Recommendation to adopt resolution approving the appointment and terms of compensation for the City Clerk.  (Citywide)
Thank you. With that, we're going to go ahead and begin with the first item we're going to be taking up tonight, which is the appointment of our new city clerk. If I can have the clerk, please read item. I believe it's 23 items. Item 3131 I'm sorry about that. Yes. 31. Please report from Human Resources recommendation to adopt a resolution approving the appointment and terms of compensation for the city clerk said. Okay. There's been a a motion. Can I get a second? Okay, there's a motion, a second. And we'll have an opportunity for, ah, the City Hall Department to come and say a few words after the vote. But is there any public comment on the motion in front of us? Casey. Nonmembers, please go and cast your votes. Motion carries nine zero. Great. Well, first of all, everyone just give a round of applause and welcome. I want to welcome our new city clerk, Maria de la Luce Garcia. No relation, by the way. Please come forward and I'm going to say a few opening comments and then turn this over to a few of the council members. And then finally we'll end with with our new clerk. Begin by saying that, as most people know, we've had an incredible city clerk in the city of Long Beach. For many, many years, those that new Leroy Herrera Cabrera have been impressed with his leadership. But most importantly, he also left behind an incredible staff of skilled that love Long Beach. And we're very proud and honored to have that entire team as part of our city family in conducting our search. I think the council was looking for a lot of qualities in our new clerk and in Maria Garcia, we certainly found those . And so our new clerk comes to us with a lot of experience from the city of Los Angeles working in the elections office there. And before that did a lot of work with voter engagement for a national elected official organization, as well as was very involved in election reform, engagement in the city of Los Angeles, as well as she is a masters master's degree student currently at USC. So right on and did her undergrad at Vassar, I believe, and came with a lot of really great recommendations. And so we want to welcome you to the Long Beach family. In many ways, she is part of the family cause she's a Long Beach resident and has been, I know, for some time. And so we want to we want to thank you for your new commitment to Long Beach. We'll be seeing you here week after week and day after day in the interactions that you have with our office and and the offices of the council members. And it's not often that you get to select a new city clerk for your city. It's a rare occasion. Usually they they're around for a while because they love the job and we love having them. But it is a special moment, I know, for you and for your family and certainly is for the city of Long Beach. And so, Clark Garcia, we want to we want to welcome you officially to the city of Long Beach and elect like to have the council say a few words and then if you wouldn't mind saying a few words as well. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. I am particularly proud that we at the Council came to the decision to hire you. There are very few positions in the city that the council has direct control over and we took this process very seriously, and you and your family should be very proud of what you've accomplished to date. And we expect many, many more things from you. I know that I'm first at reading your resume. I was very impressed. And as we got to meet you along the way and throughout the process, you just continued to dazzle us. And I know that what was most important to me is how, through getting to know you and your resume and your cover letter and all the interviews you went through, I believe that you believe in transparency and fairness and encouraging every single person to exercise their right to vote. And I know that through the engagement processes that you've already been a part of across the country, bringing that to Long Beach, we have a very bright future ahead. So from the very active voters of the fifth District, we welcome you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Price. I, too, want to welcome you. The the pool of applicants that we reviewed and those we interviewed were all extremely qualified. Every single one of them would have made an amazing clerk. And we believe that of you. We believe that you're going to do a great job and that you fit with our city. And you're a resident of our city, I believe. Are you in the third? I'm in the seventh. Okay. By the seventh, yeah. Councilman Super. And I just asked me if I want to change my vote. Well, we welcome you, and I look forward to working with you for many years. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman. Congratulations, Madam Clerk. It's very exciting. I know just speaking with you during your interview was very impressed. And I look forward to working with you as the chair of the Elections Oversight Committee. It's exciting to be able to talk about how to engage our voters and our residents a little bit more. So thank you very much and congratulations. Thank you. Councilman Turanga. I knew you were in a sense when I read your address. I just. One simple word. Bienvenido. Looking forward to working with you. Good. Councilmember Richardson. I think the council all said it best. Welcome to the Long Beach family. I think voter engagement is certainly an art as much as it is a science, and I think you have a knack for it. And so we're really excited to see that see you of our our team in helping us lead and lead our effort to engage more engage more people in government. So thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, want to extend my congratulations and welcome to our city family. Your joining this family at a time when the entire council is interested in innovation. You are coming to a city that's put a new innovation team together. And every effort you make to engage voters in as. Interesting away as possible, unsuspecting way as possible is something that we're all looking forward to. Thank you. Thank you. And I have Council Member Andrews. Yes, thank you. First of all, I'd like to congratulate you. And I hope you can work for your colleagues, like, you know, our former, you know, city character. But the biggest part about you will be seeing me more often. You will see the other individuals, because I like to come down and just surprise people and see what they know, who I am. Thank you. Council embarrassed them. Thank you very much and welcome to this. Garcia, you want a very competitive process. There were a lot of very good candidates and you stood out among the crowd and it was unanimous on this council that you were the obvious choice to be our next city clerk. And so I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you, congratulate you, and just say how great it is to have a Long Beach resident, somebody who who has a real stake in the game as our next city clerk. I look forward to working with you. Thank you so much. Councilmember Super. Thank you. Well, I've already congratulated you privately before the meeting, so I just like to say welcome, welcome aboard. And just give you a lot of assurance that you have a great staff here. And if you ever need my help, I'm the newest guy up here, but I'll be glad to assist. Thank you. Thank you. And now I'll turn this over to our new city clerk, Maria Garcia. Well, first of all, I'd like to thank all of you, council mayor, for entrusting. Me with this great responsibility. It's a responsibility that I don't take lightly, and I will do my best to represent this city and my department in the best way possible. More importantly, I am going to work really hard to make voter engagement a top priority for our department. Making sure that all of our residents, especially those that are hardest. To reach. Because of language, access or access, physical accessibility. I will be paying attention to the to those issues. As well as bringing more innovation to our department. And making sure that. We are walking hand-in-hand into the digital age with the rest of America. Moving forward, it will be all about the residents of Long Beach and. Providing them with municipal services that are inclusive. Transparent, accessible and. Reflective of the diversity of this great. City. Earlier today, I had a chance to meet my new city family. The staff of the city clerk department. And I got to say, I'm really excited. I'm excited to be working among such a hard working, talented staff. And I can't wait for August. 31st to come. It can't come fast enough. So thank you. I want to acknowledge some special people in the audience here today to accompany me on this special occasion. Family. My mom. If I could ask her to please stand. Christina. My father. Javier. My uncle Filiberto. My brother Ramon. And his wife, Nancy. I don't know if my sister's here as. Well, but. She didn't tend to come. Assemblymember Garcia and I, I know that she would have loved to be here if she's not in the audience right now. So I want to also acknowledge her. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all very much again. And congratulations. And with that, the your boss, I'm sure, to celebrate with your family and friends. And we'll continue the meeting. Thank you. Okay. Next, we're going move on to our commission appointments. And we have items 24 and 25. We're going to do item 24/1.