Recommendation to accept the transfer of real property at 1095 East Willow Street, Assessor Parcel Numbers 7212-009-903 and -908, also known as Sunnyside Cemetery (Subject Property); Accept the transfer of unrestricted funds associated with the Subject Property (estimated at $540,000); Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute any and all documents necessary to effectuate the transfer, including the assumption of all contracts related to plots and burials; and Accept Categorical Exemption CE-19-204. (District 7)
And now we're going to do item number 20, please. Item 20 is report from economic development. Recommendation to accept the transfer of real property at 1095 East Willow Street, also known as Sunnyside Cemetery, except the transfer of unrestricted funds associated with the subject property and authorize city manager to execute all documents necessary to effectuate the transfer of District seven. Get a staff report, please. Mayor Councilmembers This truly is a very, very exciting opportunity for us to expand our municipal cemetery, and we're looking forward to this. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our economic development director, John Keisler, who's been working with the Sunnyside folk to make this transaction happen. John. Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the city council. As the city manager said, we're here to talk a little bit about Sunnyside Cemetery, which is located on Willow Street between California and Orange Avenue. This is one of the most historic sites in the city. It measures approximately 13 acres and was established in 1906. We say it's the second oldest burial ground in the city of Long Beach because the municipal cemetery was actually established in 1901. There are about 16,000 people buried in Sunnyside, including Union soldiers and several pioneer Long Beach figures. Over the past few years. As the cemetery filled up, the space to sell, new burial plots decreased. And so that put a lot of pressure on the cemetery to operate and continue to maintain its aging infrastructure. In June 13th of 2019, the Friends of Sunnyside Cemetery approached the city and indicated that they were unable to continue maintenance and that a permanent closure of the cemetery was imminent. Later that same month, we actually received formal notification from the board that they were requesting to work with the city to transfer the title of of the cemetery to the city of Long Beach, changed the status from a private cemetery to a public or municipal cemetery, and to transfer any remaining funds in their endowment to help with ongoing maintenance or operations of the cemetery. And so when we discussed this this proposal I'm sorry, we actually invited our our Parks Rec and Marine Department into the discussions because they currently operate a four acre municipal cemetery, which is contiguous to Sunnyside. That four acre site has an operations budget of approximately $60,000 in the general fund budget. It's obviously much smaller than the 13 acre historic cemetery next door. But we've asked our Parks Rec and Marine Department as the operating department to to to evaluate and to propose some of the recommendations with regard to the long term maintenance of the subject property. The initial assessment of staff based on the four acre site of the municipal cemeteries that the 13 acres, Sunnyside, would add approximately $230,000 of additional annual maintenance cost that is currently unbudgeted. Some of the other issues associated with the cemetery and its current status is that. I know that the Council had a chance to review much of this presentation. If you can just kind of I know we have a long budget hearing, so maybe we can just kind of go through this a little quicker. You got it. All right. So one of the things that we want to make sure we do is we want to disclose to the city council and to the public that there are some outstanding liabilities, both one time and ongoing. Also, the Sunnyside board has asked that we recognize some of the existing obligations, some of the events that they put on and some of the contracts they have with for for grants. They've also agreed to transfer all of those records that would become also the property of the city. So essentially we have done some due diligence, the boards current with all of their licenses, with the state, with all their reporting requirements. And we have been evaluating some potential funding sources that might be available to assist with both the one time and ongoing improvements at the cemetery. So with that, the recommendation tonight from the city manager is to accept the transfer of the the property itself, as well as to accept the transfer of the funds in the the foundation's endowment and then allow for us to work with all the existing contracts that are currently on the site, either for burial or for events. And with that, I'll conclude my report. I'm here with Steve Scott from the Parks Rec and Marine Department if there are any questions about operations of the cemetery. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Kyser. I'm going to make a couple opening comments. I'm a conservative councilmember. You're Ringo. I made the motion. I want to just say that the preservation of. Of the site of the cemetery is incredibly important. It's been incredibly important, certainly to me. It has been incredibly important to Councilmember Turanga, who has advocated for this for many, many years. And I just want to thank the staff for their hard work in getting us here. There's a couple important notes about this site. The first is that it's a historical site for us as a city. While it certainly is not in public hands currently. Many of our founding fathers and mothers of the city are buried there. It's their last resting place. And so it's an. Credibly a significant location for for history and for the city as it looks back as it looks back to its founding. Beyond that, there are many residents and families who currently have members of their family buried at that site. And these are folks that I run into when I'm walking down the street that I might see at the grocery store that talk about their, you know, their mother or their grant or their grandparent or an uncle whose last resting place is there at Sunnyside. And so this is also not just a historical place. It is a place that has deep connections, a deep emotional connections to many of the residents that live in our city. And so to to be able to acquire the site, bring it into our Long Beach Park system and to really create synergy with the rest of our park system is really, really special and really, really important. And so I think this is a very important decision. I think that the staff, Mr. Kaiser, you and your team have been working really hard on this. We've been talking about this for for a couple of years and how we do this the right way while being respectful to those that are doing the work currently. So it's been a back and forth, but we said from day one we would not let the cemetery close or fall into a major disrepair. And I'm really glad that we're meeting that that commitment and that promise. And with that, I want to turn it over to counsel for your anger. This would not be possible without his full support. And I want to. He's made the motion. I'll turn this over to him. Thank you, Mayor. And I think basically you said it all in regards to the importance of this merger. I really want to thank staff for really making this happen. From the city manager to the to John Kyser and his team and also the team at the Park Recreation Marine, because it wouldn't have happened without them pushing this forward and finding the and having the wherewithal to make this happen. I really want to thank you, because it's a very important part of our park. It's going to become a very important part of our park system. And for those of you who don't know, there are five cemeteries in the city of Long Beach, and they all reside in the seventh District. So people are dying to get into the seventh. And now they will be attached to a park, as many of you may know as well. We are also in the phases of developing Willow Springs Park. So looking forward to having sunny side municipal becoming a part of that system as well there. So thank you, Brian. And I want to thank the mayor as well without without his also being in the background, pushing this forward as well. This would not have happened. And of course, the residents the residents brought this forward. They felt it important enough to say that, you know, we need to do something about Sunnyside and let's make this happen. And of course, it was a wake up call to us to like, yes, we need to to save our heritage and we need to save this cemetery. So thank you all for making this point. I hope I get the support of my colleagues to also move this forward. Thank you. And Councilman Austin. Yes. I'm happy to support this and second, this motion. I have had the opportunity to be at Sunnyside Cemetery on many occasions. And I cannot support your your claim that there's a lot of history there. The Historical Society of Long Beach holds their annual cemetery tours there, and I have tried out my thespian chops there. I acted, played the role of many of our historic figures over the years on on a few occasions. And and I do understand the value and significance of that. And I've been reached out to by many of my constituents who have loved ones who are there, who are resting there. And it's only appropriate that we as a city take that on and support the legacies that that are actually there. As you said, Mayor, many of the the founding founding fathers and mothers of the city are arrested there. It's an important item I'm happy to support. Thank you very much. Comes from a supernova. Thank you. I'm very happy to be able to support this item. I originally didn't think I could do that because my grandparents are buried at the cemetery. But I consulted with our city attorney and he said, because I don't want to speak for Mr. Park and he's right here. But I think basically that because I don't have a current financial interest in the cemetery, that there's no conflict of interest. He also asked me if I planned on being buried there. I don't own a plot. That decision could be made later. Just don't rush me. Vice Mayor Andrews? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Counsel, I'm hearing it's very important because the fact that we do have a lot of history in that regard, and I'm so glad the transfer is being taken care of and I said is really going to do a big job in that. So congratulations to you doing, you know, bringing up this item to the DHS. Thank you. Thank you. Also just case, remember, also noted. I know that the Historical Society obviously has done a lot of work on the site and did a lot of research. So I'm sure as we move forward will make sure that they're an active partner in restoration and in doing that work. And so we look forward to that partnership. I have public comment. I have five members of the public. Please come forward in this order. Roxann Palmer, Christine Rattan, Jeff Mallin, Michael Michael Minter and Cindy Canfield. Please come forward. Hello, Mayor and Council. Thank you for having us. I'm on the board of the Historical Society and along with Kay Regal, who's back there, our historian, Dr. Kay Regal. We write the scripts for the tour, so we know really well who's buried there and all the ways they're they're interesting. And thank you, Daryl. You've been a supporter and lost and who stepped away, who is often performs was Eddie Cannon, a retired auditor for the city. So each year we tell the stories of the people buried in the cemetery. Over 23 years, we've told 200 stories to about 12,000 people. We know how much history is there. We've got a Japanese family whose son was in the regiment that liberated Dachau while his parents sat in an internment camp. We've got a family that ran a mexican restaurant for more than 60 years. We've got mayors, we've got city of port commissioners, water commissioners, all kinds of people. The diversity that is Long Beach, you can see in that cemetery, you can see the history. You can see the flu victims, the scarlet fever victims. Every a veteran of every war going back to the Civil War, it's all there. So we thank you very much for taking this on. We always say that every plot has a story, and it's certainly true at Sunnyside. And this is you guys, this chance to be a hero to save Sunnyside. And we thank you. Thank you very much. Next week it was. Hello, Mr. Mayor. And Council, this is one of your personal stories. My name is Christina written. I'm here on behalf of my 92 year old mother, Yoshiko, Arya, and many of the families of those buried at Sandy site. I first found out about this in May of this year. My mother, who visits the cemetery monthly, came home. She was in tears. She couldn't find my father and my brother's headstones. And that's how bad it was at the cemetery. It was so overgrown and so full of go for holes. She couldn't find anything. And so that got me and started into writing and sending out letters and trying to contact friends and families of people that were interred at Sunnyside. I myself was born here in Long Beach, and I grew up here. I have three generations of families buried at Sunnyside in 1945. My parents and their families came to Long Beach from the Manzanar Relocation Center in Independence, California. They settled in Long Beach, and my father worked as a freelance gardener for this in the city of Long Beach for 25 years. In 1978, my father was hired by the city of Long Beach Parks and Recreation as their gardener. He worked at many of the local cemeteries and he also worked at the municipal while he worked at many of the local parks. And he worked at the local municipal cemeteries. My 92 year old mother has a companion plot with my father, who had passed away in 2006. And so when it is her time, she is hoping that she would be able to be buried there with him. And we just wish and thank you very much for looking at this for us. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thanks, Speaker. Mr. Mayor and the council and the staff. My name is Michael Minor. I am on the board of directors of Sunnyside Cemetery, and I'm the chief financial officer. We're in a unique situation because of what you have done tonight that. We can ensure that the cemetery will go on and that more funds will be available to do the work that needs to be done. Our biggest problem was we ran out of money. Pure and simple. We did as much as we can. We use we have one gardener. And we have community service workers that do the rest. We have some volunteers that work in the office part time. I was on the I was a manager up until November of last year when I had a heart attack and had to leave. And but I'm still on the board. And I took over the position of chief financial officer because we need to have so many officers. I want to thank Councilman Turanga and his staff for all they've done. I want to thank John Kaiser and Parks and Rec. And I'm sorry, I forgot the name and Darrell have all been very helpful in this endeavor to get this taken care of. So I'm really. Proud that you have put a recommendation. To. Approve this recommendation, and I hope all of you will vote in the positive. And we are our board volunteers. We will help in whatever capacity we can or that the city would need it for as long as we can. That's our promise to you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And our last speaker, please. I just want to say I want to thank the seventh district councilman around, go for spearheading. Um, the assumption of the. Responsibilities of maintaining the cemetery. I followed the, the discussions that were held in, uh, the Facebook group, uh, for the Wrigley Neighborhood Association. And it was amazing to see a lot of this. The, the separate groups and, uh, kind of just. Neighbors all throughout the city who had ties to, um, Sunnyside and what it meant for their family history here in the city. And, um, I grew up just south of Californian and BURNETT, not too far away. So as a kid, me and my friends would always go and, you know, and I went to a bunch of those historical society towards as a kid and I worked at the, um, when the first jobs I ever had was at the, the driving, uh, the golf course just across the street from, um, on the municipal cemetery side. So it's, it's, it's great to see that this ode to the ancestors. Was going to be maintained in perpetuity. By the city government. So thank you for being progressive and stepping up to the plate and assume this responsibility. Thank you. Thank you. There's a motion and a second that concludes public comment. Please cast your votes. Bush and Kerry. Thank you. We're going to be doing a general public comment and then going into the first hearing. So if I call your name, please come forward. And Mike Murchison, Larry Goodhew, Carolyn Byrnes, Pat Paris Appleby, Giselle Ashok, George Romo.