Recommendation to request City Manager to work with the Technology & Innovation Department, and all other appropriate departments to work together, research, and report back within 180 days on the potential costs, benefits, partnerships, and challenges of a City of Long Beach-issued identification card.
Motion carry. Annexes. Item number 28. Item 28 is a communication from Councilwoman Mango Councilwoman Price Council Member Muranga Councilman Austin Recommendation to require City Manager to work with Technology and Innovation Department and report back within 180 days on the potential cost, benefits, partnerships and challenges of a city of Long Beach issued ID card. As a member. Mungo Thank. You. I know earlier this year a member of the community stated that they don't always know what the council agenda item is by the verbiage that's on the screen. So I'm going to read you the subject line of the agenda item. The Long Beach one card streamlining, resident connectivity and access to city services. I brought this item as a continuation of making sure that we're putting forward best practices to ensure that our residents have the capability to easily engage and access the things that matter most to them, whether it's providing department or policy feedback, reporting a pothole, finding a library program, looking for a free, family friendly event, or renting a park space for a birthday. All of those activities could be streamlined into one easy place for residents to access. Currently, a resident might have up to nine different accounts in the city. They might have their library card number, their gas card number, their gas account number. They might make reservations at Parks and Rec. And each and every time they have a identity that is not necessarily known to the other departments. And so through the CRM system that was approved in the previous item, we are implementing functionality that will better able us to manage our communication systems with residents with the Long Beach One card. We would also be giving the residents a portal for easy engagement and connectivity in their hands. This could connect a citywide calendar. When we talk about equity and access, a lot of that conversation falsely gives a representation of a barrier fence in which a tall person can see over the fence. And we have to let the shorter people stand on boxes to see over. I'm saying let's remove the fence. Let's take down the fence. It's the 21st century, and it's time we seek innovative, technology based solutions to make sure all people have equal opportunity for access, not those that know their council offices phone number, not those who know that public works is the one who handles that versus Parks and Rec , whether it's language, access, identification, qualifications, or needed services of housing, public transportation, parking, access to citywide parking lots, access to our our regional park health and senior programing, access to our C one and C two meal programs for seniors, arts and cultural institutions as we. As well as we have the capability to connect everything with banking and payment functions. There should be that same functionality that allows our residents connect easily with us. That's why I'm proposing the Long Beach one card as a solution. As a city, we should strive to get everyone connected. And so with that, I hope that I'll have my colleagues support in finding the next step. Right now, we have several different apps. You have an app to review, a police report, you have an app to do Long Beach Transit. And within Long Beach Transit, you can enroll and reserve your seat to get to and from events. And we should be able to have that same connectivity across our library programs, our park programs. Individuals call my office and say I registered for summer day camp with these deposits and now I have to go somewhere to do something to get my kid enrolled. To be able to move from six weeks of care to seven weeks of care should be easy and convenient for the senior mom, single mom. And so with this, I ask for my colleagues support. Thank you, Councilmember Mongo. I'll remember. Richard. I'm sorry, Your Honor. Thank you. Acting mayor. Normally I'm opposed to any kind of additional ID cards that are going to be given to people to identify themselves where they're at. But I sound down on this and because I think that it's a discussion worth worth having only to so that we could get more information about some of the technology that that we are in the 20th and 21st century. We are looking at more technology as we move forward, and I think that we need to be on top of it. So I'm doing this with a bit of trepidation in thinking this, that I want to see what comes out of it. So before I vote against it, I'm voting for it, but not that I'm going to vote against it at the end. But just giving a preview that in case it comes out to where I'm not totally sure that I want to support something like this. I just want to put it out there that there is some concerns that I might have with this card as it moves forward, especially as it relates to identifying people, residents who perhaps are not fully documented to be here. What would be the requirements to get the card? What types of ID and proof of residency they would have to show? Those types of things. So like I say, I'm checking this with a bit of trepidation, but let's move forward with it. Thank you. Thank you. Well, if there's no objection, I want to go to public comment and then bring it back line. Will. I would love that. Would I be able to make one comment to council member? Would your comment hold you hold your comment. All right. Well, you got me. First, I'd like to call Leslie, then Jessica Quintana. Hi. I just wasn't really clear that we actually needed an ID card. I mean, I would think just a password and a name should do it for most things. The other thing that concerned me about this one is that it kind of smacks of Big Brother and a watchful eye of the city that, you know, they're going to keep track of every single thing that you do. And I think that makes people fearful. Um. I wouldn't want to inhibit their participation in anything by them being paranoid that their participation is being tracked. So that's it. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Quintana, please. Good evening. Jessica Quintana, executive director of Central Asia. As you know, we're a nonprofit organization in the city of Long Beach. And time and time again, we hear from our residents and families and youth that, you know, they need to reduce the amount of paperwork and IDs that they need to go get services within the community. You know, I think this is very innovative. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Mango, for bringing this forward. I think it needs work, you know? Definitely needs to have a good discussion in regards to the community, you know, not being fearing that their identity or their whereabouts are being tracked. We're trying to make this, you know, system very easily for our families and residents to get park recreation services, to be able to go get go to a food bank, to be able to get transportation. So I think there needs to be more thought into this initiative because there's definitely needs to be benefits for a lot of our low income families to be able to access services citywide. So not just in one eastern area, but also on the west side of area in north and south of of Long Beach. And so I think that if we can come up with a system that benefits our community residents to be able to access, you know, things for their families, education services, for the children to go to the library, to be involved in baseball, soccer. You know, one idea that shows that they're qualified, that they're eligible and they can participate. And so I think that that would reduce a lot of, you know, challenges for parents to access, you know, city services, whether that be the arts, culture, you know, recreation, you know, food banks, anything for the city. But I'm telling you at this point, this is very, very infant stage of this. And there needs to be a lot more discussion. I know up in Denver, Colorado, where I'm from, where I was born, because I grew up in Long Beach my whole life. They also have a one ID card. And so folks are able to access the bus system, you know, get library services, get recreation services, go to their local museums for free. So, you know, that's the kind of opportunities that we want to be able to provide our families. So I'm sorry. Thank you so much. I think the clerk gave you a little bit more extra time. Thank you, Mr. Clark. With that back Councilmember Mongo, you did want. To thank you. Yes. So Rusty is the most progressive cities across the country are the ones that are on the cutting edge of this. Oakland, Denver, San Francisco. I did feel that this was in its infancy, though. I have gone out and met with Jessica and one Benitez and others at Liberty City College and Lobby, Unified School District and Long Beach Transit. And I've done a lot of the initial meetings to get feedback on the initial item. I provided 180 days a six month period because I do believe that there is a greater discussion that really needs to be had. We are finding that passwords are actually causing more risk to people's identities than face ID or a thumbprint or something. Especially our senior communities are most vulnerable when they have multiple logins and passwords or a password that has to change. And so we feel as though I'm sorry, the experts have stated that it is better to have like a digital ID card on your phone of some sort that only you have access to with two two factor authentication. With that, it would also be opt in. And to to Jessica's point, a lot of the discussion of why I didn't bring this three months ago, even though it was prepared and we had these meetings so long ago, was because of the fear and discussion around the census. And we just didn't feel it was an appropriate time until that matter was handled. And then we felt like a six month opening to have that dialog would be appropriate so that we can really talk about moving forward in a more collaborative and collective way. I think also six months from now, we'll have made significant progress on the CRM. Significant progress. I see them all in the back. And so once that significant progress has been made, will really be able to better understand the utilization of this. That really is possible. I think of things like discounted swim lessons to be able to say click. Did you know your kid can go to a safety class today to learn how to swim before drownings? To be able to have that kind of push notification and access to individuals who opt in would be great. It also is great when something is going to happen in your community. We spend a considerable amount of money notifying people by mail that they don't open that something near their home is going to change and oftentimes they're not notified till too late. You'd be able to opt in to that. And so the possibilities are endless. And I really appreciate the openness and both by Councilmember Suranga, even with his trepidation and the support of his canton. I thank you. Thank you. Member Richardson. Thank you, Councilman. So supportive of the item. I think giving 180 80 days to evaluate it makes a lot of sense. Couple of things. So I think over the course of so, in most of those cities where they move forward with municipal I.D., there was a process of sort of engaging with communities. And so I want to make sure that that we call out specifically the undocumented community. Latino population, like the leadership, is engaged about making sure that this is something they're seen as a benefit, not a barrier to services. Also, sort of, you know, municipal I.D. has a lot of benefits and opportunities. I think one of the one of the greatest sort of trends is is the full integration of transit. And, you know, like we had a discussion most recently at Skegg about how we make decisions about what vehicle to take. Right now, you can grab you know, you might be able to grab an app, Uber or Lyft, and see how long it takes to, you know, to get from point A to point B or you might grab Lyft at a Lime app and see a scooter or a bike once in the area. Which one takes the most or at least time looks right now is how do we integrate all of that? Right. If you have municipal services and it may include Long Beach Transit, how do you integrate your app? Right. To say, do I prefer to walk? Do I prefer to scooter? I prefer to ride a bike or catch a lift to get where we're going. That's where things are heading. So I think when we think about municipal ID, I think our innovation department should be thinking about more than just identification, but integration of services that makes us helps us to make smarter decisions about emissions, smarter decisions about transportation and more efficient choices. So I'm certainly you know, I'm certainly going to track and sort of engage here. But I just want to be clear that, you know, there will be apprehension on this issue. And so I want to make sure that that is fully vetted out before it returns in 180 days. And I want to make sure that we we really put some real emphasis on transit. I know about tap car, you know, Los Angeles, but here in Long Beach, we're not we're not online in the same way. Even if we get tap cart, our transit agency, our bike share, our mobile, our scooters are all three separate sort of functions led by three different policy agencies, all in the train. Right, three policy agencies. If we want to make a decision about rates, you have to have three different conversations with three different agencies. If you want to talk about efficiencies, senior discounts, youth access, equity, how to distribute around town, right now it's three conversations with three agencies. We should at minimum, as we explore this, be thinking about a JPA or some joint committee among transit agencies to explore this conversation. So there's just a lot of thoughts here. A plan engage. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I look forward to see where this goes. Thank you. Member Pearce. Yes, thank you. I did have a lot of conversations before coming to council tonight on this issue. I think in an ideal world, all of us have talked about wanting to have integration. I think it's wonderful that we have the CRM conversation happening right now, so I'd want to have a couple of questions answered. First, I'd like to understand how it would interface with our CRM system. I'd like to understand what the cost are. I'd like to understand how our other agencies not only I know that there's some issues where we wouldn't be able to have library cards because there's certain information that's privileged information that can't integrate. So really understanding where can we align different areas. There are a couple communities that are vulnerable communities. I know that the council members is saying it's an opt in. I have issues with creating a system that might be privilege for some that other communities fear getting involved with. So I would ask the staff in exploring this, sit down and meet not only with Jessica's organization, but the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition. The Cambodian community is another population and then our senior population. So we have our senior advisory committee commission. I would want to make sure that how are we making sure that our seniors feel comfortable with this? And I think in an ideal world, it sounds great. Recognizing that it's going to take a lot of work to get there and being realistic with that. I see. I think that that's it in our school board. You know, I know that I spoke with our school board member. The represents my area and I know that they had a lot of concerns. And so let's just make sure that as we go through this, we do it kind of slow and with engagement from all stakeholders. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Mongo. Thank you. I appreciate the comments of my colleague. And I'll also add, and I alluded to this a few weeks ago when we were hearing the discussions at the state level related to banking changes and local banks. And so I think that I mean. We talk about some of our Section eight renters, and they don't even have a bank account sometimes. And they they live at cash advance check facilities that cash their checks and pay those amounts. I mean, long term, it could be even bigger than that. And I'm not I'm not going to add the banking in today, but I think that it's important to have the conversations with that in mind in providing that kind of financial access to some of our low income and most in need communities. Thank you very much. Hearing no more comment from the behind the wheel. Thank you for the very innovative and thoughtful item this evening and I'm sure we'll be having plenty of discussion on this in the future. Members, please cast your votes. Ocean carrying.