Recommendation to receive and discuss an overview of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2020 budgets for the following Departments: Technology and Innovation and Civil Service; and
We'll hear that after. And so we're going to start with the with the hearing, which is hearing item number one, which is the budget. So, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, we have two presentations for you today. The first will be technology and innovation, and the second will be civil service. So with that, I will turn it to Leah Ericsson, our director of technology and Innovation. Good evening, Mayor, and members of the City Council. Thank you for the opportunity to present the technology and innovation departmental budget for fiscal year 20. First, the Technology and Innovation Department takes pride in its mission of providing a customer focused environment that integrates people, process and technology to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of city services. Our dedicated to IT employees deliver our core services that you can see here on this slide. As for accomplishments, the Technology and Innovation Department had a big year. My team worked really hard planning and implementing a new all the new technology for the Civic Center, which was a monumental undertaking that involved countless hours of tied staff, time and effort. These efforts are still ongoing as we stabilize the technology in the new building. In addition to the Civic Center, we are also completing a two year project to replace our aging public safety dispatch systems and public safety radios. The Department is also focusing on expanding the technology, infrastructure and communication networks to help support key projects such as Abbey Coast. Our Enterprise Document Management System and a new customer relationship management system, as well as body worn cameras. And we're also continuing to expand our fiber optic network to improve connectivity to additional city facility facilities. And the department has upgraded our phone infrastructure, including the establishment of a new E911 one locator system with city within city facilities. As part of the Council's priority to improve transparency and open government, we worked with financial management and public works to develop an interactive measure, a mapping portico that shows residents the infrastructure improvement projects funded by Measure A. We also improve access to information by migrating additional city websites, including those of development services and library to our new platform, which involves streamlined design and improved usability. We initiated the co-creation of a digital inclusion roadmap by working with community stakeholders, along with the city's Technology and Innovation Commission, who did an extensive survey and analysis with recommendations to advance digital inclusion in Long Beach. Our work on the Digital Inclusion Initiative led to the city's designation as a digital inclusion trailblazer. In addition, the department was ranked a top ten digital city by the Center for Digital Government for the eighth consecutive year. This is a tremendous accomplishment for the department and the city. We are also we also completed our coast phase one with the go live of Munis Financials in April. And we're still in the stabilization phase for that portion of the project. We are also continuingly continuing to develop and implement the planning of Elbe Coast phase two, which is h.r. And payroll and three budget. This is an ongoing multiyear effort that is required to operationalize our new modern ERP system and migrate off of our old mainframe based systems. We began the EDI project with local vendor laser fish to enhance operational efficiencies by automating business processes and reducing paper files and storage. And in partnership with development services, we created a series of code enforcement rhetoric reports. We also launched a citywide data committee to facilitate a data informed culture that focuses on using analytical tools and decision making in partnership with the Office of Civic Innovation. Now moving on to our FY 20 budget, the Technology and Innovation Department proposed budget is $57 million and includes and supports 173 full time equivalent employees. 99% of our services are funded through the General Services Fund Group, which is supported by all city departments. RFI 20. Some of the notable changes to the department's budget includes the transfer of both, both budget and positions and the Financial Management Department to the new Enterprise Information Services Bureau in our department, which also includes an increase in budget positions all to support our new munis system. In addition, there's a new systems technician position to support mobile devices for the new body worn camera program and assist with AB 953 compliance. The addition of two business system specialist positions to support the increasing technology needs in the Fleet Services Bureau and the Public Works Environmental Services Bureau. The addition of the communications specialist position and funding for the production and coordination of artistic, cultural and educational video programing with a focus in the new civic center. And finally, one time funding to expand the data storage capacity in City Hall and to improve obsolete technology, infrastructure and existing city facilities. Now to discuss some challenges and opportunities due to the intense focus on the new civic center and all B Coast Phase one implementation. Over the last couple of years, TIDE has accumulated a significant backlog of other critical technology projects that we will be addressing in the future. And we are not done with lbe coast. These two and three continues to require a tremendous involvement and focus of staff from both technology and innovation, financial management and h.r. Along with all operating departments. This has to remain the city's top technology project priority. It continues to be a challenge to balance the significant demands from city departments for technology systems and projects, along with the current staffing levels and other critical technology infrastructure priorities. In Fy20. We will also be working extensively to perform ongoing cybersecurity assessments, as well as creating a roadmap to better monitor and respond to the increasing number of cybersecurity threats and to address data security. Legislative mandates. Fortunately, there are also tremendous opportunities to continue to implement new technology that enables the city to work more efficiently and for residents to engage more easily with their city. So for example, we are implementing the one number project to make it easier for residents and business owners to access city services via the phone. In addition, we are also implementing the CRM system as a modern way for residents and businesses to get their issues identified, tracked and addressed. It's a focus of our department to pursue innovative approaches and partnerships to enhance digital inclusion. That's always a priority for the department to continue implementing technology solutions to increase efficiency and keep city costs low. Thank you for your ongoing support of the Technology and Innovation Department's projects. We look forward to continuing to work together to find innovative solutions. I'll end with some beauty shots of technology in our new civic center and library. This concludes our presentation, and we're ready to answer any questions you may have. At the end after civil service gives their presentation. We're going to go into the Civil Service presentation, and I know we have first an introduction before we begin the actual budget. So I'm going to have the President of our Civil Service Commission, Suzanna Gonzales. Edmund, make an introduction. So can you guys hear me? Yes. Now, do you mind also just shifting the podium. Because I have a belly. There we go. Sorry. Good evening, everyone. Beautiful baby. Coming? Yes, my little girl. Good evening, everyone. Like the mayor said, my name is Susana Gonzalez, Edmond. I'm the new. President of the Civil Service Commission. And with me is a new vice president, Heather Morrison, where thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to make this presentation. We wanted to formally introduced to everyone our new executive director. She's not new to Long Beach, but we wanted to. Give a formal introduction to Christina Pichardo, 20. We are very excited to have her on board. We are very excited to be able to. Initiate my. Term as president. To be more engaged and be able to bring more awareness. About what the Civil Service Commission does. And therefore, she's going to. Give a brief overview and then go into our budget presentation. Thank you so much and have a great evening. Thank you. So it's definitely my pleasure to be here tonight. And Susannah said to return to Long Beach. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. What I would like to do is take the honor of presenting our budget for the Civil Service Department for fiscal year 20. I would like to highlight our past, present and our future. And so with the first slide, you will see that there is a little bit of history that I thought would be important to share with the council. The Long Beach Civil Service Commission was established in its first city charter in 1907, so it's been around for a long time. We maintain the rules and regulations to carry out the merit system. We also have a board of five civil service commissioners appointed by the mayor and approved by the city council. Their job is to support the merit system of maintaining a fair and impartial treatment at all times. Civil Service Commission also has a responsibility to enforce and remedy violations of these rules and regulations. So they have their their meetings every other week to do so. They also appoint an executive director that helps carry out the policies through staff that through a professional management staff and finally the can. The Commission endeavors to remain flexible and innovative while ensuring the citizens of Long Beach that the principles of Personnel Administration are followed. So how do we do this? We have our course services. As I mentioned, we uphold merit system through civil service rules and regulations. We identify and attract qualified and diverse applicants. We develop and administer job related employment examinations. We manage eligible lists and certification of qualified candidates. We manage and provide training for city wide applicant tracking system. We adjudicate disciplinary appeals. We manage classified performance evaluation processes. And we implement special projects that promote that promote the innovation of core services. So it's a little bit of all of our divisions. So. On this next slide, you'll see that the numbers tell the story. This is year to date information. We're not even done with our fiscal year. But the numbers, I'm sure we'll we'll reach 20,000. The first number that you see, 19,659. Those are the number of applicants that have come through our system that staff is processing. So fortunately, we have an electronic online system that we're processing these applications, but it's still staff looking at every single application that comes through. The next thing we do is from that from those 19,000, which will probably be 20,000 at the end of this fiscal year, we have 90 we had 99 recruitments that took place in in 2019. From there, we created 202 eligible lists for departments to review and select candidates. Of those 202 lists, the departments had 8915 candidates from which to select. And then finally we have 198 users out in the department that use our electronic applicant tracking system. That makes it easier for them to review candidates and bring people on board. The other ways that we do this as well are we are continuing we continue to expand the use of our social media and our event calendar to promote promote events and employment opportunities. We coordinated attendance at 46 community outreach events and job fairs for public safety personnel, and we provided weekly communication to 847. Constant comment subscribers of current and upcoming job opportunities. So the goal is trying to get the word out so that people then know what jobs are available here in the city of Long Beach. The next slide you'll see, how do we. So what do we do? How do we what do we do with all of these applicants? We have increased the use of technology in the examination and transfer processes and in 2019. And so that made it. We tried new examination processes to manage the volume of applicants. We partnered with the Office of Civic Innovation to analyze the recruit police recruit process. And we're still working to see how we can continue to streamline. We also partnered with the fire department to increase partition participation in the fire engineer exam and came up with what I was able to see on my second day of work as a very innovated, innovative process to encourage more participation. And then finally, all of that takes into consideration that we had to process over 4000 personnel transaction forms and 1700 requisitions to meet departments needs of moving staff through the city lifecycle. So in the graphic on the right, you can see that civil service is kind of at the center. Applicants are coming through to us. We're pushing them out to police and fire as well as other general operating departments. So in our budget, you'll see that we have our proposed budget. 3 million. We have 18. Point seven fte ees. But with our five commissioners we have 23. So notable changes. We? Participated in the fund reduction and it led to the elimination of one of our a vacant personnel assistant position as well as reduction in materials. But the good news is that we also there a proposal for two personnel analyst positions to be added to our budget to strengthen the city's hiring process, which are very, very appreciative of that. So what are the opportunities and challenges? Certainly, again, very, very grateful for the two positions that will allow us to benefit the entire city by creating more recruitments and going out and attracting more people. We also see this as an opportunity to resurrect our proactive recruitment and outreach efforts. Due to some budget cuts. That has been those are some activities that haven't been allowed or haven't been. We haven't had the resources to do and so we really have heard the need for that and we would like to take that on in the coming year. The challenge will be will be a challenge will be our success, because we will have those two added additional positions, because we will be generating more eligible lists. We will also it will also be impact our support staff. So we with the elimination of the one staff person, it's going to be a strain, but we're going to figure out how to how to do it in the coming year. The other challenges that Long Beach Coast activities are also very significant. And so we will be participating in phase two and seeing how we can find the resources to fully support this endeavor because we want it to be successful and support the entire city system with the implementation of Long Beach Coast. So that concludes my presentation and certainly I'm open to any questions if anybody has any questions. Well, thank you and and welcome. I know we had a chance to speak, but I just want to again welcome you. We're very excited for you to be a part of our city team. Thank you. And you've all you've been here in Long Beach already, so we thank you for that. We're going to go ahead and do for the budget hearing is I don't see anyone cued up yet, but I'm going to hear from the public. And so we have members of the public that want to speak. And so I do want to go ahead and begin cuing, cuing, cuing them up. Give me 1/2 and then we'll start the cue. Our first five speakers will be and Cantrell and Christiansen carelessly. Helena Sigel, Horst and Ramon the sixth. So the first five can please come forward. Good evening. Before I begin, I have a question. Is this am I to speak on all items on number one of the budget? This is this is open public hearing on the budget. And so you can speak on anything to do with the budget. Before you have any discussion on it. Is that correct? That is correct. I find this quite. Different. There hasn't been a motion made, so I don't know how the public can make a comment. I don't have any members queued up. And so, please, we're going to do public comment right now on the budget. So please go ahead. All right. I would like to address item number ten on the budget. The recommendation to declare the ordinance for the reach and charges for water and sewer, and especially I'm concerned about. The third section of this resolution. It states. If any section of the ordinance is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, invalid or void. Such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion. You can you can continue because I took up some of that time. So please continue this control. Thank you. And it also states that the Council hereby declares. That if this ordinance. Is passed and is found unconstitutional, irresponsible, irrespective of the fact that one or more sections are unconstitutional, that you would have voted for this anyway. I do not understand how you can vote for something which you know may be unconstitutional. This rate change. Is against Proposition 218, which says you shall not raise the rates for the water. Thank you. As you have done here. And I urge you to uphold the Constitution as you have sworn to do. Thank you so much, Miss Cantrell. Thank you. Anna Kristensen Oh, yeah. There's a lot of flaws here in the system. Still kinks. I noticed that one of the previous speakers commented on how some of their funding was coming from Measure M of. It seems to me we have a close circle when it comes to the water department at the state level, which says that when you charge people to provide water, that's all you can do with the money is provide water. You can put in more pipes. You can put it in more storage tanks, which apparently we need. I was at the water board meeting and they're in dire need and that's. Why they're raising our rates. Right. So it's all about the water and providing water. Which we know is life. Right. It's not a luxury. So the idea that there would be a measure M that could allow for extra money made from charging people for the water that could be spent on no matter what kind of a benefit and budget it in. It's in the budget. Now we're using measure in money to do this. We're using measure and money to do that. It doesn't seem. Possible. I mean, I think it is illegal and I think you were told it was illegal before and then measure em came along and now you're trying to think that you can make it illegal . I would suggest that if you want to make it legal. To charge people for water, but provide other services with that money that you amend the state constitution. Thank you very much. You live here? It's your constitution. Thank you. But the city does not control the state of Washington. Next speaker is Ms.. Lee, and then Helena's single horse. And then remind. Hi. I'm here to speak on item ten as well. On the water rate increase in just 45 days time, 1443 water account holders submitted protest letters to the water board opposing this rate increase. Now, that did not meet the impossible number of 45,000 half the account holders to defeat the rate increase. But you all have the ability to do something about that here today. You can see that the public doesn't want this. Last year the rates were raised 7.2%. Today. Today we're talking about adding another 12% just in rough numbers. That's 19.2. And in fact, it's actually over 20% because you're compounding the 7.2% against the base. The city charter allows for 12% of the water revenue gross that is, surplus to department needs to be transferred to the general fund. It is impossible and illogical to have surplus and at the same time have the need for a rate increase because there isn't enough budget to run the utility. I went and looked at the budgets and in 2019 it's listed as 12,318,000, which is 9% of the water budget. And in 2020 it's shown as 12 654,000, and that's 10%. You can actually fix this problem of this big rate increase by giving back the money. Thank you. Very much. That is coming to the general fund. Good afternoon, Mayor. Council members and staff. Thank you. Very therapeutic to lend my support to may your advocacy of this request to include the $100,000 for a phase two park lamp post project in the city. You pride fiscal year 2020 budget. As a 55 year resident of Long Beach and a member of the Heritage Preservation Movement for many year, many of those year, I have seen their great value to the well-being of the city that has been aided by the formation of the many historic districts. Part of their well being is the ambiance, the streetscape, Enterprise Park, Historic District, Neighbors Form Day Committee as part of their neighborhood station to do a pilot project to duplicate the antique style of lamp posts. They I our certain there aren't first street though first street lamp post mustering moved in 1968 by this city, but was stopped by intense opposition from residents, those necessary to a project just kind of on the side street. And the hope is that it's a success, a phase one pilot project and the inclusion of 100,000 apartments, and there's a new one, he said. It will also encourage more residents to contribute towards the removal of an appropriate for you. Gray Goose Gooseneck Street lights to the border starter star yellow lampposts throughout the park the starter districts. Thank you. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much. All right. Hi. I noticed that one of the line items on the on the budget was artificial turf for Eldorado Park. So I wanted to briefly talk about that. This is stuff that the Parks already knows. So I'm just going to make sure that we're clear. I don't know if Stacy Mongeau knows, but the Ayuso 177 has been subletting the middle soccer field to a group called The Air. So Los Alamitos, this is not allowed and. Not. Continuing to do this. Will They've been doing it for three years. So I don't know what what. What the justification could be to to do this to the. The air show has lost about 400 members, 2 to 400 members of its own people. And so they're using this to make it look like they have bigger numbers. Um. The residents were. We're wanting to were told that they would be able to get some equity and that they would be able to to speak and on on the anyth anything change they were given. The the grass and then somehow it changed. So all we're asking for is just to get a fair shake and to be to be inclusive. This is kind of what I've been part of this organization for, to have a fair shake. And not have one, one. One special interest organization run the show. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much. Our next speakers are Marco Pizzo, Rebecca Burningham, Regina Taylor, Tamisha Shay, Angela and Angela Kimball. If you can, please come forward in that order. Marco Pizzo. Rebecca Birmingham. Regina Taylor. Timothy O'Shay and Angela Kimball. Honorable Mayor and city council members. My name is Marco Pizzo and I live in the Bluff Park Historic. District located inside the Third District. I am one of the project. Co-Chairs for the Bluff Park Historic Lamppost Project, and I'm currently the VP of Events and fundraising for the Bluff Park Neighborhood Association since 2017. Five years ago, co-chair Jeff Mallett and I were approached by various historic district leaders, former CHC commission members. And Long Beach Heritage. Preservationists of the Year to spearhead bringing back historic lampposts to the Bluff Park Historic District. Our common goal was to remove out of character. Freeway style, concrete cobra poles and replace them with appropriate vintage lampposts that have only remained on East First Street. We were seeking to make our historic district feel whole and fully connected while honoring the lamppost icon on our. Neighborhood district logo. Supported and encouraged by the previous. Board, our subcommittee spent hours of. Research closely working with public works and collaborating with the planning department. Public Works unearthed the original. 1927 drawing of the actual first street lamp post in the City archives. We reached out to the original manufacturer listed on the drawing and with much coordination and. Even a trip from the Bluff. Park from Canton. Ohio. Union metal industries fabricated the new beautiful lampposts using the same design specs as the original. During the five years, scores of volunteers worked tirelessly to fundraise, and we have raised $80,000 with support from the community. And the neighborhood. Bluff Park is poised and ready for the second phase, and we are thrilled. To have city funds being allocated to make this happen. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. We urge you to support. The project, and together we are bringing lamppost history back. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Rebecca Birmingham, sometimes known as Reba. You know, can you put the mic a little bit closer to you? I can. Last time I was here, I was in court in this building. This is new. I'm a 20 year resident of First Street. I live in Bluff Park. I'm part of Bluff Park Neighborhood Association. I'm here to speak for continued funding for the Historic Lamppost Project. As you can see from the beautiful city council, chambers atmosphere is important. It can make you rise to new levels and make soaring arguments, or it can bring you down. We live in a historic neighborhood. These are antique style lampposts, just like we had in 1927, in the fifties. 57, I think, is when Cobra came about. People were tearing down historic buildings right and left, and they were putting up these freeway type modern things. I truly support it. I've seen phase one. We all got together as a neighborhood. I want to thank Councilmember Price for all her support. The other members, there are a lot of neighbors who would be here today if they could. So I believe $100,000 is what we're talking about. And I strongly urge the council to go forward and allocate that so we can have a phase two. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Reba. Next speaker, please. Regina Taylor If this relates to our topic of the day, a Section 1407 charter use of water department funds and the surplus that you want to transfer over to the general fund. I have problems with the charter and that particular item number eight and it says the commission is authorized to fix and the City Council is authorized to approve water and sewer rates in an amount sufficient to recover cost of certain obligations which are spelled out in the charter. And also a new obligation, which is the transfer of funds to the excess funds limited to a 12% amount of the surplus that is not needed to the general fund. Now, the problem I have with that is, do you get to say. You the city, get to say how much surplus you want and then we fix the rates so that that is generated. I have I have a half a minute but I do mean that sincerely that that the wording in that. Chartists says that to me that you're aiming at a certain amount now. You have a 12.3 million that you want for 20. 2019 and a similar amount for 2020. So we had to ensure that you get those amounts once the budgeted. So that might mean raising the rates. If you can't make that proper surplus, in other words, you're generating the surplus that you want. That's the point. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. O'Shane. Council mayor. Esteemed Council members. I'm here to speak in support of the $100,000 budget line issue for the Love Park Lamppost Project. I'd just like to say that as a past president of the Bluff Park Neighborhood Association, this is one of the projects where a partnership between city and the community is just an example to our surrounding cities. Long Beach is a city with a forward view and is very strong in historic preservation. It brings a great deal of interest from around the country and around the world. We see fantastic tourism in this neighborhood and how this particular neighborhood is one of the most walks and walkable neighborhoods and the removal of the modern lampposts and replacing them with the historic style lampposts only goes to improve that. This is a win win as it beautifies the neighborhood and it bolsters the city's reputation. Thank you. Thank you very much. And Angela Campbell. Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Angela Kimball. And for the record, for the public, I am a plaintiff with Diana Jeans in a lawsuit against the city with respect to measure M, which we've. We find is in violation of Proposition 218 of the state constitution. You cannot pass a measure that violates the state constitution. Um, the con is measure em. It started with a lawsuit to begin with. And Measure M comes about, and you introduce another way to try and take the same money you were taking before that you were found in violation of the state constitution. So here we are again. I am a county unincorporated residents. I am not represented by this this council, by this mayor. We did not have an opportunity to vote on Measure M. The 545 homeowners that live in my community are not represented by this board, but we pay the 12%, the 7.2, the 12% you're now looking for because water and gas is provided in our neighborhood by the city of Long Beach. Measure M was not on our ballot. We were not given an opportunity to even hear about it. You have no jurisdiction to talk outside of your boundaries. So for the record, just so everybody knows, Diana, La Jeans and myself will not see one dime from this lawsuit. We are not here to get money. We are here to get justice and follow the Constitution. Thank you. Ma'am. Our next speakers are Megan Berry, Jeff, Melanie, Angelica, Mario, Magnolia Rodriguez and Veronica. Via Kenya, Megan Berry, Jeff Mallin, Angelica Maria, Magnolia Rodrigues and Veronica via country. Hi, my name is Megan Barrie. I am also a resident of Bluff Park and I just kind of wanted to lend my voice to the chorus of my, my neighbors who all are in support of the allocation of $100,000 for the. Can you hear me? Phase two of the Bluff Park Lamppost Project. Unlike Kaleena, I've only been in the neighborhood for about 5 minutes compared to her. I moved in three years ago, in large part because I was really drawn to the historic district. We were originally looking at other neighborhoods and then we just happened to go through Bluff Park and we just loved it and in large part because of its charm and its character. So, so I just strongly urge you guys to all vote on the allocation of those funds. We love our lampposts and they add so much charm and character to our neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you so much next week with this. Hey, Honorable Mayor Garcia, Vice Mayor Andrews and City Council members. My name is Jeff Mallon and I am also a resident of the Third Council District and live in the Bluff Park Historic District. And I'm here to support the mayor's recommendation as well to fund the second phase of the North Park Historic Lamppost Project. You heard from a number of residents already from our Bluff Park Historic District. And it really warms my heart to see how such a project has brought together such a large number of people throughout the city and even beyond this city for a common cause and a common effort. I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn't. The leaders of the neighborhood association back a couple of decades ago had the idea to remove the modern coprolites and replace them with ornamental lampposts, bringing cohesion to the neighborhood. The project didn't go far back then, but there is evidence in the association's files of their efforts. Then we put together a group of people, a group of neighbors and people outside of the neighborhood. We met with many people within public works. I can count about eight or ten of those people looking on the ninth floor, doing research, working with the planning department to identify some early grant opportunities and also uncovered the original drawing from 1927. We got to work with Long Beach Heritage, the Historical Society of Long Beach to do some of our research. But one of the key things we needed to do was reach out to the neighborhood and raise funds, and we did that. So we look forward to further supporting the project with the mayor's proposal. Thank you so much for that. Thank you so much. Thanks. Speaker placing. Angelica. Maria, please come forward. Jack is not here. Okay. Okay. Let me let me just. I'll come back to Angelica then. How about Magnolia? I'll come back. Oh, here we go. So let's let's go back and begin with Angelica muriel. This is Magnolia. Oak Magnolia. As you. Can. See when. I started this Sunday. Mr. Mayor. And everybody. Is dead. We know Magnolia Rodriguez represents the oldest retail city in the other or you get opposite but Occupy interpreters by reporter facilitated travel. Good afternoon. My name is Magnolia Rodriguez and I represent my community in the seventh District. Today I'd like to ask you to help the interpreters so that they can facilitate the work. Separate from their own up that so that they delay interpretation. Yep. I am on monitoring at E. They came for my support, our project, but I said my interpretation. If you could have a person that's in charge of the interpretation and that person could monitor and see what way they could help to make sure that the interpretation is more comfortable. They'll be over into the Agosto estate. Well, no interpreters. No interpreter. Yes, they are not. We must de la Junta, since everybody else goes to the location below. And in the meeting on the 20th of August, one of the interpreters wasn't able to interpret everything that was being said, and we left without knowing some things that had been said. You know, I meant the people who are caring for Michael Caine portrayal in the Iowa oil gas, gas earning medium and really the almighty consumidor. And again, I'd like to also ask for any information that comes to me in the mail and my bills, whether it be on water, anything that it be in my language, in the consumers language. But it's always very most doses mean. But I said we show the interpretation. And so we're asking for $200,000 for interpretation services. No songs sufficiently lost in simulcasting over. The 15,000 that is being offered isn't enough. But on that common design, can we be better? It's a very diverse community. Thank you very much. Yes. Yes, it is. Is Angelica maria? No. Oh, yes, she is. Let me have as Angelica is coming back. Is Veronica here? Come on. Come forward. Right. Feel my body. I'm bringing. Them. No. Sorry. We're getting a little feedback. Okay. Okay. I'll tell you, when I started this, I mean, I'm gonna be one of these three third keeper available and see that the travel tourism players policy that this bonnievale completo cuando Jamal Departamento de la Ciudad Para Servicios must guarantee you Madeleine was through the Obama Instagram if you could that in etc. Servicios Vesicles was studying for miles a local gobierno local espacio. But as the critical and critical issue that occupied travel, tourism, players policy or there is still going to essay what area and playoff scope within that I will see it is then disperse disponibles when those important instead familiar recitals contrary information, but the mentors in particular Occupy scholars without employer travel tourist particulars travel tourist plans that necessitate as a lot resident. This common included travel thought industries mission assistance contest econo said about swarm as this process necessity almost all thought are less ideas and encompasses reasoning budget a humanist your study mental effort that is lacking but a handful of entry are also lateral to on this account that for whatever embodies because on this body system must be the local issue that authorities although let us barrel interpretation neutral to on the calida Cinquanta will not let us but organization as a confidence. I could put them from EAP in some scholars can say meanwhile are discussed herein but internal mentors no set insufficient this grasp. Yes good evening my name is Veronica being via can you and I live in the eighth district. I'm here to talk about the need for translators employed by the city who are available on a full time basis. When I've called city departments for services. It's not guaranteed that someone will answer in our language. This creates difficulty in being offered basic services or staying informed of all the local government is doing. This is why I think the city needs to employ its own translators. This would help ensure that the city employees who can translate are available when they're needed and are knowledgeable about rules, laws and other information needed for particular city departments. We need the city to employ translators so that the translators can serve the needs of us as residents. This includes having translation, including transmissions of these meetings and knowing different ways of expressing a particular idea. We need translators who can express ideas as they would be expressed in multiple regions. I've experienced the last I've experienced that the last of this here on August 20th, a translator at the meeting. The translation at the meeting was cut off at certain points. This is why we're asking the city to allocate $200,000 for the interpretation and quality translation, as well as $50,000 for a trusted organization that can promote this policy. We believe that the $15,000 that have been proposed for trainings are not enough. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I'd like to get this done. But I think in our lives. Okay. Okay. I like the standard name. All I want is that it is in Cumbria. We want to at owner. Good evening. My name is Angelica Maria. I live in the first district. You are a keeper of the land as I see that. Get your madre E just by that as the name was. But I didn't see this. And I'm here today to speak about the need that I have as a mother and many parents have that documents be translated. And later of the work on the scene also will e and also focus yes look at the make up of that or see Abby up on another. Yeah am able to see your body are you there. And the other day I'm going to give you a small example. My neighbor got a bill. She didn't know if she had already paid that or if it had to be paid. And she called me so that I could explain it to her. Just as these classes are here, the English battle noise of and then they don't not oxygen correct that they look at your boiler they say hello are you that unless business. And I've taken some classes in school in English but it's not enough to be able to know everything or to help people. If those I is doing well as lost good momentum. You know those Ratana that traders it is meant to get into soon as I see that is a problem you start being control as I look at the anarchist that again as you there. And so the two of us for like 20 minutes were trying to figure out trying to translate this document to know if that she needed to pay it so that she could be okay with all of the rules in the city. E labor that you're not super inland and the dump worker. Yeah okay. I took a paragraph literally Sierra see locate and we'll get in yet Iraq or Iraq it just area parallel or north area internally that get a look at them person. And so I didn't know or understand any more than she did and in the end she had to pay somebody to translate it for to find out if this bill was something she had to pay or it had been paid and she didn't know what to do. Joe Crockett, is this alone? Simply implore the look. Nosotros necesitamos forget early work, Amy Amiga mutual systems are in some is more there's some is more money to the problem as General Sabemos Garcia. And I think that's just a simple example of what we all need, that there are many of us, just like my friend, that have these large types. Of problems. As it get you up. Some of them I get that you learn contradictory qualifications for the Puerto Rican Documentos get lost. Get Amazonas through the old map. What? Because if I was a I, I'll go see thumbs are workers look almost by them. And so I'm appealing to your character to please bring us translators, of course, that are qualified and documents in our own language so that we know if we have to pay something, we know what we need to do. Gracias. Thank you. Thank you. I'm next because. We have Christina. Lilian. Linda, there's actually speakers. Come, please. You can have Mrs. Clements here. She can come up also. Oh. So you really covet this place? Yeah. Walla Walla winners notice me. Nobody's Kristina I'd boring at least ritorno. Good evening. My name is Christina and I live in the first district. Just as the Alamo Consiglio elevated Agosto e to La Experiencia, the la tradition aviators through the Torah's Una the Yazoo tradition erects a lengthy beard, also wound the persona nasally than the estava coming under your nose, pony up your little microphone. And I was at the council meeting on August 20th and I had the experience that there were two. TRANSLATOR One was excellent and the other wasn't understandable because she was walking and couldn't talk into the mic. So here we don't see Bratislava ID microphone no eto eso eso una mala tradition that may come from the EU, but. There was noise and the microphone was moved away and that all made it a bad translation. So the truth is, I was very confused and that's why I'm here today. But I read you say incluyen in the press. The those cientos mil. Doesn't smell mean but is thought to be the case in Guatemala. San Diego's L'organisation community idea for a new system for the Brazos. But Monica Effectivement along with events in format information press. And so that's why I'm asking to be included in the budget, $200,000 for the translation and $50,000 to be given to the community organization because they're prepared to effectively communicate with the residents. But as he says, over in la la la la la la la la liga, gratis agencies play a in a mobile study again with structure in look at it is. But they are able to give information about the language access policy. And I would like our people to be included. It's interesting that this was in that your e-mails you that. In the neighborhood and the city. Theater there goes to assist the La Junta the Supuesto the Distrito no Grupo the personnel with the most beer. And this is a necessity that this central early dilemma. And on August 28th I went to a meeting that was for the budget in District one. There was a group of four group with a collection of personnel that we were able to see the need of the language access. Okay. And but is little more than that. And but in the apartment, those stereotypes there really say, well, neighbor, listen and well, this is the commenters. Lina's the Lina that they live on. And in several departments, we would like there to be a yearly evaluation of the documents, telephone lines. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Peter. Thank you. Linda. I mean, I don't I don't think. I love when it starts limber, but then it's written off. Good evening. My name is Linda and I belong to District. One. And I was trying to be conciliatory buble as princess and the element of one leader, but no longer. But we are committed here and need your eye on datacom contract. And August 28th I came to the council and I had the experience of feeling confused because I couldn't find the place. There were no signs or anything showing me in my language where it is that I had to go or how to get in that room. But to me, Leslie's persona there and the set of Incapacitate US, he did it all Mugabe who we were not going to on. And the translation for me, the two people must be well-trained and they should have a fixed place and have a good connection. No, there's you know where they call you there for the physical and then they look at you. The translation was not a good quality. It was difficult to understand what. Was being said. And make a living theater. There goes to City Hall, opera connoisseur David Ibaka said, When I went to the corridor, we must not know this apart on the line trader that's gone. Booth owners witnessed this an atrocity almost the same moment here. And on Wednesday, August 28th, we came to City Hall to get to know it, to see it and to see what can be done better. And while we moved around, we saw that it doesn't say where the entrances, the computers need to have access in other languages. The bathrooms don't feel safe, at least to me as a woman. So. Yes. Is the electoral history to you? That must've been either. Either where? Me. The Obama circle. Go on. The rebel though, Elizabeth, as well as with other members at sea. And on the same day I went to a meeting in District one about the budget of the city and I felt welcomed. It was in my language, it was close to where I live in all of the city. Events should be like that. MM Look is a better genesis with Damascus and Austin for me that it's not as important just to be able to have an assessment of the Confianza game in town with that same bullock dioramas. Is there an approach to that? And what I could see is that we need to be informed as the community about these meetings that are very important. I was there because of trusted organizations that invited me and I'd like our community to be involved more, and I'd also like them to know how to take advantage of city services. Not as they can for other parts of Western, including para la policia, doma especificamente the Washington mill. But that relationship with the interpreters, you and the Khalida, if I may, I think what that means is you skip megalopolis, I guess almost like it. Massacre the confianza. And please don't leave us outside of the budget. Include money in it for the language access policy, specifically 200,000 for translation and quality interpretation, and also 50,000 for organizations that can promote the policy that are messengers, that are trusted messengers. Thank you. Your next speaker, please, Mr. Clemente. Whatever. Clemency, clemency, this case. Yeah, I don't. Well, I mean, clemency, Crespo. But Venezuela is on our way. That's why I keep talking so eloquently that, I mean, first of all, I think we poking fun at all of NSC. Thomas Hi. My name is Clemency. Crespo and I belong to District nine. I'm here to say I'm here as part of the community. And the $15,000 that Mr. Saez offers offering is very little for everything that we need. There's a run of the mill parallel line operators, young men, girls, young and old, sit in qualifications, perform a la la la la petition de la comunidad. And we need $200,000 for interpretation, for translation. Please don't put aside what the community is asking for. The commissioner says he cannot all on us. I'm afraid the position and the system of personnel and the language he is paying extra high as that person is. And we need to have we as a community need to have all of the resources available to us. We need people that are bilingual. And that are paid. Extra so that we can have. Someone to help. He needs. His time. So he allows us in the time being with our rooster, as you can see on the horror level, to really access all work. And we need to have good translation here at the meetings and all through the city. I also am happy to hear that you intend to better the culture thats language access. He will Star Como Opera Company. Morose Passos. They don't know that I'm in a parallel organization. And I see this as a first step or four steps, but it's not enough. We also need $50,000 for the community organizations. So I had the confidence because I'm not the confianza de la comunidad para la luna. There trusted people in the community. Experiencia do not put into action the policy while promoting on yellow capaci. I was told that. I had an experience at the meeting, just like my companions have already said at the meeting on August 20th. Kennesaw También. It was a little horror as it was young and well. Oportunidad written over. He met with some mutual attention as to only being with Laura. Years were continuing. And I'd like it to get better. I had the opportunity to go to the meeting in the ninth district. It was good. I like the translation. It was clear and I hope that that is how it is. Can be an amazing thing. We are all talk one of him only Uncle Stacy work direct. I'm into Mary Hawk. I see your stuff. I keep working with bhagavAn. Yona, you're sorry I keep working for you. The lack of money, the government and this is the Tamil. And I didn't feel comfortable when I went to the meeting with Miss Stacey because she said I was here because I was being paid. But really I'm here because I'm part of the community and we need that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very. Much. And the last three speakers is Mr. Berry, Mr. Coleman and Mr. X. Hmm. Mr. X, you're. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. Mr. Barry. Dave Barry. Yes. Okay. First, Mr.. I just want to quickly show support for the Bluff Park Lamppost Project. I appreciate the Council's support and recognition that historic districts like this increase the city's culture and diversity that our city is well known for. Thank you. Thank you. Next, bigger. Thank you, General, Vice Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Mark Coleman and I'm a resident of the third district and I work in the second. I'm here to support the mayor's budget item on the census. Ten years ago, those of you who are familiar with what the process was, the city did not have a process. It was left to the CBOs to go out and community, do what we could to try to educate people about the importance of the census. This year, there are massive challenges to those in the Cambodian community, Latino community and African-American community. Those challenges include the use of technology with devices that are very difficult for people who are not familiar with the technology to use. A lot of the enumerators are not going to be fluent, bilingual. We tried to get a handle, for example, and the Cambodian Complete Count Committee on how many bilingual Cambodian community members there were. We couldn't find out. So you can imagine the enumerators coming to the doors and saying, We're from the government. Please tell us how many more family members you here you have here who so we can count them for the government's purposes. And that's similar to what the Khmer Rouge said when they use that information to tear families apart and commit terrible atrocities in Cambodia. So we very much support the need for this money. But I want to ask for a friendly amendment that you dedicate a significant portion of this money to the community based organizations. It's $600,000, please. At least 500,000 should be dedicated to the CBO so we can do our job. Thank you very much. I think that concludes public comment that I have signed up on speaker cards. I gave my. Speech before speaker carter-smith. No, go ahead. Did you call speaker further? Yes. Okay. But you go ahead, Ms.. Smith. Thank you. I am a resident of Bluff Park, and I am here to talk about the fact that the Bluff Park Street Lamppost Project has not gone through the proper channels and should be removed through. The. The budget. I request that City Council amend the proposed budget to remove these items because they are not consistent with the city charter. The general plan element, which is the historical element and the scenic element and the Bluff Park Historic District Ordinance. The proposed budget items are inconsistent and should be excluded, and I sent a document to you earlier today that establish that the city projects. That are not consistent, should not be adopted because they go against other elements in the general plan. It's a little embarrassing to I live in Bluff Park and it's embarrassing that the city is giving us funds for Lamp Post where we have a perfectly good lamp post in our district. So you're spending about 200,000 or more dollars taking away lamp posts that are. Modern. For ones that look antique. These can be funded outside the city, especially want to hear about needed funding for language access and the people's budget. It's embarrassing. As a person and resident of Love Park where we know we. Could have these items. We have enough and we're able to access it. But funding for lamp posts when there's many other needed items is embarrassing. And it's also illegal if you're going to continue to adopt budgets that have projects that go against the general plan and city charter. Thank you so much. And then I think this is actually something we signed up as ex. No, we signed up. Who set up his ex. Okay. So Mr. Evi is next. Mr. Rivera. Your next. Good evening. I'm here to speak about the water issue. The utility fees. What are utility fees are supposed to be. Used to support the production. Distribution and purchase of water. The city has no justification to skim any of the utility fees for the general fund. If it does so, it becomes a tax. If it is a tax. Then the burden of proof for the tax must lie with the city to prove to us the reasons for the tax and to submit it to a vote just like any other tax increase. The water utility fees disguised as utility rate increase is a gross violation of the Constitution and and of our trust in you, the public officials, because it is basically a given that the tax will happen unless 50% of the users who happen to be aware show up to protest . Thank you. And our last speaker, please. Guard. Please come forward. Okay. Is this is this one presentation? There's two. Okay. I don't have a speaker card for. We turn it in. Okay. I don't have it. Go ahead. Okay. Good evening. My name is Jamilah and I am a community. Organizer with the Long Beach Immigrants Rights Coalition and a representative of the budget advocacy work group. I'm here because Latinxs, Filipino and Cambodian families are part of the Long Beach community, and we deserve to. Be included in this year's. Budget. As I mentioned before, last year's budget included six 160,000 foreign language access. And that money was all used in attempts to make services provided by the city more accessible to communities that speak other languages than English. This year, the proposed amount is half. Of that, only 80,015 thousand for training. Is being offered. That is not what the community needs are. We have community members. Here who are committed to advocating to access spaces that don't represent their native language. It is the job of the city now to do their part and ensure a welcoming environment to everyone that lives in the city. Clearly, maintaining a language as a barrier will deny literal access. Well, what the city need. To do is allocate 200,000 for interpretation and translation. These very basic needs will ensure that our community is engaged in city affairs that impact their lives. Additionally, as a community. Organizer who works with. Under underserved communities. Of color. I know that the first from first. Hand of the importance of trust when working with community member. Some members here only know about the language. Access policy because of the organization like ours. We know how to do the outreach within these communities. That is the very. Reason why. Community is asking for 50,000 for community based. Thank you. Thank you. And I had your card, so I apologize for that. Thank you. And next, people place Peskin for. Mayor council members. My name is Lily Ocampo and I have been living in First District for 34 years and I'm also very active in the community with various community organizations such as CPC, LeBoeuf, Liver, Lombard for and also serve my children's school as a base president, vice president and member of the English Learning Advisory Committee. Also the school to console and represent my children's school at our district level level and the District English Learning Advisory Committee, of which I serve as a vice president. And in my experience and the access to language is very important for parents, especially at schools and in the community, to receive the services we deserve. So I'm just here to say, don't leave us out. Include the people's budget. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. That concludes public comment. Uh, and so with that, I'm going to go and continue the, the hearing and I'm going to begin by going back to any questions also that the counsel might have. So I have folks that are cued up now. I'm going to begin with Councilmember Ringo. Thank you. Mr. E.A. Continue asking me, Sir Thaddeus, or to let the parliamentary nuclear services civilians. You know, I without risk, as he said, no matter what happens, I must intervene. Those are accessible language. But those who stay is not what I meant in the Spanish embassy. No, I mean in Los Angeles. Come or come? I eat at Vietnam. This is the desert. Yet that almost is a society that they think is important. The communication. The communication is going letter as he enters you says being in a long beach. But I believe Ethan Allen had a scare. You know, I silverado's gearstick second see that automaton in Wendell in their windows looking says listen the easternmost switch handle what I said in Spanish was basically I want to assure the residents of Long Beach that we are addressing a language accident, that it is important to us that we are hearing you were listening and that we do have that utmost priority for for us to communicate with you, because we understand and know that communication is of the utmost importance for us to reach out to you. So with that, I want to continue with my comments and my questions to technology services and civil service, because we went from the hearing into the comments or we didn't have that opportunity. In terms of technology services, I don't really have much. I think you're obviously you're being challenged with the new city hall and the new technology that is being presented out there. But last year we had a an issue, not an issue, but an item that came up that I signed on with Councilmember Lena Gonzalez at the time, talking about the digital divide between City Hall and the West Long Beach area. Is there any progress made on that? Is there a plan or a timeline that we can look at in terms of when that might be fully operational? We're fully integrated into the city for solving that digital divide. So in terms of the City Digital Inclusion Initiative, we have already been convening stakeholders, including community members and most recently, in words all a direct correlation to your specific item which related to the YMCA. We invited participants from that initiative to join the City Wide Greater Digital Inclusion Initiative. We just, in fact had our first kickoff meeting last Thursday and we had a robust participation. And the goal is, by the end of this year, to have a digital inclusion roadmap that had is co-created with the stakeholders and the community members in terms of the specific initiative with the YMCA and the partnership with the schools. I'm actually not in the lead on that meeting. The city manager's office, I believe, is is responding to any needs related to that specific initiative. So I can't speak to that, but I can answer any questions about the Greater Digital Inclusion Initiative. Well, hopefully that sometime in the near future we can get a full, more extensive orientation and update as to what's taking place with that. I know that's very important when it comes to our students in the West Palm Beach area, when they have homework assignments or they need to do research and they need to have that access to the Internet. And I will add that the Long Beach Unified School District is also at the table with our with our greater digital inclusion initiative. Wonderful. That's. Thank you. And in regards to civil service, Christina, welcome back to Long Beach. It's been quite a while since we worked together. Thank you. As we go, we both joined the city at the same time. We did back. To back a few years ago. A few years ago. And I know that with your experience, having worked in civil service and having had that experience and also where else you bring. Even a greater wealth of experience to Long Beach that you will be able to to use as we move along with our with our our needs . Oh, you use several terminology, some terminology here that I think would be important to for clarification purposes, for those who aren't all that in line with what some of that terminology means, you may be able to describe what it is. And I'm speaking specifically like what we're talking about when we have an eligible what is an eligible list? What when establish what does civil service do with it and what do departments do with that, with an eligible list? Sure. So the. The first thing we're doing is we're we're doing outreach. Applicants are coming to us. It is a job as a civil service department, civil service staff to assess the skills, knowledge and abilities of individuals as they pertain to the the positions that we have vacant. And so our job is to test these skills in the various manners that we conduct tests. And then we say we create a list of candidates that meet those qualifications. So on the job bulletins, it has minimum qualifications and then it has duties. And we, we create tests that align to the duties. How are we going to how we're going to be how are we going to be able to assess if someone can do this job? And that's why we create tests that that match those skills, knowledge and abilities. We create the eligible list. Based on the testing, someone has either been able to pass the test based on the skills, knowledge, ability, or they're not quite ready for a particular position. So those eligible lists that go out to the departments, we're saying to the department, we have vetted this group of people, they meet the needs for the job description. And so you should be able to find a qualified person within this group. So once a list has established, it is certified to a department. Is there a rule of how many candidates a parent will receive based on vacancies? It depends on if there's a if it's a promotional list or if it's an open list to the public. With the promotional list. We have a rule of three. We have a rule. Mixing my cities. We have a rule of four here. So for every one vacancy they will get four names in the open competitive list. That depends on that. We are giving people names of qualified. There are also potential for bands of people. And when you talk about you run the tests, you identify and attract qualified and diverse applicants. You want to explain some of that. How do you go about identifying that diverse applicant pool for these or these tests? So certainly we we work with the subject matter experts in the departments to say, where do you think we could find the best candidates for your positions in the past? And I think currently still, when I identified some community events that staff has participated in. But there is that collaboration in the community that is imperative to make sure that we're reaching out to specific organizations, the faith based community, the various. Communities representing underrepresented groups. And so there is there is a a targeted plan that can be put together based on the needs for each department. And some of those some of those departments, for example, of fire and police. Mm hmm. I take it that you. Get their assistance and. We do so. So it's been I had the good fortune when I was here before to be the actual recruitment officer for the city. So as the recruitment officer, we put together the actual plan and then determining and typically it was a multi-media plan where we were providing access to for the department to go out and talk to students at community college, talk to students at churches in the community, talk to individuals in just community organizations. We also did radio and and television at the time, but it's an opportunity for civil service to plan the targeted recruitment, but then get the actual people doing the job out in front of the candidates. They don't want to talk to the civil service staff. Unfortunately, they want to talk to people doing the job and they want to understand why should I come to work for this department? Why should I? Why should I come to Long Beach instead of any other city in Southern California or in California, for that matter? And so it's really connecting, creating the infrastructure to infrastructure to connect people working in our departments with potential candidates so they can learn about the department. One of the big challenges that we have in the city of Long Beach, and we've had it before, we've had several discussions about this is salaries and wages there sometimes, and we lose a good staff to other jurisdictions because our salaries are not competitive with the surrounding cities. Do you find that as a as an impediment to recruiting? It can be an impediment. But I think. What. What needs to be developed then is what is what are the other benefits to working in this community? And I think there are many benefits. I'm a returning person, so I understand the benefits of being able to work in this great community where everybody is is valued for what they bring to the table. And so I think it's it's just certainly competitive salaries are are a plus, if you can get that. But we're also being fiscally responsible. And so the other thing would be to highlight some of those other benefits that someone would receive working here in the city of Long Beach. And finally you load it in your notable changes for this coming year your the addition of a to new personnel analyst positions. Yes. Is there going to be some specialization on those, Alice? You didn't put them into. So so. Areas. We are we're going to get together. My management team and I are going to get together and we're going to talk about what is the best way to use utilize these resources so that we can see if we can bring back some of the targeted recruitment activities that I think would benefit all city departments across across the organization. In regards to, I get a little bit more into the minutia, but I wanted to get into it very deeply because I think that there's some other stuff that we could address what's going on with recruitment in our employment processes. You know, many, many times I would hear departments complain about the process taking too long. That civil service testing is lengthy, the process is too strenuous, or the process just just takes long. Have you done an analysis of. I know you're new. I'm sorry. Not yet late. Perhaps later on down a few months or maybe at the half year mark in March. We'll get an update as to the numbers of certifications that you've you've done, the exams that you've done, the sort of occasions you've done, and how many vacancies have been filled. It's very important to know that while departments have vacancies, we want to make sure that those vacancies are filled and that nobody on an eligible is stays on the eligible this without having an opportunity to get selected. So I mean, it's one of those situations where I want to see that if a budget has 2020 employees and they have two vacancies, I want to see that at the end of the year that department has 20 employees and the vacancies and they had it and they ran a test. So I mean, that's something that I think we need to pay more more attention to, that we should that we ensure that when we go through this budget process and we're we're approving a budget for X number of employees, for a department, that those positions are filled. Absolutely. And that's something that we will be looking at, because it it does impact our metrics as well by if the vacancies still are there. But we have created eligible list in hopes of people being able to find the qualified candidates. It also puts a significant chilling effect on our recruitment. If we've gone out, recruited people for a particular position and no selections are made, candidates lose faith in in the fact that we've we've attracted them. But there has been no action with the eligibility so it's. Everybody can help us. Everybody is a recruiter in my mind. Every. Every. Employees, a recruiter. And once we are utilizing all of our resources, we are going to have more than adequate number of eligible and qualified candidates that want to come and work here. They're there now, but they're going to be more vocal. And so it will be really important for us to make selection so that we can get them on board as quickly as possible. I want to ensure that our departments have the most qualified individuals ready for them to work for them. And I know there's some been some occasions where candidates on an eligible list might accept a job somewhere else because we simply just took too long. Absolutely. So to conclude. Thank you very much, Christina. Welcome back to the city of family. Thank you. Looking forward to working further with you. I appreciate I look forward to coming back and giving you all a report. Councilmember Mungo. Thank you. I just wanted to give some recognition for the great work that you're doing in technology and innovation. One of the things that I had talked about with our language access community is how there's a lot of work that we can still do to. Fix some of the issues at City Hall. But really. City Hall. I don't have my phone on me, but is in your hand 24 hours a day now and you should be able to use the Golden Beach app in Spanish as well as English to make city city services work for you. So I'm just going to make a quick recommendation on a project I was at with the County of Los Angeles. If you go to their website, there was always a person in the city who was on a bilingual bonus available via Instant Messenger, to communicate with the community on their issues. And so if I was looking for something on the website or I needed a challenge with my bill, I could click on, talk to a representative and that talk to a representative linked through the Skype accounts that most people have on their desk where you could. Trouble, solve or troubleshoot and problem solve on behalf of a resident that doesn't have to take off from work to go to city hall to wait in a line. And so while I appreciate. That. Our water department has 52 people that are bilingual. Our public works department has 20 people that are bilingual. Our Parks and Rec department has 17 people that are bilingual. A big congratulations to Health and Human Services. They have 90 people that are bilingual. If those people are not accessible to them, then they come to city hall. And so if there's a way to. Communicate via app or better publicize the language line through the app or through our community groups. I know that Mr. Supernormal does an excellent job. He has a very diverse district. When people get on the line with his office, Barbara quickly links them up with an interpreter and solves their problems . But that's only during business hours. And so during those non-business hours, what other opportunities we have, I'm not sure, but I'm open to suggestions in the future that might help solve this problem for our community, especially because City Hall is more than 9 to 5. It's really 24 hours a day through our apps. So that and then I will also mention what I've mentioned to you in the past, which is the opportunity for a citywide calendar. And I know that's currently being considered through the PIOs office, through a agenda item that I think I speak in 120 days. And I think it's been. 13 months. But when it does come back, we're looking at a citywide calendar and the opportunity for our communities to link up to and receive notices that they're interested in in their own language. So specifically Spanish. Other than that, great work. Welcome on board civil service and look forward to the hiring process improvements that are ahead of us. Thank you, sir. Thank you. So I'll start with the I.T. report and just the great job our our. City has been recognized and designated as a digital inclusion trailblazer, ranked as the top ten digital city. But we still obviously have a lot of work to do. I think Councilmember Mangold touched on a couple of good points and I think of my colleague, Councilmember Turanga speaking the language access. We've heard a lot about that here this evening. We can we can and should improve our communications and how we communicate. To weigh with with our constituents. I'm completely on board with that. I'd like to be a lot more innovative and use technology services to help us with that as well. I'm I'm really interested because I've been around long enough to know about when Long Beach Coast or LBE Coast project was kind of conceptual and we've been planning and ramping up to deal with phase one. And, and I know we're moving into another phase now, but in terms of the staffing for for be because. I know that there was a lot of extra staff brought on to bring that that system up or to get us to a point where we could be where we are today. Where do you foresee staffing in your department moving forward? Are these project positions or are they career positions to manage this process moving forward? Councilmember Austin Yeah, you are correct with all because we did have a extensive project team. We still have them working on phase two, which is the H.R. Payroll system and then the budget system. So in the in the budget, you will see that we do have an addition of ten full time equivalent to the Technology and Innovation Department budget to help do the ongoing operations for what we're calling munis. So munis is the system and that is offset by five FTE that were moved from the the financial management department. So it's a net out of five FTE that's being added new to the city's budget. We're also reallocating a few positions within our internal technology innovation to make sure that we try to have this be less costly as possible. And so that is built into the FY20 budget and our FY 21 budgets. And and so if with your approval, that would be staffed and that would be the staffing. So I guess I'm trying to understand project versus. The ongoing operations right. Program. Right. Yeah. So I'll be Khost is the project and then munis is what we're calling the ongoing operations and that is the ongoing team is, is built into our budget and we do need to fill those positions with permanent employees. So that is that is in process is is looking to fill those positions. Because, as I mentioned, we are live with phase one operations of munis. Got it. And you know this budget as well as anyone, I would imagine. Thank you very much. Keep up the great work we will be looking for big things from from my team moving forward. I want to welcome our new civil service. Executive director and my constituent as well. Welcome. I only had a couple of questions. Obviously, I think your department is has a huge challenge in front of it, maintaining, you know, the merit system in a large city is is a huge undertaking. You've got a great commission and good staff. And I know you're coming into a good situation because this council, I believe, will will provide you with the resources you need to be successful moving forward. But on the line of some of the public comment we heard here today, just a question kind of came up regarding our minimum qualifications for for various positions that are advertised. All right. Is is bilingual a prerequisite for any of the positions that we have currently in the city? Is that a legal prerequisite? I would say it's it's probably not a it is not a. An actual requirement. A lot of times it says desirable and so and that's that's a standard practice to to say if there is a position that really would benefit from bilingual, we would say that it's it's desirable. And so that then somebody that has those qualifications oftentimes gets gets screened into a pool because of a desirable, um, requirement that we may list. Understood. And my, my colleague, our budget chair is really good with numbers. I don't know where she gets them sometimes, but she, she, she listed a number of departments who have, I believe, bilingual. Correct. Pay incentives for for employees. So those employees have they may not actually be they may not actually be have it as a requirement, but they have that skill. So then we will ask employees, do you have that skill? Do you have a language skill? We can then do a selective certification, which means we can certify those people with a specific skill if we like, and which is why we asked, you know, do you have that? Then we we take track of that. And then we can selectively certify to a position where they say may need a community worker, Spanish speaking community worker. So that's how we we push that information out to them. And ah, we, I guess this might be a hybrid kind of conversation with civil service in h.r. But are we strategic in terms of how we, we place people with those skill pays so that we have good conversation or communication with, with our constituents? So, so absolutely. When we are working with the department and what we call the subject matter experts, we say we know a lot about, we know a little bit about a lot of things. We rely on our subject matter experts to to be the experts in their particular areas. And if they tell us that there's a language need, then we're definitely going to look for that for them. Okay. Well, thank you for that. That concludes my questions. Like to open it up and pass it on to councilmember pearce. Thank you. I'm. No problem. Yeah. That might be a good way to work from now on, huh? Just pass. It on. It's easier that way. So thank you guys very much for your presentations. I know I was in and out in them. I looked over the PowerPoints, I looked through the budget book. I have a couple of questions. First, welcome to the team. It's nice to have you here. Thank you. I had a couple of constituents that wanted me to inquire, and so I will. First of all, hiring and bringing on good staff is something that I obviously, as all of us in council care deeply about, we've got, you know, nearly 6000 employees that interface with our residents every day bringing them on. And what that experience is like is is critical for us. I know that there's some tests that happen whenever we bring on or when we're looking to hire somebody. There's a personality and motivation test. I wanted to understand how was that weighted with other tests and other processes that they go on before they are hired? Can you speak to that? So that particular test has that. I'm. Newly learning about. We've actually created a subcommittee from the personnel from our civil service commission. And so the commission is is looking at that test right now and how that is working into our future testing. Great. That's wonderful to hear. I know that we've talked in the city about trauma and making sure that we aren't leaving people out that maybe have experienced trauma. I know our health department hires a variety of different people with different lived experiences, so wanting to make sure that we're not putting tests in place that then leave out the very people that we want their experience and their life experience on our team. And so I look forward to hearing that report from you and really understanding all of those matrix in there. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for that. Okay. So I t thank you so very much. I obviously love your guys presentations. I thank my council colleagues for their comments. Obviously, closing the digital divide is really important. Two things that I want to talk about today is I want to echo that I love our Go Long Beach app. I know that we had some previous conversations earlier today around having our city employees use that app. I'm wondering if we have any numbers on how many of our city employees actually have the Long Beach app? So go Long Beach is we can get that for you on city owned phones. It's definitely on an authorized app on his phone so I can get back to you. On how many have that actually downloaded. I would love to put out that challenge as I think we already have to have every city employee have that on their app and that on their phone and that all of us are being that ambassador while we're out in the community, whether we're driving to work or whether we're out of park servicing. But I think the app is great. But I, my app has crashed several times in the last couple of months. So I think it means either I'm using it too much or other people are using it too much is a good thing. So I'm wondering when when are we going to have an update on that? I know every budget cycle we talk about it. Yes. And one thing, too, I do have the app downloaded on my phone, so. Yes. And we are going to be looking at replacing the Go a Long Beach app with our CRM system that I had talked about earlier. And we were actually coming to City Council for an award of the contract on October 1st, and then the goal would be to finish the project by the end of 2020. That's great. Sorry if I missed that earlier when I was in and out. Great. That's great to hear. My other big topic is cameras. So I know that I brought this up with Assistant City Manager Modica and we have several cameras in our harbor area. Many of them are not working. And so I wanted to understand, is this something that needs to remain in your department? Is it something that should be with another department? Just talk to me about what that process is going to be. Certainly so in October 2017, my department did launch a two year camera modernization program focused on the the Genetec based cameras that are mostly throughout in the right away. At the time, we had 544, 544 genetic based cameras and hundred and 60 of them were non operational. So that's about 29%, I'm pleased to say that right now we have 888 genetic based cameras, so that's an increase of over 60% and only 38 are not operational. So 4.3%. However, we also noted back when we were talking about this in 2017 that there are over 30 plus closed circuit camera systems that are in addition to the GENETEC based citywide system, network system. And those includes the ones that are in parking lots, you know, in in the airport, for instance, and inside the jail, for instance. And so those those systems we need to take on a case by case basis as funding allows. And and our goal is, is to work with those departments to modernize those and incorporate them into our citywide system so they can be reviewed centrally and be connected. And so, for instance, the cameras that you were mentioning that is planned in the FY 20 budget from some funding with public works to to fix those cameras in those those parking garages. Okay. And it's not just the parking garages. It's like Marina Green where we had that. Horrific incident about two weeks ago. So these cameras, it's it's an absolute priority for my district, for my constituents, for the boat owners, for the businesses that if we have cameras and we've spent money on those cameras, that we have the funding to make sure that they work. And I know that we'll be talking about budget priorities later on. And so that is one that I continue to work with staff on. It's it's not acceptable to to have cameras in areas like that that that aren't working and that our police officers don't have access to. And so I appreciate all the work that you've done in bringing those on. But I just want to make it clear that that's something that we need to to figure out. Thank you, both of you, for your time, for your presentations and for staff, for your work on these areas. Thanks. Thank you. Councilwoman Rice. Thank you. So, first of all, welcome to our new civil service team. So I appreciate the presentation tonight. I'm going to start with just a couple of questions from technology services and then I'll move over to civil service. I only have one question there, but Ms.. ERICKSEN, I have a follow up on the security cameras as well. I know this has been a very heated area of discussion in the business corridor that runs in my district, one of the business quarters that runs in my district, Second Street. And I came when I came onto council, there was a lot of discussion about the cameras and what was happening with the cameras. Shortly after I got onto council, I believe, is when your department started to take over that project in earnest. Did you do you believe that your department is adequately funded to support the operations? For the cameras, since we're relying on them so much more as a public safety tool. Counts. Councilwoman Price We do have funding to, you know, to get to the progress that we've done so far. And we have funding to to replace the cameras as they go down. So that that's all built into critical needs in terms of tackling all those other closed circuit systems. We do not have all the funding in place. So we would be working with the departments and, and with the budget budget process to to to actually address all those as those are as we identify those as priorities. Okay. So just to give you a heads up, nothing to discuss tonight, but I do expect that we'll ask this item to come to the Public Safety Committee with an overview of how many cameras we have. Which ones are not working? What challenges and opportunities we have things of that nature. Yeah. And I would like to say that the, the, the, the ones that are out there on your second street quarter, as you mentioned, those are part of the 888 GENETEC based system cameras. And that is what we have the funding to do and tackled. And we're only at a 4% failure rate at this point, which is really great. That's just normal cycle replacement. That's great. That's good. Yeah. I think at some point we should have maybe a bigger education on what our camera system looks like, what areas of the city we have them in, how we're utilizing them. It's been something that I've been thinking about bringing to public safety for a while anyway. So just giving you a heads up, maybe in three months, three or four months or so. So with that, I mean, that's just a topic of discussion, especially now we're going to get body worn cameras. There's all sorts of other public safety tools that are available to us now that weren't years ago. So to the extent that we can maximize those and make sure that you're adequately staffed and you have what you need to function and to do the work that's expected of you, that's really what we want to make sure we drill down on. So thank you. Thank you for the presentation tonight. And by the way, I just want to give a huge kudos to your AV team who goes out and supports us at our council meetings and our events. They're really a fantastic group of people to work with, really accommodating, just always a very passive but strong presence. And we really rely on them. So. So extend our thanks to them, please. The other, the one question that I had for our civil service team is we've been talking a little bit about recruitment officers in different departments. Do you recruit for police and fire? So we will coordinate the efforts. In the past, we had there has been there have been three dedicated recruitment officers in the in the history of the department. I was the last recruitment officer. So the position was not dedicated. But my understanding is staff has continued to help with police and fire to coordinate events. Correct. And so. The. The opportunity to provide more support to the departments is something that we want to look at to return to resurrect that full support that we can provide not just to police and fire, but to the all departments that should be able to have that that expertize that I think our staff has. Do any of our departments currently have their own recruitment officer? No, not to. Not to my knowledge. Crystal can speak to that. Good evening. The police department actually has a dedicated recruitment officer right now, and the fire department is also looking at a new person that a fire captain that is also looking at recruitment primarily. Okay. And so do you. So I'm assuming that means you have a model in place in terms of how your department would work with their recruitment officer so that we're getting the most efficiency out of those budget dollars in terms of the two departments working together. Yes. We're currently looking. At. Like I said, the fire department recently, just within the last couple of weeks, identified the person and the police department identified someone probably within the last last year, and they've been working with us closely. Again, like Christina mentioned, coordinating outreach events. Our team is out there when we can attend events, but primarily the folks that are at police and fire at the events. Okay. And you said police added a recruitment officer within the last year. If I recall correctly, it was an within the last budget year. Oh. They've had it. They've had it for a while. My apologies. Okay. I'll have to defer it. No problem. And it's just a discussion. So no, like, I get it that we're doing our best to answer the questions. But so basically the gist of it is that you've had a model in place where you've been working with a recruitment officer from a particular department to try to enhance our recruitment efforts. Correct. With the police department? Definitely over the last two, 3 to 4 years. And like I said recently, within the fire department, just within the last. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you to all three of you. Thank you. Next speaker, Congressman Silvano. We were just talking. Someone else. All right, so can we move? Thank you for that. Let me move on to consumer super now. Okay. And everybody hear me. Okay. I don't have any questions for civil service. Welcome aboard. Don't take it personally if you haven't watched the council meetings. I specialize in brevity. So for technology, I just wanted to follow up on what Councilman Price was talking about, the camera systems. And we had our own issues on the East Bay or the Anaheim Corridor now notices Aphria Business Improvement District. And what struck me so much when I inherited that was that we had these one off systems all over the city, and I think the goal would be to standardize everything. I also sit on the Public Safety Committee that is chaired by Councilwoman Pryce, so I'll get the information there. But I just think we need to get this out citywide, that what the plan is for, for the cameras moving forward. And also, since you mentioned a second, our next generation of the Go Long Beach app, I realize that will be coming to council soon, as you indicated. But if you could just give us a sneak preview, is there going to be a migration to the new system or does it stand alone that you have to then sign up for the new system? So Councilmember Supernormal, they're there. They'll look over on the beach app when I go away until the new system is ready. And it would be a stand alone system. In fact, you probably won't even be an app in the general sense of the word. Oh. Okay. And what was the projected date? That the new system would come. Online by the end of 2020? Okay. Great. All right. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Next week, Councilman, would you simply. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just a few things. So, first of all, civil service. I don't have very many questions for you. You do a good job, your office, and we'll let you know. It's one of those we shouldn't hear from. You shouldn't hear from us unless there's a problem. Hopefully you see us out in the community that that's what you. Hear from us. And we look forward to partnering to expand some of that. Right. Just a few comments and questions for technology and innovation. And so thank you for kicking off your community process and honored to give a welcome was just a couple days ago. Right? Michelle Obama library. And so you know, we've had this conversation about this digital inclusion roadmap and all that before it had a hashtag, right? Right. When we were just going project by project trying to figure out how to make things more accessible. And you know, and my first experience was dealing with the uplink project, everything that went into simply tying into fiber, adding security cameras and Wi-Fi on a corridor. There's a lot that went into it. And, you know, I guess it would. You know, if coming out of this process, we had a more clear understanding of what's realistic and feasible for cities to take on. And what should go to the private sector to figure out, I think would be incredibly helpful. So just a few things I would lift up. I hope through the process we've identified where we can strategically deploy security cameras, a plan to do that. I know security cameras in the parks and around facilities are popular, and I know that they're not it's not necessarily consistent. We have cameras in many works. I mean, not work. That's something I'm interested in, making sure that we address that road map process. I think publicly available Wi-Fi has been something that's popular, particularly if you don't have a lot of, say, coffee shops and cafes that do that. When we just offering free Wi-Fi to libraries mean incredible hit. I'd love to see the Wi-Fi in the parks become stronger, tie into our fiber and have plans for that and corridor. Wi-Fi is great as well. It's actually an economic development tool. If we already provide Wi-Fi and have guidelines to add patio dining and bulb outs and things like that, we can sort of place make our economic development through deploying strategically deploying technology. I think I'll underscore again, you know, I've learned just in the last few months how cities that do have these plans are heavily looking at public private partnerships, for example. When we do dig once, a lot of times are doing once will notify the utilities and our own departments. But we should think about when do they once? Is there a way that we can save costs on our project by saying, Hey, who else wants to lay down? Can't do it while we're here? Right. And maybe it helps save a little bit of money, but also figure out how to, you know, monetize it and expand our network. Another thing. So that's something I want to look into how we do the dig once we've talked about it. But how do we maybe open it up broader? Another thing is so, you know, we've been talking about this this kiosk situation. I've said, you know, we have five city halls close to the ninth District on our own. And a lot of times, you know, going over to Highland Park or going over to the library, people like to check multiple boxes when they go to the city facility. Highland Park has a health facility, a community center, potentially other things like workforce. So if we could figure out how to like deploy the things that are available, you can walk up and pay a bill, walk up to do something that sort of takes these spaces and make them into like a mini mini city hall access, basic information and city services, not specific, just the parks. I think that should be a part of, you know, a part kind of part of the plan you're embarking on. And then the last thing I would I would say it's a more of a question. So, you know, it'll be cost completely supportive. It's still very difficult to fully understand all the capabilities it offers. But does it with this help us with this what capacity or what additional us? How could this new CRM system help advance language access in the city? So Councilmember Richardson, like the Syrian system, would need to comply with language access. And so like our knowledge based questions and other interactions could be in the three other languages. So that would be. That would be. I would definitely bring the 24 seven accessible CRM system in the four languages. Okay. So, so this does give us more ability to sort of serve our serve our residents needs in multiple languages. It does. Now, what I need to check on is, is how much of this would be Google Translate versus the actual real language translation. So I do need to get back to you on that. Great. Curious to know. But you know, all in all, I think you have a very exciting year ahead of you. Look forward to supporting your budget. Thank you. Councilmember Gringa. Thank you. When a customer Pierce was talking, she mentioned issues such as a trauma. I'll take a test. And it's my understanding that the Civil Service has moved on to more technologically, I guess, enhanced testing methods. The concern that I would have with that obviously is the issues regarding test preparation, a person's ability to take a test , a built in biases as an example in these types of tests, the inability of of an applicant to fully understand. The capabilities of the tests or what it or how to take it. Is there a methodology, if you will, for civil service to provide? Information as to how to take these tests or how to access a practice test or anything such as that that would make the testing experience a lot smoother and be able to ensure that the people taking the tests are in fact fully capable of sort of being tested to the best of their abilities with we're seeing with this testing process. Absolutely. I mean, I think that returning to the city of Long Beach, it's it's been very enlightening to see of that, the type of the use of technology and testing that is going on. But I absolutely think that we could provide services to our our candidates, where we're providing workshops and on what to expect, how to how to access it, how to have access to even online application. So all of those things where we're involving technology, I think it's an opportunity to do that. We also have been doing some very innovative things with online videos. So I think that that would be another option to to create some online videos that would help individuals that are interested in in how to prepare for a particular exam. So yeah, definitely there's more that we can do in that area. Yeah. So I understand that. And you mentioned earlier about a task force or a. Subcommittee of the an ad hoc committee of the Civil Service Commission. So we have two members that are looking at the particular test. Would it be possible to expand that committee to include stakeholders such as some departments or police or fire other departments who have a vested interest in the results of these types of testing? There's what, 22 departments in the city? I think all 22 departments use an administrative analyst or administrative assistant maybe for that kind of test that you could have their input as to what this test can do for them. Well, absolutely. Whether or not I think one's absolutely I think one of the things we're just trying to learn about is what is available through that test, what we've used it for. Just in our brief, we had our first committee meeting this afternoon. And so I think there's a lot more that we can learn about the test that may be able to help us. So I know there are pros and cons to it. We're going to look at that and then certainly take those results out to the departments and talk to them about how we could utilize this for everybody . Well, in another life, I was I was a testing special, if you want to call that at at Cal State Long Beach, before joining the city. And I also, through my experience with Lamar City College, when I was there, we created a holistic methodology of determining how a future student or employee can perform under their job by looking at the individual and not only in terms of their test results, but their resume, their education, training, experience, all of those qualifications that we're always looking at for people. And I think that if there's anything that we can do ourselves a favor is to use that type of approach, a holistic approach to testing, and to put a knowledgeable list together that incorporates all of an applicant's experience. And get on that list based on that, and not just on one instrument testing instrument that would determine an individual's fate. Because we're talking about people's lives. We're talking about their their future and their ability to get a job. And a test in and of itself should not be an impediment to a person wanting to get a job. So I would really want to promote a holistic approach, if you will, to testing so that maybe you could get into when you let a department that well, rephrase it, when you establish a list, a certified list, that it includes and entails everything on that individual in terms of skills, knowledge and abilities as well as the performance on the test. Because we know and it's happened to me that if the test on Friday morning and I have testing ZT, that I'm not going to perform as well on that test on that Friday morning or if I have something coming up on Friday afternoon, a big party or whether that be party. Well. That sounds so bad. That sounds so bad. Well, it's sad. Let's say it has something important going on. Maybe I'm getting married on Saturday. I have a bachelor party that night. That's not good either. Anyway, you catch my drift. Drift? We're going to beat that. People are naturally affected. By what? What's going on in their lives when they take a test. And I think that the key is for us that we are as transparent as possible, that people understand why we are conducting particular tests. Some tests are better for some physicians and others, and that we we balance the need to manage volume. With the need to assess skill level. Thank you very much. Mm hmm. Thank you. Vice Mayor Andrews. Thank you very much. First of all, I'd like to thank the technology and innovation team, because the fact that, you know, that you can tell by the city hall here that you guys have done a great, great an amazing job, you know, especially by keeping Channel three going and everything else you've done, you know, the good work you've done. So I just want to leave that out there to the technology division. But the biggest part about I'd like to move into the civil service part because the fact that especially when I talk about civil service in the hiring process and getting jobs because, you know, that's a primary concern in my district. And like I said, I understand exactly what Councilman Duran was speaking about, especially when it comes to testing. I'm not saying that you shouldn't test, but I think in the way we do a lot of our testing, we can really, you know, omit some of our best, you know, qualified individuals. And especially when I tell individuals, well, you want to get a job, you got to go online and go online. A lot of these individuals, they will go online and they substantially have been there for three or four weeks and nothing's happened. So I don't know how the expediency of trying to when you go back and say, well, what do you tell a person, well, I should keep going, going back. So what's the length of time that you would have a person once they go online and you find that the job is still open, but you can still they say, And what do I do? So what is the process that you've been waiting so long once you've already applied online to try to get that job? I know there's a lot of candidates out there, but I tell them to keep try and keep trying. So what is really I just what I'm really trying to say is what is kind of the waiting period once you have a person go online to apply for a job? So I wish I could tell you what that waiting period is. Every position is different. I am learning as I in my second week or beginning of my third week here that we have a lot of positions that are open continuously. And I think that may be what you're talking about, that where candidates are saying, hey, what is what is happening? And so we're we're evaluating all of those so that we can give more information to candidates because we don't want them to give up on us. And so we're going to we're going to be looking at these processes and evaluating some positions are very hard to fill. And so we do need to have them open continuously so people have access. Other positions are are we have plenty of candidates and it would behoove us to move forward with the process. So we're going to try to see how we can assess, be more transparent, share more information with candidates and communicate with candidates so that they understand. And they're not having to call their council person to get updates on what their what their status might be. Well, that's one of the because I know there's no way that they can get in touch with you guys and find that out. But I just want you to know that because I mean. I think you should they should be able to have some information from us if that's if if we are generating that information. So definitely that is something that we will be working on so that they do have they have ability to communicate. And thank you, guys. That's that's a very key area in my especially in my district. Like I said, the job does it mean so much because it resonate all over the district. Once she said, well, a guy that hasn't had a job for the last ten or 15 years and get a job from the city. I mean, that goes to show because you know what he had to do in order to get that job. And I just want to let you guys know that that's one thing I really applaud union budget for, but just help us out a little bit more on that, if that's possible. And thank you very much. Thank you. And. Yes. Thank you. I had one question that I forgot to ask, Leah. In your budget, under the SAP funds, there's a reference to educational programing video for Focus on the New Civic Center. The total looks like $300,088. So I wanted to understand more about this video you could just share with us. So Councilwoman Pearce, that includes funding for Councilmember Pearce, that includes funding for a position. So about 138,000 of that is for a position who's going to be helping work with Long Beach television as well as staff here in the Technology and Innovation Department on programing and and art and engagement. And the focus is on the Civic Center because that position and the funding will help with the media wall. And out there in the lobby, also with the the the messaging that's in the elevator and the elevators, all of the public service announcements and messaging in the elevators, as well as just general programing and features for language television. So it's not a program about the Civic Center. It's literally programing that wall. Yes, programing. What's in the elevator? Yeah. As well as content for language television. And so. So there's one time funding as well as the position. So the 250,000 for one time funding. Outside of the position. I mean, is that for the video team? Help me. Understand. A portion of that would be for some of the content for the the city hall media wall. And a portion of that would be for curation. So but for curation of original content, including working with local artists in the Long Beach Museum of Art, for instance, and the Arts Council. Okay. Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Thank you, Councilwoman Price. To add one thing, and it's a comment for Miss Erickson. You know, I know we talk a lot about digital inclusion, and people heard me talk about this at the Bossie meeting. But one stopgap until we get to the place where every resident in the city of Long Beach has access to the Internet and access to the computer is our libraries. Every resident in the city of Long Beach has access to the Internet and to computers through our libraries. And when we extend our library hours, residents who work full time have the opportunity to go in and look for jobs and do their searches on the weekends and try to, you know, enhance their own lives by looking at what opportunities are out there and preparing themselves for job opportunities and job interviews. So I just wanted to throw that out there that the entire burden of digital inclusion, inclusion should not fall on our Technology Services Department because we do have other services available throughout the city that can help make that need a reality. Until such time as we're able to enhance the infrastructure citywide, which is a multimillion dollar project. Thank you very much, Councilwoman. With that, let me go ahead and that I know that concludes all the questions we had as far as it relates to technology and and civil service. So thank you. Let's give also and let's do another welcome for our new executive director of civil service. Very happy. So thank you and welcome again. And talk about being thrown right into the rain to the fire on your on your second week. So thank you. Thank you. We do have we a series of votes, of course, as it relates to the budget. And we can also, of course, get getting some more discussion as it relates to the budget. And so we're going to go out and go through those right now and want to take a few initial votes. And then we're going to pause because the finance staff has got to go back and do some work on some of the recommendations, and then we'll do the rest of the council meeting and then finish the budget at the end of the night. A Mayor Can we get a vote on. It to receive and file as part of the hearing? So I'm not sure that we do. We need a vote on that. But let's go ahead let's just go to the last was even file in those three departments cluster your votes. Catlin. So when you were younger. Thank you. When your younger. Motion carries. Thank you. We we we have a series of items. I'm going to also during when when the BSE committee's recommendations come up. I know there are some some comments and I have a couple as well. And we're going to we're going to work through those. And that's in a couple of items. We're going to go through the first three votes on the on the on the budget. We have taken all public comment. So, Madam Clerk, the first one is to adopt the mayor's proposed budget recommendations as amended and as have been submitted to the the council.