility is an issue for seniors. Also, we have a new earmark for bike and pedestrian connection to connections to transit here again in this area. Long Beach has been at the forefront. You started your bike share before anyone else in the county. We also know that transit dependent populations also tend to be high pedestrian and bicycle users. So having this earmark is very important. And while we do not have regional rail or Metrolink in Long Beach, we do provide connections to Long Beach residents, to Metrolink through Union Station, and we're proposing to continue an earmark for that service. It's really important, as many of you know, with an expenditure plan, that there be accountability built into the measure, just like we have with propositions. AC And are we're proposing to do the same here. But building upon those lessons learned, we have an Independent Taxpayers Oversight Committee that has an expanded number of participants. We're going from three judges to a seven member expert panel. They will review, among other things, the entire plan. It's an assessment. It's not a replacement of the plan to identify the performance of the plan. It's important to note that the Independent Taxpayer Oversight only can review and comment to the board about the plan. They cannot make changes to the plan. Amendments to the plan are subject to such restrictions or firewalls. However, project acceleration can happen at any time with a two thirds vote of the vote, and I'll expound upon that later. There are impacts of the measure calculated by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. Almost a half a million jobs will be created through Measure M. Clearly, this can be a local economic stimulus program. It's been proven that way with Measure R in terms of providing local jobs. One of the challenges, as you've heard from the previous speaker, that some projects will go. Forgive me, Ms.. Wiggins, but we need you to conclude so we can be fair to both opposition. Sure. Let me conclude by saying a couple of things. Project accelerated acceleration has been a key. We've been hearing it from stakeholders across the region. We did have a performance modeling process. We looked at geographic equity as well as other provisions. It's important to note that these performance metrics were approved by the board. We are also committed to ongoing acceleration. We have a meeting this Friday with the secretary Kelly on the priorities and goods movement projects for the five in the 710. Thank you so much. And to all of our presenters, let's give them all around applause for coming in and joining us down here in Long Beach. At this point, we have some counsel, some council comments. Then we'll go to public comment, beginning with Councilwoman Price. Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentations, everyone. I think this was very educational, at least for me. I didn't know much about this proposition prior to tonight, so I do have a few questions and they were touched on through the presentations, but perhaps staff could could guide me through some of these. So if Measure M were to pass, what would the sales tax in the city of Long Beach be? Councilman in the city of one each the sales tax with measure passing the current measure ah measure A from that just passed in June, our sales tax would be 10.25%. And what is it in? In nearby cities, like if, you know, in Orange County City's SEAL Beach or Los Alamitos. Councilman, I didn't compare our sales tax to those in Orange County, but the base sales tax in L.A. County is currently 9%. Proposition 30 sales tax, the quarter cent sales tax is scheduled to expire at the end of this calendar year. And so that'll take it down. But then there are increases with Measure A and then measure are still in in effect as a house that sales tax. And then it's important to remember that measure is $0.01 for six years and then drops down half cent. So it would go down after that. And what about Measure M? Is this expected to sunset at any time? Measure, as it is currently written, does not have a sunset now. And it'll stay the same consistent rate. It's not expected to be reduced after a certain period of time. Like Measure was. Councilmember? No. Okay. Are there any limitations in terms of Measure M expenditures? I noticed on one of your slides on page 12, you talk about what the project types include. Are there any limitations to this? Bear with me in just one moment while I get to that slide. Carl Zimmer. The project types that are included on on slide number 12 are projects that are eligible to be funded via local return. So that is the amount that the City of Beach receives directly from Metro as a part of this ballot measure. The ballot measure itself funds a number of other projects, including state of good repair system connectivity projects. If you could let me get to that page. Page 11. In the ballot measure itself. Actually, there's funding for transit and operating and maintenance. There's funding for first and last mile capital improvements from existing transit stops and future transit stops. There's funding for highway improvements, active transportation and complete streets, and then as well as the local return formula. Can you talk to me a little bit more about the local return? I'm not sure I understand that. That phrase. Sure. So the local return is the the phrase that is used to describe the direct level of funding that cities can receive from this ballot measure. So all cities will receive 17% directly back to cities for our expenditure on the two project types that you saw on slide number 12. That number will jump from 17% to 20% upon the expression of Measure R and 2040. So that's increased funding directly to the city of one, which for use as we see fit as as it's eligible for streets and roads in the same way that we currently spend the funding in Measure R. So and if I could just add to that measure, our funding, something that we did in the last time we did a sales tax increase through Measure R, we really fought for that language to make sure it's as flexible as possible. Other county money tends to be used only for transit quarters like A and C, but Measure R is really open and flexible for transportation uses. And that's really what we in the city of Long Beach used to fund our residential street program. Other than that, there really is no source of transportation money that can fund residential streets. Okay, so the $7 million annually is that the projected annual revenue until 2040? That is correct. That is correct. So then at 2040, that 7 million would go up because our percentage would go from 17 to 20. Yes. Okay. So that $7 million that would come directly to the city and could that be you? Are there any limitations to how the city could use that? Is it limited to just what's listed here? At this time it is. Metro still has to adopt guidelines and regulations for how we can use that money. We expect that it will be substantively similar to what is in Measure R and enumerated in the ballot resolution as it's described for green streets, complete streets. And a lot of the active transportation type initiatives that we in Long Beach have, I've taken a lead in doing in the region. Okay. So could we use it for I mean, just. In. Really basic terms, could we use it for a residential street repaving? Yes, that is an eligible use. Okay. And is there who has the discretion in terms of how the money is used? The 7 million is in solely in the city's discretion on how they want to use that money like Measure R. Yes, that is correct. And is there any sort of an oversight body for Measure M or any one that would make sure that the expenditures are within the the framework of the the measure, as it's worded now? Yes. So the ballot measure does include a plan for an independent oversight board, as Metro had described earlier. If you'll allow me to flip to that page one moment. I believe that's a seven member panel comprised of seven members, one retired federal or state judge, one transit professional, a professional with a minimum of ten years. Experience in management and experience and financial policies. Professional with experience on large scale construction projects. A licensed architect or engineer, a regional association or business representative, and three members of the committee and the members of the committee must reside in an L.A. county. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. I have no additional questions, Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you. Councilwoman Price. Councilwoman Gonzalez? Yes, thank. You. I have a couple questions as I see here, and I think they've mostly been answered. By council. Woman price. But I have a question related to, of course, our larger projects. Of course. All of them I would like to see completed shoemaker, bridge, ward, low grade separation, especially being the worst in the county and then the potential for light rail and then added. Additional safety measures for the blue line. So are these not dedicated? They're not dedicated funding within the measure, is that correct? Councilmember funding for the ward. Low grade separation is in the expenditure plan as attachment a it's a footnote item number five. I'll can read it to you very briefly that your board of directors will prioritize the Wardlow Grade Separation Project to receive new funding and or grants and assign this project to be included in Metro's State of Good Repair program. And with respect to to the Shoemaker Bridge, that item is also footnoted as item F, I believe, as a note as part of the I7 ten South Corridor Project, Phase one Early Action Project. And that is in the ballot measure as well. Okay. So because I see here it says the increased revenues are not Long Beach. Projects described within. The ballot measure, but not as specific line item expenditures. Sure. So the ballot measure includes a number of attachments in in the expenditure plan. The one that is most detailed specifies project names, has a schedule of funds available and sequenced groundbreaking dates. And in in that portion of the expenditure plan, our projects are the word low grade separation specifically is not listed. The funding for Shoemaker Bridge is a part of the I-70, but Shoemaker Bridge itself is not a specific line item in the detailed expenditure plan. Okay, great. I think those are all the questions that I have for now. But thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Super nine. You know, I'd like to reserve questions till after the public speaks, but I just had one very quickly that there's a, I believe, a Sequoia component to Measure R is that sort of wave for residential streets. And then how does that factor into measure? And if anyone knows. Yeah. So we can get you a more detailed explanation on square. But I don't we don't do a higher level sequel clearance for those is just part of our normal street work and they fall under a secret exemption. So residential streets would be just, you know, done the way we would do other normal maintenance projects. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Pierce. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Councilmember Price, for answering some of the questions I also had. I had one question that just came up. I'm curious if. The dollars that come through with these projects be covered by our city wide project labor agreement. Sorry. Curveball. So it depends on what types of projects they are. Our project labor agreement has a threshold of 500,000 projects and higher. However, projects in the right of way that are typically streets are not currently covered by the project labor agreement. But if there are other types of projects that don't fall in that description, then anything over 500,000 would trigger appeal. Okay, thank. You. And do we have any. I'll just make a statement and say that it seems like it'd be something that would create a lot of local jobs and a lot of great opportunity. And I read the memo upstairs and I left it upstairs, but it was great to see that it was highlighting a lot of green investment and transit oriented and the fact that it's not just rail, but that it could be used for bike mobility and everything else. This seems like a great opportunity to. Help. Push us in the right direction that we've already started taking a lead on. And yeah, I'll leave it there. Thank you. Thank you. In seeing a more public comment here, let's go ahead and open it up to the public for any public comment here in the audience on our study session. Good evening. My name is Don Darren Hour, our I'm with the Senior Citizen Commission. And at one point it was mentioned that according to the Metro, that Measure M would designate special funding for transportation for seniors who are their fastest growing population. And I just like to ask how that is going to be applied to seniors and what the amount would be. So this isn't the point to ask any questions, but I'm sure staff can be here to answer those. Afterward. I'd like that to be made public, however. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Very good. I'd like to see the MTA set up a paradigm and where we have leaving from the transit mall, maybe 6 to 8 express busses that leave the transit mall, get on the freeway, perhaps at Wardlow or even before that. But I think Wardlow would probably be the best and barrel up the freeway in the bus lane down to seventh and fig and then have an equal number coming back in the evening. I think that makes a lot of sense. Instead of going to Europe, in addition to that, have everything green lighted out of Long Beach. You know, it takes 20 some 20 to 24 minutes often to get from here to Wardlow. And that's ridiculous. We stop at every red light possible. Thank you. Thank you very much. And seeing no more public comment, we're going to take it back behind the rail. Councilman Austin. Thank you. And I want to thank. Larry in Gateway Cities called for their presentation. I want to thank Stephanie Wiggins from MTA and Staff for an excellent staff report. I thought it was very important that we bring this item forward for a study session. Obviously, it is a major issue facing the voters in L.A. County on the November ballot. I did have a couple of questions. And just in full disclosure, I am the city's representative, along with Councilmember Urunga on the Gateway City's Council of Governments. I currently serve as the president. I can tell you that that the Gateway Cities did vote to oppose this measure a couple of months ago. And I want to just commend Mayor Garcetti. I want to commend the MTA for sticking with it in terms of having ongoing conversations with the the all of the gateway cities, individual cities , and trying to understand the projects and the importance of the major projects and how it impacts the residents in. And there has been a lot of back and forth. This is a very, very I would just say, very highly political issue. But I see light at the end of the tunnel potentially. Ultimately, this is going to be up to the voters not only in the city of Long Beach, but throughout the county and our values and. In terms of a regional transportation will be put to the test to complement Measure R. There were a couple of questions that that I do have. I want to ask the question that Mr. Donna were asked in terms of how the measure and proposes to to benefit seniors. I know there was a like a $2.4 billion number. What specifically will be done to aid the senior population? Just one question. Thank you for allowing me to clarify that. So with the earmark for seniors, students and disabled. The idea is to keep fares affordable. So we currently have a discount program for seniors, and this funding would ensure that we can continue that discount available for seniors. Again, for seniors, both students K through 12, as well as college students and community college students. And then for our disabled riders, that's the purpose of that funding. Okay, thank you so much. And then there was a lot and Councilmember Pearce mentioned the jobs, local jobs that could be created. I believe the number in the presentation was through the from the L.A. EDC. So we're over 460,000 new jobs will be created by Measure M If somebody could ask me whether or not those jobs, is that an annual on an annual basis or is that over the life of the project? And what type of jobs will they be? Excuse me. I'll stay closer. It is estimated for the life of the project. For the program, at least the first 40 years where we were able to actually articulate specific projects. So that's what that relates to. And we can make the full report by L.A. EDC available to the council. But they identify both direct and indirect jobs, construction related jobs, planning jobs, or principally construction related jobs. Okay. And in terms of the major projects for for the city of Long Beach, I know it was mentioned regarding the I-70 and Freeway. Staff, can you tell us where we are with that, that project in terms of shovel readiness and and when that project will be funded in the measure M schedule? Vice Mayor Richardson threw the chair to Councilmember Austin. The the project 710 project currently is in IRR phase. It is moving towards a final year. You will actually receive a project update on Friday at the project committee meeting that's taking place at 11 a.m., where Metro staff will come and discuss where they are in the development of the environmental review and the measure that's proposed. Measure M proposes funding in 2020 647, ten, actually breaking ground and moving forward with the project. Thank you. Why have you there? Can you also explain the war? Low grade separation? Footnote what? That project actually. Made do or proposes to do. Yes, sir. Through the chair again of Council Member Austin, the ward low grade separation proposes to look at redesigning the WARDLE station. Currently, it is a station that has a number of problems related to traffic in and around the station and the way that people get to and from the trains. And so we have been working with Metro at relooking at that station and whether or not there's an opportunity to take the rail below ground and separate it from the grade so that you could still have traffic traveling over and the trains would come down, re-imagine what that what that station could look like and help improve overall transit around the area, both for cars and for busses and for the trains themselves. Okay. I'll go ahead and add to that at the Metro June board meeting. As Mayor Garcetti's supervisor, Don Carnaby and Mayor Dubuffet put forth a motion to look at grade crossing, pedestrian safety gates, fare enforcement and safety station maintenance and station gate installation. The board also voted to initiate a feasibility study to improve safety and security at the Blue Line Ward Low Station. And so there are a number of blue line improvements in in Metro's plan to upgrade the blue line in in Long Beach. And so even though it's not detailed in the expenditure plan with the specific groundbreaking dates, this is something that the City of Long Beach has been working with Metro on and hopefully with increased funding can make a reality. Okay. Thank you very much. You know, I'm going to keep my comments very brief in the interest of time and understanding that we have a big agenda ahead of us. I can tell you that this conversations regarding Measure M are happening daily. There is a lot of activity around this to look at alternative funding and identifying federal funds to help with some of these projects as well. And much hasn't been talked about in terms of propositions A, C and A and C in terms of funding available and how that can be leveraged as well. On October the sixth, the Gateway City cargo will reconvene. And this is this item will be agenda ized again. And so I will just just ask that the voters do do what you need to do to do your due diligence to understand this issue and weigh out the benefits that this potentially could have or not for the city of Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you. And as we go into the second round of comments, let's just remind everyone we have a full city council meeting to go to next. So, Councilman Price. Thank you. Vice Mayor. I think I think this is an important topic, so I appreciate your indulgence. And going into the second round of comments, I do have some follow up questions regarding some of the things that have come up. Is there a disbursement schedule. Or. What? How will the funds be routed to the individual cities? What's the timeline for that? So on the local return we will likely receive the measure and funds as we do measure are so they will be included in our annual budgeting process and factored into our capital improvement plan. And so how soon with those funds start to come in to the city of Long Beach? They do. They come in on an annual basis, quarterly basis. That we we may have to go back and check with, but they will not be any different than how we receive measure our local return funds. Well, I'm interested. I mean, my colleagues have made some really great points. And yes, all of these projects bring about more jobs, which is definitely good for everyone. But the concern that I have is that the sales tax in the city of Long Beach is going to be incredibly high as a result of this. And, you know, we just had a very passionate discussion about minimum wage and trying to make sure that our residents are set up for success. And I'm concerned about, you know, how increasing sales tax for individuals will be. You know, how that will impact people. So that's that's my preliminary concern, hearing hearing these discussions in terms of some of the big projects that we have, not the local transfer, but that the bigger projects that are part of measure. And when are those monies expected to come to the city of Long Beach? The funding for Shoemaker Bridges in early action 710 project is slated for 2026 in the expenditure plan. Funding for Wardlow for the grade separation does not have an expected groundbreaking date yet, but that is something that we're actively working with Metro on. So it's 2016 and we expect the funding to come in about ten years for one of the major projects. That is. Correct. Would that be the earliest project that we'd get funding for? Of the identified project. Of the identified project. That is the earliest project that is identified. Yes. That our residents would be paying into measure for that ten years without any other. The bigger project starting in the city. Correct. In the meantime, we will be getting the local return revenues back in approximately 7 million. But for the larger projects, the earliest one that is slated is Shoemaker in 2026. Okay. One point of clarification is I believe there is some funding and perhaps Mr. Wiggins can correct me if I'm wrong before 605 Freeway. It is an issue that we are dealing with on the east side with regards to the bottleneck from the Orange County side leading into 605. And so if. If I may indulge Ms.. Wiggins in answering my question as to whether or not six or five funding comes earlier than 2026. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Arturo. So in the expenditure plan, there is an earmark for the six or five hotspots interchange project. It's $1,000,000,000 from Measure M that's earmarked for that program and it would start collecting money, money being allocated to it. And I believe anyway 18 and 19 at the latest. There are also would be money directly on day one, Long Beach Transit as well. And one thing I'll add about the major Long Beach projects, if we are to secure federal funding or are able to make a strong case to the Metro Board of directors, we are able to move projects up with a two thirds vote. Okay. So if we had like a map, a cost matching or something like that. Moving projects up an expenditure plan would require a two thirds vote from the Metro Board of Directors, and so I would assume that they would want a number of qualifying factors presented to them for that vote. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. I think the two thirds. Vote was going to be my question, but I'll just hopefully end on tonight and saying that, you know, we when we invest in our cities and we invest in infrastructure and we invest in things like our waterways or our sewers, ensuring that our transit system is strong when we're innovating technology and investing in that, that's when we get great cities and that this is another opportunity to do that. And so I'm very thankful for the study session today and learned a lot. Thank you, guys. Thank you. And I'll just say just to close it out that, you know, we had our own discussion about a sales tax here in Long Beach that took a lot of our focus. And I have to admit myself, I'm just finally turning my eye to November and all the things that are coming down in November. And so I do want to thank staff and thank all the speakers for their diligence in the presentation tonight. And I know that, you know, a lot of times with discussions like this, they you know, sometimes you don't get everybody on the same page. The one question I do want to ask is, how have we I haven't necessarily paid attention. So forgive it if forgive this question. But has there been a level of engagement outside of these city council meetings, perhaps the business community, environmentalists, community? Has there been some level of engagement or are people surprised by this measure? And I'll ask that of city staff or or of Metro. Yes. There's been a tremendous amount of engagement. In March of this year, when we released our draft plan, we went had in-person community meetings at all nine subregions. We also held telephone town halls through all major subregions where we were able to reach thousands of residents of L.A. County. We had online forums and we received thousands of comments during this public comment period. In addition to that, working with business chambers, environmental groups, social justice groups, as well as engaging with our Council of Governments. Certainly. Thank you so much. And that concludes our study session. Thank you very much. And let's go ahead and reset. We're going to take a moment just to reset and get ready for our city council meeting. Just a moment. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. We are going to go ahead and transition into the rest of our meeting here in just a second. We're just going to start in just just a minute. Okay. Thank you. I want to thank the council here who has had some good discussions so far tonight and a couple announcements just to . And I'm not sure if these were made earlier. Vice Mayor But I just repeat some of them. Our first presentation that we're going to go to, our first item is we're going to take the item surrounding the Olympics conversation up first, then we're going to take the presentation and discussion on the Queen Mary, which will come up next. Then I have an announcement on item number 15, which is an item by Councilwoman Pryce. That item will actually is going to be we're going to take it up later, but it's going to be postponed, I believe, to the next council meeting or Councilman Price is going to ask for that that discussion to be postponed to the next council meeting. So if anyone's here for that, just as an FII, the item around ARVs will be taken up, I believe, as you're going to make that October 4th. Okay, October 4th. We're also going to be moving up our commission appointments and then as well, I believe it's the item 24. And so a lot of moving today because we have people that have time certains but we'll try to get through everything as best possible. And so we're going to go first into the item around the Olympics, which is item 25, which we need to get out of the way.