Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing regarding an economic subsidy in connection with a Transient Occupancy Tax Sharing Agreement with American Life, Inc., pursuant to California Government Code Section 53083; Adopt Specifications No. RFP CM15-163 for the purchase and development opportunity at 100 East Ocean Boulevard, Assessor Parcel Number 7278-007-928 (Subject Property); Declare the City-owned Subject Property as surplus; Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute any and all documents necessary, including a Purchase and Sale Agreement and Transient Occupancy Tax Sharing Agreement, with American Life, Inc., a California corporation, or assignee, for the sale of the Subject Property in the amount of $7,000,000, for the development of a mixed-use hotel and business center; and Accept Categorical Exemption CE 16-070. (District 2)
This is a hearing. It requires an oath report from Economic Property Development and Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing regarding an economic subsidy in connection with a transient occupancy tax sharing agreement with American Life. Adobe Specifications for the Purchase and Development Opportunity at 100 East Ocean Boulevard. Declare the city owned subject property a surplus. Authorize the city manager to execute all documents necessary, including a purchase and sales agreement and transient occupancy tax sharing agreement with American life for the sale of the subject property in the amount of $7 million for the development of a mixed use hotel and business center and accept categorical exemption. SI $16 070 district to. If you're providing testimony, please stand for this item so you and raise your right hand. You and each of you do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. I'm not familiar. Okay. Thank you. So let's go and begin the hearing. I'm going to turn this over now to Vice President Gore. Did you want to start and then turn it over to staff? Reporter To the staff. Okay. So let me turn this over to Mr. West. Mr. Mayor, council members, this truly is an exciting night. We are through the dissolution of the redevelopment agency. We have some successor agency properties that we've been disposing of with some very great success. And this is perhaps one of the more prime pieces of property in the entire city of Long Beach at Pine and Ocean. It's really a critical piece, and we have the opportunity to see a great development here. I'm going to turn this over to the gentleman who's been working with this, and that's Mike Conaway, our director of Economic and Property Development. So, Mike, Mayor Garcia, members of the City Council, this item involves a former redevelopment agency parcel at the southeast corner of Ocean and Pine. The owners of the property demolished the Jurgens Trust Building in 1988 and the property has remained undeveloped since that time. The Redevelopment Agency acquired the property in 2011 after several failed attempts by private entities to develop the property on February 12th, 2012, redevelopment agencies were dissolved and the property has remained fallow. While the California Department of Finance approved the city's long range property management plan. The plan was approved in March 2015 and amended in June 2015. In July 2015, a request for proposals was released seeking development proposals for the property which requires public access to Jergens Tunnel. A redevelopment of Victory Park. A project labor agreement related to construction and will also include a card check agreement with the Local Hotel Workers Union , a panel including staff from Development Services and Economic and Property Development Departments and an outside real estate economic consultant met to review the three proposals. The panel unanimously selected the proposal submitted by American Life Inc. and Staff's Recommendation to City Council. The project proposed by American Life presents a progressive vision of mixed uses, dynamic use of a difficult physical space, integration of Victory Park, activation of Jergens Tunnel, and connectivity between the downtown, the Convention Center, Pike Outlets and Shoreline Village. City Council's action this evening will, among other things, select a developer who will then proceed through the standard entitlement process, including site plan, review clearance through secure and community outreach and education. American Life proposes to construct up to 427 hotel rooms, 19,000 square feet of free function space and meeting rooms, 8000 square feet of standalone restaurant space and 28,000 square feet of guest amenities, including a pool and sundeck. The project proposes up to 1701 temporary jobs and up to 351 permanent jobs. The project will provide further positive economic impact as a result of property tax, sales tax, business license fees and collateral impacts to the surrounding businesses and revitalization of a blighting influence from a vacant lot in our downtown. Lastly, is anticipated that additional hotel rooms may serve to increase the number and size of conventions, which may work to increase the average daily room rate for all hotels. Public access to the Jergens tunnel is proposed to be incorporated into the design. Activation of the tunnel will be discussed during the due diligence and entitlement phase of development, restoration and redevelopment of that portion of Victory Park, which fronts Ocean Boulevard is also part of the proposal. The proposed hotel is 18 stories from Seaside and 25 stories from Ocean Boulevard, including a rooftop viewing area. The proposed purchase price for the property is $7 million, $197 a square foot. This is not the highest price offered for the property through the RFP process. However, the project provides the highest investment value to the city, providing the greatest economic impact over the short term and the highest level of revenues over the long term. The developer has identified a gap in project economics and request that the city participate in closing this economic gap. The economic gap is the difference between the cost to develop and construct the site and the combination of the present value of the net operating income over a specified period of time, plus the value of the hotel at the end of that period. The gap analysis prepared by the developer is currently under review by Kaiser Marston, the city's real estate economic consultant. However, in order for the gap analysis to accurately identify the economic gap, the project needs to be sufficiently designed to determine the exact number of rooms to be developed and the related development costs . The developer's project proposes 427 rooms. However, since the developer has not yet submitted any plans and is not anticipated to do so for some months, the exact number of hotel rooms and therefore the exact level of city participation is not clear. Therefore, as staff seeks City Council approval to negotiate up to a 50% total sharing cap and up to a term of 20 years in order to participate in the reduction of the economic gap. As the project becomes more detailed through the entitlement process, the size of the economic gap will be more apparent and negotiations can then proceed . It is important to understand that the property currently generates no revenue for the city, so sharing new revenue seems to be a fiscally prudent choice. The development timeline assumes a 90 day due diligence period with an option to extend for an additional 90 days. A 12 month entitlement period and closing 30 days thereafter. The city will have a period which extends 30 days after the end of the due diligence period within which to approve or reject the hotel brand if it is not a four star brand. If the hotel brand is four stars, the developer can proceed without city approval because the site will be subject to an environmental impact report. Staff requests flexibility regarding the 12 month entitlement period as this timeframe may need to be extended. So with that, staff believes that the developers project is in the best interests of the city the downtown, the convention center, the park and the surrounding businesses. The project will eliminate a blighting influence on the downtown, generate $7 million in one time sale price, generate property sales and transient occupancy tax, create additional hotel capacity for larger and more conventions. Bring needed jobs to the local community, enhance the city's economic welfare, and bring significant investment into the city. So this concludes my report, and I'm available to answer your questions. Thank you. I'm going to now turn this over to Vice Mayor Lowenthal. And I know she's got some extended comments on this since I know the projects in the district and we'll go from there. So. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I know many of you, certainly all of my colleagues have. A. History with this property, an understanding of this property, not a history. But this particular site is extremely important to the city of Long Beach. It is the most prominent corner that is left as open, vacant space in the downtown and certainly in the second district. But it has a tremendous amount of relevance to the entire city of Long Beach. It is diagonal from Civic Center, which, as you know, we have worked for many, many, many years to make sure that there is a civic center that is reintroduced to the city of Long Beach in a manner that is worthy of its residents and its visitors. We are working on the Queen Mary and the developable site around the Queen Mary, and this project coming online at this time is timely, but also it's an opportune time so that downtown Long Beach and the entire city of Long Beach can have a development opportunity that really honors the process that we've been through . As Mr. Conway said, this site has been vacant since 1988. The city has done a tremendous job in trying to keep the site from being blighted, which I'm glad for. We've done everything from putting up faux murals or faux brass, and I look to Mr. Mr. West, who's brought many of those murals all throughout the city, to give us a sense of ownership so that folks know that we are working on this and there is something good to come. You may have noticed that there is the beautiful loop project that's there now, which I'm very proud of, and I want to thank the Dolby and other stakeholders that brought that forward, helped us bring that forward, and to say that this is a site that we have protected and guarded and wanted to make sure that we waited for a development opportunity that allows it to be somewhat of the jewel in the crown. Certainly Civic Center will be the jewel in the crown and the Queen Mary in her own right as well. But this corner needed to be significant. It needs to be significant. It is a very, very, very critical corner. But it's also very personally important to me, as all of you know, I am ending my term not too long from now, in just a couple of months. And I had committed as one of the many projects that I would take on this site, being really a site that allows the splendor of the downtown to be reflected in its development. It's a historic opportunity for the right kind of development. It's a signature property, as I mentioned, and it needs to honor 8 to 10 years of work that I personally have put into it my staff, the entire city's team, and this council, for which I am very thankful to communicate how important this site is. I know several of you may have heard me speak about the Jurgens tunnel and the importance of the Jurgens tunnel. It is really part of the history of the city of Long Beach. For those of you who know about the pike and the pike that used to be here with with the roller coaster and other opportunities that people came to visit Long Beach for and Long Beach residents visited the Jurgens tunnel was a pathway that a lot of people remembered. And many, many, many people are alive today that have memories of that Jurgens tunnel. It is a critical piece of our history. The Jurgens Trust was a historic building under the National Register, and as such, we believe the Jurgens Tunnel has a similar relevance to the history of this city. We are requiring that that tunnel be activated for lots of reasons. Many of you may remember the University by the Sea event that we had many, many years ago sponsored by the Second District in the city of Long Beach. And we held a session in the Jurgens tunnel, giving an opportunity for folks who hadn't been there since the pike was opened and folks who had never been there before to share one of long beaches jewels. And I'm looking forward to this jewel being activated and accessible by the public once again. That is one of the beauty. One of the beauties of being in community development and city development is that we can place assets that belong to the public back. To the public through public access, but really maintained and developed in a beautiful way through a partnership with the private sector. So I'm thankful for that opportunity. I'd like to. Be sure that any of us that look at that corner today and enjoy the loop today can look forward to what Mr. Conway has described as a beautiful hotel and he has outlined the requirements that we certainly have for the team. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to state the motion specifically. If I might read that out loud. Ah, my motion is to conclude the public hearing regarding an economic subsidy. Adopt specifications number RFP CRM 15-163 for the purchase and development opportunity at 100 East Ocean Boulevard and authorize the city manager or designee to execute any and all documents necessary, including a purchase and sale agreement and transient occupancy sharing agreement for the sale and development of the subject property for a mixed use hotel and business center with the following conditions one that the developer shall enter a card check agreement providing for the unionization of the hotel. Two that the total sharing agreement shall not exceed 50% of the total actually received by the city, not including the total generated under the Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement area for a period of not more than 20 years . Three. That the developer shall be required to enter a point of sale agreement for the construction phase of the development. For that, the entitlement and development timelines presented in the Council letter include reasonable flexibility and five that the developer used best efforts to secure a four star flag. For the hotel operations. And that's my emotion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. And there is a second by Councilman Austin. Did you have any comment right now, Councilman? Okay. Councilwoman Price. I just wanted to thank the vice mayor for her work on this. This is a really exciting project. I agree with her. Downtown has come such a long way. With her leadership, the leadership of Councilwoman Gonzalez and of course, the mayor. As mayor and as previously as a councilman for the first district. It's just it's it's blossoming at every corner. And this is just going to add to it and it's going to bring much needed changes to the area. And it's going to really close out the area to make it look finished. So I'm very much looking forward to it. I think that the motion that's made is very reasonable and I look forward to voting in favor of it. Thank you, Mr. City. Attorney. Thank you, Vice Mayor, just for clarification on your motion. I'm assuming that you're also making the motion to declare the city owned property surplus and accept the category exemption. C 1607 zero as in the staff report. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I also want to thank everyone for their leadership on this. I think that it's important to take pause and say how many thousands of jobs are going to be generated and what this looks like to the economic fabric of downtown Long Beach and for our city as a whole. Many of our residents, no matter where they live in the city, commute downtown to go to work. And these are going to be not only construction jobs, but once these buildings are built, these will be long term jobs where people can start as part time employees while they're still in college, learn on the job skills and then grow into long term, full time positions and careers. And so I'm just so excited to again see this council come together on a project that will include all of the different components that build a building and all the jobs that go into building a building, and then all the jobs that keep that building operating so that we can really do a great job for the Convention and Visitors Bureau as well, to recruit more individuals from all over the world to come and visit and spend their money right here in Long Beach. Thank you. Next, we have Councilmember Austin. Yes. I just wanted to add this weigh in and also lend my support, particularly for the jobs component. I know there will be many temporary jobs, but also several hundred long term jobs created as a result of this project. It's good to see our downtown come to life and the opportunities and the vision start to be really starting to be realized here and through the work of Vice Mayor Lowenthal and this entire council and particularly city staff. I'm looking forward to this hotel improving the convention and the hospitality and entertainment capacity that our city actually has. We'll be able to bring more large conventions to our city, which means more money and more economic development to our downtown and more jobs. And so I look forward to supporting. Thank you. Just make it maybe make a couple comments and then I'm going to turn this opener off the public comment. Yes. You know, sum up, Councilman Andrews. I was just waiting, Jackie. You just plugged in this hour about the. Go ahead. Yes. May I just want to thank Vice Mayor. Mr. Segal went off with this, you know, tremendous, you know, visionary, a big a wonderful, beautiful building at this time, because this has been Long Beach. That's something we've really been looking for, especially with that old building, the German trust building. It's been there for ages. But now we're going to get a chance to see Long Beach at its best. Thank you again, vice Mayor, for that vision you had. And Councilman Richardson. Thanks a lot. I think this is a good project. Sounds everything sounds fine. Hey, what's going to happen with the loop? Can I have it? We'll have to share it. All nine of us. You can't. Okay. There are at least nine. I got dibs. All right. Congratulations, Vice Mayor and I look forward to all the economic activity, the good quality jobs that can come out of this and the impact to our downtown. So this is tremendous. Congratulations. Thank you. Just just a few things. The first is I want to just to reemphasize, which I think is important, that the lot is that this lot has been on activated and empty for 30 years, almost 30 years now, and not creating jobs, not creating convention business, not creating development for for for tourism. And certainly has been a little bit of of an eyesore over the years. Those of us that have been here for a while can remember the many iterations of the lot and and how it looks to still today. So I want to I just want to just take a moment, one, to congratulate Vice Mayor Lowenthal. I think that she's been spearheading this project. I know for for the entire time she's been in office trying to get this lot developed. And I think what the end product is, we have a a striking hotel project. And if you talk to any of the convention folks, they'll share with you that this is going to be incredible for for convention business and for for the economy. As we know, our our convention tourism economy is incredibly important to the city. And this this this hotel will also connect to the convention center. And to have this kind of really spectacular building will be will be something. So we're look forward to it coming out of the ground. And I want to congratulate the vice mayor and her team on this and as well as our our city staff. You guys you guys have done a great job of putting this together. So congratulations. And with that, I'm going to turn this over to public comment. Please come forward. Hi. My name is warmed lisowski 150 The Promenade North. Where do I begin with the problems of this project? The way the process is done on the city side, Mike Conway's report takes all the developer's items on face value. I didn't see any feasibility studies from outside. I know they're being done right now. And the fact that you all are congratulating yourselves on unanimously approving this without the transit occupancy sharing agreement is not finalized. The purchase and sale agreement is not even in draft available. Report I'm the president of Citizens Against Downtown Long Beach Giveaways, an organization formed this year with the purpose of holding the city accountable for the problems in the sea. Successor to the RDA in the lead agency in the sale. With all due respect, Mayor and City Council, I'm here to put you on notice of litigation that was filed today at Stanley Moss Courthouse in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Right here. We plan on recording a pendency of notice at the Los Angeles County recorder's office in the next ten days. Our lawsuit seeks to block the permits and approvals of this pending vote regarding the development of the former Jurgens trust building, which I just found out tonight from Vice Mayor Lowenthal was a historically protected building. I don't know how you guys were able to tear it down if it was historically protected. The basis of the suit is the improper process of how the city selling property, especially the environment impact review waiver. Your Class one and Class eight waivers do not suit this project at all. Class one waiver says there's no development to be done. How could you use the class one waiver when you've got an empty lot? Class eight waiver is specifically for legislative items and is accepted for any construction process. So your one page exemption from Sequoia is not valid, and that's what we're suing you against. Among other causes of action, we plan on amending the complaint to also include taxpayers rights violations. I find it appalling that at the same time that council members are pandering to the city for their measures A and B to try to raise $328 million. You're giving away $25 million of occupancy tax that could be generated. A hotel is not feasible for that site, possibly some type of other smaller residential development. I don't it doesn't. How can you have an out-of-town developer come into Long Beach and have a -$27 million profit? That's a loss of $27 million. Who's going to develop a project. At a loss? It doesn't make any sense at all. Coming up with the value of the land. What's the residual value of the land? How are you getting a $7 million purchase price when this developer is going to lose $25 million? We, the people of Long Beach, do not believe that the developer is going to lose money. And the fact that you are unanimously voting yes, we have to disagree with that. I've never seen public comments sway this council before. I've lived in Long Beach for over 30 years. So we went ahead and filed that lawsuit in the Superior Court. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor. City Council. My name is Cheryl Perry. I reside at 351 Magnolia. I'm the current president of Long Beach Heritage. We are happy to see that there is potential for preservation and re utilization of the Jergens train tunnel. As Vice Mayor Lowenthal said, it's certainly a significant piece of Long Beach history. We would just like to be assured that that there will be included specific wording in the DDA or whatever the documents are with the developer regarding the utilization of and the public access to the tunnel. Because we didn't have apparently enough protection in 1988 and we lost the entire Jurgens trust building. We'd like to make sure that there are enough legal protections for the tunnel itself. Mr. Mayor and many council members, you've said that we need to think big and think outside the box to create a vibrant and invigorating downtown and re utilizing this tunnel could certainly be an important piece of that. We don't have to have all the details yet of how that can happen. We have a lot of creative and talented architects and engineers and builders in the city that can figure that out. But we just want to make sure that there's protection, that you do not relinquish the control of the tunnel. Be the leaders of this revitalization, this re utilization of it. Don't leave it to the developer to tell us what they're going to do with it. You are our leaders. You tell them what the city wants to happen there. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Derek Smith. I am the political director for Unite Here Local 11. We understand the importance of this hotel. We're not. That's not lost on us. But we also understand very well the value of what is being given away. And the point of the process that this tonight marks today. There has been no written assurance by the developer about which end use jobs are going to. Be quality. Jobs. The vice mayor has put. Forth a. A card check provision in her motion, which is good in concept. Conceptually, it's important. But it's limited because it doesn't provide any clarity about which jobs are going to be union jobs or the process by which workers will be able to decide whether they want a union or not. And those things are important. In instances like this, we suggest labor peace. A labor peace is appropriate in a situation where a city has a fiduciary interest in a property which you do. Labor peace is an agreement that ensures the financial success of a project because it mandates that the two parties that actually can ensure peace, labor, peace, a developer. And a union must. Work together and decide for themselves who's going to be covered and what the concept is and how it's going to happen. That's the agreement that needs to be in place for you to ensure that there. Is no labor dispute, which I imagine is what you want. So we are asking that you put that labor peace provision in place tonight while. You are granting all the rest of the. Entitlements and hopefully that if you do that, we can all happily support this project. Thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker, please. My name is Nadir Tushnet. I've lived in the third district for. It's almost 30 years. Not quite. And I have some concerns about the upcoming proposed hotel project, this new hotel development. I've been very proud of the labor standards in Long Beach for the most part. And this new hotel development should uphold the city standard for projects with community benefits, especially if we're going to negotiate a tax subsidy. So at this time, I urge that the City Council vote to approve this project only if a labor peace agreement is in place. And I have three more minutes. It's screwed up. It's okay. I'm done. Thank you. I think we're going to fix. Madam Clerk. I think we're going to fix the timer. Right. Okay. Okay. Next speaker. Thank you. Hi. My name is Jose Soto. I am a Hyatt centric public employee. I've been there for seven years since it opened as a year and then through measure, and we were able to do a card check and become unionized. I believe that this this is very important to us, not only the workers here, but the people who live here in Long Beach, because there's different companies out there who refuse to negotiate even once they're in control. So if you think that they're going to do the right thing, it actually takes months of litigation, months of lawyers for them to actually come and negotiate a fair contract with their employees. So the card check is something very important. And the community benefits also are something that that help. Because if we don't do this right the first time, like I said, it takes months and months of employees having to go to try and negotiate fair living wages, sustainable living wages, also assisted health care. And the workloads are something that that are something that benefits employees that you went through through community community benefits and being able to even just have a card check. Another thing I mentioned here is the voice that that you can offer to the employees that people work. There's going to be very big with the card check and with community benefits. A lot of times there's abuse with wage theft because there's no transparency. Contracts can can also include language of transparency about tip distribution and things like that, which lead to wage theft. Also, things that are good in that sense is that the workloads a lot of people think that the turnover in hotels is due to something very minimal, but it's actually leading to workloads being excessive. Companies are exploiting the workers and just being ambitious managers, ambitious people, short shifting people. And all these things can be labor disputes can be litigated earlier, you know, if you do it right the first time, we need benefits. We need community benefits to keep LPC standards high. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is James Banks. I am from the second district. And. Thank you, Vice Mayor Lowenthal, for all the work you've done. I am a member of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and Healthy Economy. I am also a member of United Auto Workers, Local 4123, and I am an employee of the international UAW. I think the the trade, the transit occupancy, tax sharing agreement that we see here, I think is a really bad idea. Basically, you're splitting that 5050 and that's giving away a lot of money and especially to give away that money for over 20 years. That's really depriving services from the citizens of Long Beach. Earlier, several hours ago, we saw the work that the public works people do. That's money that could easily be helping the public works. So there's no need to 5050 split that total money. That's about 25 million that we could be saving for our own coffers to help out with that. So I think that a subsidy is only good for the community when there's community benefits in place that are returning that for good jobs, stimulating the economy and having good labor working conditions. As a person that negotiates contracts for thousands of people, I can tell you that labor peace is a very valuable thing to have. And I hope that the labor peace agreement that we do see with this language for this resolution is really clear. And so the only way this project should be given a subsidy is that the developer commits to the community benefits. We're not giving that money back to them 5050. And so in conclusion, I ask the City Council to only approve moving forward with this project if a labor peace agreement is in place. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Alicia Quiroz. I used to work as a restaurant server here at one of the Hyatt's in Long Beach. And unless labor peace is given in this project, we oppose the project. I want to tell you what it's like to work as a server who doesn't have a union. Without the union, we're on our own and we are subject to enduring harassment without being able to speak up. If we speak up, our hours are cut. Our days are cut. If we are not the quietest, the most submissive, the prettiest of servers, we're not given enough hours. We can make ends meet. I had to work two server jobs to rent a one to rent one bedroom out of an apartment here in Long Beach. Like we did, there were two nonunion server jobs without a union. Women like myself, families remain poor. We remain without health insurance, without an opportunity to have the full time good careers that Councilwoman Mango mentioned. At these hotels, you know, we cannot afford a college for our for ourselves. My coworkers couldn't afford a college for their children while working nonunion, serving jobs. We don't have health insurance. We don't have sick days. And so these are the things that are money goes to pay for instead of a good education. Without a union, we have no opportunity to know if tomorrow we're even going to have a job or if we can afford our rent next month. Our hours are so up and down that we never know. We have to endure uninvited comments from guests, from managers every single day. So I encourage you to do the right thing and give the hundreds of future workers at this hotel a good job, a good future, and a good life. And do not support this project if there is no labor peace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and fellow council members, staff and the public. My name is Tommy Falvey. I represent the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and we wholeheartedly support this project moving forward. We feel that bringing more economic benefits to the city and seeing more cranes up and in Long Beach is always a plus when you're talking about the multiplier of construction jobs and seeing many careers here in Long Beach to be expressed. I'm tired of seeing a lot of the the cranes in Los Angeles city of L.A. But you know what? I think Long Beach just is going to have more cranes than L.A. one of these days, more development. And in Long Beach is always a plus. And we we urge you to move this project forward. And thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Hello, Mayor. Honorable councilmembers. My name is Jeremy Diaz. I want here on behalf of Los Angeles, Orange County Building Trades Construction Council, and we are also in strong support of this project. It's projects like these that let the future people of Long Beach work and it creates good careers and it creates good jobs not only now , but down the road as well. So, again, we support this project and. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And our final speaker. Hi. My name is Amy, but I am a full time worker at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. Nine plus years almost. I am also a full time student and a single mother for those working for in the future hotel property. I want to say for the workers that will be working there, definitely a bottom line has to be given to the workers. A labor peace agreement needs to be in place for those future workers of residents living in Long Beach. For those seeking out jobs for that hotel. So hopefully we see that in the future. So bottom line, labor peace needs to be present. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Close public we we close public comment. Let me go back now to councilman Councilman Austin and vice mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have a question for Stephanie regarding some of what has been mentioned in public comment, particularly around the card check agreement and labor peace. I understand this motion actually does have a provision for car check agreement. Is that correct? Mr. City attorney. That is correct. And who was was there? Was there any was was there negotiation with with any labor groups to get that language in there? And what was the intent of putting a card check agreement in place? Councilmember Austin, there was discussion during the day today on how best to ensure that the hotel would be a union hotel, even though it is subject to measure. And and so in discussions internally, we thought the best approach to achieve that was through the card check agreement. And so that was included and discussed with the developer. And he has agreed to pursue that. And I guess to staff Mr. Conway or the city attorney. What is a card check agreement actually mean to you in terms of making it more inviting for a union hotel? Council Member Austin My understanding of the card check agreement is it provides an option for the employees of the hotel to decide whether or not they want to unionize. And I've been advised by the developer in this particular project that in his experience, a card check agreement generally almost 100% of the time results in a unionized hotel and comes with a restaurant. On top of that, the chosen hotel will enter into a card check neutrality agreement with the local 11 for direct employees of the hotel. So there's already a provision for this. The card check agreement to be with. That will be in the purchase agreement. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I may have a question later. Thank you. I'm going to let other councilmembers with Councilmember Supernova. Yeah. Thank you. First, I'd like to thank the vice mayor for recognizing there are still people alive who remember the Jergens tunnel. I think Councilmember Andrews and I would be among those. That group. Yeah, that's sorry. But to Sheryl Perry's point about the Jergens tunnel, from what I read in the description here, there's there's no mention of a Northern ingress or egress from that. Mr.. CONWAY So does that mean that it's just going to be open on the seaside way? As I mentioned, I am old enough to remember it. They did close the entrance on the north side of ocean. I think you could get to it on the south side of Ocean, also near Victory Park, which was the skylight for the tunnel. Any plans in place to have an opening at the other end? So it actually functions as a tunnel? That would be. And that's too far in the weeds right now. But I think that's something that the the folks who remember it would would. Want to see. Council members who are the our understanding currently and we will verify that is that the northern entrance to the tunnel has been blocked off by development and therefore is not accessible. But we will absolutely ensure that that's correct. If there is access from the northerly side, we will look to provide that as part of this agreement. Okay. Thank you. I think there's a lot of issues we need to visit at at a later date when the folks are here to answer those questions in terms of marketing and whatnot. So we'll defer that to later. But for now, I stand in support. Thank you. Thank you. By Samir Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I wanted to thank all the speakers, as well as council colleagues and council members. Super. And I apologize for that. Sometimes it feels like one long day and a decade can go by. But of course, it wasn't that long ago. I. Mr. Mayor, thank you also for your gracious comments. I think everyone has worked hard on this particular project in one way or another. And Councilmember Supernormal. I have asked our city team, not just today but for years, to make sure that that access to the northern side is revisited and considered, if at all possible. It is something that made that a very, very, very unique property. So I reiterated that request today to Mr. Conway and Mr. Modica, and hopefully the answer is a positive one, because I think that will also provide unique opportunities for the developer to consider if that actually is an option. And I would like to reiterate my gratitude for the staff for ensuring that measure and is clarified and then really sanctify through this agreement and know that the larger victory when it comes to working with city owned properties has been achieved. And for that, I'm very thankful and I thank everyone that's been involved in almost the last ten years in this process. Thank you. Thank you. Members, please go ahead and cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and take a one minute recess just to get a back up on the agenda. So we will return in one minute. Thank you. Okay. We're going to go ahead and call the meeting back to order. If we can do the roll, please. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Councilwoman Price, Councilmember. Super nice. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrews. Councilmember Muranga. Councilman Austin. Councilmember Richardson. Mayor Garcia. I'm here. Thank you. Item 13. Communication from Councilman Austin, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilmember Muranga and Councilmember Richardson recommendation to request a report from the city manager and police chief on gun violence in Long Beach within the past year.