Recommendation to consider renaming the Long Beach Performing Arts Center as the “Beverly O’Neill Performing Arts Center”, and forward this item to the City Council for approval.
Thank you. Next up, we're going to do item 11, please. Item 11 Communication from Councilwoman Allen. Councilwoman Price and Councilman Alston. Recommendations to forward a request from community members to the Government Personnel and Elections Oversight Committee to consider naming the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, the Beverly O'Neill Arts Center. Thank you. Before I before I pass this over to Councilwoman Allen, just want to make some some some statements, and then I turn this over to the council. I just want to just note that. I think we're all I think we're all, first of all aware and understand how incredible of a legacy that Beverly O'Neal left for the city and continues, quite frankly, to create and build. She started here in our city, going through our schools, leading numerous organizations. She herself spent time, of course, as president of Lombard City College. She was a faculty member. Taught music. Music and the arts were always part of her life. And as mayor, I just significantly increased the ability of arts organizations to be able to operate within the community. She's always been an incredible patron of the arts. A year ago, the Beverly on your theater was Christian and supported by this council. It's been a great a great space of performance. And a late last year, a group of arts of citizens and leaders chaired by Randall Hernandez, who was her former chief of staff when she was mayor, brought folks from the community together to discuss other ways of honoring Mayor O'Neal. She, of course, will continue to be honored in the city. She's just an incredible person and a mentor and a friend to many of us. That committee spent many weeks meeting with the folks that new Mayor O'Neil best and that served with her. And they came forward with this recommendation, which folks have in front of them today, which is really to try to rename not just the theater, but to that whole performing arts center after Mayor O'Neill, which is significant but absolutely justified. She is a really a the senior stateswoman of our city and just will be remembered for having transformed this community really out of a very, very difficult moment in our city's history. And I think we all can't say enough about about her and her leadership. And so I want to thank Councilwoman Allen for kind of spearheading this and working directly with Mr. Hernandez on this issue. And I want to turn this over to her, because she really kind of took this on and introduced this. And I want to thank her for her leadership on this. So, Councilwoman Allen. Thank you, Mayor Aaron. Thank you, Randall Hernandez, for your leadership with this. And also want to thank the community members who organized and came together to propose this way to honor Mayor Beverly O'Neill. And I also wanted to say just thank you, Mayor, for your longtime support of the arts and for your leadership and partnership. I also would like to thank my council colleagues, Councilwoman Pryce and Council Member Austin, for signing on to this item. On a personal note, my neighbor Johnny Steel gave me a book this weekend that I read that was called Passionately Positive The Beverly O'Neal Story written by Harry at the Gazette. I enjoyed the book so much, and it just confirmed how deserving Mayor Beverly O'Neal is. Just here are some things that I took from the book. She's a collaborative leader. She did not care who got credit. She was just born to lead and born to lead this city. She listened and she inspired people around her. She believed that the small victories added up to big success, and she was a trendsetter and a barrier breaker. And she did that with such style and grace. And everyone that knows her will attest to that and to illustrate her immense contributions to our city's musical and cultural culture. I would just like to read a short paragraph on the community letter. Like a mirror, Garcia said. It is attached, and I really encourage all of you to read this great letter that our community and put together. But here's a paragraph it says Throughout her life, music and throughout her life, music and theater has been a personal passion and focus of civic pride. Beverly Bunnell was an avid singer and has worked tirelessly to expand arts and cultural opportunities at Long Beach City College and across the city. Mayor Beverly O'Neal often remarked how vital a vibrant arts and cultural community is to the economic, health and spiritual enrichment of a city and its people. And after the after the proposal from the community and stakeholders, I also heard from several groups and individuals. So I look forward to discussing those topics that were that were the emails and letters that were sent to me. I look forward to discussing those ideals and concerns through the committee process. And I just want to say, I've heard while I've had a wide net of people who are really supporting this, I know and I want you know, that people, especially in our community, want to make sure that there is a focus on the performing arts in this name. And I understand that that makes sense. We want to make sure that that that performing arts is still in the name. So I would like to make a slightly modified recommendation to the committee and I the committee. I'd like to propose that the committee consider renaming the Long Beach Performing Arts Center to the Beverley O'Neill Performing Arts Center. So thank you very much and I appreciate your support on this item. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you to Councilwoman Allen for bringing this item forward. I know that Mayor O'Neal is a source of inspiration for many of us local leaders here in the city of Long Beach. She, as the mayor, said, she really led this city through some very challenging times, and she did so through her positivity and her willingness to work hard to get things done, which was so important to her, as Councilwoman Allen said. She's just one of those people that is really about getting the work done, making progress. But she's never, ever the kind of person who demands praise or self-promote. I mean, when you hear her talk about the progress that the city made during her her time, there was never an eye associated with any of it. She talks a lot in the way. And I really learned I've learned a lot. I have a long way to go in terms of lessons of leadership from her. She's a tremendous mentor to me personally, but she's really a wonderful representative of the city. Her ideals, her values, her work ethic, and her commitment to making sure that the trust the public has placed in her is not misused or used for a personal purpose or a personal gain or advantage was evident in all of her years of service and certainly evident in the vote of the people to elect her for a third term as a write in mayor. She is part and parcel to the city of Long Beach that we all know today. You cannot separate her from the city that we are today. The good parts, especially so and so. I'm grateful that this process has led to the recommendation that is being brought forth tonight. And I can't wait to see her name on the Performing Arts Center, Big in Lights, because anyone who knows Beverly O'Neal knows how much she loves the arts, but how much she really shies away from getting too much attention. But yet she deserves it. And she has earned it, and she has earned it in the most selfless way. So I proudly support this item, and I thank the councilwoman from the second district, councilwoman Allen, for bringing it forth. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to, first of all, take this opportunity to just appreciate Councilmember Allen for inviting me to sign on to this item. I am enthusiastically in support of it. I think no, but no one is is more worthy of such an honor than former Mayor Beverly O'Neal. She I'll just just say on on a personal level, I was a student at Long Beach City Council City College when she was the president of the college. I had the privilege of working on her campaign as a young aerospace worker. I realize and remember those that very difficult times. But she led our city with grace and strength and poise and really was a very highly respected national on a national level. I think the last president to visit the city of Long Beach was with President Clinton. I may be wrong on that, but but she brought President Clinton to the port of Long Beach. And I was really honored to be appointed to the Citizen Police Complaint Commission. A charter commission got my start in the city back in 2003 under then Mayor Beverly O'Neal. And so she's someone who has profoundly impacted my family, me personally, but so many others, and been a role model for so many people in this city. She is somebody she's a woman who, like I said, govern with strength and poise. And, you know, it's really nice for us to be able to to recognize and salute individuals and give them their roses while they're here. And I think that's very, very important. And I don't think anybody would disagree with. Beverly O'Neal being honored the way we we're seeking to do so. So it's my pleasure to support the side of your councilmember. Councilwoman and house. Mayor. Thank you. Sorry about that. And I just want to say what a great honor it would be to to support this item. I think that Mayor Beverly O'Neill has been such a fantastic and inspirational example of a woman for so many years. Yes, she was our mayor for several years. And she gave so much to our city in a very difficult time. But ever since then, she continues to give and continues to give and continues to give. So this is only something very, very I would say, very natural for us to be able to give something, even gifts of this magnitude to her. In honor of all of the the work that she has done for our city and all of the values that she brings to our city. So I am so happy to be supporting this item. Cool. Vice mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This this item. This item does feel good. I agree with with council members. And based on our thanks to Councilmember Allen, Councilmembers Price and Austin for bringing this forward. I think what stands out to me the most is this letter. This letter is incredible. They've already named ad hoc committee members. These are respected community members. It carries a lot of weight, got elected officials from the state and across the region. You have civic leaders. I mean, these people here all are very invested in our community. See downtown interest. You see tourism interest to the arts community. This is the way this is the way it should be done. And, you know, if anything, this should be a model for how we move forward name process in the future. Look forward to voting on this. You know, I encourage the committee to go ahead and, you know, get this back to the council, as, you know, as as as soon as you can. And and we look forward to recognizing celebrating this tremendous legacy of, you know, our lobbyists favorite mayor. You know, I was just reading her bio little bit. We all hear about it. She's kind of a larger than life figure. When I was 11 years old, looks like she was elected mayor. I feel like I know more about I know more about her just based on her legend and the things she was given. Just her incredible track record in our city. So congratulations to Mayor O'Neal. And I look forward to voting on this. Thank you. Thank you. Mary Richardson. Councilman Mongo. Thank you. I am in full support of this item and I appreciate the committee that has brought forward this recommendation. It's important that we take the time to recognize those who helped build our city back to the place where it is today. And I'm very grateful for all of the things that that has taught me personally and us as a city. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. That concludes our council comment. I just want to close by again, just thinking. Mr. Randall Hernandez I couldn't thank him enough. He just did a phenomenal job. Numerous meetings, brought a lot of people together. And I want to just leave leave us with what was with one thing, which is why when they kind of presented the performing arts center as as kind of the option that that where they landed, which I thought was really, really great. And that is that a lot of people forget that Mayor O'Neill was a music teacher. And I know I've said it before, but I think that's where her that is where her life as an educator started . And she taught music from, you know, early elementary. And then, of course, going through Atlantic College and became in leadership roles within the music department at Long Beach City College, which then got her to become a vice president at the college under the dean and then the presidency. It's her career, too, on the on her road to politics. I began in music. She was a performer for those that have not heard her sing. She is a great singer. She is a musician and she loves the arts. And so when this was presented in the way it was and the connection was made to her history and what got her started in Long Beach, which was music. This is just a home run, in my opinion. And so I'm just very grateful to her and her contributions to the city. And so very well done. Again, Councilman Allen, thank you again. I know you worked hard on this in the last few weeks and months, so I appreciate the committee's support. And let's do a roll call vote, please. Councilwoman Zendaya's. Councilwoman Ellen. I. Councilwoman Price. I councilman's subpoena. I asked the woman mongo. I. Councilwoman Sara. I. Councilmember Aranda. Have him do. Councilman. I'm Councilman Austin. I. Vice Mayor Richardson. All right. Motion case. Thank you very much. Let's move on to item. 12.