Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to establish a citywide Veterans Affairs Commission. The ordinance should include the following criteria: • Representation from all nine Council Districts; and • A minimum of four (4) Commissioners must be veterans. Pursuant to Long Beach Municipal Code Section 2.03.075, refer this item to the Economic Development and Finance Committee and direct City Manager to prepare a fiscal impact analysis report for review and recommendation by the Committee back to the full City Council.
Item 14, communication from Councilmember Richardson, Councilman Councilwoman Price, Councilmember Durango. Recommendation to request city attorney to prepare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to establish a citywide Veterans Affairs Commission with representation from all nine Council districts and a minimum of four commissioners must be veterans. Referred this item to Economic Development and Finance Commission. Okay. I'm going to turn this over to Councilmember Rex Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm honored to be bringing this for this item fourth here on Veterans Day. And I'm proud that my my colleagues have joined me on this item. And I wanted to just say that before I give my remarks. You know, some of my best ideas are not my ideas. It was during the campaign trail, you know, one of our ninth district residents, Dan Pressburger, said, hey, I've got a great idea, Rex. We you know, we've got we're the heart of veterans here in North Long Beach, and we need to have a Veterans Affairs Commission. And the more we talked about and thought about it, we said absolutely. I mean, given the focus on veteran homelessness and the issues in education and things that we're doing here, we should have a body that's focused on really evaluating and making recommendations on that subject matter so that we can make smart policy decisions. So that said, I'm honored to bring this this forward. The very freedoms we all enjoy today are courtesy of the sacrifices that veterans have made over the years defending our country. And so all the veterans here today, I want to thank you for your service to your country. Are there any veterans in the audience? Stand up. So just this past Saturday, North Long Beach was home to the 18th Annual Veterans Day parade. It was a citywide parade, and the vet fest was hosted here at Highland Park. I know many of you were here. And thank you to the Veterans Committee and the veterans, the vet fest committee for the countless hours they've invested to make that happen. You know, Veterans Day is very important to to Long Beach. For over 50 years, Long Beach was host to Naval Shipyard. We're proud of the sizable population of veterans among our citizens, with estimated at 21,000 veterans in the city of Long Beach. And a Veterans Affairs Commission dedicated to the needs of our veterans will not only honor their service, but also will will allow us to give back to them with an even higher focus on the well-being of our veterans. I envision that this commission will be able to provide recommendations on all manner, all matters pertaining to the affairs of veterans within the city, evaluate and recommend programs, policies, practices designed to assist veterans and act as a central point for information programs. A Service for our Veterans. One component I'd like to clarify this is a nine person commission. So the hope is that the VA, the council offices, would appoint people from within their council districts to serve on that commission. That said, I'd like to move the item. Seconded. There's been a motion and a second. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I want to thank Councilman Richardson for asking me to be on this item with him. My husband is a veteran, so I think it's very appropriate to be on this item and how appropriate it is that we're we have this item on our agenda today on Veterans Day. As many people know, Long Beach has had a deep history with the military and naval shipyard for over 50 years. We have a deep rooted history. The third district is home to the veterans hospital. The facility provides comprehensive inpatient, outpatient and extended care programs to our veterans. The medical center and its community clinics employ more than 2200 full time employees. And VA Long Beach Hospital is the health care provider of choice for more than 50,000 veterans. Being a former Navy town and having the veterans hospital in Long Beach, it seems only natural that we would have a veteran's commission to help guide the City Council on issues related to Veterans Affairs. So I want to thank you for this item, and I'm happy to support it. Thank you, Councilmember Ringo. I, too, want to thank the Councilmember Rex Richardson for bringing this item forward. And we are going to be continuing that. The history of Long Beach as being a a home and a facility for veterans. As many of you may know, the seventh District is the home of the U.S. vets and the villages area, which houses a lot of veterans and provides many services for homeless veterans who who end up coming in Long Beach. And we also have the Gold Star Manor, which is home to mothers of veterans who lost some children in the various wars. But I also want to indicate that this commission is going to be a hopefully a very active one. As you know, we are still engaged in a number of conflicts around the world where we have veterans who come home needing of assistance and with finding jobs, with training and getting reacquainted into the civilian life. And we also are currently having a a what you might call a void that needs to be filled with our many veterans who are dying every year from wars such as World War One, World War Two, Vietnam, Korea. And so a lot of these veterans, especially with what we have right now in terms of a volunteer draft. I have the honor of serving in the Selective Service Board in Long Beach, and thank God that we haven't had to get activate the Selective Service Board or the Selective Service Agency because we have a continuing flow of volunteers in to enlist in the volunteer army. So this Commission will serve a great void in providing our veterans with services that are going to be much needed once they return from the service. So I want to thank you, Rex and Suzi, for helping sponsor this item as well. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any public comment on the item? Please come forward. Good evening again. Diana Logins Advocates for Disability Rights. First of all, I wholeheartedly support this item. I think it's a good thing. But I do also want to remind you, you can't have it both ways. You can't on one hand say, gee, we're going to put a commission out to help the veterans and then persecute them at the same time for their choice of medicine. So we really need to pay attention. I'd like to just relate, just a very small story. Matt Kowal made at home after two tours in Afghanistan, but was racked with pain from physical injuries and a host of anti-anxiety anxiety medication to try and treat his mental anguish. About ten months after I got back, I attempted suicide call, told CBS News. I was completely hopeless, recalled the veteran who said he was on 15 different medications until the day he tried marijuana. Suddenly, my extremely overactive, hypervigilant mind started calmed down. My pain gradually started to go away, too. I needed less of those other medications, and shortly afterwards I determined I absolutely have to move to a state that allows this so I can get my life back. He moved his family to Colorado and now works with a group of veterans. Anybody who has been on narcotic medication especially wants to get off of it. I really have not met anyone who enjoys being in a drug stupor. For Matt and his wife, the relief he gets from marijuana means a second chance at healing from Afghanistan. And that's nothing less than a second chance in life. So that's one person's one veteran's account. And I'm just saying, again, I think this is a great idea. I love the support that we can give our veterans. But you can't have it both ways. You just can't persecute them on one hand and then say, hey, we're going to support them in another. Thank you very much. You see no other public comment on the item? There is a motion on the floor. All those in favor. Please raise your hand. Unanimously. Thank you very much. We're going to we have our time certain here coming up in a minute. And so in that quick minute, I'm just going to make two announcements. The first is we want to congratulate our colleague, Patrick O'Donnell for being elected to the state assembly to represent Long Beach. And in fact, we're going to be at an upcoming council meeting, will be going to be honoring Patrick for his I think it's ten years from ten, ten and at ten and a half, so ten and a half years of service to on the Long Beach City Council, which has been just one of the very obviously in modern times, certainly one of the most long running council members. And so we're going to be honoring Pat in the coming weeks. But I did want to make sure that we congratulated him tonight as well. And also, I just saw I don't know if he stepped out. I saw deputy chief soon to be chief. Robert Luna was here somewhere. I don't know if he's in the in the hallway there. Yeah, there he is. Come in. Let's let's give a big round of applause also to our new police chief, Robert Luna. We know that that Chief Luna is a close to 30 year veteran of the of the Long Beach Police Department, starting from a from a beat cop working his way all the way up to chief within the police department. So we're very proud of him. We know he's going to be an excellent chief. And I believe your your first days, November 22nd, 21st or 22nd, does that sound right? All right. There you go, November 22nd. So thank you again, Robert. You're going to do a fantastic job. And so thank you. Let's give another round of applause. And so congrats to both Robert Luna and Pat O'Donnell. You're both going on to new, new and other adventures. So we look forward to working with both of you. So now we're going to our time certain 7 p.m., which is item number three. Mr. Clark.