Recommendation to conduct a Budget Hearing to receive and discuss an Overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2017 Budget for the following:  Department of Health and Human Services; Parks, Recreation and Marine Department; and Public Works Department.
Unanimous. Thank you very much. Congratulations to Vice Mayor Richardson and council member Austin. We're going to go now right into our budget hearing, which is the start of the meeting and then the rest of the meeting. So let staff get ready for that. And Mr. West will go through the entire presentation and then do questions at the end. Okay. We're going to go ahead and get started. Last week we had our first formal budget presentation reviewing departments. We had the police department at the fire department and disaster management. Today, we're going to hear from three of our departments. We're going to hear Kelly Colby, the director of our Health and Human Services Department. After Kelly, we're going to hear from Marie Knight, the director of our Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. And after that, we're going to hear from Craig Beck, the director of our Public Works Department. So with that, I just. Thank you. We just want to continue that to note that we are working on a public safety continuum. It's just not all about police and fire protecting our community and public safety areas. It's a lot of other departments. It's health and it's Health and Human Services. It's Parks, recreation and Marine keeping kids busy. It's public works, taking care of our streets and our graffiti and issues like that. Obviously, library services as well. Workforce development, code enforcement. So there's a myriad of activities that work to help support our public safety continuum and work with our police department to keep our community a great community that it is. So that I'm going to turn it over to Kelly. Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor and City Council Members. Thank you for the opportunity to present the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services. First, I'd like to recognize my team members. Who in the audience? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. All right. Who make of what we do possible? They're bright, committed, caring, and their team are so passionate about their work. I appreciate them fully and know that the Health Department would not be where it is today without them. I am truly lucky to be here. I'm going to share with you first some, of course, services. So the Health and Human Services Department provides over 30 programs in nine sites around the city. Together, these services focus on building and supporting healthy communities, families and individuals with pre-natal through old age. Many people connect us primarily with homeless services and restaurant inspections, but we do much more. We promote healthy living through many of our programs, including healthy, active, Long Beach, the Hills Zone, Rick, and our public health nursing. We increase safety of neighborhoods, homes and businesses through our environmental health programs, as well as our strengthening families efforts at the Center for Families, Centers for Family and Youth. We provide housing and homeless services, work closely with our city, federal, state and local partners to prepare for public health emergencies. We increase access to health care and community supports and prevent, investigate and control communicable diseases through epidemiology, disease, investigation and clinical services. We have a diverse list of accomplishments this year. As you know, we achieved public health accreditation, demonstrating our superior level of service. We were the third local health department in California. Out of 61, only 5% of health departments nationally have achieved the status. We provided over 350,000 public health visits this year, all at free or no cost to do theirs. We brought in we brought in over $96 million of funding from outside of our city. This provides 225 jobs in the city. 60 million of this funding actually goes back to the community through the housing authority and rent payments to move to apartment owners. We really are an economic driver. We became the only California public health lab to receive our and molecular accreditation, which allows for a significant decrease the amount of time for testing results for Zika, other infectious diseases and bioterrorism. It went from days to hours for when we can get results. We had 498 homeless veterans and met the HUD benchmarks for functionally ending veteran homelessness, a level we've been trained for nine months. We work closely with city partners and public works and development services and other community partners to complete the pedestrian master plan to the Communities of Excellence and through Kaiser and the Office of Traffic Safety Funding. We implemented bike safety courses and a bike hub in North Long Beach, where youth learn to maintain bikes, receive free helmets. We were awarded a $5 million fatherhood grant, which allows us to work with over 500 fathers to become better parents. We opened the Section eight waitlist for the first time in 13 years, received over 18,000 applications for vouchers and over 14,000 more applications for project based sites. Finally, we led planning efforts for a large scale four day bioterrorism exercise that included many partners in the city and other government agencies. Our budget is just over $114 million. 61% of that comes from HUD for the Housing Authority. 30% 37% is health fund, which includes funding from grants, fees, sales tax and vehicle licensing fees. 1% comes from Cooper, which was previously discussed by the Health Department's presentation, and 1% comes from the City General Fund. This all turns out that we leverage about $1.4 million in city funding to bring in $114 million in resources, which is about an 8,043% return on investment. Our notable changes this year focus on homeless services, internal changes, and broader public health trends. The Health Department continues to lead the homeless outreach efforts and partnerships to support homeless in the city. But our capacity does not meet the demand for outreach and services. We do have new funding this year, which includes $100,000 in one time funds for outreach and response activities and $250,000 for Infuse Fellow to help further our innovative strategies and identify innovative funding opportunities to help address homelessness. This is added to the $7.2 million we receive from Howard to fund our Continuum of care, which includes 12 community partners that provide case management, mental health services, transitional and permanent housing and so much more. Another 1 million come from other grants to support outreach, emergency shelters, homeless prevention and veterans supports. Other notable changes include reorganizing the health department programs to create efficiencies, enhance coordination. In the past, we focused on the different grants and how people access them separately. Our goal this year to align our services around individuals, beginning with the common intake process. They'll help determine all the programs they qualify for and to better coordinate those services. We're also redesigning internal administrative processes for efficiency and consistency. Public health. Public health at the national level is changing. It's focusing more on the social context that impact health, such as housing, violence, prevention, trauma, environment and education. This requires significant partnerships as it takes all of us to address these issues. It also takes reviewing policies and programs through an equity lens to ensure we are building and supporting improve health for those who haven't been supported in the past and who now experience disparate health outcomes. We are looking for also looking at improving data sharing strategies across hospitals and community partners to better connect people to the community supports they need to build and maintain their health. Our significant issues include the increasing concerns about homeless across the city, and I've discussed those resources in a previous slide. We face increasing external public health threats such as Zika and other vector borne diseases, bioterrorism concerns and climate change that's impacting our environment, access to food, the heat advisories and other things, just to name a few. We're constantly working to identify sustainable funding streams for existing and emerging priorities. We've lost funding for asthma and diabetes. Education have not found resources to support those programs moving forward. In addition, grant funding does not cover full administrative costs or increasing employee costs, which which leaves us running about 110 grants and sub grants and responding to over 100 program and fiscal audits annually based on grants. The lack of sufficient administrative resources actually limits our ability to build our grant base. We also face increasing facility cost to aging infrastructure, which is also not covered by grants. Often we hear we can fund it through grants and we have been very successful at that. But it is not easy. If it were all work and all nonprofits would be fully funded. Funds, funds priorities shift and reduced and the competition continues to get steeper. In addition, writing and managing grants is very labor intensive. Grants are a great part of an overall funding strategy, but as the primary funding strategy, it can be very difficult. We are excited about the potential opportunities to build a more integrated system of services for older adults, as outlined earlier this year in the older adult strategic plan . We'll be working very closely with Parks and Rec in this work. The potential move of violence prevention and equity efforts into the department is also an opportunity. At the national level, violence prevention and equity have become key focus areas for public health because of their impact on overall wellness and communities. In addition, we're participating in many conversations about increasing opportunities to avert people with mental illness from criminal justice settings to treatment settings so that they'll be safer and served in the right place. Finally, health departments nationally are moving toward the role of chief health strategist. More of the convener pulling together government agencies, hospitals, community providers and community members to improve health and wellness. We're being approached by a number of partners to take on this role, and we appreciate the opportunity in their trust they place in our work. In closing, thank you for your time this evening. The Health and Human Services Department looks forward to working closely with you to continue to build and support a healthy, safe and vibrant Longreach and village of Christians. Thank you. Next up is Parks and Recreation Marine. Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the City Council. It is my pleasure to present to you tonight the Department of Parks Recreation and Maureen's fiscal year 2017 proposed budget. This has been an incredibly successful and dynamic past year for us. And I want to thank the mayor, city council, the city managers and his office and his team, our partners and other city departments and as well as the community for all the support. The investments that are included in the fiscal year 17 budget will help our city continue to be recognized as a national leader in parks and recreation services. And even more importantly, we'll help the Parks and Recreation and Animal Care Services team that some of which are assembled here this evening, to continue to have a positive impact on Long Beach residents and visitors each day. So our core services, we are one of the most diverse departments. We go from pets to beaches, buildings to youth and turf and trees to seniors. And we touch the lives in every corner of our community. We provide for the maintenance of parks, facilities, open spaces, marinas and beaches to promote an active, healthy lifestyle and improve the livability of Long Beach. We take our role in the public safety continuum seriously and work hard to provide access to healthy recreation opportunities and safe environments for the city's youth. Teens, adults and seniors who visit our programs over 2 million times each year. We promote responsible pet ownership and the humane treatment of animals and work to reduce animal overpopulation. Our Animal Care Services is a 24 seven public safety and public health operation. As the largest municipally run marina system in the nation. Our goal is to make sure our facilities are excellent quality and exceed customer and community needs. And lastly, we continue to implement the city's open space plan with projects that expand community access to parks and facilities. So we had many accomplishments this past year with a focus on livability. We've increased our bike ability, swim ability and walkability with the installation of the Bayshore Buoy, swim line, bike, fix it stations and fitness zones across the city in parks, beaches and waterways. We completed over 5500 work orders, many coming from the Long Beach app in our parks and removed over 4000 tons of trash from our beaches. And we were again rated one of the 25 best park systems in the country. Additional strategic investments included renovations and improvements to Homeland Cultural Center, Willow Springs, Park Stearns Park, the playground at MacArthur Park and the Community Center and Pool at Martin Luther King Jr Park. Also, there were restroom projects at Bixby Recreation and a forest projects done this year. To further our efforts to use irrigation water and our water budget as efficiently as possible. The conversion of over 300,000 square feet of street medians from turf to mulch has started. Gun Boehner Park will be completed in the coming months and the DeForest Park Wetlands, Drake, Chavez, Greenbelt and the El Dorado Nature Center projects are just starting. And with the rebuild of the Alamitos Bay Marina well underway, staff is now focusing on improvements of the other Marina amenities. And we are marketing the new, larger slips that will soon be available. We also act as an incubator for hundreds of local, micro and small businesses through our contract class and structure opportunities. Demand for our recreation programs continues to grow this summer. Excuse me? This summer, our programs were either at or exceeded capacity across the board. And as the demographics in Long Beach shift towards a larger senior population, demand for senior services has also grown. Our Animal Care Services field staff responded to over 28,000 calls for service last year. As we work to ensure the safety of all of our residents two and four legged. Through the many community partnerships, spay and neuter programs and improved health care, the live release rate has continued to grow for another straight year. Partnerships within the community and outside funding sources such as with the LA Kings and Signal Hill Petroleum have allowed us to continue and enhance programs and services during fiscally challenging times. This past summer, the Long Beach Unified School District provided free access to youth at all city and school pools and free swim lessons at Cabrillo High School . And once again, we teamed with the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau to provide 100 days of summer program to increase the economic impact of the staycation concept and the impact of our programs. For our fiscal year 17, our proposed budget totals over $56 million across all funds, with 32 million in the general fund. The department also has substantial Thailand funds budgets to support our operations in the marinas, beaches and waterways. We have significant revenue streams to help support our many programs with general fund revenue of over 12 million and tidelands funds revenue over 24 million. The department is also significant also has significant grant funding for youth services of just over $2 million. This budget provides for 430 full time equivalent positions, and during our busy summer summer months, our total staffing complement grows to over 800 people. Each year we provide hundreds of area teens and young adults their introduction into the workforce through volunteer and employment opportunities. Some notable changes in this year's budget in order to reduce the impact to the community from any further critical program reductions. We worked hard to develop additional operational efficiencies and look for new service delivery models where possible. For example, we are reducing our mowing frequency and our turf areas during the winter months, saving approximately $60,000 each year. A reduction to administrative staff was made possible by leveraging technology to distribute information throughout our various locations more efficiently. We will also redistribute responsibilities in our sports field permitting program and in the supervision of the Long Beach Senior Center, resulting in some staff reductions. These reductions do not reduce recreation services, but will, however, reduce the amount of staff time available to interface with customers. Next, we look to make sure all of our programs are right sized by matching budgeted resources to the actual participation. The summer season of youth sports is historically the least attended, so reductions in this program will have the least impact to our city's youth. We were able to adjust areas of our budget for strategic investments for the future. For example, one adjustment that is offset by revenue is increased staffing at the El Dorado East Regional Park gates. Our General Fund budget was increased as well to help provide additional resources to maintain our parks and facilities. This included resources for City Council district funded improvements and to bridge the L.A. County Parks Tax Levy shortfall. In addition, we identified areas where a small investment will reap larger rewards by providing upgraded equipment for floor care in our 27 community centers and response to plumbing issues in our parks, as well as new equipment to more efficiently clean the Belmont Pier. As we continue to deal with the drought. One time resources were identified to further our water conservation efficiency efforts and provide emergency additional emergency tree care. The Be Safe program will be funded once again, and we will have the opportunity to build on previous successes, helping to keep youth and families engaged in positive and safe activities on weeknights during the longer daylight hours of the summer season. In the coming year, we will be working to increase efficiencies in animal care services and implement multi-year pet licenses for residents. Saving both staff resources and the customers time and the passing of the historic measure will allow us for long awaited and much needed repairs and improvements in our parks and to our many facilities. There are some significant issues and opportunities facing us in the year ahead. The Department will work to continue the investment in our parks and facilities throughout the city to increase the city's livability and safety. The identified projects for measure funding have a very aggressive goals in Year one and will require staff to dedicate significant amounts of time to complete the many, much needed projects. And we look forward to that challenge. The city's park trees have been hard hit by the drought. Their advancing age, lack of trimming and insect infestations and resources are now provided to start to address these problems. We will work to develop strategies to further impact these issues as we take as well as take action to address the recent audit findings within our current constrained resources. Future partnerships will also be critical with stakeholders to develop an innovative approach to address the challenges of homelessness, vandalism and an aging infrastructure and their collective impact on our limited staff and park resources. Our Animal Care services operations have come a long way and further investment will be needed to advance our progress in providing positive outcomes for shelter animals as well as those that we encounter in the field. The department sees great opportunity as well in continuing our efforts to seek partnerships with the community to enhance our service offerings in all areas. And finally, the demand for all of our programs and services and the use of our parks, our beaches and all of our spaces and places has greatly increased this past year, putting a strain on our limited resources. With over 168 public places and spaces, six miles of beaches, 27 community centers, dozens of athletic fields, 67 tennis courts, five municipal golf courses, 54 playgrounds, three pools, and 330 300 marina slips. Our opportunity to impact the residents of Long Beach, both our two and four legged, is great. And through all these facilities in our programs, we have made millions of positive contacts this year as we take our residents from diapers to diplomas and graduates to grandparents. Your continued investment in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine has been essential to our ability to meet the needs of the community, and we thank you for your support. And this concludes our presentation, and we will be available after the next presentation for questions. Thank you. And finally, it's a public works. Good evening, honorable members of the City Council, thank you for the opportunity to provide a brief overview of the Public Works Department's Fiscal Year 2017 proposed budget. If you recall, two weeks ago you received a presentation on the proposed capital improvement program, or CHP, which outlined the city's plan investment of roughly $76 million into city infrastructure. Tonight, I'm going to discuss the public works operating budget. Public Works is a team of service oriented individuals who actively support the successful operations of the city on a daily basis. These activities are summarized in three core service areas, which include overseeing the maintenance and rehabilitation of the city's core rights of way infrastructure, such as streets, sidewalks and our urban forest. We provide services supporting a healthy and sustainable city environment, including waste diversion, stormwater management and enhancing livability infrastructure. The Department also works to safely and efficiently design, construct, deliver and maintain our public facilities. So next time you drive to a council meeting, I'd like you to think about the hardworking public works employees while you're on the streets designed by your engineering group, while you obey the traffic signs supported by our street maintenance group. Now, if you don't obey the traffic signs, you'll be thinking about Chief Luna. I want you to think about when you walk into city hall that this building is maintained by your facility team and when you dispose of your Starbucks coffee cup that is serviced by an environmental services team. Public Works had a number of accomplishments in 2016, including completing 113 million in capital improvement projects. Some of those highlights include a $25 million investment in arterial streets and sidewalks. And I just want to note that to help ensure that our rights of way meet accessibility standards, the city has hired a new ADA coordinator. There was also 15.1 million invested in the new Michelle Obama Library, 7 million for Parks Recreation Improvement, some of which Maria outlined here this evening. As well as $35 million to start the new Civic Center project, which included the demolition of the old courthouse. Our refuge crews collected 186,000 tons of trash. This was either recycled or used for renewable energy. Street crews repaired 34,000 potholes, trimmed 25,000 trees, and removed 1.2 million square feet of graffiti. Under the Clean Team Initiative, over 13,000 illegally dumped items were collected. Many coming in over the Golden beach at. We assisted residents with 15,000 special item pick up requests, keeping those items out of the alleys. A highlight that particularly worth mentioning is the street sweeping optimization study, which focused on the elimination of the 14 street sweeping routes . This was done in one of the city's most parking impacted residential neighborhoods. Alameda Speech. This effort will continue in 2017, moving into the downtown and West Gateway neighborhoods. In 2017, Public Works is proposing a $177 million budget. This is divided across nine different funds. This includes about 107 million for operating activities and 70 million in capital funds. If you look at the pie chart, I just want to highlight that public works includes roughly 21% of its budget, which is made up of general funds totaling $38 million. This $38 million represents roughly 9% of the citywide general fund budget. Additionally, this $38 million is offset by $25 million in revenue from various sources, including parking meters and permit fees. You'll notice the refuse and recycling fund is our largest amount that we have in the department that represents $47 million and it's generated from customer payments. These moneys are solely restricted for waste diversion activities, including the city's clean team. The Capital Projects Fund includes the first year of measure investments totaling $27 million. This is in addition to the base amounts. These activities are all detailed in the proposed CIP plan, which again was presented two weeks ago. Notable changes that we're working on include working closely with financial management department to achieve the general fund saving target of $733,000. This reduction will result in minimal impact to operations as the savings was achieved by reducing overtime, essentially shifting after our call outs to regularly scheduled hours. We also reallocated our survey staff to the oil fund and the Capital Projects Fund, thus aligning staff with the funding areas where the actual work is performed. I want to take a moment to thank the limited gas and oil department for their continued support of our survey team. Public Works is proposing to enhance the Clean Team Initiative, allowing for two dedicated clean team crews. This will expand the proactive response to illegally dumped items, litter abatement and other clean services that's included in this year's budget. The budget also includes Measure A again, $27 million will help address many deferred capital projects. We are also adding staff to help meet the demands of not only measure but the other side IP projects. When thinking about project delivery. Public Works is is restructuring its organization by establishing a focused project management group. This will align tidelands measure A and base SIPP into one work team, providing more efficient effort and better communication. Additionally, it will allow us to support private development as it relates to work within the public right of way. Opportunities in 2017, with the passage of Measure aid, the city can begin to address its aging infrastructure, which has been a constant budget challenge to ensure the city is making strategic investments in its street. The Pavement Management Plan, or PMP, will receive an update in 2017, giving council an understanding of what condition all the streets are within the city. The city will also complete its first alley, including courts and Ways Management Plan, funded with $300,000 for measure. There is also a new sidewalk management plan which will be prepared to evaluate the condition and help us prioritize repairs based on need. This will also focus on the needed accessibility improvements that we need to make in many of our intersections. The proposed budget includes an update to the city's refuse rates. A study is currently being conducted by an outside consultant and those results and recommendations will be brought to council in early 2017. The study will include an evaluation of rates in comparable cities, including Los Angeles, Burbank, Pasadena, Santa monica and San Jose. I want to point to the phase the completion of phase one of our led streetlight change out program that updated 1750 intersection lights, or we call safety lights. That program continues with phase two. That will result in replacing roughly 24,000 high pressure sodium lights with LED lights. This is in partnership with City Light and Power. And also I'd like to point out that it's a sustainable project and will significantly reduce the city's city's energy consumption for streetlights. And I'm pleased to announce that we are investing in technology, working with the innovation team and our technology and Innovation Department. The city will deploy an easy park, Long Beach smartphone mobile application. This will show a parking information for on street and off street parking, allowing users to view parking availability throughout the cities. When that 1651 smart meter on street parking locations and over 10,000 spaces in our lots and garages. Finally, the department will continue to focus on citywide mobility programs, including completing the deployment of 50 bikeshare stations, which will result in 500 bike share bikes throughout our city communities. We're also adding 19 bike repair and hydration stations that again will be deployed throughout Long Beach. Again on mobility, we will work to continue the construction of the Daisy Avenue, the 15th Street and Sixth Street Bike Boulevard projects. These will be in addition to the newly completed expansion of Alameda Avenue buffered bike lanes and the new parking protected bike lanes on Artesia Boulevard that were just unveiled last week. It's also I'm pleased to announce that our beach treats events will continue in 2017 to support the community and make sure that we're working to educate them on mobility options. So in closing, I want to reiterate that our goal is to continue to efficiently and seamlessly provide these essential services to our communities. On behalf of the 466 dedicated men and women of the Public Works Department. I want to thank you for your support, and I look forward to working with each of you in the coming year. Thank you. Thank you. I think that concludes all of our presentations. I think everyone did a great job. Thank you. And we're going to begin by going into some questions. Again, a lot of members want to speak. So please, if we can just try to note that everyone has has questions, we'll probably get to all of them instead of , you know, one person asking all of them. That would be great. So, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I want to start with public works. I just want to say and this isn't a question, I just want to say that it's apparent that you've invigorated your department and it's clear that your staff, in all your all your bureaus and divisions, they're clearly thinking outside of the box and really striving to meet the needs of our city. So so I have to say that I recognize that and you're doing a fantastic job and your staff is doing great. That's all I have for public works. Thanks. And Parks and Rec, a few things that came up. I noticed you mentioned that you have 800 staff during the summer and that's that's huge. That's a tremendous point of entry for employment. That's you know, this is it's a front line for youth violence prevention. And with all of the constraints with dealing with a department that large it I think your staff does a fantastic job at balancing community interests city council interest and needs and you're really the you know, you're really sort of delivering on a number of programs like our concerts in the park are fantastic the Be Safe program, a number of improvements like our de force wetlands, the Harlem Park Community Center, our north town open space masterplan can go on and on, but your staff is they're killing it. So keep up the good work on health. I would say, you know, along that same along that same vein too, to think that, you know, it was something you mentioned. So you have a lot of accomplishments. I see everything from the heels on to the bike club, the fatherhood initiative, which is huge. All your work. I'm very proud of your work around veterans and homelessness and I think it's to hear all that. I think it's astonishing to know that you only receive 1% of the general fund and as much of as much of you know, as much that we talk about it, city council about a lot of these social issues. It's just surprising me that that you receive less than most other departments and you're completely you're completely grant funded and fee funded. And I know that we can't expect our departments to continue to be innovative and forward thinking if we can't support them and if our budget doesn't reflect our values. This department continues to be a smart investment. You invest 1% and we literally get 99% back. And that's that's just fantastic. And that's a lesson learned. But we can't think long term when we're thinking in terms of grant cycles. So today we did receive this memo here on the Office of Equity and we received a letter from the Board of Health. So I do want to thank your staff for your hard work and research that went into this. But because this just came out and I did take the time to read it, I want to ask you if you can just take a moment and just walk the council through this memo. Good evening. So we were asked to look at the feasibility of integrating the violence prevention efforts and equity efforts in the Department of Health and Human Services. This is the first the first memo that outlines the steps and initial resources that it would take to do that. We provide some background about the the safe Long Beach and violence prevention efforts, as well as the existing equity efforts. But in the end, what I'd like to talk a little bit about is what the structure would be and what we're proposing. We see equity as an overall encompassing activity. It is not an activity, but a philosophy and the way that we look at things. And so what we'd like to do is to place an equity office within the Administrative Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and then the violence prevention efforts really to move into the Human Services Bureau, which we don't currently have, but we will soon as we're realigning our organization. We see the nice fit there because the we have the Center for Families and Youth, we have homeless services, the Fatherhood Initiative, our kind of strengthening families activities. All of those are considered core violence prevention activities. And then that would allow for those integrated efforts to look around prevention as well. We're also been spending a lot of time looking at mental health diversion from incarceration opportunities, which is also violence prevention. So we'd like to incorporate that into the Human Services Bureau and then the equity efforts would be within the overall department. Thank you. And I think that makes a lot of sense to place, you know, violence prevention with all the human services stuff that you're doing from homelessness to, you know, fatherhood initiative and all that. I think that all make sense. And in terms of like the staffing in the Office of Equity, I want to applaud the fact that you've looked at two positions you've already gotten grant funded and you're leveraging that. So that's great. I want to just ask that that, you know, I see a timeline here that says, you know. The City Council asked that we look at some time in the next fiscal year to make this happen because I know it's going to take some time to do some some outreach and things like that. Could you just walk me through just what you anticipate to be a potential timeline, like how I know we can't be open on day one, October 1st of a fiscal year, but what would it look like, that sort of phase in a ramp up? So the in terms of the Office of Equity specifically, we are in the middle of hiring an equity coordinator for the department that was that is funded through the California Endowment. We also have a few fellow who will be joining us for one year that is funded between general fund and grant funds. In addition to that, we would we would language access and My Brother's Keeper would be would be incorporated there. So as we look at what it would take to plan, when we talked about the feasibility of what was originally proposed here, there were a large number of people here speaking and wanting to engage in that conversation around equity. And what we understand is that we want to be able to be out in the community, to engage with the community over the next 4 to 6 months, to have a conversation about what are the expectations and how do you align the expectations and the resources to really move forward and determine together what we want to create with this office. So we would come back in six months with a plan in terms of the violence prevention, we're looking at another probably year sometime in early, early to 2017 to be able to move those over based on space and technology and other things. We also the memo outlines the fact that because we are grant funded and all way to pretty much everything that is coming through violence prevention and equity are grant funded as well that we would be seeking an administrative analyst at the most as an absolute core piece to help run all of those grants and monitor them and do those kinds of things, as well as bringing on a public health professional level or high level sort of program and person to really look at the data and to help drive violence prevention efforts across the department. Thank you. So I'll just end with I'm very comfortable with that timeline. I think it meets exactly what we discussed in initial motion. I'm going to ask our budget folks, Leia, John GROSS and I and our chair of our Budget Oversight Committee, just look at this proposal, talk with city staff, see if there's a way that we can make sure that this gets phased in to meet the needs of the health department. Because what I understand is our director saying, yes, we can do the things that the council asks, but at some point we have to talk about real capacity. We can't continue to be, you know, grant funded and look at we need to have some support on the administrative side. And that's my analysis here. So I'm to ask folks this to look at that through the BRC process and I look forward to what comes out of it. But thank you so much and great job to all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes, thank you. Thank you to each of the department heads. I really appreciate all of the work that each of you have done and also the women and men of each of your departments. It's been phenomenal working with with all of you. I will start with public works. Just real comments. I want to say thank you. I know the courts and waste management plan is will be underway. It's very exciting. Also your commitment to parking. Craig, I really appreciate it. I know that we will receive a study that will discuss the courthouse area. We're also looking at the greater downtown and city place as well. So thank you. Moving along to Parks summary. I have a couple of questions, so thank you for everything. Your reports are always very inclusive and comprehensive and I think we've streamlined a lot of our questions and we've received a lot of answers from you. Have a question? I see a couple of reductions and eliminations. You did talk about the youth summer sports programing. I guess historically it's been low, but I have questions also the reduction for Silverado and Veterans Park. So can you just explain that a little bit? Yes. The reduction in the youth sports for summer, there was a at one point in time an all city track meet that was produced by our department. It wasn't run last year because the numbers from the year before before were very, very low participation. So that was something that we thought we could eliminate in this year's budget without having an impact to some of our other summer programs. As far as then Silverado and Veterans, what we were doing there is really eliminate or not eliminating, but bringing the budget back more right sizing it to the participation level. So the numbers are low there during the summer show and the staffing level doesn't need to be as high there. Okay. And was the track meet? That's the only youth sport for summertime. Yes. And then as far as the low participation is that that money be placed in other like different types of programing. I mean, that would be great if we were able to do something like that. So just that would be great if we were able to do something like that. But as we looked at the need to do reductions in the department across the board, we tried to be as efficient as possible and look at right sizing and and areas where we could reduce without the impact. And that's one of those areas. Okay. Thank you. And then last question for you. I think it's been a question that we've had historically as park patrols. I know that's been talked about formally. What is the next step? Because I know we talked about it last budget season and I don't know where it's at at this point. Well, right now we have our park ranger program is actually housed in the police department, and they are mainly working with our regional park system. We had a pilot program a year and a half ago, I believe it was. It stopped in the council district two. That was, again, pilot, and that was to be funded if it was going to go forward through the local homeowners association, if they chose to continue to move it forward. And that was really using some of our part time recreation staff to be at that park, to sort of be eyes and ears on the park after program hours and and to help with some of the issues that we were having there. We don't currently have plans or we don't have funding in the budget to start a program or to bring back that pilot program. Okay. Thank you very much. That answered my question. I appreciate it and Kelly and help thank you also for everything that you do specifically with homelessness. I feel like it's been really prioritized. We've been talking about it quite a bit and I know there's different funding sources coming through, but I really appreciate your commitment to that and all of your your team's commitment as well. Question about the lost funding for asthma. What are the next steps? Because I know that has been lost for some time. So I don't know what where we go from here. Right. So recently the port announced, I think it's $47 million that they'll be putting out into the community over the next 15 years to to start to address some of the issues. We had been receiving a human being port mitigation funds in those funds, and it so we'll be reapplying for those resources when they come forward. We are also looking at working with different health insurance organizations to see if they will start to fund asthma education as part of this part of an effort. We're in early conversations in that I'm not sure where that will go, but it is a possibility. Okay. Would you be able to inform us? I know that you you do regularly just to ensure that we know where it's at, because I know a lot of residents on the West Side specifically will have questions as to the funding. And I know you're very tight end, but be good to just get an update on where that said. Yeah, sure. Thank you. And then just last question. As we are discussing, the Office of Equity is I know there had been discussion of an Office of Aging and I don't know if aging will now be tied into Office of Equity and how that will work out. No, they'll be separate. Okay. Just just checking on that. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Excellent. Yes. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you very much. Okay, so a few questions. We'll start with public works and regarding the measure, plans for 2017. Is it realistic that we will actually be able to complete all of the projects that we have scheduled for 2017? And if not, at what point during the year will we have a sense of what projects we likely won't get to in that year, thereby allowing us the opportunity to reallocate some funds? Well, Councilmember, I'd just like to say that the mayor has issued me a challenge in completing these projects in three years, which I've gladly accepted. Joking aside, I do believe we will get through our $27 million of measure money in year one. A lot of the items on here are are things that don't take a lot of design time. So, for example, in year one, we're going to be doing a lot of street work that's focused on slurry while we we will be designing streets that we would be reconstructing in year two and then we would design streets in year two that we would be reconstructing in year three. So that really is the long lead time items. Many of the other things in here we believe we can get to should we find ourselves in a situation where we believe we're not going to achieve that in carryover moneys, we're going to be utilizing the Transportation Infrastructure Committee to make regular updates as long as well as the Measure Committee to give them updates on expenditure plans in progress. Okay, great. Because I know that we have a lot of public safety priorities as well as infrastructure priorities. And if there were if there was a realization that maybe we couldn't get to all the infrastructure ones, maybe for the 2017 year, we can reallocate some of that money because $1,000,000 may go a lot further with some of our public safety priorities than with infrastructure in terms of our our first year plan. So I just want to put that out there, something to think about. Okay. The pavement management update that we're going to get in 2017. Is that going to impact at all the three year plan that we've come up with? Or is the three year plan pretty much determined based on the last study that we did and will be identifying new, new challenges moving forward? Well, I think best management practices are that you keep your payment management plan current. Our goal is to update it every two years. So we have a very robust plan. I think you've you've spent some time looking at it and understand what's in that plan. We want to make sure that the street ratings that we're basing our decisions on are accurate and current. So essentially in 2017, those street ratings will receive an update. And I would imagine that our our strategic approach would remain consistent. But if, as an example, we have a street that significantly deteriorates in that two year time frame, we may want to shift some priorities to address those streets. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. And thank you very much for the work that you do. Have shared this with Mr. Beck in private, but happy to do so in public as well. Your team does your department does an amazing job responding to the go along beach app requests, especially in the area of graffiti removal. So I think it's that is the one. Service, a resource that we offer our residents that allows them to have direct contact with the city staff and city departments. And when that contact is positive, I think it fares well for the entire city. So thank you for that. Okay. Going on to health, if that's okay. I want to commend the Health Department for the amazing work that you do in bringing in grant funding. There's there's no doubt about it. When you look at your budget, like my colleagues have mentioned, you get very little from the city, but yet you bring in so much in grant funding. And so for that, you should be absolutely commended. And I can imagine that homelessness is a challenge. For the department at this time, because although you get over $7 million in funding from one source and some money from other sources, it still presents some new and unique challenges that are being presented , and we're not necessarily able to keep up with those. My question to you is, you know, we're hearing a lot about creative programs and projects that different municipalities are using to try to determine what works when it comes to homelessness. This morning, I heard on NPR that L.A. County is going to be implementing another idea of selling city advertising space and using that money to fund homelessness initiatives above and beyond what we do. And we're known for doing as a staple in the area of homelessness in the city of Long Beach. What creative methods or ideas or plans do we have moving forward that we can share with our constituents in regards to homelessness? Are we are we planning to try out any pilot projects anywhere? Is there anything that we're looking into that might be a little bit different than what we've done in the past to meet the new challenges? Yeah. So the Fuze fellow, we will have a Fuze fellow joining our team starting this fall for a one for a one year activity. And the Fuze fellow was the sort of led the much of the planning in L.A. County as part of their work. And so they will be looking at different sorts of innovative opportunities for how to address homelessness, as well as creative financing solutions and innovative financing issues to help fund additional resourcing in the work that we're doing right now. When we think about the 7.2 million coming in, six over 6 million of that actually goes to all of our partners. So we're doing that. We are providing transitional housing and permanent supportive housing and mental health services, veteran services, domestic violence services, even child care for people so they can begin to find jobs and to be educated . So we're really spending a lot of time, you know, working with our partners to house people. As for those who come in, the other is we're really spending a lot of time trying to you know, when we think about different ways that we can provide mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment, many that many who are homeless experience mental illness or substance use. And so we are working with our partners to try to identify new ways to do business there. But there's work to be done. In regards to that. And I know that you attended a recent meeting that we had in the third district that was very well attended by over 150 people on this issue. And some of the folks in the group were asking whether or not we have a plan in place. Do we have any sort of strategic plan in place for homelessness? And if not, what would it take for us to create one? I imagine that would be quite an undertaking that would be costly. What would be involved and do you think it would be helpful? Well, we do have we have a coordination. We very closely with our region as well. And so there's there are there's a lot of work through the coordinated entry system and through our teams. So it doesn't lay out as the strategic plan. It is a it's a highly coordinated effort that has brought together many partners from across our region in an effort to to address homeless. I think the work coming in for the few fellow that's actually going to be a core part of that work. So how do we look at the next steps? And we would be laying those out as part of a plan. So that's a one year process, and I'm not exactly sure what it's going to look like yet, but there will be much more engagement and opportunity to think through different possibilities. And when does this Fuze fellow join us? This fall, the next month or so, one week, October one. Would it be possible for us to have a little bit more engagement with this Fuze fellow as a council body? So maybe periodic updates because homelessness is something that's impacting all of our districts. And I know that sometimes we've you know, just in the short time I've been on council in two years, we've had programs that we've we've gotten grant funding for. But months have gone by. And by the time council gets an update in terms of what folks are working on, it's a little bit late for us to give input on what can you also work on this or can you also look at that? So is it possible for us to have like an early opportunity to maybe give input what we're seeing, what we'd like to see explored so that the Fuze fellow has a little bit of focus in terms of some of the issues that we might be dealing with that might be the same and some maybe not. Sure, we can do that. That would be great. Thank you. I'd appreciate that. Okay. For Parks, I echo everything my colleague said. Your team does a fantastic job, so they should be commended. Every single one of them, especially the ones that are out there every day, bringing a very positive spirit to people who may not get it elsewhere. So I thank them for that. I do have a question about the park safety issue that was raised, and I remember being very involved in the discussions regarding Bixby Park, but I'm not sure if we ever received and we could have and I missed it. But any sort of like a summary or overview of, you know, how effective was that program? Was it an effective program? Did we collect any data? And if it was an effective program and we wanted to continue it, what would that budget look like? I don't know that I have the budget numbers at my fingertips of what that would look like. As far as an effective program, I think it really is going to depend on what outcome you were looking to achieve. If you recall, they are mostly young, part time recreation staff that were in the park and I don't think they had the ability to enforce some of the issues and the concerns effectively that maybe the residents were looking for. So the program effective? I you know, I don't know that I heard it was with an overwhelming response that it was an effective program or that on either side from our team or from the residents, that it really did what they were looking for. But I think partially that was because some of the outcomes really weren't clearly defined going in as to what the program was to to achieve. I know recently we've worked with the Friends of the Bixby Park and we started to do some things in the park that I think have have created some change and and solve some of the issues. So, for example, the skate park, there was great concern that the skate park was attracting somewhat regulars and the regulars were older. So it made it very intimidating for the young kids and families who wanted to enjoy that activity or that space in the park. So we started this summer the funding from the Friends of Bixby Park with some free skate opportunities. So Tuesday nights and Saturdays we had one of our contractor instructors out there doing some free skate programing, which sort of broke up a little bit the what activities were taking place at the skate park. And it seemed to have a very positive effect. So we're looking at continuing that, moving forward, using that space a little differently, bringing in some of our other program opportunities and ideas for the park and just activating it in a different manner than it had been. And we're seeing some great success with that. Right. Okay. Thank you. I don't have anything further. I actually I do. But the mayor said don't ask all the questions, so I'm going to pass. Thank you. And just to something that Councilman Price said with which I want to just clear, because people are probably hearing views. Fellow what's what's his views fellow in and out in the in the world there. Just just to clarify. So what what what this fellowship program is, is these are it's a it's a fellowship where they they go out and seek and find kind of the best and the brightest that are experts and innovators in civic innovation. And then they get placed in cities and communities to innovate on a topic that the city needs, innovation and development. And so these are some of the some of the the brightest minds out doing this work. And then they're also a network. So that, for example, I think my call it we just mentioned that there's a few fellow in Los Angeles that works on homelessness and so that that those ideas and those projects and get network to this Fuze Fellowship network and so in Long Beach from from per staff's kind of recommendation and and hope is that our Fuze fellow that will be coming in I guess October 1st they're going to be focused on homelessness and we acknowledge that homelessness is an area that needs new ideas and innovation and commitment as well. And so, you know, want to comes from as prices continued commitment in this area. And we're really excited about having this fellow. And I think that that's a good idea to have them hopefully meet the council early. So we all can kind of get to know who this person is and we look forward to their work. Thank you. And Mayor, just just to add that we are actually going to be able to have two few fellows. So you mentioned the one on homelessness, and we're also going to have one that's be working on safe, safe Long Beach and violence prevention as well. So we can certainly do that. Great. It sounds good. Councilman Ringa. Glad to hear that. But I was one of the things that I wanted to add have that that, you know, along with a lot of the questions we might have today in terms of the budget that are being presented, we also have a lot of comments to make in regard to the services we are already currently receiving . And I think that that is a that is a commendable in the sense that we have great departments in the city and they're working the best they can with the budgets they have. And in regards to homelessness, it is my expectation, my hope actually, that eventually we're going to institutionalize our budgets for homelessness and for a lot of the things that we have here, because every year we're always looking at, you know, what grants are available up there or what innovation can we go for to continue the work and continue that battle that we're dealing with, with homelessness. And the only thing that we can do is not rely on outside sources, but rely on ourselves to get those budgets at a level that we need them to be to battle the homelessness issue. Throwing money at it is not enough. We need to have a commitment from our city staff, from our city farmers, from this from this council to to fund these types of programs, to keep them funded year in and year out, and not rely on budgets going up and down and relying on grants that are made available or grants that may be two, three, four years down the road. And then once they go away, the program goes away. And that's that's not the way to operate as far as I'm concerned. So much of what I have to say is I'd like to see some of the a lot of these these programs that we are talking about being more a permanent fixture in our budget so that we're not having these kinds of discussions about having the health department, which is the one, first of all, comes up, you know, where they you know, they function 99% outside the general fund, 99%. They're getting all their money from other sources. They have people who write grants. They have people who hire they hire part time. They have people they hire for maybe three or four or five years. And then they have to go away. What kind of commitment are we giving those people? And we're giving them great training. No question about that. They live us in Long Beach and they go somewhere else to do their job, to do their work because other jurisdictions or other agencies have the money to hire them on a permanent, full time basis. And we don't do that. I think we need to have a more much more of a city council commitment to our health department so that they're not functioning at 99% grants and having to rely on and on the federal agencies or the state agencies or even other local agencies to to fund their programs. So I want to challenge this, the city council, to find the money. To find the resources. To address the big issues that we have. And we and we have two fellows that are coming in with two of the biggest issues that we have going public safety with kids that the safety the be safe program and homelessness. I think it's a great start and we should start looking at that. Maybe these these fellows can find a way to convince this city council that, you know what, you need to devote more of a full time institutionalized commitment to those two areas, and you will make a difference. I didn't see it for that reason, but I think I'll get off my pedestal at this point in terms of public health. They're the first ones up. I want to go in that order. I notice in your budget that you have three vacancies, three bureau manager vacancies. One is going to repeal very shortly with the excuse me, with the city health officer. Once that city health spots are going to start again. Health officials on September 19th, September 19th. And it was vacant for a number of years, if I'm not mistaken. We've had it filled for the last three years. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I hope you get a great one and one who will stay with us longer than a few years. Thank you. You also have a vacancy in the current structure that you have here. So that's what I'm going by, is a vacancy in community health and a vacancy in policy planning and prevention. I'm guessing the policy prevention I'm playing with. You'll be a. Prevention Bureau, correct? It is. Things are a number of years ago, things were realigned based on what was available in terms of funding during the recession. As we are looking now, we are realigning our programs once again. So we'll no longer have a policy policy prevention bureau. Instead, what we'll have is a Human Services Bureau that will align the homeless services, the Center for Families and Youth. And if the violence prevention work moves over, it will align there as well. The the Community Health Bureau will now take on public health nursing risk, and then all the other health promotions work. So the Hills, unhealthy, active, Long Beach, all of that work. So those are the those three will align in the Community Health Bureau. We are excited we start interviews this week for both well one on Friday and then starting next week. So we're hoping to have those filled within the next within the next month. Very good. Because that is going to be my next question to turn to. If you had current recruitment going for these two other positions, and when do you expect it to have a feel to it? That's great that you're you're on your own. You're on your toes on that one. You have to have it yet. You want to you want to help your department? Of course. The other question that I had regarding to do your funding was that you mentioned during the course of your of your presentation, you mentioned VLF is that the vehicle license fees? It is, yes. I thought those went away. We are still made available now. We received we received about $8 million this year from the from the state from the from the vehicle licensing fees. And we used those resources. Those are the only they have to be used for health purposes. But they, in addition to the general fund, are only more flexible source of funding, which we use to cover some administrative costs and to support grants where grants cannot be fully supported by the funds that are provided by the grants. What would be an estimate of what you get from vehicle license fees and how much do you use or how much of that money goes towards administrative? So we get so this year is about $8 Million. It decreased to about $7 million a number of years ago. And it's you know, it's basically about how the economy is doing is how those rates go. So we are at about $8 million this past year. And those resources support. They pay for my salary. They pay for the health officer salary. They pay for our administrative salaries. You know, so they cover a lot of administration, but they also because our grants generally administrative costs up to 10% and our overhead is closer to 16%. They help to cover those costs as well. So if I hadn't been in the health department before, so basically you can't cover a lot of your administrative fees. So a lot of these grants that you get because they have to be basically used for services for the services that they are funded for. Correct? That's correct. Yes. Homeless and whatever else. Right. That's correct. So many of the grants we get some some include no administrative opportunities. I include up to about 10%, if you will, take us up to our to our actual cost. In addition, if there are increases in employee costs or anything like that, they can't be built in. And so we have been using the realignment resource to be able to cover and support what is left of the grants that can't be covered by the grants. Okay. And I notice in your budget that you're budgeted for or where is that page again? Well, just go ahead and tell me the your your funding for how many fees. Refunded for 374. I believe we have. I found the page. And you're hoping to go up to 381. Correct? Yes. Okay. Now, those those additional positions you're looking at. General, generally, what are they going to be supporting? What programs we'll be bringing in? We'll bring in bringing in resources to support the clinic. So a medical assistant in the clinic will also be looking at support for the for homeless services, as well as the positions that that could be involved here through the violence prevention equity work. Okay. Well well, thank you. And again, I want to commend you for all that you do, all the health department staff who are here. All the great work you do. Keeping our city safe from bioterrorism for. Are you still having immunizations, by the way? We do. We do immunizations. We'll be having we'll be having a free immunization clinic again this year where we practice our response. So we set up as if there is an emergency and we do somewhere between 809 hundred flu vaccines in a couple of hours at the health department. Yeah, I was going to say, I think to be laying up for flu this year in terms of parks and recreation, a lot of a lot of the questions and comments that I have, you know, we've dealt with personally. I want to thank Marie and your staff for always meeting with me and being open and addressing the issues that I might have in my district regarding the parks, especially with all the work that you're helping us do with the Will Springs area, that is that is very helpful. And I also want to commend you for meeting with my two big constituency groups in in the Wrigley area, Wrigley Neighborhood Alliance and the Wrigley Association. And dealing with your questions regarding our Daisy Lane, which is a big area that we have every year. We have our Daisy Parade and and dealing with the trees. And I know it's going it's somewhat sad that what's taking place because all trees get old. And when trees get old, they have to they have to be replaced. And you dealt with it with the with the community very sensitively and are working with them to deal with how we can replace them or and or do something different on that on their Christmas tree. So I want to commend you and and the work you're doing there. One question that I had, I was a back back in the day like. Two years ago. I was a what you call a rec spec recreation specialist, but I was I was a recreation specialist with the Department of Parks and Recreation in L.A. County, and I worked in it in a program called Get High on Life. Many moons later I come to Long Beach and I'm driving down Pacific Coast Highway and I see some kids with old T-shirts that say, Well, there's a kid high on that program here in Long Beach. Wow. Amazing. I wonder how long it's been here. So that that brings up the issue now in terms of do we have programs in our parks that are funded by the county or any other entities for youth diversion programs? This was a they they can't program that it worked for a long time ago. Do we have those types of programs in our parks, recreation programs that they're supported by other other funds? We do we have grant funding that comes from different sources, for example, for our rap program and our afterschool programs. We don't have a Get High on life program. I'm not sure that's at all true. Yeah, I'm not so sure that that moniker would go over very well today. But we do have a lot of you. Should have heard the original, you know what it was originally sports addicts. That sport. That would be good. That'd be good. Okay. Right. So we do we do get funding from multiple sources. And of course, you know, that's part of what our B Safe program is about as well is, you know, positive engagement with our youth. So we do have state funding. We have our ACES grants that help us with our afterschool funding programs. So we have a few other sources. Yes. Okay. Well, great. Well, I want to thank you for all the work you do in public works. You know, you're doing a great job. I'm glad that you added a clean team, an additional clean team. We're looking forward to seeing that around town and keeping our streets free of debris and also to the implementation of our Missouri fund. So I want to thank all three of you for being here today. Thank you, Councilmember. Super now. Thank you. I'll be very brief. I just have a question for health and and the homeless issue. I know you're in the midst of the grant application process and I see Theresa Chandler in the audience. So thank you for being here, but we won't keep you long. Get back to that grant writing we talked about the 7.2 million versus the 6.0 million. If you got more money, where would you want it to go? Or would it be equally divided? Oh, I'm sorry. For what? For goes to outside sources versus what you use internally within the race. So right now, the funding that comes in from the continuum of care funds, one outreach worker and five, five case managers, intake worker. So when everybody say we need more, we need more outreach and we're seeing a lot more on the street than we would want to support additional outreach workers within it, within the community. The other key pieces for us is to really start to look at additional service for those with mental illness. So mental health practitioners and the ability to link people to care as well as for substance abuse practitioners and to be able to link people to care. And supportive housing is also a key piece and there are a lot of different models that one can work on in terms of supportive housing, which means that you are providing, you know, treatment and case management and those sorts of things where people are permanently housed so that they can remain housed. And so that would be another area where we would look to build additional capacity in permanent supportive housing beds and transitional housing moving in that direction. Okay. Thank you. And Councilwoman Pryce referenced a plan, and it strikes me with with limited staffing now that a lot of your duties are day to day putting out fires, and it's so tough to to function in that mode and work a plan at the same time. So if you have additional resources coming in. Well, will most of that go to planning or just your day to day, or have you determined that yet? I think we do receive we did receive some additional resources to to do planning and also for the unified funding agency, which allows us to shift resource where it is most needed across the different contracts, which we did not have that capability as of two years ago. So we are receiving some planning dollars and when we're able to do that. I think this the the Fuze fellow will be joining, you know, so that is a it's a funded it's a funded support person. I wouldn't say support person, but who can really lead and participate in these efforts. So that is a fund that's funded as well. But you're right, most of what most of what happened is we are we are on the you know, we are boots on the ground making things work for people and and doing outreach, connecting people to services on a regular basis. Okay. Thank you. And my council office is very close to this problem and we put a lot of time and energy into it. So we certainly want to help you and what you do. Just moving to a move to public works first and again reference. Councilman Price was talking about any any extra dollars that you have will will throw a different direction. Let's get a a stump removal program in place first. So that's that's just a real issue. We want to go back and and and eliminate this backlog. And to my way of thinking, it makes no sense to cut down a tree without removing the stump. Two things. You can't plant a new tree if the stump is to it's still there. And on residential streets, it's just you don't want the neighborhood to get used to a tree not being there. You want them to miss that tree and want it back very quickly. And to Parks and Rec. I just want to compliment compliment Marie actually to Craig, too, because you both have been in the job a short time, but you really hit the ground running. And to someone who took office eight days after he was elected, elected, I can relate to that. Hitting the ground running. Can we get a shot of Maureen while we're talking about her here? I go ahead. Okay. Also, let me compliment I want to compliment Murray on that necklace that looks great on camera. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilwoman Mongo. Our colleagues were so loquacious that Councilmember Supernanny. I had time to comment on how fabulous you look tonight, Murray. I'll start with health. I think you guys are doing an excellent job. I look forward to long term funding streams that have the ability to ensure that our community is healthy. Safety and health really do go hand in hand. So please tune in next week to the Budget Oversight Committee, where the I-Team will be making some presentations that I hope the community will really embrace and we can move forward with related to public works. Craig, you're doing a great job. Street streets. Streets and more streets. I think that we'll hear from you later tonight on other council items that are in the district but related to streets and traffic. I think you're doing a fantastic job. I'd also like to say that with regard to trees, you've really stepped up and we had a tragedy in the community where a tree fell on a home. No one was injured. But we need to be aware that not only are a third of the trees that are in our parks dead, many of the trees in our parkways are dead. And so the arborist is having to change because the drought situation has changed the make up of trees. And so the community of arborist. Is happening to change. And I really appreciate the great work that your office has been doing. Mr.. BECK And I also support and have been discussing this for weeks. We've used a lot of our council district funds to remove the tree and the stump, and then the replacement program. The Volunteer Day Long Beach last year that was hosted in the fifth District, resulted in many new tree replacements and tree placements, specifically in areas that really needed the canopy coverage that make the community cooler and safer. In the end, it really creates a healthier community time in our health department when we have that canopy coverage, especially during these really warm times like we're having now. So I'm excited to hope that that tree study from Lemieux will be worked in. And then I'm looking forward to finding a way to fund tree and stump removal with a record breaking tree removal a few weeks ago of 26 tons. Yes, one tree. 26 tons. And then finally, I'd like to concentrate on Parks and Rec. I know Marie got a letter from me, an email last night or Sunday, stating about how fantastic the staff were on Sunday at Eldorado Park. I think that the added gate staff is definitely being used properly. I think it's fantastic. I'm very supportive of the $370,000 one time funds to properly water our parks and maintain our drought tolerant plants. I think that if we're going to put in all this drought tolerant plants, we need to maintain it. The community needs this is a quality of life issue. We need to have it maintained and we do need to water. So no more trees don't die. Very supportive of $150,000 for tree trimming in our parks and removal of some of the dead trees because they are dangerous. I'm really excited about the Be Safe program, hoping to add a few more parks to that. And then I think that your staff are doing a fantastic job on the turf management plan. So I think that those modifications under your leadership have been phenomenal and I look forward to the study this fall, and I don't remember if we asked for it formally at council or if you and I've just discussed it so many times that I feel like it's coming in restructuring the allocation and fees associated with leasing our parks. Our parks are an amazing asset and we're very lucky to have them and we need to properly fund the utilization of those parks and look properly at programs that have been grandfathered in and what it means to add them and bring them up to compliance. And I know it's a tough discussion to have, but to have the assets we have without maintaining them would not be appropriate. So I appreciate your leadership on this. Thank you. That is all. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you. And I want to say thank my colleagues for answering or asking most of the questions that actually that I have. And I want to, first of all, start out by thanking the directors of the Health Department, Public Works and Parks, Recreation, Marine. All three of them are exemplary in doing a great job for for our city. All three are relatively new in their roles, but are certainly hitting the ground running as a Councilmember Suber nomination. I want to start with the Health Department and I want to go back to this issue of homelessness. It's something it's a recurring theme among my council colleagues, but it's something that we hear from quite frequently from our constituents in the community knocking on doors. People are really concerned about what they perceive as a increase in homelessness, and they would like to see the city do more to address that. And so to Councilmember your point earlier, I wholeheartedly agree. We need to look at ways to sustain our efforts in this this budget proposed budget. There is there's a line item for $100,000 and one time funds for proactive homeless initiative. Can you. Ms.. Collopy, tell us exactly what that will be utilized for and how that how you expect to utilize $100,000. So we received $200,000 last year as well in the way that we have used that is is as needed. So it's really been more of a hotspot approach. So last year, the $100,000 was spent as part of our team. So it was part of it was overtime for the police department to do quality of life work with us so that they're going out with our homeless outreach folks to meet with homeless individuals. We had sort of infrastructure maintenance. So, you know, Lincoln Park in areas, making sure that that things were being cleaned up, power washing those sorts of things and cleanups from individuals who were sleeping during the day. We've also did some of the river use some of those resources for L.A. River cleanup and then for motel vouchers. So we were we used some of those resources from motel vouchers for people who are homeless and who needed housing immediately. We did not have any other options we would foresee using that hundred thousand dollars similarly this year. So as things pop up and are needed and they don't fit, they don't fit a certain budget category, we would use those resources to help support that. So I guess I have to ask is is that enough? Let's see. I mean, there there are there are a lot of different resources that that are needed in our community to help support homeless as they are, you know, throughout the region. So, you know, I'm not sure what enough would ever be in terms of the resources that we need, in terms of mental health service and substance use and those kinds of things. We are looking and we are receiving another outreach worker through our emergency services grant and through and through. We are starting to build some capacity. And we are we had a veteran outreach person who retired. So we are feeling that and we have funding for an additional in there. So there are a lot of other other moving parts where we are building some of our capacity. So I'm here now. We have we will have two outreach workers, correct? Okay. And that seems like an area of need. It is an area of need, definitely. And I guess the other question I have in terms of your budget is you mentioned the health department seniors, our senior outreach and services. And I would go back to Parks and Rec a little later. But what services does does that supply provide and how many people are we actually reaching annually? You know, we have a we have a public health nurse that is co-located at the senior center on Fourth Street. And so she she receives a number of referrals to help, you know, and works to connect people to service. We also have a social worker on staff who helps with senior outreach as well. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I can find that up for you. So that's just at the fourth, the Street Senior Center. The public health nurse is she is located at the Fourth Street Senior Center. The other is located at the Health Department and receives her first. And then we, our public health nurses, will go out and do home visits. They do that for, you know, for for families and seniors and others, but one specifically for seniors services. And I know Ms.. Night Marie mentioned that, you know, there is a growing need for for seniors services. Just curious to know what type of coordination and collaboration you have between the departments on that particular issue. We worked together very closely on the Seniors Strategic Plan that was presented here earlier this year as part of that effort. We'll be moving forward. We have a management assistant who is agreed to work between the two of us over the next six months to help drive and coordinate through the senior senior planning groups who will be pulling people, people together from all different all different parts of the of the older adult service community, as well as older adults to start to identify and plan out more specifically, the resources that are needed. In addition, are our real goal for this, you know, moving forward is that we better coordinate and inform people about what's actually available. There are a number of services available. People don't know about them. The lists are incomplete. So there are a lot of people with different lists. Those lists aren't yet all in one place. And then our referral systems are not as effective as they could be. And so we'll be working at we are looking at some technology solutions, not just for older adult services, but also for a number of social services about how is it when someone comes in and you refer someone that we know what the capacity of that referral spaces and that they actually have a place. And so we are looking at some different technology opportunities so that we can start to improve the coordination and service for folks in the referral system. So with one outreach worker for senior services, it sounds like there's some serious need. Is there there as well? Yes. Yeah. I believe the senior strategic plan had well, we have five staff members which include any additional public health nurse technology focus, as well as a lot of coordination and staffing. Okay. And I guess the next question on the same area, in the same line of questions would be for the Parks Recreation and Marine director. What does it cost to to run a senior center? I think we have three in the city right now. We do. And I have some information on our costs. You just bear with me for a moment. So right now we have five park locations for senior programing and that's at Houten Silverado, McBride. And then we have the Four Street Senior Center. We also have senior programs at Chavez and El Dorado West. So combine the fourth Street Senior Center, costs 620,000, a little over $620,000 a year to operate. And then the ancillary sites costs 265,000 to operate. Okay. Is there a do we do we do a census count for each of those locations? And do we know how many seniors are actually utilizing the services? We do have program numbers. I don't happen to have them with me tonight for our overall per site, but I can get those to you. That would be greatly appreciated. I'm just trying to understand how we're spending our resources and making sure we're getting. Optimal coverage throughout the city and reaching as many seniors as we possibly can. I know there's a lot of good information that we provide to that population. I'd like to move on and ask about our Be Safe program this summer. Do you have any figures on how many kids and families are participating in the program and how that compares to previous years? So the Be Safe program has been, again, a very successful program this summer. And as with all of our programs, we have seen an uptick in participation. Interestingly enough, for the B site safes this summer or B safe sites this summer, we're also seeing families participate. So in past years, they've been having, you know, their kids come and kids stay on the site. So they stay maybe for the day camp program and then they continue to stay at the site for the Be Safe program. But families are coming as well and participating, which is really nice to see that we're also providing that safe space and that safe place for family recreation in the evening hours. For some numbers, I don't have exact numbers per site or participation numbers this summer as we're still in the summer, but I can get those for you . But definitely we are increased over last year. Thank you very much for for that. And I'm encouraged that that the program is actually working so successfully. One thing that I would just request in, and I think we talked about this in our briefings, is that after the summer months, particularly at these parks that are very highly utilized, we look at the maintenance in terms of reseeding and, you know, making sure that our parks are still beautiful and appealing for fetal position to families. Thank you. And Mr. Beck, I think. I'm curious about that. You mentioned the payment management plan update occurring biannually to every two years. Yeah. Our goal would be to update the street index every two years. So in 2017, when the first plan was presented to council in 2015, so an update in 2017 would stay on that schedule. All right. Thank you. And I know when we we initiated the very first payment management plan, it was. Do you have any do you recall how much there was was about $1,000,000. I'm told that it was roughly that that dollar amount. The update will be nowhere near that amount. Okay. That's mainly. Just. Next question. It's going to be $1,000,000 every time. No, no, not at all. Okay, great. And I wanted to get that clarified. And then the the the clean team. This year we're proposing a second clean team, which I think is great. Can you share what the team clean team has been able to accomplish in this initial year? Yeah. So some of the numbers that I that I quoted are really the results of our clean team. The clean team gets involved in not only addressing illegally dumped items, but helping coordinate with both the police department and health department on homeless cleanups. When there's encampments, when in homeless leave materials behind. The clean team will get involved in cleaning that. I think the real difference in the Clean Team versus a normal refuge collection is that it's proactive. So, for example, we may service your your trash at your residence every Monday, but the clean team's out every day and they're actually driving corridors and they're looking for items that have been dumped. Many of those are reported through the Golden Beach app or through our telephone centers. But just additionally, we're out there looking for items that may have been illegally dumped and picking them up right away. So the ability to add another team again will be funded out of refuge dollars. Not an impact to the general fund will allow us to expand the number of quarters that we're doing and the number more quickly address those illegally dumped items. So if I'm not mistaken, last year we used the clean team was required for us to to buy more equipment. We're going to take a pay by or purchasing more equipment. Yeah. So so part of the budget increase would include not only the staff, but a vehicle necessary to do the driving around with the team. Okay. And is there a specific area or route that they focus on? Again, we're primarily looking at are our main thoroughfares. So examples would be Long Beach Boulevard, Anaheim, PCH, Atlantic, both in throughout the areas of our of our city. So we believe that important corridors to add that we're not currently able to get to as frequently would be Santa Fe some of the areas on our west side up in north Long Beach Market, South Street. So there's a number of areas that we believe are a mix between residential and commercial corridors that that should be addressed with our clean teams. All right. Well, I look forward to a fiscal year of success. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Pearce. All right, there's been a challenge. I'm going to talk. For at least 15 minutes. Okay. Stacey, you ready? I want to just say that everybody that's the comments that have been said. I couldn't agree with more. And it's really. It's really great to come on to a council. Be here for a month and know that you guys have been doing so much work for the last several years. On trying to push the conversation around equity. Because what I've heard today is that people on this council want to prioritize equity over a lot of things. And so taking that frame, I'm not going to echo all the questions that have already been raised because I think they're really great questions, particularly the ones for our health department. I did want to ask, you know, knowing that that funding and when we all saw the $100,000, I think when we think about that being a priority number seems. Really small in comparison. To things that we're investing in, whether it's capital improvement projects that are, you know, obviously things that we need to invest in. But in my district, we have here City Hall where we've got Lincoln Park, we've got the convention center where we have tourists coming in. It is an issue that it's homelessness is an issue for the entire district, for the entire city. But thinking about the impacts here in downtown, thinking about our capital improvement budget, I wanted to just float out there that through future conversations as we can try to prioritize what we're investing in, I definitely want to say that I want to push the council and the staff to continue to prioritize the health department. If that means looking at our entire budget and looking at a project that could wait a while or could possibly, you know, isn't as urgent as we work with this fellow, trying to identify opportunities and funding sources to go big is something that that I want us to be able to do. And just from hearing the conversations that we've heard today, I wanted to ask, is there are there any grants out there that require matching dollars that we're missing out on? There were missing out on there are we actually for the tenure move care requires a 25% match, which we do match. There are some that there are others that are one for one match, like the emergency services grant. Emergency Solutions grant is a one for one match. So we we are we work very, very hard to make sure that we can meet those matches and to align the different resources to make that work. There are grants that around the more around the judicial system and things around substance abuse and those that are have a match that have very high match rates. And so we have chosen not we have chosen not to apply for them in the past because there are sort of a 50% to 100% match, and that's just not feasible. Okay. GAO would. Be interested if there are some on the 50%. Match just to. See those so we can start. You know, now that the counsel and folks seem to be prioritizing equity on these issues and if there are things that are there that we can make a decision to say, hey, if we all pull together a little bit and cut a little here, that we could get those grants. Because they come forward. That would be very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, everybody. On my. My health department stuff. So I'll keep it short on that. I did want to just ask one last question is, is the city doing any work with bridge housing? To try to identify new opportunities for bridge housing that aren't necessarily around. Drug rehab. That's what I mean. We do rapid rehousing and prevention programs, so we're connecting people through that. And we do have transitional housing. We have we're participating in housing across the spectrum. And is would you say that the biggest challenge is staffing? Like, instead of having five days a week, we have seven days a week of people going out and doing outreach. Or is the bigger challenge identifying housing that people can be in long term? That's a that's a good question. We have a we have a 24 hour hotline for folks who, you know, who can call in if they see somebody that they would like to have some support and outreach to. And we do do that outreach to our partners specific to, you know, if they're partners that are like the mental health America or the veterans U.S. vets, they have outreach workers specific to their population. And so if they're being served by them or if they will fit within their services, then they will help support us. But they won't do just on call outreach. So we do have some support around those efforts. Really, what it is, is, you know, many homeless. It takes a lot of time to go out and keep re approaching and keep re approaching. We can approach 15 times or it might be ten years before they decide to come in. And so we want to make sure that we have those resources available for them when that occurs. And so providing the the supportive housing, you know, the transition to permanent supportive housing is absolutely essential. All right. Thank you so much. I know you've been on the spot tonight for Shade It for our Parks and Rec. Thank you so much for all the work that you've done. Thanks for helping us out with our upcoming budget meeting. I really appreciate it. Just I guess my only comment here is a great job. I wanted to say that it seems like with our youth programing, it's something that both connects with violence prevention and crime reduction and making sure that there's any way that we're collaborating with our health department and with the council offices to try to get more sustained programing in our parks. And if that means for my office, identifying organizations that can come in and also fill that void that we definitely want to try to activate those parks as much as possible. Yeah, I'll leave that. At that one. Thank you so much. And then for Public Works, also, thank you so much for handholding with us the last month as we get up to speed on all the great work that you guys are doing for Measure $8, we've talked about slurring in the first year. We've had a lot a lot of residents asking about their their maps and and what streets are getting done from the get go. How can our residents identify which streets are going to be slurred in this first year? So I believe the maps are already up on our public works website and if they're not, we'll make sure that they're up next week. But we do have a map per year, one which is identified the street segments that we are planning to do from a slurry seal perspective. And we will be resurfacing one major corridor in year one. And that is Broadway. Thank you. We're excited about that. The one other question I have for you, Mr. Beck, is, you know, we talking a lot about trees lately, and we have a number of parkway trees, you know, the Lovett Focus Tree, which has been damaging some sidewalks. And we've done a removal of those trees. I wanted to find out what the cost are to remove bad trees before they they damage sidewalks. That that might be a broad question. But. I don't we don't normally take out a tree that isn't sick or causing some kind of either damage to the infrastructure or creating some other public safety hazard in as far as removal cost. It completely varies and it depends on the size of the tree. We did bring forward a council, a new tree trimming contract recently. And for those councilmembers, you may remember that all of the trimming costs depend on the trunk size of the tree. So, for example, Councilmember Mungo talked about some of the trees. They were Italian stone pines in the fifth District. They were very, very large trees. And those cost were much greater than maybe many of the trees we would normally address. Okay. Thank you. It's all my questions, everybody. Fantastic job. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Andrews. Fine, thank you. May I thought I waited for this time because I wanted to be less because of the fact I want to group everyone together. I just want to thank each and every one of you for doing such a fine job. And with that, I'll have my budget on the 30th, and you can come and ask any questions you like. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you all again for the presentations. It's budget season. So, you know, obviously meetings start a little bit later and fortunately during these these sessions for the budget. So with that, we're going to go right into the council meeting and public comment. But is there any public comment on the budget department that you just heard? Not general public comment. Please come forward and just go ahead. If you have a comment on the budget here, please come to the podium right now so we can do this expeditiously. Go ahead. Hi. I've never spoken to the city council before I came last year to speak, and there were 40 people talking about coyotes, and I had to go home to bed. I've been ill, but I was trying to do a lot of research last year. Okay. My name is Catherine Jeté. Four 4102 Cranston Court, Bixby Village, Susie Price's District. I'm speaking tonight about the budget for Parks and Recreation, Long Beach Animal Shelter. We bring animals in from Cerritos, Los Alamitos, SEAL Beach and Signal Hill. At the present time, this shelter has two part time vets half time, two full time registered vets for several hundred animals. The staff works tirelessly under the direction of Ted Stevens, who have made who has made such a huge difference toward the goal of having a no kill shelter. It is unconscionable that this many animals have actually one vet for all the sick and injured animals. The majority of residents in Long Beach, if you talk to them, have no idea that animals are being killed at the shelter. The SPCA is next door. They get very confused. They're actually horrified when I tell them. Last year I did my homework. The shelter received $56,000 more for the year 2016 of a $2.7 billion budget. I asked Ted Stevens for the facts from this year, January 1st to August 31st, how many animals were euthanized? 212 cats, 217 dogs, 469 kittens, and 495 other animals. Total animals killed in six months. 1393. For the budget every year, millions of dollars are given to various organization activities, studies, museums, one time trainings, etc.. I'm a former teacher of 39 years and kids are my first priority. These are all needed and important. But as a member from the shelter recently pointed out, these animals are alive and healthy. I doubt seriously if any of the city council members are regularly visiting the Long Beach shelter. Every time I go, I cry all the way home and go, What can I do? I'm not with an organization. I'm not with a rescue group. I'm just. One person. These animals are lost, afraid, and sometimes sick, just like the ads on TV that make us cry. The SPCA, L.A. gets lots of donations. They choose animal from the shelter. And in six months, they took 1099 animals. The problem is, is in the month of July, there was 700 animals, cats and dogs turned in 700. Mayor Garcia took office and had a meeting at the El Dorado Park last year, and many of the city's rescue groups were there. They were actually begging for help for the shelter. The mayor promised to help. I really think the many rescue. Groups are doing the. Majority of saving animals lives in our city every day. Mr. Ted Stevens. Told me one person can make a difference. That's why I'm here. I went to Ms.. Price's meeting last Saturday in my neighborhood. I'm very hopeful that those that were there and. Those tonight really help this. Problem. Thank you, ma'am. Tony Zoller, sorry about that. Okay. Thank you very much. And thank you for caring about our shelter animals as well. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Ramon. I'm in the, uh. The fifth district. In the past, I've. Been a little bit critical. Of some of the the way that the parks has Parks and Recreation has has been going. But now that I'm in, I'm standing here. Listening to all this stuff and seeing Marie, I am now very happy with all the way things go. I can't say enough. Praise for for Marie in. The way that she's handling. A lot of the the way the parks are going under the conditions that she's been under. She's been just doing a great job. I think she said she goes something like 160 emails a day. And I've been lucky that I got a couple of couple of ones that I sent. The only ones returned with actually correcting some of the assumptions that I had, which was great. And I'm giving a lot of the information that she's given me to the residential groups, and I'm really happy that the trees and the are getting trimmed. You know, we can see all that stuff. I have nothing but praise. That's just what I've seen in the last couple of months. It's just been great. We had a problem with with a branch falling from it were no park. It hurting somebody and it was a safety issue and everything started it looks like the tree trimming started taking place. So I'm sorry it had to take that long, but it's great. And I call today I spoke to someone in the mayor's office about the budget. Everybody's like totally on board with what's whatever's taking place, you know, a guy named Daniel, great guy and Stacy Mango. I mean, I know maybe this is kind of confusing to people, but Stacy Mango saying all this stuff about the the the. What more stuff got more. Money coming in for the water is great. And the only thing really that I would like to see is, is I'm trying to get residential support to try to get more water for our parks. I mean, a lot of people don't realize that we haven't even budgeted enough money to water our parks. I mean, this is what she's faced with, that 80%, she could only water 80% of the parks. I mean, this is ridiculous, you know, so and I'm not saying that to be critical of her, but I mean, is elected officials, I think you guys really got to help her get her funds that she needs. At least a lot of the park finished the tree trimming 1.1 million. 18,000 or something like that. Let's get it all done and and handle that. Those are the main, main issues. Re planting trees. I got some time left. I don't need it. But I mean, Stacy, I know you got to be surprised, but thank you for for for finally, you know. Getting this stuff organized and done. I appreciate it. And please try to help get some more water. All right. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good. You clearly as the address. I echo the gentleman's sentiments relative to our parks director doing a great job. Also, I'd like to echo the support of the lady that spoke before relative to our animal shelters, and I would offer the suggestion that I did last week when she made that presentation at the meeting. I would seriously. Request the City Council to consider a tax. On a minimal tax on pet food, I would think with the dollars going toward the projects you was talking about. My sense is any pet owner wouldn't mind paying a half cent or a cent or percent. When they go to buy their pet food. And I think that's those people that don't have pets may not do it, but I think enough pet owners in this city to or those that support it wouldn't mind paying a minimum tax on that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other budget from other departments that we spoke of today? Please come forward. Is there anyone else besides Mr. Boland who's going to speak? Okay. See, now, Mr. Boling would be the last speaker when closing this and then moving on to the council meeting. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And council learnable. And I want to address the issue of the homeless and the fire department's response to these homeless non-emergency calls. Other jurisdictions throughout the country have identified clusters of where non-emergency homeless calls were made. These clusters, then they put into that cluster of calls, an SUV with a nurse practitioner and an EMT. Right now, what we do is we send a $500,000 fire engine with four firefighters making from 175 to $200000 cost, plus two paramedics. We send six people to sometimes deliver a bandage to a homeless person. It seems fiscal insanity. So here's my thought. The fire department is at five years to do this to cost effectively help the homeless. Why don't we just have the money sent over to the Health Department? Let the Health Department put together the SUV with the nurse practitioner in the empty place. That vehicle or those vehicles were the clusters of the homeless are and deliver them the services they need to get at some reasonable price. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. And with that, we're going to go ahead and continue the budget hearing to the next budget hearing, which, again, will be at the start of the next meeting. And we're going to just take a minute to just a quick 30 minute, 30 minute, a quick minute recess to get the council agenda started here. Okay. And we'll start here in just a minute. Yeah. Okay. We are ready to recommence the city council meeting. Clerk Can you recall the roll call? Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Pearce. Councilwoman Price. Councilmember Superman. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrews. Councilmember Odinga. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. And I'm here. So now we're at the consent calendar. So let's go ahead and take up Ms.. Clarke, the consent calendar. Okay. So we have a motion by council member Urunga. Is there a second by Mungo? Let's go ahead and take public comment on the consent calendar items number two through 14.