Recommendation to request City Manager to work with the Department of Public Works to conduct a study exploring options to improve the private commercial waste hauling system in Long Beach, placing an emphasis on limiting inefficient overlapping truck routes, environmental, heath, and safety impacts, unnecessary wear and tear on local streets and alleys, and establishing a pipeline for local jobs and training. Secondly, request City Manager to issue a 5-year notification to City-permitted private waste haulers pursuant to California Public Resources Code Section 49520, and report back to the City Council on the progress semi-annually.
Thank you very much. So we're I know there was a long hearing. We're moving on to our second item, but I know most people are here for which is item 22. And so if I can have everyone else that's not here for that item, I can go ahead and exit from this last item. I'm not sure if there's more folks from item 22 in the outside or not still. There might. There are. So we're going to let them come in. And item 22, Madam Clerk, item 22. Item 22 is communications from Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Andrews and Councilmember Younger. Recommendation two requires the city manager to work with Department of Public Works to conduct a study exploring options to improve the private commercial waste hauling system in Long Beach. Okay. We're going to go ahead and. And start. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. I know there were. I need everyone to please. Conversations outside. Conversations outside, please. Thank you very much, Councilman Pierce. Yes? I have to recuse myself from this vote. Thank you. Thank you. Please continue. Is the item up. It's sort of the American. It's over now to Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you. And while we get set up, I know I know we have a presentation cued up. If we can have it. Place the presentation up. We'll get started. Okay. So let's go ahead and kick this thing off. So we're beginning we're beginning a conversation today about how to improve privately collected waste and recycling systems for larger businesses and apartments to make it cleaner, more modern and more responsible. Over the past year, community members from all across our city have stepped up and brought this issue to our attention, demanding that we give it a closer look. And as a major Californian city, it's our responsibility to do our diligence to make sure we're setting a standard for the region and driving a dialog on good jobs, a clean environment and a state sustainable community. And that's why it's important for Long Beach to take a good, hard look at our own practices internally as it relates to commercial waste hauling. So currently in the city of Long Beach, there are two different waste systems. The city of Long Beach responsible for collection. That's single family and small multifamily dwellings, less than ten units and separately, the city permits 15 waste haulers to collect waste and recyclables from commercial haulers and larger, larger apartment buildings over ten units. And while Long Beach's municipally collected system provides award winning service, including recycling for all customers. There are opportunities to improve the performance of the privately collected nonexclusive franchise system in our city, and indeed, in doing so, improve the public safety, reduce pollution and community impacts like wear and tear on our roads and improve local jobs . Three Family Sustaining Careers in the Current System. Customers set up their own contracts with one of the 15 different nonexclusive franchise haulers. Long Beach residents, particularly those in multi-family residences or that live near commercial corridors, are exposed to quality of life impacts due to inefficient, overlapping waste routes. This means some of our communities are overburdened with trash collection seven days a week rather than having just one trash day like the majority of us. This is this is a single issue. This is an issue of particular concern in dense neighborhoods where families without private yards or near parks may play. You know, families and youth may play along sidewalks, streets and alleys where these trucks constantly pass on a daily basis. These overlapping truck routes are not only a public safety concern, but also a concern for impacts on local infrastructure, according to a report commissioned by Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission entitled The Pothole Report and referenced by the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego during their studies. Heavy vehicles such as trucks and busses put more, far more stress on our pavement than does a typical car. In fact, pavement engineers have found that one trash truck pickup exerts 9000 times the stress on pavement than does a typical SUV. This, you know, this waste, this wastes taxpayer dollars by damaging the very, very roads that we're attempting and elected to repair. With misery. And undermining and undermining our investments in our bike infrastructure and our walkable pedestrian improvements and in our efforts to make create a more livable city. Many of our communities, many of our communities are already overburdened with with air pollution and air quality problems as well. Overlapping truck routes can also contribute to higher levels of pollution. While city requires private haulers to have CNG trucks, these trucks are not zero emission contrary to people's belief, and release significant carbon dioxide into the into the environment. Overlapping routes also contribute to significant noise with trash trucks, industrial engines, machine arms and backup alerts disrupting our neighborhoods multi time multiple times a week. Here's a real example of my district in the neighborhoods across from Highland Park. Hey, boss. 1/2. Can we get. I'm hearing a lot of noise from outside, so I don't know. Someone from our staff and someone close the doors. Is there someone from the staff. I can barely hear? I'll just proceed. Thank you. So here's a real example. In my district, a neighborhood adjacent to Highland Park, across from Horton Park, where we have a number of multifamily apartments anchored by two shopping centers to the north and the south. There are seven different trash companies in just a few blocks, less than a third of a mile. 12 different companies, 12 different contracts with these seven companies. And let's say, conservatively, that these hog haulers pick up waste twice a week. Some of them do more, but let's say conservatively, only twice a week. That would mean an estimated two dozen trips just in this small neighborhood every week. The pavement stress of that, you know, of the overlapping is like having a quarter million SUV trips each week in terms of wear and tear on our streets, in terms of air quality. Those 24 trips are equivalent to burning £32 of coal per mile, and some of them are hauling that trash as far as Orange County or Sun Valley. And in terms of quality of life, those particular neighborhoods are disrupted by loud trucks pretty much every day of the week. This is not just a public safety issue and a quality of life issue. It's also an environmental issue. Long Beach is one of the few large cities that currently doesn't have a zero waste plan. And while I know it's been in discussion, it's important that we leverage the commercial waste sector, divert and recycle as much as it possibly can. Right now, the private recycling rate is less than 20%, according to reports. Trash company submitted to the city as recently as 2013, while at the same time a residential program which is managed here in our city is exceeding state requirements, with a 74% diversion rate, 74% for residential, less than 20% reporting on commercial. That's a dramatic difference. The city requires private haulers to provide recycling at no additional cost. However, surveys concert conducted by Cal State, Long Beach and UC students, UC Santa Cruz students and the low recycling rate reported to our city signal that not all of our businesses and our apartments have recycling options available, and private haulers are sending over 100,000 tons to landfills each year in the city of Long Beach. This means our businesses are losing out on the savings that they could get by increasing recycling, which will allow them to significantly reduce how much trash the trash pick up they actually need. The low recycling rate will keep us from our goals and also emit greenhouse gases, undermining all the good work Long Beach has done to curb our emissions and to fight climate change. Most of the businesses in apartments, food and green waste ended up in the landfill in lots there instead of going to hungry people or being composted into new soil. And because of this rotting food and waste, landfills are the second largest cause of methane, which is the second largest contributor contributor to climate change. That's how it's all connected as a city. There are recent state laws that we need to get ahead of and we need to be able to lead as a city . Long Beach has been an environmental leader. We can do better by holding the private sector accountable to the same high standards that our great programing and education that our city provides with our residential waste system. But we're not alone. The state of California, according to AB 341, has a state waste reduction goal of 75% by 2020. AB 1826 mandates that organic waste recycling services for businesses and large apartments by 2019 and for most other businesses by 2021. There's also a state mandate to get organic waste like food and yard trimmings out of the landfill and either compost it or get what's edible to people who need it. A study from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that waste and recycling refuse collection ranks fifth among the most dangerous industries nationwide. And because of the race to the bottom in terms of pricing, pressure is placed on haulers to cut corners on basics like safety equipment, vehicle maintenance and training. Working conditions at certain in certain certain environments are unsafe. And for, for instance, in recent years, Long Beach has suffered a partial amputation and a fatality while on the job . And because there's not the city of Long Beach, but, you know, in the city of Long Beach with our commercial waste program and, you know, but there's an opportunity to for these jobs to become careers if they're safe, family sustaining. And, you know, and, you know, if they continue to maintain high standards. The problems we outlined are not going to create themselves. We have to build the. Systems to make the commercial sector cleaner and safer while placing Long Beach on course to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. There's only one way to address overlap in truck routes, and that's with the zone collection system. Using an exclusive franchise, the study. We should study this system to see how we can make it work for the city of Long Beach. Other cities like Anaheim, Seattle, San Jose, Santa Clarita, West Hollywood all have this type of system. San Diego, Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank are all exploring this system in this type of system, instead of every different building, having a separate set up, a separate contract with a separate waste holler. There will be a limited number of haulers per area. So using our same example of the neighborhood adjacent to Halton Park, a conservative twice a week average, this could mean going from two dozen truck trips per week to just two truck trips a week. Let's say four truck trips a week. This means more efficient routing safer, more consistent trash days, air and air and air quality and noise quality improvements, and genuinely, generally a safer, healthier neighborhood for both renters and homeowners alike. In this system, we can drive our recycling goals, work with our businesses to increase their recycling, roll out compost collection to those who want it or require to have it. Many cities like San Diego, New York, Los Angeles have found through studies that this would be the best type of system to meet their zero waste goals. The city of San Jose saw the commercial recycling rate triple after they adopted this type of system. Like I mentioned earlier, this can be dangerous. And this, you know, the drive to the bottom could create low paying jobs, but they can also be sanitation careers under the right conditions. These type of jobs could provide a young person from a neighborhood with the means to support a family, even if he didn't go to college and establish him as a local hero and part of people's everyday lives, doing important work to keep our city clean, our streets safe. I'll give you an example. When I was a kid in Alabama, I knew my local school bus driver. His name was Odie McCracken. And, you know, while he had a funny name, people respected him. Everybody knew their driver. And the reality is, simply put, driving was and still can be a very respectable trait. And right now, an 18 year old currently currently has to navigate a number of different companies where we are in a position as a city to create a direct pipeline. And I would rather see our 18 year olds, our young adults being assisted to have to find a skill tree to provide for the family rather than being left on their own to to sort of navigate these systems on their own and slip out a slip out of the pipeline. And with an exclusive franchise system, we can explore how to work with companies through the request for proposals process to create a pipeline through educational institutions like our current truck driving training program at Lobby City College for a local training and jobs pipeline. By the time the new system would be in place five years from now, this could be a $60,000 a year job based on existing what people are paid today. Five years from now, this could be $60,000 a year jobs with benefits and retirement. Additionally, studies have shown that recycling can create about ten times as many jobs as disposal. And there are also opportunities for small businesses and community organizations, including women and minority owned businesses, to subcontract and partner with haulers for things like e-waste or community outreach. In this in this type of system, the city has more tools to keep haulers accountable for these good quality jobs, for recycling and composting, and for high standards for community service. Haulers don't just risk losing 1 to 1 contract if they underperform or if they're not doing a good job, they could lose an entire zone. So they won't. So they are financially inclined to make the system work and work well in order to keep that business. It's a great system for haulers too, because they can save money by being more efficient. Good. Good terms on loans have more certainty in the marketplace, and most haulers that do business in Long Beach have have multiple contracts in other cities. In this type of system, the city can also cap dramatic rate increases and negotiate with haulers to have transparent, fair and stable rates. So who do we think will? Who do you think will get a better deal? A local coffee shop negotiating on their own for weekly collection rate or working together with the entire zone on behalf of thousands of customers. Simply put, small guys don't have the buying power to drive down rates or achieve economies of scale like they could if they were if they were put together like the health care exchange. If they negotiate together, you can get a better rate. Experts have found consistently that types of debt, this type of system that we're considering, could stabilize customer rates. In our current type of system, there's no baseline rate. There's no consistent price for service the way that there is for gasoline or milk. L.A. County cities with exclusive franchise and waste systems have been able to protect customer rate payers with an average rate increase by less than a cumulative 9% from 2000 to 2010 and real dollars compared to dramatic increase increases in the industry costs. This was in a study of over 30 exclusive franchise cities in L.A. County. Eight exclusive franchise cities, including Beverly Hills Salt, saw rates decrease from 22 to 2010. Rates remain stable for exclusive franchise customers because contracts prevent haulers from dramatic rate rate and could increased rates. Haulers submit competitive bids from the City Review and approve, and the city negotiates rates and potential increases in their contracts. Like example fixing it to the rate of inflation. Long term exclusive agreements allow haulers more security efficiency, access to low cost financing, the ability to amortize costs, helping to continue to keep rates low. So we should be in a position to lead in our city and not follow. We should be able to get ahead of the requirements in terms of organics collection, diversion, recycling, and leverage this to create real job opportunities. A vision for a cleaner, more responsible system. Haulers will put pen to paper to innovate and create programs and benefits in order to win our contract and win our business, such as establishing job training programs or working with our food recovery groups to rescue edible food because before it gets thrown away. A great example of an opportunity that I know means a lot to some of our fellow council members is around food recovery. We've got some great organizations here in Long Beach already doing this great work, but there's even more work to be done. The most conservative estimates of what what's possible when it comes to food recovery is that we can recover over 620,000 meals per year if we were able to recover 20% of our food waste and give it to hungry families as laid out by SB 1383, it can mean over 8 million meals per year. And that's that's just on the commercial side. It's more more than enough to feed every family on Long Beach. Three meals a day. 20%. So 20% of the states estimate that nearly a quarter of Long Beach commercial waste is food waste. So, you know, that's where that metric comes from. So so let's let's take a minute and just, you know, have a conversation about setting the record straight and distinguishing between the myths that have been out there and the facts. So first, one myth has come up and I received a lot of emails and phone calls with a lot of just mistruths and facts out there. So I figured, let's just go ahead and try to address them and maybe maybe hit a set a lot of minds at risk. So one, this proposal one myth is that this proposal will impact city jobs. Well, the fact is, this proposal is for one side of the business. This is for private nonexclusive franchise collection system that serves larger businesses and apartments. Only city crews. Our city crews still have the ability to service commercial large businesses as well and maintain a residential program. Myth number two, this wouldn't be competitive and would lead to a monopoly. Monopoly. Number one, the proposed system would be highly competitive and ensure only the highest performing companies operate in Long Beach. Number two, we're not prescribing a specific model. We are going to we're going to come back through the process of this study and further define what this model looks like. Next, six of the 15 permanent haulers are really one company, and just three companies do around 70, 75% of the business in our city. So the market is already consolidating. So the argument of going down to $3, that doesn't make any sense because we're already naturally going down to three companies on behalf of thousands of businesses. The city will able to. Hold hold. Haulers accountable for the best customer service and most customer rates, most fair customer rates. And let's remember, there's already a public option in our city without our city haulers who are not burdened to drive corporate profits and help stabilize the market. There's nothing that keeps if someone says, my, my rate skyrocket that you can always go with the public option, the city option that helps regulate the pricing. So so that's a myth. And there are so many things we can do to help regulate that next. This will put waste haulers out of business. Let's have a conversation about that. So, number one, this system can be designed in a way that works for Long Beach, such as a zone for smaller to incubates, incubate smaller companies, smaller haulers, or subcontracting opportunities for smaller haulers. The larger haulers would be fine. Some of these large companies own millions of dollars worth of landfills, and processing facilities have lucrative contracts. And dozens of other cities. They're not going out of business. Next, anything you hear about how much rates will go up is an unsubstantiated rumor. This system can protect customers from future rate increases and dispersal costs as dispersal costs increase due to closing landfills and as customers are required to sign up for organic services. The city can set caps on rate increases and negotiate establishing of fair rates to make sure no one gets gouged, such as for new state requirements for composting and collection services. Transparent rates also benefit small businesses. These type this type of system ensures rates are more stable over time. So moving moving forward, I just have a number of just, you know, sort of focusing and directing questions that I just want to give to staff. So, so on the issue of the five year notice, I've heard a lot about whether we need to do this five year notice or not. And I and I want to put this within the context of a timeline. So, number one, city manager, how long did it take us? Does it typically take us to craft reforms to large systems? And let's use an example of the billboard ordinance. How long did that take? I'm going to. Bring Craig back, the Public Works Director, to answer the questions regarding refugees, regarding the billboard company after the city council. Had a direction to actually do electronic billboards that took about two and a half years. You concur? Correct. Mr.. Public Works Director. Two and a half years. Sounds about right. Ah, no. I wasn't involved. In the Billboard program. I think doing a study as you're proposing this evening would probably take in the one and a half to two and a half year range. Okay. Analyze, bring that to council and implement. So, so let's say two and a half years. Let's say that we go through a process and evaluate and study and then the city council in a smooth way and a smooth process. We we agree. And two and a half years on what this model looks like. And at that point, we put forward a five year notice. Now you're talking about seven and a half to eight years before anything can even be implemented. And implementation typically takes a fair amount of time. Would that be fair to say, Mr. City Manager. Again, depending on the type of changes that we're talking about. Yeah, there is going to be a transition time frame. If you look at what the city did with the refuge contract we had allocated somewhere in the 6 to 9 month time frame, if in fact the city went with a different vendor than what was currently servicing the routes. So we did two and a half years to study and then a five year notice and then nine months to implement. We're at we're over eight years until anything changes in the city. And for that reason, that would place us, you know, well into 2025. And our state mandates are required to be implemented in 2025. Other mandates are required prior to that as early as 2021. So that's why it makes sense. It makes reasonable sense to do your study and your five year notice concurrently if we're going to make it. If the idea was to stall this thing, then that would make sense. What our goal is to actually tackle this issue and put forth a model that people can live with. Then we should evaluate and issue notice while we do the study concurrently. So we make a decision. We are ready to pull the trigger and begin implementation next. I know there's a lot of models and options that the City Council can consider. What will be the next steps and and with the Council have an opportunity to weigh in and suggest elements to include in the study before we actually move forward. So what are our next steps after today? Should this motion pass? Well, I would anticipate, Councilmember, that the next steps would be, depending on what is ultimately voted on here tonight, is that we would put together a team that would evaluate how to move forward. We would look to some of the cities that you listed here this evening for the plans that they put in place. We have a big brother next door in L.A. who's who went through a similar effort. And we would evaluate how they were able to successfully do that and where they had challenges. And we would come back to council and make a recommendation on how best to move forward and implement and try to provide to the best of our ability where there would be challenges and where we think there would be successes. So so would there be additional opportunities for the City Council to provide input on this, whether it's through the budget process or through the process we're prescribing? As far as I understand what you're proposing. Yes. That Council is only directing us to come back with a recommendation study the study what you're proposing this evening and come back with a recommendation and how potentially to implement it. At which time the council would take action on either, yes, implementing an exclusive franchise system or not implementing an exclusive franchise. And I would think there would even be a step before that. I mean, a study could theoretically require have cost the city council that they would have to sort of vote on that study and how we fund that study through our budget process. Correct. I think depending on the course of study, yes. If it exceeded the manager's threshold and yeah, we would have to come to council and request approval to enter into a contract to conduct a setting. Okay. And with that contract, come the city council. Does that depend on how much how much it costs? Correct. Okay, great. So we could very easily say, look, before the contract goes out, bring it back to city council. That's something that would be fair to say, right? Correct. Okay. So. So there will be additional opportunities for the city council or anyone else to say, hey, these are elements I want to make sure are encompassed in this study. So we have a full range of options before we select our model next. There's been rumors that some that this is somehow an underhanded attempt to contract out the city's waste residential waste program. Let's be clear. We have the ability to have a conversation and study one side of the business, the commercial side, without impacting the residential side. If there was an impact, there are legal processes we have to take before that happens. So, Mr. City Attorney, is there a way to bifurcate and say, we just want to talk about commercial waste, we're not impacting city jobs, city workers or the city or anyone who's comfortable with their basic single family residential program. Is there a way to bifurcate and make sure we focus on one in a way that doesn't impact the other? Mayor Member City Council The way I understand the council item and the recommended action, yes, you are in essence bifurcating that tonight. If you wanted to look at or discuss the city municipal waste system, you have a charter section 1806, commonly known as Prop L, and you would have to take additional steps to and make certain findings before you could consider that contracting services. So given those those provisions of the charter and Prop L, it's safe to say banning additional some intentional action, though that side of the business is safe. We're exploring uniquely one side of this business, just the commercial waste portion, correct? That depends on how the motion goes tonight. But as I understand it, that you've articulated it so far. Sure. Great. So. So, look, you know, this is an important conversation. It's obviously impacts multiple businesses. It impacts residents. But it's important conversation to have in a city our size. And rather than run away from the conversation or to villainize one side or the other. Let's be adults. Let's have an honest conversation about it and go through this process together and make a meaningful, meaningful recommendation, put forth a meaningful model, and try to create some good public policy. So so I submit my motion as written and asked for my my colleagues support. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. We have a. We have a second on that motion, which is Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes. If it's okay, I'd like to go to public comment. If we can do that first. I know a lot of people have been waiting, so thank you for being so patient and coming back. Okay. We're going to go ahead. Go ahead. And a public comment on this issue. Please come forward. I am and just listen. And just so everyone knows, we actually we're going to lose one of the council members in about an hour. And so I'm going to go ahead and limit public comment to 2 minutes from from the get go. And if I have to limit to one minute, we'll go down to one minute. I want to make sure that for council's here to discuss the issue. So let's add any objection. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. This is Robert Fox, executive director of CONO, the Council of Neighborhood Organizations. I appreciated having a private conversation with councilman of the ninth District. And I believe that we came to an agreement that a study would be an interesting thing, and I'd like to be part of that . A number of business people in the city would like to be part of that conversation and not left out. We want to see the city come back to a community based management style, and I think we came to concurrence with that. And I hope that you're nodding to say that. Yes, that's true. The question that, of course, I still have on the table here is giving the five year notice. So I understood your timeline as you just articulated it. And it was one of the reasons I called our city attorney this morning to find out was there a deadline that we had to give that five year notice today? And according to Mr. Parkin, we do not have a timeline where we have to do this at any time. It's our choice. It's a political choice to make. Here's my concern and the concern of. If we give a five year notice, which is basically a termination notice to contract as it is, because that's the only way it's written in the contract, there will be companies who have consolidated already and decided maybe this game is already tilted to the wrong direction or to somebody else's direction and they will exit the market. So at the end of our five year term, we will only have one hauler left to deal with. Our concern is to keep a market competition in the city of Long Beach to avoid any kind of a percentage increase. Because unfortunately, I do have a disagreement with your percentages of increase in other cities which have adopted such a plan. We've seen a 200% increase in trash hauling from Los Angeles, and they're not even implementing the program yet. It'll be two months to six months before they're done. Thank you. We should study that first before we make it five year. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening, city council members. My name is Linda Serafin. I'm on the board of the Aluminum. Beach Neighborhood. Association and. Which is a member of the donation. Which coalition? I really appreciate the presentation. I'll be reiterating some of those points. I'm committed to. Improve the quality of life for the community and see that the city of Long Beach reaches its full potential. My vision for Long Beach is for it to have a structure to support citywide recycling and eventually composting while creating good green jobs for all. One of the ways we can achieve this is to have a. Structure to supports. One of the ways we can achieve this vision is by transforming. The way we deal with our waste and increase access to recycling in our commercial. Sector. Some of the complaints. I hear from fellow residents is includes overfilled trash bins and lack of access to recycling. This results in waste being washed into storm drains and into our oceans, all the while making our streets look dirty and unappealing. If more folks had access to recycling and organic compost bins bins earlier for less quickly and more jobs would be created as recycling creates ten times more jobs. Landfilling. Lastly, our commercial system suffers from insufficient and inefficient truck routing, which we saw in the presentation. There are 15 companies who. Service our commercial sector, and this creates chaos. On our streets and in our alleyways. We see firsthand how waste trucks contribute to the erosion of our alleys. While causing air and noise. Pollution. We like to see more efficient routing as it will help preserve our neighborhoods and increase quality of life. We support the don't waste line which campaign because we see the positive impact it would have in our neighborhood. If we're serious. Serious about reaching a zero waste goal and the vision I've described here. It is really important that we issue a five year notice today and work towards a zero waste goal. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I own 851 Grand Avenue and it's a four unit apartment. We have 26% expenses in four years. We put 100% back. Any increase is detrimental to our business. I had an opportunity to invest with my daughter up in Oakland and we experienced a similar plan. If everything works like Councilman Richards says, it'll be a beautiful thing. However, in Oakland, rates went up 150 50%. The bins are smaller. You can't even get material in it. A lot of people just dump on the street. That's the reality. There's a $101.5 billion lawsuit. Okay. And I have that lawsuit and I'd like to distribute that to the city council. It's definitely not the best practice. OC And but if you can make it a better practice, I can cheer you on and I hope you can. And thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Council members and Mayor Garcia. My name is Saucony. I am the volunteer coordinator for Surfrider Foundation in Long Beach chapter and we are also a member of the Don't Long Beach Coalition. I also live in Long Beach all my life and that's a total of 26 years, believe it or not. So Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and and enjoyment of the world's ocean waves and beaches through a powerful activism network. And we are committed to preserving our beaches as such. I have been part of several beach cleanups in Long Beach and have noticed how much trash and polystyrene litters our local beaches . Part of what contributes to this pollution is that we have a commercial waste and recycling system that doesn't provide everyone with access to recycling and and results in more materials being wasted or washed down our storm drains and onto our beaches. The city should take strong action in areas that are under the city's control, such as the waste and recycling system, and ensure that everyone in Long Beach has access to recycling. Currently, our city does not have a local zero waste goal and uses an outdated framework that does not include strong goals or benchmarks to ensure that we increase cycling. I encourage you. All. To create a local zero waste goal and transform our current waste hauling system by adopting an exclusive franchise model to ensure that we protect our environment, including our local beaches. But this can only happen if you begin the process by passing a five year notice. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker. Is. Hello. My name is Shane Whitehead. I live in an area called Midtown. I formed a neighborhood association about six months back, so I'm very interested in keeping the neighborhood clean. I am very interested in zero waste. I am very interested in seeing a clean neighborhood. My concern, like Robert said, is the timeline that you're implementing and that the numbers I'm seeing don't match up to some of the things that you're suggesting. Also, another one of my concerns is when you talk about overlapping routes and the terrible condition of the knot, that's just not something that I've seen when I don't get my trash collected. I wish there were multiple days that somebody would come back and get it, but quite frankly, it's always there until the next week. So some of the things you're describing are not things that I've witnessed in 20 years of living in Long Beach. So while I really agree that you absolutely have set a wonderful goal and it's something that we need to see in all our neighborhoods, I'm not sure that the five year notice is the most effective way of doing it, and I don't think it's necessary right now. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Mike Murchison. You know, I represent quite a few rental property owners and businesses in Long Beach. I can tell you that we've had long discussions with the vice mayor. We applaud his passion for this issue. We are concerned. Moving forward, however, we are going to support the notification as we believe that's probably the most effective way to get information at least discussed between all parties. The biggest issue I think the vice mayor needs to be. Careful of is what's going on in Los Angeles. If there's ways to get factual information out of L.A. as to what the impact is financially on those businesses and real property owners, we need to hear it, number one. Number two, and rest assured, vice mayor, as we go through this discussion over the next 18 to 24 months, rental property owners and businesses are not going to be supportive of anybody that has a sole source opportunity in a zoned area. It will have to be a competitive environment. It will have to be something that the city does not set the price nor the bar. This has to be done through the private sector. I encourage you as you move forward with open dialog. I appreciate that. I hope it works out for you. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, Speaker, please. Yes, my name is Robert Pete from California. Great again. And Mayor. Hey, that was cool. I use the black folks pictures up there, but come on, this ain't taking black folks out of the depression. We're not at all. That's going to bring prices up. This is a union issue. Straight union? Oh, yeah. There's going to be union. And, you know, you hooked up with some union stuff. You know, that's what I heard. I don't know. I could be wrong, but, hey, this is no good, no new. You put this on at any rate. Hey, this is no good. No good, no good. It's going gonna put the little man under. You didn't talk about the little guys losing job get ran out, and the big the big guys just taking over. This is basically socialism. What happened to free market? This used to be America. I mean, I'm a little older, but you younger generations, all of a sudden just want a socialist on us. I'm not for that. I'm a capitalist. I'm free market. Let's keep America red, white and blue, not red with a hammer. Sickle. No, no. This is going to hurt me. I don't I don't own a red mass that's going to go up. And what about the other renters? All of the same owners. So, hey, you know better than this. This ain't going to help no black folks. And that's what I was last time. I don't see too much line. It doesn't hurt black folks if I'm the head of the black coalition. Now, come on now. And you just said, man, we got to do what's right, Hussein. Right. Just like some other stuff. Just cause eviction ain't right. Can't get rid of a drug dealer. Oh, what a start. Rent control. Hey, right now, you know, it's going to do it's going to do the same thing we did in Frisco, New York, Santa monica. So come on, get in socialism. Let's stay with. Free market and capitalism. And I got about 10 seconds. What's up with Jeanine Pirro saying happy birthday? You guys know her? Ask her why she said happy birthday to Karl Marx. This is America. I'm through. Yeah. It makes me happy. I didn't know it. Good evening. My name is Annika Swenson, and I'm speaking on behalf of Long Beach three. Would you mind just to make a little bit closer? Thank you very much. My name is Monica Swenson, and I'm speaking on behalf of Long Beach 350, which is a proud member of the Don't Waste Long Beach Coalition. Our core principles focus on establishing a healthy climate and a prosperous and equitable world built through the power of ordinary people. We're excited that Long Beach is taking the initiative to become a more sustainable city. But essential to becoming a more sustainable city is establishing concrete goals and benchmarks to measure our progress. The city should take strong actions in areas that are under its control, such as the commercial waste and recycling system. The city has the opportunity to ensure that everyone in Long Beach has access to recycling in compost collection and that we work towards zero waste. Currently, as the vice mayor pointed out, our commercial recycling rate is less than 20%. Long Beach does not have a local zero waste goal and uses an outdated framework that does not include strong benchmarks to ensure that we increase recycling. Unless we change this, we cannot expect to improve our commercial recycling rate. And as we know, when our recycling rate is low, we increase our dependance on an ever shrinking supply of natural resources, which is unsustainable for Long Beach and for the planet. We encourage you to create a local zero waste goal and to transform our current waste hauling system by adopting an exclusive franchise model to ensure that we meet this goal. And as the vice mayor pointed out, other cities are similar in size to Long Beach, have already adopted exclusive franchise systems and are reaping the benefits of increased recycling rates. We believe that we can achieve the vision set forth by Mayor Garcia, which includes having access to good jobs in a clean environment. But in order to fulfill this vision, we need to establish concrete steps that help us move forward. We need 21st century solutions for 21st century problems, and that begins by passing a five year notice. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Council. Mayor My name is David Hernandez, and I just came to offer some little bit of information. Over 40 years ago, a Hispanic husband and wife with the pickup truck and a couple of trash cans started the first Hispanic trash company in City of Los Angeles. They, through hard work and good service, they accumulated 300 customers in West Los Angeles and have over 600 trash bins out there. The husband died last December, leaving his wife and two sons to run the business. They did not receive one of the franchises in Los Angeles. The company that did it was a large company that got three franchises, Jones and $1,000,000,000 contract. She and her family got nothing and is going out of business. What I bring to you today going forward, where Los Angeles did not look at going forward when they were in the position you were in, is that you as a chartered city and Los Angeles, as a charter city, can do what you want to do, especially with these noble goals and objectives. But there is a state mandate with Proposition. 218. That lays out the constitutional guidelines on how it can be done, which Los Angeles did not do. And you as a municipality can take someone's property through eminent domain. How and. Turn it over to another private company for the Keough decision. But they have to be compensated for their loss of property and business. So going forward, in listening to what the assistant city manager said. Absolutely. Watch what Los Angeles did and did not do. The lawsuit that is about to be filed against Los Angeles for a violation of Proposition 218 and unlawful taking. Watch the decision going through the courts in Santa Barbara. And then as you go forward, go forward and set the example of how to do this correctly. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next week, a police. Good evening, council members, community and Mayor. My name is Karen Reside and I'm a proud member of the Long Beach Gray Panthers and not be a part of the Don't Waste Long Beach Coalition. I have dedicated most of my working life working to ensure our senior citizens receive access to resources that allow them to live full and meaningful lives. I joined the Don't Waste Long Beach Coalition because I see the flaws that exist in Long Beach, says current commercial waste and recycling system and how it impacts people in my neighborhood. Thank you for showing a picture of our alley in your presentation by which we have 4 to 6 trucks a day going through that alley almost on a daily basis, disrupting our peace and quiet. I live in an apartment complex directly across from that L.A. Park Pacific Tower on seventh and Pacific. And when we took surveys of the tenants for our tenants association, the number one issue they wanted to see was recycling in our building. Although the city has a requirement that large buildings, multi-family buildings have recycling available, we do not in our building. I truly believe that Long Beach can do better and we can't afford not to. Having a more efficient system and greater access to recycling would bring many benefits to our community. In order to achieve this lofty goals, we need to begin the process today. Council Members, I encourage you to be bold and to take the first step by passing this five year notice. Let's put language on a clear path. Towards. Zero waste. Our city and planet depend upon it. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Roman. I'm from District five. I'd like to compliment Rex Richardson for. For bringing this forward. I, too. I was impressed with the presentation that he made only well in the fact that many of the concepts that he put forward are very similar concepts that I have that I did with many of the companies that I work for in terms of process improvement and spms, which is supplier measurement systems that I put in place. A lot of my my work has become in the industry standards as well. A lot of the buzzwords are there. You know, I haven't seen any of the physical documentation that's there, but I, I support you know, I understand supplier reduction. That's another thing that, you know, I help put forward. He said a lot of stuff about the systems and stuff, which I haven't seen actually the system that he created. I've worked also with governments on a higher level and more of a federal level, but I do agree with this one. PRESENTER When he did mention Proposition 218 in. An awful taking or unlawful notice. So I do agree that that we need to hesitate a little bit on the five year notice. And I don't want to see anyone make a lot of mistakes. And in going forward, this also doesn't take into account some of the roofing contracts. This is a commercial thing, roofing contracts and some of the landscape type people, the small guys that are helping with some of the other things, their commercial, I assume they fall into that category. So I mean, that's about it. I don't have much time, but I hope that we can work together with with RECs and and helps work on the statement of work. Thank you very much to move. Forward next week or please. Hey, good evening, Mayor. City Council Members. My name is Walker Rivera, program director of Libra. I want to thank Vice Mayor Richardson for the wonderful presentation, all the great research, all the stats, all that wonderful copious note taking. And thank you very much for the myth busting. Oh, that was fantastic. I really, really appreciate it that I am speaking today in favor of the policy recommendations and the five year recommendation as well for improving our waste hauling system. As Lieber, you all know that we advocate for renters and we're continuously supporting anything that will benefit renters of Long Beach in our work, we constantly see the costs being passed down to our renters from utility increases, maintenance and repairs, and in many cases, refuse collection. So we see this more often with smaller mom and pop property owners who often have to pay higher rates while subsidizing the larger property owners. And of course, these higher costs are typically passed down to the renters, and an exclusive franchise can ensure rates don't explode on an annual basis and further passing them down to our renters . A more efficient system which protects our infrastructure and is more environmentally friendly, will make it safer and healthier for our renters to live. Setting caps not only protects our renters, but also landlords from rate gouging, especially for smaller mom and pop property owners. For those that say that they are in support of renters and the cost of their living, if they really do care, then they should be here supporting this policy recommendation along with things such as just cause and rent control. It's shameful to hear that these folks are hiding behind their own renters. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Mayor and council members. I'm Janice future and I'm representing Long Beach Town Center at 7575 Carson Boulevard. This evening, I think we've heard a lot about the noble pursuit of the city, wanting to find ways to figure out the best way to recycle, the best way to avoid pollutants, the best way to keep things out of our landfill. The point I would like to make is one size does not fit all. And I think that we have various cities and municipalities that have tried a lot of different things. And I would tell you that they're on the bleeding edge versus the cutting edge. And I guess what I would like to say is that I would hope that who could not be for a study? I think a study is a wonderful thing to do, but I would hope that we would engage stakeholders in the community that have a vested interest in small businesses and the success of those small businesses as they're driven out of our park city, in our state, owing to high prices and regulation. So what I would like to to suggest is that we one, as we consider this study, that we do not put the cart before the horse and that perhaps we come up with the plan before we give a notice about a plan . So thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please stop being reasonable. Good evening. My name is Diana. Lyon and I am vice president of Food Finders. Fruit Finders is an organization. That is. Serving the community of Long Beach for 28 years. We also serve L.A. County, all of L.A.. County, Orange County and San Bernardino. I am also a resident of District five. I've been in Long Beach now for 23 years. We're also a big partner in Don't Waste Long Beach food finders is recovered over £131 million of food. In our 28 years of. Operation. We're proud of what we do, but we still have a very long way to go. Food makes up 40% of what ends. Up in a landfill. Every year. 40% could feed a lot of needy people in Long Beach. This food provides this food can provide much needed food to those in need. A zero waste policy in Long Beach will change how we deal with waste. It will require retailers serving Long Beach to partner with food agencies like food finders. As part of the zero zero waste policy that passed in L.A., we were able to partner with a holler that received a contract. Through this partnership, we. Received enough money to purchase a brand. New truck, pay for a driver, and also pay for the maintenance of this vehicle. We would not have been able to get that money without this contract where we're now going to be able to pick up a lot more food in L.A. County. We're going to be able to feed a lot more people. Today, we encourage our city council to pass this five year notice and transform our commercial. Waste and recycling system. We really can't wait. It's going to take eight and a half years before we even see anything. That's too long. Our current and future generations depend on us to make sure that Long Beach passes a zero waste policy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Speaker, please. A video address on file. I'll be brief. The one thing that caught my attention was the aspect of providing a $60,000 job for the people that would be driving the trucks. I think that's really great because then I think he'd be able to pay the trash bill. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, honorable mayor and esteemed council members. My name is Jeff Snow. I'm with Republic Service and I am a native son of Long Beach. This is a great city. Growing up attending Birmingham Elementary School, I thought the sky was brown. Today the sky is beautiful and blue here. We have done great things in improving our air quality and environmental conditions for our children in the city. Recently we've seen lots of great white sharks and we've seen pods of orcas and we have an otter paddling around Huntington Harbor. These are all incredible achievements for us as we've cleaned up our coastal waters. Now it's time that the City of Long Beach address our natural, solid resources. Some people call them trash. We call them resources. Burning and burying these resources. Throwing them away after using them one time is not the right thing to do. We support Vice Mayor Richardson's motion and item 22. All this is is a simple exploration of options to be able to explore becoming more sustainable and improving our environment. It's the right thing to do for the city of Long Beach. It's the right thing to do for the future. It's the right thing to do tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. MEMBERS My name is Kelly Astra Ostrom, general counsel for the Los Angeles County Waste Management Association. There are aspects of the recommendation that I think the association can support. The problem that we have is not that you want to value add options, not that you want to explore different systems. We'd like to see you work first through a task force model with your incumbent haulers. They deserve the opportunity to show you what they can do. The five year law is not a mystery to me. My father wrote the five year law. I've been representing trash companies for 35 years. My law practice involves a concentration in that area of law. If you wait five or six months to issue your five year notice, you're not then committed to an eight and a half year timeline. That is wrong. The five year law simply says, when you've committed to go into an exclusive system, the horrors have five years within which they can remain in business in order to help amortize the extraordinary capital costs it takes to be a trash hauler. If you decide to issue that to adopt an inclusive system, you issue the five year notice. You don't have to wait five years. You can introduce that system sooner. It's just the new franchise takes subject to the continuation rights of the claimants that were there for the five. But I think it's a bad idea from a whole different perspective. Wait just six months. Mr. Vice Mayor, a great deal of your presentation. I was interested in all of it. And I do appreciate your passion. A great deal of the emphasis you placed on rates. Wait and watch. Have the benefit. Learn what happened in L.A. You'll see all that come to pass in the next six months. That will greatly inform your decision. I'll close with this recommendation. Your study must really, respectfully needs to include a task force. Give us six months to organize that. All the stakeholders can be involved from Surfrider Foundation to the trash haulers to Lane, whoever you want involved. Get all the opinions out and then make your decision. In the meantime, please do not issue that notice. And please recognize we have haulers in this community. Been working here for several generations. The thanks to them should not be that they're given a waiver on the way out. Give them a chance to. Thank you very much to go into your new system. Thank you again to ensure we're doing time I'm going gonna go down to one minute without objection just to ensure that we have a full council to discuss this issue. Great. I'll try and Mike, keep it quick. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson, for all of your efforts in that very comprehensive study. I am asking you to vote yes on both of those initiatives you presented forward to the other council members. My name is Stephanie Berger. I'm the founder and executive director of the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council, which was recently acquired by the U.S. Green Building Council and now the global director of Zero Waste Programs. And I say that because I want to be a huge resource to the city of Long Beach and expedite your study, keep the costs down, bring all those resources as part of the Don't Waste campaign and part of the Don't Waste Long Beach. And this is a very important initiative. Waste haulers have known what they needed to do for the last two years, five years and ten years, and they haven't stepped up to the plate. And we need you to help them step up to the plate. The businesses need it and demand it. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hello, Mayor and Council. My name is Sylvia. I'm from District eight and 23 year resident and a small property owner. I know the agenda is based on a commercial study, but if the study shows a financial cost of the reason to change services, then if it's based on that decision that what's going to happen to the residential waste services I think will follow suit. That's my opinion. So right now, currently the residential refuse is both May's Waste Management for the purple bands and the city handles of the brown bands. So I presume at that time there was a cost factor, decision splitting, the split in the services several years ago and I provided some data that there's two critical items that I want to address based on the data that I provided. One of them is that the death counts were higher in the private sector than the public sector, and I tend to believe that had to do with worker's comp issues. Basically, safety and training is probably less in the private sector than there is in the public sector. And also, there was a $30 million settlement to the Securities Exchange Commission that allegations of a gregarious industry fraud that seem to have been brought up by underpaid relative to the city, and that waste management reported variances between the state environmental department and the city. Also, there's information out there there's a1a half billion dollar lawsuit in Oakland. Thank you. Oh, okay. Thanks. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Nick Cook. I'm the owner of RCO Material Reuse. I'm one of the small haulers that. Folks keep talking about tonight. And I'm here actually to support the. The five year. Plan. I. I created Arco tires five years ago. We have about a dozen. Employees, most of whom are formerly incarcerated. In the last four. Years, we've recycled all about a million tires, which comes out to about 22 million gallons of oil. One way to think about that is we've recycled more than twice the volume of the Exxon Valdez spill, and we've kept that out of landfills and we made it into new products. Now, we've also worked very hard to make sure that these jobs are good jobs, jobs that pay above the. Minimum wage, jobs that have a path towards stable housing and home. Ownership. Our foreman just recently bought his house. Half of my employees live in the city of Long Beach. And I don't want to go into competition with people. That are not abiding by our rules for compliance with OSHA, for compliance. With proper disposal. And I think that this is a good plan to start really looking at how people are. Exercising their waste. Thank you. Very much. Thank. Speaker, please. Thank you, Mayor. Members of City Council. My name is Ron Saldana and the executive director of the California Waste and Recycling Association. A minute is certainly not enough time to cover anything, really. I'd just like to say that I echo what has been said before me that I think it's so important to have a task force. Don't put the cart before the horse, have a task force, bring in the stakeholders, know what's going on, get all the facts, see the facts, and then make your action from there. Because to do so tonight under what's been said and what hasn't been said, I think would be a big mistake. And I think later on you'll see that it's a mistake. Let me give you one example on race. Look at Los Angeles. They're going through a process now to switch over to exclusive. They their race sheets have been posted. I gave those rate sheets to my haulers here in Long Beach. I said, compare those L.A. rate sheets with what you're charging now. The price came out about double what they're charging now. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker, please. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Louise. I am a former resident of Long Beach, and I'm also representing the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club. And we approve of the notion to extend the five year notice to the haulers. We are the largest and oldest environmental organization in the country, and we support zero waste efforts such as these. Going with a franchise arrangement is just sensible, it's efficient. And among the many reasons that Councilmember Richardson mentioned in terms of the safety and the preservation of the streets. There's the noise factor. It's noisy to have so many trucks and haulers around a street where one or two could efficiently pick up the. Thank you. So we thank. You very much for five here. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Next speaker, please. Good evening, council members. My name is Crystal Wicky. I'm here representing Homeboy Recycling. I'm here to speak. In favor of the five year notice. Our company began as Isidor Electronics, recycling a small woman down electronic recycling, social enterprise in an industry that's. Dominated by male. Owned businesses. As with any industry, it's difficult to gain a foothold when you're small and first entering. We've had our fair share of challenges. Certainly an interesting opportunity came along our way when the city of L.A. decided to do the exclusive franchise model. With this system in place, we are we're partnering with Homeboy Industries to create Homeboy Recycling. And this is allowing. Us, our small. Business, to expand and diversify in many exciting ways. Most importantly, we'll be able to continue working to create job pipelines into disadvantaged neighborhoods. And employing people who face barriers to work. So thank you. We're in favor of this. Thank you very much. Next week a. Good evening, Councilor Persons and mayor. My name is Maurice Thomas. I'm a 20 year resident of Long Beach and a 20 year employee of the waste industry. I've been able to afford a decent living, living and working in this industry. And what I see that currently that is. Currently. That is currently available is this exclusive franchise needs to be be signed by tonight because if you don't set the standards at a high rate, then everyone, even with this five year notice, they have time to meet meet that high standard. Thank you. Thank you. Inexplicably, in Long Beach, Mr. Vice Mayor Richardson, I really respect your passion also about this. But however, you mentioned that you're going to have $60,000 of your jobs in five years, probably be 70,000. And the only way those jobs are going to come here is unionization and a theory of unionization. But you never once mentioned the word union during your speech. In order to have those wages, you're going to have to convert these people to unions. What union hires what union represents the most drivers in this country, the Teamsters Union. And I think that's the last union we need in this city. Actually. I saw someone describe them as a criminal enterprise. All right, sir. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Okay. I'm just going to get straight to the point. My name is Brian Sims. I've been a resident of Long Beach all my life. And when I first heard about don't waste efforts in to increase recycling in the city by how can I put this who get nervous. The only thing I say is this. I apologize. I'll just say this. I heard you all just to pass this five year notice today to help transform Long Beach commercial waste and recycling system. And at the same time, I will say this because I had a whole little thing going, scuse me for a second. It would be beneficial to the residents of Long Beach if you guys pass this, because one thing it will do. It will create job opportunities. And that's the thing that the citizens do need in Long Beach is job opportunities. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Mayor Council. My name is Gideon Krakoff, environmental lawyer for nonprofit Waste and Recycling Association. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for welcoming, initiating honest conversation. The association represents many of the ten haulers in Long Beach, and they share the same goals as our friends at Lane Environmental Recycling, Compliance, fair wages and recycling, compliance rates and service that are excellent. Many are small local Albers who have been here for generations in Long Beach. Are they concerned about the five year notice kicking them out of the city that could render the routes worthless? Of course. Wouldn't you be? Do they feel we could all work together, all stakeholders on a task force to ensure that your program is the very best to vet all those statistics in the Vice Mayor's presentation? Of course they do. And do these small businesses want to be here continuing to work in your city? Of course they do. Thank you for your consideration tonight and in the months and years ahead. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Johanna Cunningham, executive director for the Apartment Association, California Southern Cities. I simply would like to be sure that we state that the owners would like to be involved and at the table we think it's important they have a viable part and piece in this proposal. And we want to be sure once again that there is competition, that there is a competitive rate that is maintained, and that owners should continue to have a choice in these options. Thank you so much. Thank you. Speaker Good evening. My name is Patricia Chen and I'm a longtime resident of the fifth District in Long Beach. Um, I just wanted to provide some context for some of the remarks made here tonight by sharing with you testimony made by Gideon Krakoff, who we just heard speak to the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works regarding LA's exclusive franchise policy. And I quote, It's been years since we have been working on this exclusive franchise. What a success it has been. We have tough environmental standards, a focus on customer service and fair rates, and equitable and transparent business improvement district process with the cream rising to the top. A partnership with labor and room for haulers and contractors big and small, like me. We urge you to move this forward. This is a groundbreaking vote today for the city, but not just the city, but for the region, the state, and really indeed the whole nation. A true model for sustainability in the 21st century. Our coalition could not agree more. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Speaker Time's Kevin Johnson. Work for the public works and the work for refuse. I see trash every day. I just go off just for a minute. Go long, long routes. So why we don't we getting brand. New trucks already coming? We have got another brand new trucks already out at the yard. We got a lot more trucks. I don't know why we can't cut half them down and paint them different colors and put green, green trash cans around and put our logo on. And we have to worry about contracting out. We can do it ourself, you know, and we keep. Jobs in the city for for the people. Why we can't do it ourselves. Because because I was the filler, I was the LNG filler to a came from the Friedman area and then LNG is the the cleanest gas we got and CNG we, we already put burning posts inside a lot for food and. Thank you, sir. Time's up. Thanks for coming. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. And council members. Name is Tony Demicco. I'm the co-director of Long Beach Fresh, and we operate as a local Food Policy Council nonprofit trying to build a more sustainable and equitable food system. I want to thank Vice Mayor Richardson for his leadership on this and the very thorough report. And just briefly highlight, you know, that's very beneficial to urban farms and community gardens to be able to capture compost. And while we've had a successful pilot program, that program is not scalable. And we certainly need something more comprehensive, like an exclusive franchise model to set those goals and get us into compliance with state policies. I also, as a teacher of argumentation and debate, I must say that, you know, you've heard a lot from the opposition, particularly ad hominem attacks, false dichotomies, hasty generalizations. And I think from our side, you've seen why this is a very reasonable, logical thing to do right now. So I would urge you not to delay this vote and certainly to vote for the five year notice right now. Thank you. Thanks. Next speaker, please. Hey, guys. Sir, the booing and stuff. Please don't do that. Okay. Well, we're getting through the public comment. Thank you. Good evening. My name's Christine Fisher. I've been an owner of a condo here in downtown for about a decade now. And I'm a fourth. Generation Californian who also grew up under those brown skies. We also had days where we weren't allowed. To go out and play. I came up to talk. Because I wanted to say, you know. You guys have been very good about trying to accommodate everybody. There's no reason that a five year notice can't take into account the fact that it's a five year notice. Pending what the result of your study is. You already say you're doing a study. You already say you're going to actually proceed with that. Cities nationwide are starting to benefit from large scale composting, where methane is captured and and used for power generation. So there is another way that this actually does benefit us locally as far as power costs are concerned. Also, new investors in Long Beach, like the LLC that purchased Cityplace are interested in Long Beach as a progressive model city. Not looking backward. Looking forward. Please take this into consideration because we are trying to be something heading forward and actually working together. Thanks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you so much for your attention on this important issue. My name is going to Kim and I'm a researcher with the East Long Beach Coalition. And so I'd just like to, as somebody who thinks about these things all day, like to clarify some of the questions that have been raised. We've studied. Dozens of different types of systems and have not ever seen an example where a five year notice led to all of the other. Haulers leaving the market before the contracts are awarded. Also, around rates without set rate, small businesses, as has been mentioned, actually end up. Subsidizing large businesses because they don't have the negotiating skills or leverage. This has been found in multiple cities across the nation actually, that this happens in a non-exclusive type of system. There are currently no limits on how much a hauler. Could charge a customer as opposed to an exclusive franchise. It would be fair and set the speaker concerned about the four unit apartment complex. We hear his concerns, but to reiterate, this would only affect the private sector. That gentleman would have city collection so he wouldn't be affected in any way. Regarding jobs, San Jose recently transitioned to this type of system. Not only did they see there there they saw jobs created, too. Thanks. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and members of the council. I know it's late. We've got one minute, so I'll get right to the point here. Simple. We have a golden opportunity before us. We have an opportunity to actually. Improve our. Environment by boosting recycling rates and actually having guaranteed access to recycling. You've heard from several residents today. We we're supposed to have it. They don't. Something needs to be done. We need a guaranteed system. We can reduce air and noise pollution, reduce street traffic and preserve our roads and not undermine measure of funding that we're currently getting . There are numerous examples throughout the city where we have a simple four corner intersection with four separate haulers on each of those, or even upwards of five. In fact, there's a single strip mall in District five where there are four haulers in one strip mall alone. We can prioritize food recovery for people. Instead of landfills, and we can add more opportunities for Long Beach families. Recycling creates jobs, as Lauren just said, and we can raise standards in the industry and make sure that Long Beach residents have access to these good green jobs. If we think that this is important and this is something that we can improve our city with, then we owe it to ourselves to pass the five year notice tonight. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Speaker, please. Hello. Thank you. It was a very fine presentation. But I don't think you've really convinced me or a lot of the people who are opposed to this that exclusive franchising is the only solution. I mean, it is a monopoly. It's you're going to have three different sectors. I'm not too sure on what the number is. But the fact is. We've already heard from Ms.. Gill herself. You've said that it's. Commercial only and you know, you talked about it, but we've heard from her that it's also going that their plan is to go to residential. So, I mean, if you're. If you're going to be using Lane, that is their goal to be going to residential and you're saying it's going to create jobs. But that this this country isn't about job security. It's about being able to raise up through from the. Lower class and the middle class. We need. To have people who are going to lose the their businesses that they've. They've been in Long Beach for four generations doing trash. And, I mean, it's it's a well-paying job if you own the company, if you if you. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Come on. Hello, everyone. My name is Mikey Reading and I just want to say that my dad has been a small city trash hauler for 30 years and we had no idea this meeting was going on. I really wish that you guys would care more about the small city haulers. You. You had a little agreement right here. With the city attorney. I appreciate you confirming. That they're not going to affect the those small city haulers, but I appreciate a little bit more concern, a little bit more caring for the small businesses, because without scrolling my social media three days ago, I wouldn't even have known about this. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Last. Last speaker, city council. My name is Johnny Weir and mayor. Sorry. I'm a Long Beach property owner and a member of Better Housing for Long Beach. We represent thousands of property owners and renters and we do not support this letter. I'm I'm here on behalf of also of my tenants at 1152 East Second Street. I don't I don't know if you're aware that some properties, the tenants pay their trash directly. And so this is going to give them an increase immediately. So if we're trying to deal with affordable housing, why are we raising more fees on the on the renters of Long Beach? I mean, I'm surprised at home is supporting something that's going to negatively impact renters in Long Beach. I mean, this is not a good plan. I mean, what's the rush? Why do we need to rush? If this is the right thing, why rush it? So anyway, I'm all about the environment, but I just don't think this is the right solution right now. Read a little bit, get the facts, find out how this lawsuits all pan out. Thank you. Bye bye. Great. Thank you. Okay, we've concluded public comment. We're now going to go ahead and go to the council. I had left it off at Councilwoman Gonzales. Okay. Thank you. I want to thank everybody for for being here. I know you've waited a long, long time, and I really appreciate everyone's patience here. So thank you very much. I think there was over 150 people here from the Don't Waste Coalition. And I want to thank them, especially for for all of their hard work on this and just for being here. You know, since 330 or so. So thank you. And thank you to all the stakeholders as well. And thanks to Vice Mayor Richardson for bringing this forward. I know that this always seems like a scary thought to change the system and kind of disrupt the system. And I certainly am one to agree that it certainly in the front end looks a little scary. But I think if we look at it, there are some positives and I see a few things. So of course we've talked about it and I won't belabor the issues, but efficiency. We also have an opportunity for creative cooperative purchasing vehicles. Sorry, my voice is a little shaky here. I'm a little sick. Education and stakeholder engagement, which I believe the Vice Mayor has envisioned through this whole process. We will certainly offer stakeholder engagement for all parties during the five year notice. And finally, something I'm certainly most passionate about and many people are sustainability. Refining, refining our system and consolidating the system to lessen GHG as well as truck trips, as well as, you know, make sure that our infrastructure is intact. And as we know, recycling is at an all time low. 20% is not a good rate to be at. We are Long Beach was certainly better than that. And in other cities that institute voluntary diversion programs such as San Diego, they've shown that voluntary just does not work. We have to do more. And so this is the reason why I'm supporting this policy. I think it is absolutely imperative that we move forward with with a five year notice with stakeholder engagement along the way. In addition, I know that being a downtown resident myself and a representative of downtown, so many of us do not have recycling. And I live in a beautiful building on Pine Avenue where we have trash collection, of course, but we do not have recycling. And so many of my neighbors, we know with millions of dollars in investment in that building. No, no recycling. It just seems like there's a huge miss there. We need to be able to focus our efforts on commercial and multifamily premises. And in fact, as I mentioned, the cooperative purchasing vehicle. I think this is a very unique idea that we have to look at a little bit more in D.C.. I know that there were 12 churches just about that saved about $20,000 just for consolidating their waste haulers. And in doing that, they created, in addition, a cooperative purchasing alliance that was able to help them not only with services, with waste haulers, but all additional products and services as well. So, you know, definitely pulling the buying power together will certainly help. And I think we can see that in addition, negotiating higher standards in both labor and environmental practices. So many progressive cities are already working on these alliances and I think that would fare well for us. And it also keeps haulers, I believe, closer to our community by ensuring that the standards are high, but also making sure that they are focused on our residents wishes and concerns such as recycling and composting. The baseline rates, I think that is something we can certainly look at as well. I know that the rates, we're all scared of them jumping up 200, 300%. But certainly looking, as I mentioned again about the cooperative cooperative purchasing vehicle being more efficient, having haulers working on and working with just a few businesses versus a multitude of businesses in zones. And so I see this being a huge win for us. Either way, I know that will have a lot of input from stakeholders. Much of the input that was taken now I'm taking down and certainly certainly writing notes about and I want to make sure that we're learning from other cities as well. Los Angeles, yes, they're going through that process. But there are a multitude of other cities that have this in place, and we have to be able to learn from them to make sure that we're doing the right thing here in Long Beach, incumbent haulers is something that was also discussed. Private sector setting the prices. Absolutely. That should be something that is a private sector decision, but certainly making sure that we're setting the standards for labor and environmental practices on the back end and the market competition as we discussed. So all of those are going to certainly be taken into consideration, I think, Vice Mayor Richardson, for bringing this forward. I think the council officers that have been supportive of this, the Andrews and Robert Otunga and I think many of you I know this is a good thing we're headed in the right direction. Absolutely. Thank you. Council on Mango. I hope that this microphone doesn't sound too harsh because the front part fell off. But I just have a couple questions for Vice Mayor Richardson. And is item you'd mentioned in your presentation that the number of haulers that actually own all the potential. Current licensed organizations in Long Beach is how many? There are 15 slots owned by different businesses. Some of those have consolidated into larger ones. So, in fact, 75% of the hauling slots that we have are owned by 75, owned by three haulers. So three companies make up 75% of the business, which creates very little opportunity for small guys to get in. Which is why we can create, you know, we can actually write into the RFP opportunities for small guys to have a better shot at doing business in our city. And then currently on the agenda item from many. Years ago where it listed all of those 15 providers, they each had expiration dates. So if I could get some clarification, I know I've talked to the city attorney about this and a few others, but I still think that it's important for public record. Why is it that if we already have licenses for the contractors, a majority of which expire within the five year period, why would we need to continue those licenses if if it's 75% are owned by three? Why wouldn't we adjust our policy and consolidate those to be more transparent to the public of who they're really hiring? You could certainly do that as they expire. There are some that expire, I believe, in 2018. Correct. And so on in 2019. And if the council votes to put the notice through today, you could as those came. Obviously, they have the opportunity under the five year notice to continue operating. You could. Clean up that issue. So the Council has a current policy though that we would have up to 15 or it's unlimited. I thought it was unlimited. I'll let director of Public Works. I know we had this talk back in november. It's been a long time. Mayor members of the council. Currently there's 15 in that is in the municipal code. So that is our current cap. If we were going to change that, it would take action by this body. And so potentially what we would want to do to maintain and ensure competition is to not allow the majors to own 75% of the holding options, almost as if we should work into our discussion that as licenses expire, if they're owned by another licensee, that it would expire and not potentially be renewed. Right. Well, I think you would. You could certainly look at that during your study on how you would and how they would control and how you would offer those services. If it's by his own or if it's by multiple carriers and you could establish, you know, as the if they are purchased or taken over by other carriers, how that would affect their ability to continue operating. Because if only three haulers eventually ended up owning all 100%, and we'd be moving towards a monopoly in a way, from the competition. Great. Next question is related to. The way in which we currently collect trash at our resident are multi-unit residential. There was some discussion today about that. In some cases, if the city collects, it is a part of their bill. I know that we had some dialog about that in the last week. If you could better explain that. So that for that, for the study, we can enter into a discussion around this component of it. Pose a question directed. To the Public Works director. Got it. Sure. Councilmember Mongo. Essentially, we approach it in two ways, and it kind of depends on how an individual multi-unit residential building is set up. Some have what we call a master account. So the building owner would have the trash would have the waste contract and they would be charged depending on the amount of waste that's generated. Some multi-unit buildings have individual accounts. So let's just say I'm an apartment renter. I may have an account directly with the city and that account would be typical of most residential customers. So it really depends on how the unit or the building is set up. Wonderful. And so in the spirit of reducing our overall trash usage, there is a lot of talk at the state level related to water. And if a person actually sees their own water bill, instead of it being absorbed by a whole building, they are naturally more likely to see their water usage as a direct component of their life and then reduce their usage. And potentially on the same side. We would be able to in this study work in a way in which, whether you're using the city provider or the non city provider, that that would be able to be an option on both. So that in the goal of reducing waste, people would see trash as a component of their use. So I have a couple of friendly amendments in consideration of those items. One would be to add to the study the dialog related to how public works could ensure that no matter who you provide as your provider, that a visualization on your current gas bill shows what trash does cost, whether it's absorbed by the landlord or not. Just so people are aware of that. That should absolutely be included in the study. Thank you. Wonderful. A pro-business component of competition that the study include a component of dialog related to as haulers are cannibalized on the 15 that we look at how to ensure that the small guy has a chance to gain one of those those licenses. Absolutely. And that's one of our one of our goals. We don't want to limit the study so much to be to prescribe it. But I would hope and if I need to include this in the motion, I will I would hope that we look at opportunities to create more opportunities for the small guys than what they have today. We caucused a moment ago about, you know, of those 15 slots, and we know that many of them are consolidated. We need to better understand how many of those we may call them small because they're independent. But how many are actual small businesses by the federal definition? And how many of them are minority owned, business owned? Because, you know, without understanding that we could at this point have absolutely 0% of our work going to actual small businesses. We don't have that information today to say it. Is certainly not just small businesses or minority owned businesses, but Long Beach resident owned businesses specifically. We can totally look into that. Absolutely. Let's throw it in the study. And then I've done a lot of research. I appreciate I know we've had a lot of dialogs. We've pulled together some meetings in the community already together on this issue to really better understand it. Two parts. One is, after discussions back in November, I sat down with the Long Beach Town Center to try to create our own consolidation so that there wouldn't be four different providers serving one business area. Unfortunately, without a city requirement, there is no ability for them as a landlord to get all of their tenants on the same page, especially because a lot of these tenants are national or regionally managed. And so within the study, I'd also like to include a component that since we are hoping strongly to still maintain competition to keep rates low for everyone, that there be some kind of dialog about complexes or commercial corridors of a certain size, that even if we maintain competition within the system, that those corridors are consolidated into a unified one for all of them. They can make that choice who it is, but that they hopefully can we can study what that looks like. So I don't I. Don't necessarily know that it needs to be a friendly. What you're explaining is what we hope the study will achieve. Someone made the statement earlier. One size doesn't fit all. I would agree. Long Beach Town Center is a major shopping center. And how does it actually impact a residential, you know, apartment building outside of that center? It's a town in and of itself, so I would hope that staff comes back. We want to maintain some order, some exclusivity in areas where it makes sense to deviate. From what we've seen in other areas, let's let's study it. So I would say absolutely. Let's let's look at all of our options. And then I called around to the other cities and have spoken with some public works managers about the different components that have led to the cost increases. And a lot of times. The cost increases are not coming. From the consolidation of the number of participants, but actually because members of their city council or the body that came up with the solutions put in so many additional new restrictions. So whether it be we need seven coordinators of. Recycling versus. Utilizing a goal that the consult the the haulers get to it on their own. And so I would just ask that we work towards a option where we put the least amount of additional burden of costs on anyone providing these services. I would think as a part of this process, we, you know, it's it's value engineering. You start with, hey, these are the things that would be great. And then these are things that are actually feasible without, you know, corrupting the system or making the system too too heavy to bear. So the hope is through the process of, you know, five years, we start with these are the great things that we we can achieve and pare it down. Some some things may not cost very much money like the job pipeline. It already exists in Long Beach City College. This is a matter of writing into an RFP to draw from the well that's already established. Right. So some things we don't prescribe, we set a goal out. The RFP doesn't have to necessarily say these are the specific things you should achieve. They could say these are some goals. How best would you address these goals within your business structure and allow them to have some flexibility, some innovations? You know, be smart in how they approach, how they solve some of these things. So all of that is on the table. But I don't want to say, you know, this study should be too narrow. We want to sort of be broad about the system. And then finally, I would say that in being broad and especially in those discussions when we talked about the number of haulers, even into whether it's the town center or the Spring Street corridor or the Atlantic corridor. Trash trucks get full. And so there are a number of there's a threshold you're never going to get below. If every time a bin left, it was all using the same company, there's still a threshold, whether it's a fast food facility or a restaurant that needs pick up more often, or a more commercial business that does mostly just boxes and things like that that could be picked up less often. I want to just be sure that we work hard to maintain competition and recognize that if we can't get lower than five truck trips, then maybe we don't need to work as hard to eliminate providers below five and so on and so forth. And so in my final comment, I would just ask that that were fair in looking to ensure that competition remains, because right now. We have providers that are contractors in our cities. And on a regular basis our residents call my council office and are upset with the services provided and we are on a long term contract with some of these individuals. And so we're on the phone regularly with their management about missed pickups or other things that are just not acceptable. And we have no alternative. And so I beg the the study to really put an emphasis on ensuring that we have that competition so that when a provider is not doing a great job, you can switch. There has to be an option to switch and not just to a city provider or a non city, but within the competition of keeping rates down. That that is on the commercial side. With that, I appreciate that. And my final request is I'm understanding that all the costs of these studies would be coming from the Enterprise Fund and that no general fund dollars would be spent on this. That's not in this motion and not as I understand it. But I would prefer that if we have an enterprise find a refuge fund, it should come from there. So I would say. Craig can come. In. Yeah, absolutely. Mr. BECK We certainly would have we would look at that, but I assume it would be refused. But that information and decision will be made when the contracts brought back to the Council for perfect. Thank you. Okay. We're going to go to Councilman Ranga. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to also thank Cosmo Richardson for bringing this forward. The I met with him a couple times. I raised my concerns. He addressed them. And I want to thank Councilmember Gonzalez. She wrote she emphasized something that I wanted to emphasize, which is, let's get stakeholder input on this, because it's really needed. Everything that I heard in the testimony was the fact that there are some haulers out there that would love to participate and give their input on the study so that they can ensure while we can ensure that their all their concerns are also being addressed. And I also want to recognize Councilmember Mungo's comments regarding the the revenue and the competition that would be in place with this. And I hope that this study will address that. It's very important that we maintain competition and that we give those smaller haulers an opportunity to continue to serve. One question in regards to the five year notice. You called it. A bifurcated way of doing it. We did a study with a back friction that a five year study over the five years been in place during the study. Is that correct? Well, what I'm proposing is concurrently we study and we issued a notice or we're in the position to implement and refine as soon as possible. Okay. And that would total, as we said, about a year and a half study. It will be about 7 to 8 years before we actually implement anything. So by concurrently, what I'm saying is that we start the clock now on the five years we work. This does not here to take any action. We may not get it right in five years. Billboards from the time the City Council actually got on board with it. It was two and a half years, but it actually took a decade just to get city council on board with it. So the earliest would be five years. That's just the earliest legally. Right. And what about the if the study reveals that maybe the five year notice it was is was too much and we started losing some contractors during that that during that process, is there an alternate way that we can address that in the in the case of having some some a male from us? I mean, let's face it. I mean, I've talked to some of the haulers as well. They met with me. Their concern is that in the five years that we put out the notice that they're not they're not sure whether they can gear up with their equipment to make them compatible with what we're requesting them to do, especially when we're talking about zero waste, because that's our goal. Obviously, they got no issue with that. I'm just wondering if the smaller type of haulers would have to make an expense in order to stay in business, and then we lose them because they're not able to make that expenditure to update their equipment, to make the standards that we're at. We're not going to be asking them to meet. So let me try to address that in turn and as as best as I can. Number one, this the scope of the study should consider implementation and what burden would be on someone who is going to attempt to respond to an RFP. We've gone through processes like that and I think they're very different in terms of the Clean Trucks program in the port. Those things were considered in terms of implementation. Now what we're talking about, the majority of the haulers already use are already required to use clean trucks. That's not a significant equipment burden. But if someone isn't already sort of operating at the at the standard that they're required to the RFP, the competition will expose that because there's already a standard here, that level of competition through an RFP. If anything, it just strengthens and helps hold people accountable to already established standards. Now, if the city council adds additional standards, that's a public policy discussion after we study it. If they add additional standards and I will hold, based on the conversation with Councilwoman Mongo and things like that, that we're you know, we're modest in requiring overly burdened, burdensome requirements on trucks. So frankly, this is a conversation that happens later. It isn't the conversation that happens today. I don't think it's because the notice was submitted. It's just it's the nature of a competitive RFP process in itself, in my opinion. Okay. Well, I hope that we're able to, again, go through this study with the input of stakeholders, including aspiring owners and business owners and everybody else, so that we could get a study that is going to be complete and not have to deal with any kinds of negative impacts. Regarding the the study itself, because of the fact that we did not do enough outreach to our stakeholders. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Thank you. Mayor. You know, I I've listened to most of everyone on the dais speak on this issue, and I will be in support of the motion, because today I believe in protecting the environment and increasing the number of green jobs available. Because for my residents who really need these jobs. You know, a study has shown that recycling creates ten times the amount of jobs that are created, you know, by landfill and by this. I really feel like these are the type of jobs that the residents in my district have been waiting for. And we need the jobs and pipeline that can be created within this item moving forward. And I would hope later as we go on and get into this time of night, we will be limited to one minute with our conversation also. Thank you. I like that, too. I'm happy to tell time, everyone. I love that. Councilman, Councilman Austin. 30 seconds. So I'm going to try to do mine in 30 seconds. I agree. First, I'd like to just just live my support for this this motion before us. I want to also recognize somebody who's not here, Janine Pearce, because she's the first person that brought this item to my attention about a year and a half ago. I know Lane, the Teamsters that the coalition don't waste. Long Beach has done a lot of great work in the community to generate and build support around about this. I want to address one of the comments earlier regarding I thought it was very disparaging toward the Teamsters organization. My grandfather was a Teamster, by the way, and he wasn't a criminal. Okay. And when it comes to when it comes to actual man in Wisconsin, you can go take it, take a left Fishbone. You have to take a seat. It's not your time to speak. Mr.. Mr.. BOLAND You said afterwards that you had no Confederate comments over you to take a seat. You. Mr. BALL. You have to. You have to take a seat. Thank you. Mr. BALDWIN. Thank you very much, sir. And I think this council should be unapologetic when it comes to supporting and creating good jobs. And we shouldn't by hide behind the fact that we might be creating good union jobs either. So I want to be clear that. So I'll say it out loud. And obviously my comment, my colleagues and many of the speakers have told the benefits. I think there are some risk. I think I support a robust study with robust stakeholder input. We do not want to create unintended consequences long term and obviously this is an issue that just starts the ball rolling . The future city councils are going to ultimately decide what's best for Long Beach. What's best for our residents, consumers. And it's going to. Be a business and economic decision that that's going to have to make good economic sense for for our city. Ultimately, when we get to that decision and so I'll be supporting tonight and again, hopefully I was under one minute. Thank you very much. Thank you. Shelter in place. Thank you. I'm going to be very quick. I want to. We've had a lot of friendlies, so I just want to confirm a few of them. So this report is going to include the possibility of allowing for more than one trash hauler to hold contracts in the individual zones. Correct. It's going to be overly broad to include that. Absolutely. It can include that in the study. Okay. And then would union and nonunion haulers have the opportunity to compete for these contracts? Thank you for giving an opportunity to speak on that. So you're limited by 35? Absolutely. So at no point does it say, does this recommendation say put forth a model that is exclusively union? It doesn't say that the standards are going to define the work, the working conditions, you know, all of those things. The standards are going to help define that. Now, if a company has labor issues, that's on them to sort of work out. We do want to make sure that we do maintain some level of labor peace in our city. And that's something we've, you know, we've done on our civic center and other areas. Those are things we want to study as a part of this. So at no point are we saying, you know, we are putting forth a process that says only union and not other, you know, nonunion haulers and other and other processes. You know, what you found is nonunion haulers also, you know, end up with a piece of the work. Now, whether that leads to them ultimately being organized or making the choice to go union, that's what ultimately between them and their members. I want to echo the comments that my colleague, Councilman Urunga, made regarding the task force or the stakeholder task force. I think that's really important. I'm assuming that's also included in this process, because Councilwoman Gonzales also mentioned it. So what we heard, we heard. Task force from the public. But what we heard from our our coworkers was stakeholder engagement. I want to be very clear that I don't want to predict. Like when the consultant comes on board, they're going to be able to select what the best format is that's want to make sure it's a part of an official process. So we're not going to say it's a task force, but there will be stakeholder engagement inclusive of the partners that were, you know, have spoken here today, Council on Business Associations, shopping centers, apartment owners, residents who are impacted by the change, food systems, experts locally. Those are the people that we want at the table to help craft the best policy for Long Beach. So we want to give some discretion to our consultant in terms of how that process is unfolding. Absolutely. Okay. And then lastly, I just want to thank and I think Lauren from Lane. I got my first briefing on this issue probably a year ago maybe, and they've kept me in the loop. And I really, really appreciate when people respectfully take the time to educate you and answer your questions and show you the same respect that they expect on a Tuesday night when they come here. And you guys did that. And I just want to thank you for that. I was really, really impressed at your outreach. It was very respectful. And the one thing that they highlighted, they did their research on the council districts as well. And the one thing that they highlighted in regards to their conversations with me was the density of my some parts of my district and their proximity to business corridors that the kind of inefficient truck routes and the multiple. Truck routes, that the potential. Elimination of that would be a positive for the residents in that area. And that really had an impact on me. So I want to thank you guys. You should be commended on your very professional, respectful advocacy. I really liked it. Thank you, Carlton. Membership now. Okay, thank you. I'll also be brief if you'd like to start the clock. We can do that now. Is it up there? Yeah. Okay. I just want to follow up the. Point that Councilwoman Pryce just brought up on the stakeholder group and how that is integrated into the study. And if you look back at, let's say, the Jacobs engineering study on the files, stakeholder input was concurrent and separate. And if you can find a way for the consultant to integrate it into the study, I think that's the key. So we're getting that stakeholder input and somehow it's making a difference within the study. So that would be my desire. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and go to a vote here in just a sec. Let me just make a last comment. One, I think this is a great opportunity to address our climate change goals in the city, and I think we have to get serious about waste. And I thank you all for being partners in our climate change goals and our climate initiatives. This gets us there in a very, I think, important way. And I want to thank you for that. I think that we have to be honest, all of us, including are those that are apartment owners and those of us that are trying to ensure that we still have competition, that the current system we have is not efficient. And so when you when you have multiple carriers on streets and alleys consistently all day, there is wear and tear. That's just a reality. And so if we can come up with a better system by working together, I think that's a really good thing. And I do also want to note that let's also, I'll be honest that some of the systems that were created early on, some of the cities that were mentioned actually have do have some flaws. And I think even if you talk to our friends that are part of the campaign, I think we can improve on what other cities have done and ensure that we end up with, I think could be the model system in the country and I think that's what we want. How do we increase recycling? How do we increase ensure that we have good routes that are being efficient, that there is competition, that we're taking care of the workers? All of that needs to be a piece of this puzzle. And so I'm very supportive of city staff ensuring that we include all of our stakeholders in the conversation and let's come up with the best possible system that we can. And as part of as we're looking at this issue around the study, there's been a lot of conversation around the kind of the larger hallways and the smaller cage. But we also have that group of midsize homes that are that also sometimes get caught in between. And I've heard that a lot in the in the L.A. process and others. And so I just want to make sure that we're addressing that group as well. And you guys did a great job in, I think, getting the community involved in this campaign. And I really hope that we can all work together and come up with a really great system. So I'm very supportive of this. Vice Mayor Richardson, we're going to vote. Just a final. Thing. I just want to say, you know, this was not something that I didn't wake up and say, hey, I'm coming off maternity leave. And I want to take on one of the most controversial issues in our city. The courage from this didn't come from any of us here. It was you all in the community. We've had conversations on both sides. It's an important issue. And I just want to say thank you all for enduring this first step in a process. And hopefully we have a better system and a cleaner and safer Long Beach as a result of this. So thank you all for your participation. Thank you. And members, please go ahead and cast your votes. Motion carries. Okay. It's unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you. And as you exit, please, if we can just have the conversations outside, because believe it or not, we're only on our third item of the night. And so if everyone can please just quietly exit. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. We're going to go ahead and hear just the next order of items is we're going to have item 23, hearing number two and item 27 on the harbor bonds. Those and then we have a very long agenda after that. Believe it or not, this is going to be the longest meeting we ever had. So next up is 22. Real quickly, Madam Clerk.