Recommendation to conduct a Budget Hearing to receive and discuss an Overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2016 Budget for the following: Harbor Department; Water Department.
Thank you very much. Okay. So we are now going to go into our budget presentation or budget item and. I'm going to turn this over to. Mr. West. And obviously we're all mindful of what has to get done tonight still. So let's just try to. Be, as you know. Let's get on with it. How about that, Mr. West? Yes, Mayor. Council members. Can we get to the first line? So what we're planning to do tonight, we have two departments here. We have public works is going to go first, then Parks, Recreation and Marine. Each of their presentations should be under 10 minutes. And what we want to do is we tie these to police and fire in. Our public safety continuum. We've talked about this in the past. Parks, recreation, Marine play a. Large role in the public safety of our community, providing activities. Opportunities for youth to be busy. Opportunities to have open space in our and in our areas for seniors and everyone else. Public Works, of course. Plays a huge role in our. Community, in keeping our infrastructure looking good, also eliminating graffiti and just keeping a calm demeanor. And having our city look. Good and things like that. So again, I just want to highlight that both of these departments play a. Large role in helping police and fire keep our community safe. Our Malloy and our public works director is going to go first. Thank you, Mr. West. Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council. Thank you for the opportunity to provide a brief overview of the Public Works Department's Fiscal Year six proposed budget. During the city manager's presentation last week, he provided the public safety continuum. I have included how Public Works coordinates with other departments on supporting the strategy. The regularly scheduled meetings, which each of you have, has been invaluable to maintain constant communication and ensure were on the track with service delivery. In addition, I would like to thank the city manager and staff for day to day support to deliver quality programs and CIP projects. Finally, I take pride in our 442 employees. These are the silent heroes who are working diligently every day to maintain and enhance the city's infrastructure and environment for the benefit of the public. In order to maintain a structurally balanced operating budget, we focus on our key services. Although our four bureaus have very diverse functions related to quality of life and safety issues for residents, businesses and visitors. Our key services include provide for and maintain safe and adequate infrastructure for the community, provide for sustainable environmental protection and a positive service environment and safely and efficiently design, construct, deliver, protect, and maintain services for public facilities , public ride away and stormwater management. This includes building and roadway design and construction, infrastructure maintenance, refuse and recycling and stormwater management. It is through the performance of our valued employees that we envision a better tomorrow by serving and exceeding the expectation of the public. Our department is a critical component in the public safety continuum. Public Works addresses the more manageable issues such as litter pickup and graffiti to prevent blight when called upon. Our staff is trained to respond quickly with the necessary equipment. Our notable example of our safety and emergency response services are the recent Southern California Edison power outages. Public Works was one of the main responders to to support the city's EOC and field operations. Our dedicated staff worked around the clock to support the city. As a follow up to the mayor's budget message, Clean Streets team will remove litter and perform other clean up activities along major streets, such as pick up and dump. Pick up dumped items. Finally, our graffiti program removed 95,000 square feet of graffiti with 98% of a service request completed within 24 hours. In addition to supporting city's public safety continuum, fiscal year 15 has been a very productive year for public works, with the ongoing and one time funding provided by you, the City Council Public Works shortly staffing accomplishments include constructing 86 million in capital improvement projects, including airport library parks, public facilities, streetlight storm drains, streetscape streets, sidewalks and traffic improvements, completing 9.3 million and arterial street repairs 4.5 million and sidewalk repairs and 9.2 million residential street repairs. This includes 55 miles for major than residential streets and 15 miles of sidewalk repairs, repairing 42,000 potholes, trimming 25,000 trees, removing 200 tree stumps, replacing 9000 traffic signs and 700 street named signs. Repainting, repainting 19 miles of red curbs and re striping 40% of miles of streets. Continuing on our accomplishments, we have collected 183,000 tons of trash from 117,000 residents and commercial accounts responding to 2200 facility, 9000 traffic signals and signs and 12,000 Long Beach requests for service. Mobility programs continue to be a significant focus for the department. One of our recent events in the successful beach streets uptown that saw an estimated 30,000 attendees completing the Class One Beach pedestrian path, as well as Class three bike lanes on chestnut and orange. Finally, the department is currently in design on an estimated 38 miles of bike boulevards and lane miles for construction planned through fiscal year 16 through 19. Public works is nearly $140 million budget includes nine funds. I'll briefly mention a few key funds as shown on the pie chart, starting at the right side and going clockwise. Refuge and Recycling Fund is for refuge collection and contract recycling Operation Waste Diversion Programs as well as litter free Long Beach program. Public Works General Fund totals 35,000,009% of city's total general fund budget. The department's general fund expense is offset by 23 million from various revenue sources, including parking citations, permit fees and parking meters. The Civic Center Fund is for the Civic Center's ongoing maintenance and operation. This includes custodial and parking operations. Gas stock, street improvements, funds or moneys received from the state for right of way improvements in addition to capital funds also support eligible general fund street related programs such as street sweeping traffic signals and street signs. Finally, the transportation fund or monies received from the county for transportation purposes. This includes Prop A, Prop C and Measure R. Fiscal Year 16. Major changes continues to the city's focus on the importance of stormwater environment. As you know, the city is mandated to comply with Clean Water Act guidelines through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The fines resulting from noncompliance of NYPD's permit can range from 5000 to 10000 per day. The 600,000 is a non-recurring general fund, and 233,000 is a non-recurring title, and funds will cover the required cost associated with permit compliance. The fiscal year 16 proposed budget includes transferring the Asset Management Bureau to the Economic and Property Development Department. There is a net zero citywide impact associated with this item. Lastly, positions were included in that to enhance our extensive parking operation, as well as providing clean up support for homeless belongings. In fiscal year 16. The significant issues and opportunities facing public works include implementing the street, sweeping optimization efficiencies to relieve congestion and parking, impacted neighborhood and improve efficiencies of service. We look forward to working on the first street sweeping routing in 30 years. We plan to start implementation at the end of the calendar year. Significant strides have been made in the last year to address the city's aging infrastructure with additional nonrecurring funds. However, it is not anticipated that these non-recurring funds will be available at that level in the near future. Aging infrastructure is a constant issue facing our city. The mayor requested that we include the topic of our infrastructure assessment and backlog of project as an item to be discussed in the further and further details at the September 12 City Council retreat. As one of the highlighted items in mayor's presentation, the department is continuing the effort to improve efficiency and the city's 30,000 streetlights system, including the installation of LCD lighting to achieve an energy and maintenance cost savings starting this year. Smart parking meters were installed in Belmont Shore, downtown and the pike. The miners are capable of accepting credit card payments and provide the first 5 minutes of parking free. One of the benefits of having the new sensor technology is the planned future app for drivers to identify open parking spaces. A major assessment of city stormwater pump stations, which focuses on the condition and capacity is anticipated to be completed in fiscal year 16. This will result in several budget recommendations for capital improvements in fiscal year 17 for a 23 storm rain pump stations. The pump stations are approximately 60 years old and serve as 380 miles of active stormwater infrastructure, including pipes, open channels, ditches, culverts and drains. The Traffic Signal Assessment Audit will be performed to ensure that signals have the requisite timing sheet and implemented process. So as new signals are added, that timed in compliance with best management practices as met as mentioned earlier in the presentation. Department will continue to focus on citywide mobility programs. This include initiating construction on 38 miles of bike boulevards and lanes. In addition, we're currently working on the full deployment of the city's bike share. That includes 50 stations and 500 bikes. Full launch is anticipated to take place in fiscal year 16. Finally of 16 includes a restructuring of refuse rates based on a study conducted by an outside firm to better reflect the full cost of service. These rates will be presented for City Council approval and will be subject to the public noticing and hearing requirements. In closing, public works school is to continue to provide as many of these essential services seamlessly. To put the level of service in perspective. The department's inventory includes 130 bike lane miles, 11 different share locations, 850 miles of streets, 250 miles of alleys, 1160 miles of sidewalks, 1500 miles of curb and gutter, over 400 public buildings, 147 bridges, 180 miles of storm drains, 23 pump stations, 3800 catch basin, 100 street, 100,000 street trees. 48,900 street signs, 580 traffic signals over 2500 parking meters and 117,000 refuse and recycling accounts. Thank you for your support in the past and I look forward to working with each one of you going forward. The Parks, Recreation and Marine Department presentation will follow. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. It is my pleasure to present to you the Department of Parks, Recreation and Maureen's fiscal year 2016 proposed budget. This budget provides the resources that not only help our city to be recognized as a national leader in parks and recreation services. But even more importantly, it provides us the opportunity to have a positive daily impact on the Long Beach community. As you know, the department is a large and dynamic organization. The following slide provides a high level overview of our services. We provide recreational opportunities to meet the diverse needs of the community. We provide for quality maintenance of parks, facilities, open spaces, beaches and marinas to promote an active, healthy lifestyle. We ensure that our marinas and waterway facilities meet both owner and community needs, and we promote responsible pet ownership and work to reduce animal overpopulation. You go too far. One more. Here we go. During the city manager's presentation last week, he discussed the city's public safety continuum operations. And I want to give you a few examples of how the department plays a critical role in Long Beach public safety activities. The department activates the city's youth and teens by providing access to healthy recreation opportunities during the hours that they are out of school and creating a safe environment for positive development and enrichment. The following is a sample of the diverse programing we provide. So we have afterschool programing that is provided daily during the school year at 26 park sites and Fun Day program is provided during the winter, spring and summer breaks. These programs offer everything from homework help to enrichment activities. Each provide each site provides youth the support and mentoring opportunities to increase their academic success. We anticipate over 225,000 visits for youth ages 5 to 12 this year. The Be Safe program provides extended recreation programing at six parks in this city and expands the free programing to include the entire family. We expect over 40,000 visits to these sites this summer. The Youth and Sports Program provides four seasons of sports to over 7000 youth, ages 5 to 12 at 26 parks. And this year, we were able to adapt the program and increase its services to include a pilot program for teens ages 15 and 16, which focuses on good sportsmanship and leadership development through positive play. The department operates ten summer day camp programs for parents looking for custodial supervision, along with engaging activities for kids. These are very popular programs. We've seen a 21% increase in the registration this year over last in our day camps. Teens visit our 14 centers over 15,000 times each year. These sites provide a supervised safe haven for teens afterschool. And during the summer, we have three year round in three summer community pools that provide swim lessons and recreational swim opportunities to over 225,000 participants. And our nine week summer food program provides approximately 125,000 free meals each year to youth ages 1 to 18. And just as important, but often overlooked, is that each year we provide hundreds of area teens and young adults their introduction to the workforce through volunteer and employment opportunities in our park programs. Moving on. Our beach maintenance operation works tirelessly year round to protect our coastline. During the two recent power outages, the department stepped up as it would during any natural disaster or emergency response situation, and in both events established an emergency shelter and food, water and ice distribution center at Chavez Park. And our Animal Care Services promotes public safety and the humane treatment of animals through emergency response to animal related incidents 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Over the last year, we responded to over 28,000 calls for service. Very briefly on our accomplishments. The Department continues its best in the nation service models and was once again recognized statewide and nationally for our achievements, including the California Parks and Recreation Society, once again honored us with three awards in 2015. We were named a Playful City USA and the Trust for Public Lands Park Score Index rated Long Beach as the highest ranked city in Southern California and 18th overall nationally. We dedicated three new parks, and we were able to move our Alamitos Bay Marina, rebuild efforts forward with the issuance of Marina revenue bonds, which will help us complete the remaining basins. We further enhanced existing water conservation efforts by eliminating irrigation of our grass medians with potable water. And all of this as we continued strategic investments of one time resources and all of our parks in our park facilities and amenities across all nine city council districts. Another great accomplishment is the demand for our park programing continues to soar. In addition to those programs that I spoke about earlier in the presentation, we also help seniors lead active, socially, enrich lives along with giving them easier access to health and social services. Our department makes contact with area seniors almost 500,000 times a year, and we had 32,000 contract class registrations in the last year taking advantage of our diverse class offerings. These classes are provided by private instructors, which serves as an economic driver for the Long Beach small business community. For fiscal year 16. Our proposed budget totals over $55 million across all funds, with 31 million in the general fund. As you can see from the pie chart, the department also has substantial Marina and Tidelands operating fund budgets to support our activities in the marinas, beaches and waterways. It should be noted that the department does have significant general fund revenue totaling close to $12 million, which helps support our programs. The Fiscal Year 16 budget proposes for just under 450 full time equivalent positions in during our busy summer months. Our total staffing complement grows to close to 800 people. And I'd like to point out that the department continues to work hard to identify other outside funding to help sustain our park system. The Department is extremely pleased with the continued investment in our services identified in this proposed budget. This will allow us to continue all of the services and programs that the community depends on. This slide highlights some of our budget changes for FY 16. Resources have been increased fully offset by new license revenue for the implementation of the mandatory spay and neuter program. This will help us to further our efforts to reduce pounds. We will consolidate staffing at Eldorado, East Regional Park and the Eldorado Nature Center into a one campus model. Not only will this improve the oversight of the operation of this large and unique natural resource, but also will provide a savings to the general fund. Various changes will be implemented to gain operational efficiencies and budget savings in the Tidelands Fund, including reorganizing the Marine and maintenance operations bureaus to be more responsive to our customers needs. And we will utilize nonrecurring funds to assist us in the conversion to drought tolerant landscaping in our medians. Yeah. The Department's his great opportunity and continuing our efforts to seek partnerships with the community, to improve our service offerings. Our relationship with the Long Beach Unified School District has allowed us for the sharing of resources to provide a broader scope of services to the community. For example, new aquatic programing is offered this summer by the department at the new Cabrillo High School Pool, which enhances our programing already offered at Jordan and Millikan High School Pools. The department has once again teamed up with the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau to develop the 100 days of summer to help promote city recreational opportunities and the successful placement of thousands of impounded animals. Every year is dependent upon the many wonderful community partnerships that our Animal Care Services Bureau has been able to develop and nurture. We will further strengthen our community engagement and access to information through use of technology, including greater use of social media. We are going to be formalizing a turf in urban forest management plan to provide a road map for ongoing maintenance requirements, investments and conservation efforts. We will continue working in collaboration with the Department of Public Works to carry out our strategic investments in our parks and facilities. And we will continue our efforts to provide innovative new programs to meet evolving needs in the community. Honorable Mayor and members of the city council. We have a large park system with over 160 parks, 3000 acres, 26 community centers, dozens of athletic fields, 67 tennis courts, five golf courses, 54 playgrounds and three pools and three marinas. Our opportunities are many. Through all of these facilities and our programs, we have made millions of positive contacts with the Long Beach community each year. Your continued investment in the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department has been essential to our ability to meet the needs of the Long Beach community. We thank you for your continued support and this concludes my presentation. Thank you and thank you both for the presentation. Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you. I'm going to keep this brief, but you guys have worked so hard, I think it's worthy of a few comments for the investment that you've put into the presentation. So thank you. First of all, thanks to both of you for your reports. I think when you do the little the brag sheet at the end of both of your presentation, it really highlights. For those of us who are often very concerned about the projects in our own district, it puts into context what you're working on when you're not meeting with us individually. So it's really I appreciate you doing that because as Ara was articulating all the great things that his department does for the city, I was thinking, Huh, maybe that's why our projects aren't always at the top, at the forefront of his mind, even though I know they are. You always make it seem like they are. But you guys are really doing a lot, a lot citywide. You really are. So I appreciate that. And and, Mr. Scott, you are doing a phenomenal job in your new position. You're just you're doing a great job. And I really appreciate the collaboration, the creativity that bringing everyone to the table. You're just you're doing a wonderful job. So thank you for that. Just a couple of questions that I had or observations that I wanted to make in regards to public works. I think one of the things that you mentioned and I would like this to remain a citywide priority is for us to figure out how to keep maintenance of our city facilities and assets on the forefront of our minds at budgeting times. Because I think sometimes we, we neglect to adequately fund those reoccurring. Obligations of the city. So I think, you know, moving forward, I'll be looking for opportunities where we can make maintenance a priority for us for future budget years. To the extent possible, I think that's very important in regards to Parks Rec and Marine. You know, I think that there's there's one thing you mentioned in your PowerPoint that I think some councilmembers, most councilmembers are probably aware of, but having lived it for the last year, the Cosign Protection program that PRM engages in, it's really unbelievable the amount of work and resources that go into that program. And I think most of my colleagues and probably most of the residents of the city don't know or can't appreciate how hard your team works on that and how important that services. It takes them two weeks to build up a berm in anticipation of a storm, and they build up that berm in order to protect the homes on the peninsula from flooding. And the reason that they have to do that is because we have such severe erosion problems at that end of the city that those homes are constantly at risk and those citizens are constantly at risk. In fact, last year alone, we had several incidents where our team did such an amazing job working around the clock, building up the berms that our our beaches were safe and SEAL Beach got flooded. And that, to me, really is an important part of your department that sometimes goes unnoticed because it really only impacts certain parts of the city. I think it's important to point out that they are protecting the health and safety of those residents every single day. We did have a presentation earlier today regarding the municipal band, and I know it wasn't covered in your budget, but I'm assuming that you were here when I made some of the comments that I made. And if we were, you know, I realize that they've they've done some fundraising, but if we were to consider a six week , it's very important to me that the colleagues on council who wish to have some music from the municipal band or some sort of entertainment from the musical municipal band in their district, maybe a modified version of what the municipal band currently does citywide, maybe something that's a little more specific to their constituents that that opportunity might be a possibility for the six week if we were to do a six week. Do you think that's even feasible? I think certainly, Councilwoman, that it would be feasible. In fact, we had a program probably five or six years ago, which was a summer concert band season, which was above and beyond the municipal band season. And so we had concerts in the council districts that did not have the municipal band events within their district. So we've definitely done it before and you know, can certainly look at doing it in the future. So if we were to add a six week, that's something that we could consider maybe doing something on the West Side, for example, and tailor made for whatever if if the residents of that district wanted it tailor made for that district to some to some extent, obviously. Okay. And then one of the biggest issues we have is enforcement of our ordinances regarding animal control and responsibilities of pet owners. What would it cost if you know and if you don't, we can talk about this offline, but to add an additional enforcement officer for animal care services to help enforce things such as dog waste issues that occur throughout the city. You know, I don't have the fully loaded costs in front of me, but we can certainly provide that to you. Okay, that sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I, too, want to appreciate our our department heads who worked so diligently on both of these reports. I believe that our streets, our sidewalks, our potholes, these are the things that are most crucial to our quality of life. They allow neighbors to get to and from their jobs to and from their children's schools and to and from the places where they spend money right here in the city of Long Beach. So thank you. I really appreciate the extensive amount of work that has been done this year in graffiti removal around the parks. I know that in the fifth District we have a lot of parks and graffiti removal is a an indicator when we are able to clean it up quickly, it's it's a sign to those individuals that it will not be tolerated here and that that kind of behavior is not okay. And so I really appreciate the work that you've done on that. I know that there's some talk about the Be Safe program separate and apart from the one time funds. What is the Be Safe program? Ongoing budget. Well, the Be Safe program has been funded annually through the council office. One time funds for the proposal for FY 16. Through the mayor's recommendations, there's $186,000 identified. We look at about a $21,000 budget per site. And so working that for that could be six, seven or eight different sites. But there is no structural funding for the B save program. Thank you. And within the. $21,000 per site. That is the primary summer enforcement. Or is it weekends in the fall as well? You know. The $21,000 is for a ten week program throughout the summer. And this is for extended recreation hours at for this year six park community centers. Thank you. And then I also wanted to think. Our Public Works department on the work that they're doing with relation to our our parking meters and our street sweeping. I know that that has been something that residents have really been excited about. And we appreciate your innovation. Thank you. Councilman Braxton. Yes. I'll be very brief. First of all, I want to thank both departments for your presentations. Very well done. A job well done. And 15. I had a specific question for the public works department. Ah, in terms of the, there were two issues regarding the if significant issues or opportunities moving forward, the traffic signal assessment audit, I'm sure you explained it, but can you give me a little bit more detail on what that actually means and what that is? Absolutely. Councilmember Austin, the audit that I'm proposing is to look at every single traffic signal timing within the city and make sure that the timing is properly documented. And best management practices require that we put those timing sheets one at the center location, one within the cabinet itself, and and one is kept in the files. The reason for that is if there's an outage and somebody has to go out there and if the signal is on a blinking red and they need to readjust or reprogram it, they have the proper timing. It's a it's a purely from a liability perspective for the city. I'm trying to protect the city from any liability that could occur. I'm sure the city attorney can attest to that, that any time there's an accident at any intersection, the first thing that happens is they depose the timing sheets . So I want to make sure that all the timing sheets within the city are absolutely current. They are stamped by a licensed professional engineer and also it's programed into our traffic center. And what would they cost for that? This is no cost. Staff is doing it. Okay. And refuse rate restructuring. What is what is that in reference to? Is that for private? No, sir. I believe our rates have not been adjusted within a decade or so. A finance department has hired a consultant to look at the rates, and we will have a separate meeting to discuss the adjustment of the rates. It has to comply with proper notification and proper, proper meeting. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. And Mr. Scott, I wanted to follow up on Councilmember Mungo's question regarding the BE program. You mentioned that there currently in NY 15 is no structural funding for be safe. Are you saying that there are no there's no structural funding for be safe if why 16 as well? There is not structural funding for the BCC program in the FY16 budget. Okay. I was I'm a little confused there because in the budget presentation that we received last week, it where I was left under the impression that it would be part of a structural. I can clarify that for the budget message and it's written out there. The BC program would move from counselor discretionary accounts to the one time funded amount that's provided in the budget. That's why it's not structured. It's one time with the intention of moving that structurally in the future. That's how it's written out in the in the budget message. So it just essentially moves from council discretionary to being a funded one time dispense of the city's. So instead of being under. The control or. Of the council office, it is. Now the city. Manager. The one time. Budget or the department's one time. Budget. Right. A one time like any other one time expense. But essentially, we're still going to provide the the service. And that's the Internet. Is exactly right. All right. The idea is to, you know, prioritize that as something that's important. It's a citywide importance to focus on these parks and so to move them out of council and make it one time. Thank you. Any other questions? Councilmember Richardson. Thank you. So I want to begin just by thanking both public works and Parks and Recreation, not only on a good presentation, but on really keeping up with the community in terms of our demands. I know that we can be very demanding in terms of making sure that our our facilities are clean and maintained and ultimately being improved. I want to just. Just a few comments. I know that Parks and Recreation, we've got a very exciting year coming up in Parks and Recreation in District nine and that we're going to be taking on a master planning effort of sort of all of the parks in District nine, as well as looking at some more strategic things with with our only regional park in the area, Highland Park. So I wanted to just, you know, chime in and say, hey, I'm really, really excited. I think your budget is your budget is is everything that I've expected. And I look forward to continuing on this pace of improving our open space facilities. I want to I want to just chime in and and ask and ask for an update from Parks and Recreation on whether there's there's a focus on LED light conversion in our parks, similar to the way that we're placing a focus on our business corridors. And secondly, I know there was I know there was a discussion about improving our cameras in the parks. And I would like to just have an update on where we are. Does that program still exist and sort of where are we with that program? Councilmember Richardson, with respect to the LED lights, we are certainly on board with the conversion of our existing lights to LED lighting, where and when we have the available resources for new park facilities. Those will definitely be built into the plans and specifications. And as we're able to convert existing lights and have the funding to do so, we will certainly endeavor to do that. So I guess my question there would be is there some opportunity that we haven't evaluated in terms of exploring, maybe using some of the same resources or incentives that might be out there, whatever approach we're using on the business court or sort of seeing if there's some some crossover in our parks that we can explore, or is that something we can do? Pat, Pat, can you answer that question? Because I don't see why we wouldn't be looking at that. Tom Morello. So we are currently engaged in an effort to replace all of our lights with LED lights, and there are some financing mechanisms available to us. One is rebates from Edison and the other is an on bill financing. We are certainly going to be looking at our parks, at our beach areas, as well as all of our residential and corridor areas too. So if we are able to use those incentives to fund those, we would very much like to do that. So what? So I would my suggestion would be this. If there are and you know, I just stated it, we're going through a very intensive master plan process specifically with Highland Park. And lighting is is an element of that conversation. I would love to see that if we figure out a strategy to go. Leiby We sort of look at areas where we have synergy in our parks, where we're placing a focus on certain things so that we can make sure that's integrated into our master development process. And that's all I have to say there. Do we have any comments on the camera piece? Cameras in the park. Councilmember Richardson, over the last couple of years, we have had a pretty aggressive camera program in our parks. Those have been primarily funded through the council office one time funds. But it's certainly something that we want to continue working with the police department, the council offices and our Department of Technology and Innovation to try to maximize the use of the cameras in the parks and see if there aren't any synergies with some of the other efforts in the business districts and what have you. Thanks. So the last thing I have for parks is just a follow up. I haven't. I haven't. Forgive me. I don't know very much about the Long Beach Municipal Man. I've actually never seen one of their performances. I I've heard that they have tremendous turnout at their concerts. But since we might be talking about that, I'd love to just have more background before we actually vote on the budget in terms of, you know, how much does a municipal band concert cost, where are they held, what is the total budget of our muni band that we invest on an annual basis? And how does that compare to our concerts in the park in terms of where those are distributed, the cost per concert versus a muni band concert? What else is out there? Are we? I know that, you know, since we don't have a large concert in the district four years ago we started our Latin Jazz and Blues Festival and took a few years to get added to the city's concerts in the Park series. But I'd like to just get a whole picture on how equitable, how equitable we invest in entertainment in the parks, so that if we talk about expanding, we have an honest conversation about what we're doing. So that would be my request there on public works. I just want to say that, you know, there's a lot of excitement around, you know, you know, regional attention on Artesia Boulevard and Capital. And we talked about that. And I think that we've really I think we've met expectations this year in terms of our maintenance needs. We I think they're timely. I think we have a department is very responsive. But would you say our that we're in a best position in terms of staffing to carry out all of the infrastructure requests and needs that the council and the city requires of or requests of your of your office in terms of, you know, actually carrying out projects. How how where would you say you are in terms of staffing for project maintenance management? Councilmember Richardson That's a great question. As every department is being challenged by retirement of baby boomers, we have we're facing the same exodus of our our senior management or senior engineers. We're in that phase of recruiting. So I'm confident by the end of this calendar year, we'll be fully staffed. We lost a lot of individuals with a lot of institutional knowledge to retirement that that was the time that I guess they reached at that point in their lives that they need to retire. So I have to say, we're in that transition period that we're going from retirements and vacancies to filling them, and we're very aggressively doing that and hopefully within the next two or three months will complete that process and will be fully staffed to accept any challenges that the council officers are giving us. In addition to, we could utilize consultants, as we do now, on a project by project basis. Great. So I'm very pleased to hear that. And I personally, I've seen that you've got some superstars in your department who already you know, you I don't want to name names, but they're really taking it to these projects. I would just like to just say that if for some reason the staffing issue somehow becomes a problem, that we somehow prioritize projects that place a focus on projects where we have like imminent funding mechanisms that that, you know. That might be available from external resources. We sort of place a great a tremendous focus on those because I would hate for any opportunities that we have coming up that we miss out on those because we're not necessarily prepared. But I have the utmost confidence in your department. And so, once again, thank you to both departments and those are my comments on the budget. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes. I just want to thank you both as well. And I won't say I'll be brief, because everyone said that before and they weren't brief, though. I'm just getting I just want to get very much. Thank you both for this. These presentations. I have a couple questions. I'll first start with Public Works, so I know that we are converting to LSD, which everyone's talking about. I'm glad that Councilman Richardson brought that point forward about our parks, but I also have a concern with our alleys, our courts in a ways and lighting those. And I know, although it might pose kind of an issue because there's private property there. But I know I believe we had a program in place through neighborhood services where property owners can get a rebate of some sort. So is that something we can look into? I would love to peruse that again to see if there's an opportunity for that. As we're looking at lighting in general. I absolutely will take a look at that. Currently, we do have a program that if there are existing Edison Poles, but there are no streetlights and for 20 $500, we can install one single light if if the Edison has the capacity and and it's willing to do that. So we have that cooperation and collaboration with Edison. We can provide that service for areas that are dark. Also, we suggest that if people want to add additional lighting on their backyards to their walls and if they want to use LCD lighting, they can do that at any time without any any additional interaction with the city. But if they want something to be installed within the public right away, these are the alleys, then we can look at that. Obviously, we cannot install new polls in the alleys that are already congested. We would recommend maybe adding a single arm street light to to those poles and we can collaborate with any resident that wishes to do that. Great. But did we? I believe we had a rebate. Some sort of rebate program. Is that am I getting that correctly? I don't recall that being that in public works, that could be in the Development Services Department. It was. Through development. Services. I believe we can check with them and get back to you. Okay. That would be great. Absolutely. I'd like to look into that a little bit more. Um, okay. Thank you. And then I know for stormwater or storm drains, uh, I know our West Siders have often complained to me and have been very concerned with the storm drain issue on the on the west side. So how do we assess those and determine what is a priority city wide and how we can cast those out and get those fixed? Unfortunately, the storm drain fund is doesn't have any major funding resources. It's this is a true phenomenon with every city in the state of California, and it requires a vote of public to assess any kind of taxation in order to generate revenues, in order to fix those those infrastructures. As far as priority, basically, we have completed we're at 90% of our storm drain pump stations, which is basically the heart of the system. And then we have the arteries, which are their lines. So we want to start with the the main brain and the heart of the system and then get into the piping system. You will see maybe a presentation from me if if you're interested. And in the near future on the pump station conditions, we also have a master plan of our storm drain system which categorizes which pipes are undersized and which pipes need to be completed. It's just a matter of funding. And and we go from there. It's the same issue. Like you bring on any unfunded liability that we have or unfunded project that we have. Okay. Thank you. And I think you just in general for your work on smart meters and our power outage and and putting priority and emphasis on that. Thank you, Ira. And then Stephen for Parkes. I also want to thank you for your presentation as well. I know in the past we've had issues with maintenance of our parks and so are we doing anything different this time? Is there anything we're looking at? In a different light as far as quality and maintenance of our parks. Thank you for the question, Councilwoman. Yeah, I think there there has been an instance in the past where we had a contract situation where the contractor was not living up to the expectations of the city and the community. We did take steps very quickly in that particular situation to resolve that issue and use that as an opportunity to really improve our contract management capabilities. We have a new management team in our Maintenance Operations Bureau that is experienced and professionals in the industry. And so we definitely look forward to continued improvements in our maintenance operations and we're going to continue to look for opportunities to improve our maintenance of all of our parks and facilities. Okay. Great. Thank you. And I'll just comment as well that the Be Safe program although not structural, it's I'm I'm glad that the mayor has recommended a citywide approach because it's been so very impactful for the first district and your park staff is tremendous. I know we just had an event with the chief this past Saturday. It was so very positive for our community. So I have to thank you all for for doing that and staying committed to that. And then the security cameras I know you'd mentioned this, but just so my colleagues can know, I paid for that out of my discretionary funds, about $100,000 for 18 cameras. I'm working with tech services, parks and the police department. So it's proved to be very another very impactful point in our and our district. So thank you all. Appreciate it. Councilman Randers is thinking here. Now, it's a little after 12. I think we're trying to set another record, and I still want to be a part of that. So if you just bear with me another hour and a half from now, we'll get that done. And first of all, I'd just like to thank Bo Parks and. Public works for the fine work, both of the individuals done. Steve, I know you came on at the end, but your staff has been just tremendous, especially work with me in the sixth District. You know, I can't really tell them enough how much you guys have put into those parks that we have there. And and it's just one thing I'd really like to ask you. You know, I used the slogan, you know, keeping that little you know, keeping the kids busy is very important to me. And and you mentioned about the new team sports program. And I would like for you to tell me a little bit more about, you know, that pilot program that you have. Councilmember Andrews This is a program that we're very excited about as we were evaluating our youth sports program. Taking a look at what was working, what was were wasn't working. We noticed that we had essentially a gap in service. We weren't addressing the teens. We didn't have a sports program for the 15, 16 year olds. We had the youth sports program, which got us up to 12, but there was nothing beyond that. And, you know, high school sports are very competitive. There are limited spots. Organized leagues can also be very expensive. So we wanted to take the opportunity to use some of our existing resources to build a teen sports program that helped address that gap in service. And so we're in our first season right now. We have a six team basketball league. It's a six week program, and we really look forward to positive results from that program. Thank you. Thank you very much. And good public works or I don't need to say anything, but I just want to thank you and your staff for doing just such a wonderful job. It's just one question I have to ask. And and what is the estimate number of, you know, graffiti tags removed each year and. Honorable Andrews. Thank you. That's that's a great question. Yesterday, when I did the presentation, I mentioned 950,000 square feet of graffiti was removed. That kind of equates to about 75,000 tags. Each side could have a different square footage that gets cleaned. Thank you very much. And I'd like to thank both of you. Parks and I, you know, Public Square, you guys have done a great job. Thank you again. I'm not through because I have another hour to go, but I'll just pass it over to someone else. Thank you. Then a few other folks have a couple hours, so it's a long pause. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank both of you for the presentation and your patience. For waiting for us the entire night. So thank you. And I only have one question. Not an hour's worth. Just one question with the Park Patrol program, Mr. Scott. What? What is what's next for us? We have it. We have the pilot at the Bixby Park as well as in the six districts. Correct. Councilmember Field. So what would be next? Vice Mayor Lowenthal. You're correct. We had a pilot program both at Bixby Park and Shattuck Field. It's a park patrol program so different than the traditional park ranger program. These are actually recreation employees that are patrolling the park, making positive interaction and engagement with our park patrons, and then notifying the police department of any serious public safety concerns. But as you did mention, this was and is a pilot program. It was not funded in 2001. What we used were essentially salary savings from a vacant position to be able to pay for that. Looking forward in 2016, we do not have structural funding identified for the Park Patrol program at either location. And so, you know, that's something that's going to need to be addressed as we look forward. In fact, there is not structural funding to sustain the program. So when we had this conversation during the last cycle, one of the aspects of the program was an evaluation. We did commit to an evaluation, I believe. And so I'd like to know how the department will do that. Or is it already in your plan to do that? Because it wasn't intended just to have a pilot program and then it goes away. It's to evaluate it so that we can make some reference to what might be required at the parks. That's correct. Correct. Vice Mayor. We are actually in the process of completing the evaluation. We're basically about 12 months into the program. It started, I think, last August. So our team and our Community Recreation Services Bureau are completing that evaluation and we'll be providing that in a very shortly. And in that evaluation, will you be able to articulate how much it would cost, for instance, per park, to continue a program like that or to continue it at whatever recommended level you might suggest? Yes, we could do that. Okay. I would appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And Councilor Rose Hooper not. Thank you and good morning, gentlemen. I have just two questions. One for each group. For Parks and Rec on page 17. And it's under the heading of major changes. And that's the only reason I'm asking about it is is consolidated staffing in El Dorado East in the El Dorado Nature Center into one campus. At the end of the day, are there more or less budgeted positions at the Nature Center? Specifically at the Nature Center. It will be the same. It will be the same. Really what we're doing here is we're essentially just providing a higher level of supervision for the entire Eldorado campus. But we will have the same level of staffing. Okay. Thank you. And for on on on page ten, under the significant issues for public works, the storm water pump station assessment. So I'm as I'm hearing it, that we don't have a budget for any work on these, but I just like to document that. Station number nine at Atherton and the loss through this channel, it's the terminus of the former Atherton Ditch. The pump station is great, electric is all great, but the four bay loads up with about 18 inches of water continually. So I guess there's a sump pump that doesn't work. So I guess we're saying that we probably don't have the funding to repair that at this time. That's correct. We have funding in the budget right now to take care of more imminent issues in pump stations that are in a higher need. We usually tackle about one or two pump stations per year. But what I was alluding to is a comprehensive and comprehensive analysis that will give us the priority of every pump station and what needs to be done. We did a complete analysis of every pump station and investigated the electrical system, their scatter system, the four bays and all that. We tested pumps and we have a full engineering report that also indicates, you know, can they be an emergency generator or plugged in? Some of our pump stations are so old that we cannot just in case of a blackout, we cannot just attach a generator to run it. We have to go physically run, you know, wires. So which I'm trying to make it in a way that it could be easily plugged in or be ready for the generators. So it's more of for emergency response for all aspects of service. So that is being done. It's being put in a priority list and the funding that is needed. Okay. So it's a full blown CIP for pump stations. Okay, great. And to echo my colleague's comments, you guys are both doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. And good morning to you also. Do you think you are facing. Just briefly to follow back up with Mr. Scott in the evaluation that you had mentioned that you are working on, it's going to be critical for council to have that so that they can work that into their budget conversations. Councilmember Price and I are having our community budget meeting tomorrow at Bixby Park. It will come up and so. I need to know a timeline and I need that timeline to be before council finishes its deliberations so that we can be informed by it. They did it for me. We will be able to provide. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for the hard work and for enjoying the morning with us. Moving on. Any public comment on the budget? So is a budget hearing. Seen a public comment on the budget. So now moving on to item number 23. Thank you, guys. Yes. Item 23 on the regular agenda.