Recommendation to request the Climate Action Committee of the City Council to take up a proposal to create a $5 million Long Beach Youth Climate Corps program and provide recommendations to the Council.
The motion is here. Thank you. I am 43. Please. Item 43 is communication from Eric Garcia. Recommendation two requires the Climate Action Committee to take up a proposal to create a 5 million Long Beach year Long Beach Youth Climate Corp's program and provide recommendations to the Council. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me go ahead and just chat about this this a little bit that we have in front of us. And then we do have we do have some public comment. And then also take the pick, the city council. I think we all are and have been very supportive of our cap, which is an incredible document that's been developed at the city. And and it's obviously really focused on issues that we are concerned with as it relates to climate, the climate crisis in front of us globally. But here locally, there's been a lot of conversation nationally about getting and creating climate cause at the federal level and at the state level. There are a handful of municipal youth climate courses that are. No. No. Is it on? They're working on. Their work around the mike and. Working on the mix. Okay. So. I want to make sure it's good. I keep going. Well, just give me 1/2 and we'll see if the mikes work. My. No. Okay. Test. One, two. And normally I would just keep going. But I know like the OC we have to record it for the for the, for the public though. Okay. Is it good now? Okay. Let me start over, I guess. What I what I was saying is that right now there are a handful of municipalities across the country and certainly at the federal level are looking at developing and funding Climate Corps programs, which are programs that range in and different in the types of programs that are being developed from youth climate programs to programs that are funding climate protection projects in communities to take other programs that are they're training young people to get involved in climate change issues or in climate adaptation programs in their communities. Now, with the proposal we have in front of us is is a group of mayors from California had asked Governor Newsom to add about $150 million in the budget to fund programs in the 13 largest cities in the state of California. So it was part of a group of mayors that advocated for this funding in this last budget. The governor did include about $150 million to support youth workforce programs in California for the 13 largest cities. That means that Long Beach would receive about $6.3 million in funding for youth development programs. As mayors, we came together and also made the decision that we wanted to fund youth development programs as it relates to climate protection and create these youth climate cause up and down the state of California. These would be workforce development programs for youth employment, youth careers and climate service, strengthening capacity for programs that already exist, and also for partnerships. For example, we have the Conservation Corps in Long Beach, which could be an incredible partner for this type of project that we could also help fund. In addition, we would we would be looking at funding through this through this program. Young people to get involved on on on the many projects that are out there that needs additional support across the city. I want to also that what the request actually is is not approve the full proposal tonight, but the send the resources and a sketch to the climate change committee of the council and to have them work with the community to get ideas and to see what the structures should look like and how the and how the program could look, could work. And then for the committee to come back to the Council with recommendations on what the Youth Climate Corps could actually look like. I will add that this is a significant amount of dollars, $5 million to start for a program like this is is a great start. And so we're grateful for these resources. And the additional 1.3 million is going to be used for use by staff for some admin issues, but also to strengthen some of the other workforce programs that I think already exist in the city, if I'm if I'm not mistaken. So I think Mr. Monica will come forward on those issues. So we have the ability to really develop this program as as we would like to and as the community would like to. But I want to make sure we get started and send this over to the Climate Action Committee of the City Council to create the Long Beach Youth Climate Corps program. With that, there's a motion and a second. Let me start with Councilwoman Allen. Yes. I just thank you, Mayor, for introducing this item and for all your efforts and bring funding for these forward thinking programs. And the the climate crisis can be tackled by the leadership of our future generations of our young people. So this funding is just a tremendous way and transformative way, transformative weight for our entire community. So I love the focus of these dollars on expanding job training for the youth, and I think it will be essential part of a just transition for developing career pathways as well. So as chair of the Climate Action Environment Committee, I can't wait to discuss this in the committee and just thank you, Mayor, for all of your hard work in securing this funding. Count, Councilman. Sorrow. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for bringing this item forward. I just think it's just so crucial that we work on this. I just want to uplift the statement that's in your letter to the city council that this is indeed a wonderful opportunity to expand upon the work we do with the Conservation Corps. Long Beach. They have the experience, resources and expertize to bolster and scale the services that they currently provide to the city. And they have a waiting list of young people, including many that are from my district, eager to join and serve the community. And they've done so pretty much for the whole city. I think that there isn't an area that they haven't touched to make sure that they provide environmental stewardship. And I think they can do so much more to continue to help us combat climate change and meanwhile, providing workforce development opportunities for our youth. So I appreciate this and hope that, you know, they'll be engaged and part of the discussion as it gets developed. So thank you so much. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think this is a great program. Thank you for your advocacy at the state level to prioritize the big cities. I think it's in alignment with all the things you mentioned, our climate action adaptation plan measure us, our commitment to climate and our commitment to youth and the upcoming youth fund that's rolling out . And I echo I think we have some great partners in your conservation cause building a facility in North Long Beach as we speak, to make a deeper commitment to Long Beach. And so we need to definitely support and work work with them on that effort. I also want to say that with everything ahead of us in terms of climate and the, you know, the end of oil as we know it, it's the future is really going to lean on STEM and in how we design and create a more resilient, sustainable future. And so I know a lot of times when we talk about a climate corps in youth, we're talking about teenagers. But I want to make sure that, you know, we engage with the little ones and we engage in their we inspire little ones, elementary school kids in some way into this process so that they are inspired by STEM and take interest in the things that Long Beach is doing and how we prepare them for what's what's ahead. Because this, you know, talking about climate is really talking about their future. So the more we can engage the little ones. So I'm hoping that the Climate Committee can really think about some sort of a recommendation to partner with schools for the little ones. But I think this is a great proposal and I look forward to supporting it. Thanks. Yeah. Let me just add one thing that to add to that, Vice Mayor and I think one of the when we're looking at we're getting guidelines from the state on flexibility of the dollars. But one small example where a even a small amount of dollars goes a long way is we have so many requests from Long Beach Unified, for example, of these classrooms, of these kids that come together to try to fund these small projects in the community that are climate related. And I'm just I mean, with a few resources, those projects and those kids go through an incredible experience. So whether those types of projects can be part of this broader, you know, youth Climate Corps program, I'm not sure. But I think that that's an idea that I think can be engaged with with the community and to see if something that would fit our work. Councilman Price. A lot. A lot of my colleagues have already mentioned it, but obviously it's no secret. I'm a huge fan of the Conservation Corps. I share an office with them. And one of the things that I was recently talking with their director about was that in some areas and this is something I'd love to be considered as this move through committee is some cities have or some jurisdictions areas have district wide corps teams. And so they'll have a conservation corps like in the city of Long Beach. There could be nine of them, and they could do climate projects, environmental projects that are specific to that district, whether it's a planting project or any type of project , a cleanup project, whatever. But it could be district specific and the Corps could have a team of youth that would work with that district on imagining some options for resiliency and climate action, and they can help implement it through the community and things of that nature. So I really hope that's something we can think about. I feel like that's a structure that would be creative and would help us engage youth from all over the city in different parts of the city. A project might be one thing in one district and totally different and another, but still accomplish the same overall purpose. And I think that really contributes to the beauty and the diversity of the city if we have something like that. So I'm hoping that whoever on the staff is taking charge of this as it goes through committees, that that's something we consider as well. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman House. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for this amazing opportunity and bold and necessary move for our leadership in state capital that recognizes the need to prepare a workforce that accounts for climate change adaptation. The youth are leading the way towards cleaner, a brighter future that protects our environment and our planet. And it is our responsibility as current leaders to support them and equip them with all of the resources they need to be successful and to be able to continue to save our future. I'm very supportive of all youth empowerment programs, but especially of the youth programs focused on climate adaptation efforts. So thank you again for this program. Thank you for giving the youth a space where they can empower themselves to make positive change in this industry. Thank you, Councilwoman. Madam, quickly. I think we have members of the public. Yes, we have six speakers. Teresa marino, Don Knapp, Dave Sugar, Kenny Allen, Michelle Lewis and Elliott Gonzalez. Please come to the podium. Teresa moreno. Good evening, honorable mayor and honorable vice mayor and. City council. Members. As stated, my name is Teresa marino. I live in the second district. I am a retiree. Of the city of. Long Beach, Department of Health and Human Services, and I am the founding executive director of the Conservation Corps of Long Beach, and I'm also the current chair of the board. So I thank you for this opportunity to come forward and just speak a little bit about the Corps. Our history in terms of 35. Years of service with the. City of Long Beach and being a partnering agency and and always having a. Master agreement. So that any department in the city can work with us. We started. With. 15 Corps members. Our first corps members were hired in 1989. And over the last 33 years, we've served more than 10,000 youth with workforce development, skills, training, education and service and. Stewardship to the community. So thank you, Mayor Robert Garcia, for putting the Conservation Corps in your letter and looking at us in terms of a partner, maybe a consulting agency, in terms of we have infrastructure, we have a holistic approach of working with young people. Our core members are 18 to 25 years old, but we also do afterschool programs with younger students. And we also have a model of clean and green, which was for. Smaller. Youth corps, younger youth members, and it was. Instituted and used by the L.A. Corps model, the Conservation Corps. We've done a lot of projects in the communities. We've done neighborhood cleanups. We've done conservation. We've done recycling solar installation. Stewardship, education, about the environment and many more. We work with the neighborhoods and the business districts and all city departments. So in looking at this allocation, we hope that will be at the table. We hope that will be a model. We hope that we can help. Others so. That they don't have to reinvent the. Wheel, but can see a model. That that work that has history and experience here in the city of Long Beach and that have corps members that are out in the community working, but also very diverse young people of every strata of economic in our communities. Working with us will save money because. You will not have to start from scratch. You won't have to reinvent the wheel. We are. I have our boots on the ground. Our young people are ready. We have many. Crews. We have about 80 corps members right now and we have a long waiting list. So thank you for your time and thank you all for this opportunity. Don Knapp. Good evening. And that's Dan Knapp. So good to see everybody. Mayor City Council again, thanks, mayor, for representing while you were up there with the the coalition of big city mayors. You know, we have our own association in California. The Car Conservation Corps is called Cal California Association Conservation Course. And we were also talking to the governor's office, working with California volunteers, Josh, Friday up there on on how is this climate money going to trickle down and how is it going to get to the communities that need it the most? Working with the resources agency, with the secretary, Wade Crowfoot as well. So we're right there with you. We want to bring as many resources as possible to the city, to the young people we serve, and not the director of the corps. I work for the young people that we serve, and I really strongly believe that. And that's why I'm here tonight. We're also right now, we belong to a larger national association. We're working to ensure that the President Biden's civilian climate corps, those dollars, those resources come to the community of Long Beach and help bolster what we're already doing. As Theresa said, it's pretty crazy right now. We pay a. Little bit above minimum wage for young folks coming to our. We pay above minimum wage just a little bit, though. We have a waiting list of young folks trying to join the corps and we're competing against Amazon, you know, 20 bucks an hour. All these other jobs, they want to come here, they want to serve. We couldn't be prouder of our young folks talked about, you know, mental health. We have our own support services department for our young folks who come to our doors to help them with anything that whether it's housing, mental health, parenting, what have you. We also have a very robust academic programs. As Theresa said, we can bring resources to the table. But we're always looking for more resources. This kind of money could help the Corps develop new partnerships with the young folks back here. I love that. I can't wait to talk with them, work with other organizations, help mentor, perhaps help guide, because we've been doing this for a while. We have resources, but we also want to, you know. Engage as many young folks as we can within in Long Beach, so serve the community. It'd be cool to have a team in every council district made up of young folks from that council district doing work. But at the same time, young folks are coming to our doors because they get to go to Catalina Island and work or do Clement work. The fuel reduction in the local national forest, the clearing, the Angeles National Forest. We're doing work on chat lines. We just started a new project at the SEAL Beach Wildlife Refuge working with the sea turtles there. That's why young folks come to our doors because they know we care and we want to build that with you. So again, thanks for including us, Mayor. Thanks for the council. We look forward to working with you. Kenny Allen, Michelle Lewis and Elliott Gonzalez. Please come to the podium. Good evening, City Council. Mr. Mayor. My name is Kenny and I am a resident of the Second District here to speak on behalf of Sunrise Movement. Long Beach. First, I'd like to thank you for advocating for these funds and congratulate you on being one of the cities to receive these funds from the state. And also like to thank you for considering that this money might be well spent in the enormous amount of mitigation and adaptation work we have to do to address the climate emergency here in Long Beach. Sunrise Movement has been deeply engaged at the federal level, advocating for something called the Civilian Climate Corps to be included in the build back better package that is awaiting a vote in Congress right now. We see this as a key program required to kick off the decade of the Green New Deal and provide good union jobs and meaningful work to millions of Americans. As you receive this one time funding from the state, we have three brief points of public input to offer. One of the jobs provided by this Youth Climate Corps must provide a living wage and benefits, and the work must actually pave a path to meaningful, long term career opportunities. Two. When hiring for these positions, the communities most impacted by the climate crisis should be prioritized. This includes, but is not limited to youth living among along the diesel death corridor. Bipoc youth and youth who have come into contact with our systems of incarceration. Finally, we strongly urge the city to look closely at the Civilian Climate Corps program proposed by Senator Ed Markey, as well as the Green New Deal for Cities Act that has been introduced in the House. Having a longer term plan for the work ahead will better position us to receive major funding from the Federal Government. We highly recommend you utilize this initial funding to make our city more eligible for this desperately needed federal funding. My generation is ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work building a world beyond fossil fuels. A world that centers care and community. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Michelle Louis and I'm a lifelong resident of District Second District and a member of the Sunrise Movement, Long Beach. Congratulations on being one of the cities successful in securing this funding from the state. We look forward to hearing the details about how these funds will be invested in our community to address the climate emergency. I'd like to tell you a bit more about the vision for the Civilian Climate Corps, which is a federal program awaiting a vote as part of the build back better package. We hope this vision of a, c, c, c might inform the way you develop this local youth climate corps. Imagine a world where millions of people, recent high school graduates and middle age alike, could work on projects protecting communities from sea level rise, taking care of the elderly, distributing fresh produce and food deserts, restoring wetlands and rebuilding after climate disasters while getting paid a living wage, having access to health care and getting apprentice to continue their career. That is the vision of the Civilian Climate Corps, and it goes far beyond just planting trees. We should use this opportunity, this funding, to actually build back better. If you need help figuring out how to do this the right way, we are here and ready to work with you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Members of the city council. Honorable Mayor. I'm here to speak in support of the Youth Climate Fund. However, there are some ideas I have for this how this process can be improved. First, I would like to ask the council members to reach out to organizations already working on youth climate jobs. Organizations such as Sunrise Movement, which has been active in advocating for a civilian climate corps, which is a jobs program to put people to work, especially young people doing some of the most important work there is to be done that is taking care of this earth and taking care of one another. There's also a student led Green Campus Club at Poly High School. If there is a sincere effort to provide a youth climate fund, the youth voices should go into shaping such a program. I would like to ask the council to adopt a polluter pays model to secure a long term funding source for this Youth Climate Fund. This funding can be generated by, one, increasing taxes, such as the oil tax, which was recently implemented, and two, also implementing fees on oil drilling. Those who are most responsible for creating this crisis should be the ones to pay for it. The oil tax was originally proposed as a way to speed up the phase out of of oil. Increasing the tax can bring additional revenue from the lucrative oil industry and help fund good paying jobs, cleaning up some of the city's most polluted regions. The residents near the these pollution sources, oil drilling refineries, gas facilities are on the are the frontline communities who bear the hardest burden of pollution. And they should be the first in line to receive these jobs by placing fees on the oil industry. We can hold this the city's largest carbon emitter accountable too, for its responsibility to provide funding for living wage jobs as directed by the community, most importantly, by the youth. Finally, I'd like to ask that the Council use the Council Offices, the Climate Committee of the City Council and the Sustainability Commission to gain the vision of the community. The community held a vision for it, for the transition. I believe in the youth and the young adults who are going to be the first to inherit the climate crisis. Their voices should go into providing the vision for the type of work to be done. They have the ability to secure the funding, to hold the oil industry accountable. They are the ones who are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that they have a livable future. Thank you. If sugar. Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak last. I am someone who has misspent his youth in the climate justice movement. I have literally aged out. I have gray hair. I have been doing this in some form or another for the past 30 years. I can remember not only James Hansen's testimony before Congress in 1998, but telling my mother not to use VO5 hair spray because of the aerosols and the CFC spec when the Montreal Protocol was being designed. I have a lot of thoughts. The Conservation Corps program idea was something that we advocated for when we organized the first National Green Jobs Day of Action back in September of 2008. It's a good program. My congratulations for the state funding and for your continued support of the Climate Action Plan. I sincerely hope that the youth that are have spoken as well as are listening to this will also stick around for item 58, which directly bears on how much space your future may or may not have in this town. I've been trying to do my best. Perhaps it's appropriate to be a bit more explicit about my goals and methods. As much as these comments are directed at them, they're really for you. They're to you. I'm of buy for from someone from UGA. So some thought having cause in each and every district is a good idea. I support that idea that these jobs should be informed by climate adaptation, environmental justice, best principles, starting with prioritizing the most disadvantaged communities. These jobs should be career path, and they should focus on existing statutes like SB 100 and SB 1000 and other laws that, you know are going to be part of a livable future. It'd be unfortunate if a lot of these jobs became ways to prioritize city trash filler into a fuel source or to prop up fossil fuel jobs that really don't have any future. And in the time that I have, if anyone would like to get started on a project. Prove or disprove the following propositions. Over the past 100 years, the City of Long Beach has one of the largest historical attributable emission loads profiles of any municipality in the Northern Hemisphere. These emissions can be calculated as much from the existing data and back facing estimates, as well as various social and political developments that the city has exported worldwide. Institutional mechanisms like the division in Signal Hill and Lakewood, Levittown town of Suburban Development to you growth overvalue growth in the port. And that historical responsibility is somewhere between two and 4% of all climate forcing in all climate disasters worldwide. From here on and bonus question which actuaries institutional thank. You your time is. The financial advisors would help you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I want to thank all the other folks that came for public comment. I do want to add that it was mentioned and I think I maybe should have leaned on this piece a little more. But this is certainly to the committee and to the chair. The idea is that this program would align with the federal civilian corps that is being currently discussed right now. So I want to make sure that I know I mentioned it, but that is it's a current proposal that's right now. Had a lot of vetting at the federal level. And the idea is that this program would align with that program. And so it would serve as an opportunity for us to get ready for hopefully that federal program and those dollars. There will be also additional state dollars for this program we expect in the future. So that should be a big part, hopefully, of a conversation that happens at at the committee. Councilman Mongo. My only question regarding that is the funding that would be coming down from the state or the feds. Do we know if there's going to be any supplementing restrictions on it? Because I don't know how we would be able to ensure that we could then add to it, if that makes sense. So I don't. Just something to talk about for our administrative team because nearly every grant in the last 12 months has had this new clause. And I don't want us to be disqualified by opening an area that we can't close and reopen or expand. I think we're still waiting to see what those admin regulations are going to be from the state. They haven't been published yet, so it is going to take a fair amount of time for them to tell us what we can do in the past to then build those programs. To make sure that we're behind this. I just it's a new thing that started to be a lot more dominant in the grant world. And so I just wanted to put it on the radar and thank the mayor for bringing the thought. This is an amazing idea, and I look forward to all the community partnerships that this could really bring. Thanks so much. Thank you. And I would encourage I know some folks came today, but I would encourage the committee to talk to the community. And I think that there is a lot of work going on in the community right now and a lot of energy around these climate cores that are happening. And we have an opportunity in Long Beach to be really one of a handful of cities to actually have one of the first ones, because we have dedicated funding now. And so if we can get it right and align ourselves with the federal programs that are that are that are being developed, I think that's a really, really great opportunity for for the city and for most importantly, for young people in our city. There's a motion in a second to approve the item. Please cast your votes. The most of these carry. Thank you. Next step is item number 48. Item 48 is a report from City Manager Recommendation to receive and file a presentation on 2020 Census Population Data for the City of Long Beach City. Why? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council. So this is a update not not on the redistricting process. That's obviously the registering commission. But this is to use some of the data that came out of the census that the redistricting commission has been working with to look at how our city has changed, the demographics of the city has changed, and also by council district, just so we can get a sense of what has happened over the past ten years from 2010 to 2020. So I will turn it over to Kevin Jackson, deputy city manager, and and Julian Senator, assistant to the city manager, to go through the presentation. Thank you, Tom. And good evening, Mayor, and members of the City Council. I want to thank you for the opportunity to present some of the initial results of the 2020 Census. We do expect that there will be some continuing data releases over the over the next several months of data that's not available now. And we do want to state that if there is an interest in reporting on some of that additional data, we look forward to opportunity to do that either in writing or even an oral report. And tonight's presentation really is just as a representation of the population profile of the city with the data that's available to us today . So before we jump into that data, I just want to do a quick recap on the timeline and activity of the census. The census 2020 census was historic and unusual in a variety of ways, but most notably, it was impacted by the pandemic. And so just let me just just if we don't mind. Is Mr. Cordero here for something? Is he here for the item? Yes, he's here for the item on container stacking. Why don't we just see him and then Dr. Hasegawa here also. So why don't we? If the council doesn't object, let's pause on this presentation. Let's hear the item that relates to the port so that those two gentlemen can. Can head back to the port building, and then we'll come back to the census report. Madam Clerk, can you please read the item? Item 50, please?