Recommendation to adopt Budget Oversight Committee’s proposed funding recommendations, as amended, to the Proposed FY 22 Budget.  (A-2)
Motion is here. The second item is the budget oversight committees proposed recommendations. So this is a. Variety recommendations. And here I'm going to turn this over to Councilmember Austin, who chairs the Budget Oversight Committee, who will go through all the proposed funding recommendations as amended to the proposed 422 budget. And this will also need a motion any second to move forward. And with that, I'll turn this over to Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'm going to actually have to the staff to read the budget oversight recommendations. But I do want to start off with a few comments. That's okay. I want to, first of all, thank everyone in the global community who participated in that Part 22 budget process in any way. And that includes community forums, city council meetings, surveys, emails, contacting your council representatives or staff in any way to express your opinions on just how this budget should be carried through. And we really appreciate your attention to the financial priorities and well-being of the city. This employee 22 budget process has been very different from the previous year, which was very dire and entailed cuts, many cuts to city employees and every department, including millions from our police department. The outlook was pretty terrifying a year ago. So I'll salute everyone who endured our entire city team and the community for enduring a very turbulent year. This year's budget is a little better thanks to our federal, state and county government partners. The give it up salute to President Biden and and Governor Newsome for recognizing Long Beach as a big city and allocating resources to help us recover and meet the needs of our city. On many levels especially, I want to thank our mayor for his work, to advocate for our city with those those at those levels, because it made a real difference. Therefore, 22 budget before us today is almost 180 degrees from a year ago. But we also know that we face huge budget challenges in the coming years. Therefore, 22 budget will promote. Ethics equity that will establish a new fund and will largely reflect the values of most residents in Long Beach. Balance in our budget is not just a financial goal, but this Council also has a responsibility to balance ideas and the needs of our vastly diverse city. The budget in front of us today accomplishes that. This budget will deliver services that improve health services, public safety and the overall livability of our city. So with that said, it is the Budget Oversight Committee recommendation to approve the city manager's budget, promote proposed budget with or will see recommendations that also address city needs and council priorities. I want to thank my colleagues, number one, for indulging and working with me on this this particular process. And I hope we all can support a responsible and measured approach to budgeting over the next fiscal year. And so with that, I would like to enter into the record the motions from the Budget Oversight Committee and on ask Budget Manager Griffith to read those motions, please. Certainly these were the motions approved by the Bloc earlier today. A motion to revise the proposed allocation of the measure. U.S. funding as follows Add $457,337 to the community based grants for youth development, bringing the total from the $216,134 allocated in the proposed budget to $673,471. The funding will come from defunding the Youth Ambassador Program funding of $337,337, which includes funding for eight FTE ees in the field work program, funding for youth workers and trainees of $120,000. Would this change? The total category of youth fund funding will be $1,037,636. Originally, $917,636 in the category of climate change will be $123,029. Originally $243,029. It is anticipated that the city will be receiving direct allocations from the state for youth, employment and workforce development that will be able to potentially restore the defunded programs. B motion to use. $1,340,116 of one time funds from potential improved projections for the general fund in FY 21, which will be confirmed by February 2022, or a draw down of reserves if the FY 21 improved projections do not materialize. For the following structural and one time investments in the general fund be one motion to appropriate $165,000 in the General Fund group in the city manager's department to structurally add one ethics officer position to support Ethics Commission work, this structural add will be offset with one time funding in FY 22, with ongoing structural funding that will need to be identified as part of the FY 23 budget process. B2. Motion to add one time funds of 35,000 in the General Fund group in the city manager's department to further support Ethics Commission needs in FY 22, such as outside professional services or materials offset by the carryover of projected FY 21 salary savings. B3. Motion to appropriate $100,116 in the general fund group and the police department to structurally support the incremental cost of the conversion of two civilian positions in the Air Support Unit to two police officers. This motion results in an air support unit comprised of a total of four sworn police officers, two certified pilots and two tactical flight officers. This structural add will be offset with one time funding and F1 22 with ongoing structural funding that will need to be identified as part of the FAA 23 budget process. Before a motion to add one time funds of $100,000 in the general fund group in the city manager's department to further support the fireworks enforcement team, piloted it and fly 21 to mitigate the illegal use of fireworks and explosives in Long Beach. Be five motion to add one time funds of 200,000 in the General Fund Group and the Economic Development Department to determine the future of Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. Funds are required to be spent on securing the financial future of Bixby Knolls and pay for studies, outreach and implementation of a new permanent revenue source that can replace or enhance past RDA funding from the city. These funds are intended to provide a bridge in FY 22 to new funding sources and cover administrative costs. Funding for events and business support will come from other internal sources or Long Beach Recovery Act. Dollars. B6 Motion to add one time funds of 540,000 in the general fund group and the Citywide Activities Department to be divided equally between the City Council districts for district priorities and in conformance with the existing guidelines for the use of district priority funding B7 Motion to add one time funds of 100,000 in the General Fund Group and the Public Works Department for speed mitigation efforts on residential streets to be divided approximately equally between city council districts. The proposed mitigation efforts must comply with normal rules and regulations and accordingly must be approved by the city's traffic engineer and follow normal city processes. B eight motion to add one time funds of 100,000 in the general fund group and the Public Works Department to develop a vision and a plan for a Long Beach COVID 19 memorial. See. Motion to appropriate $127,633 in the Special Advertising and Promotion Fund Group and the City Manager Department to structurally restore run programs. Specialist position in the communications program funded by a draw down on funds available in fy22 and with ongoing structural funding that will need to be identified as part of the FY 23 budget process. The motion to direct the city manager to include the following items as high priority projects to be considered for funding using any year end surplus resources from the General Fund. Measure a special advertising and promotions fund and or other sources as relevant. And if available, the city manager should include the status of funding these projects as part of the Fy21 Year and Performance Report and in the context of available surplus funds and other priority needs and projects. The following list is not in any priority order. One. The MLK Jr Statue Restoration and Park Area Improvements to North Long Beach Pool Feasibility Study. Three. All abilities playground design enhancement for Admiral Kid Playground and other potential playground projects for Duck Pond Gap funding as necessary. Five. Tree Trimming Enhancements six. Bluff Park. Historic Lamps seven. Bixby Bandshell and Park Improvements eight. Gateway Sign for four of five and 22. Implementation. Nine. Public Fireworks Show on July 4th. And ten. Beach Streets. That concludes the BRC recommendations. Councilmember Gringa, any comments? Just want to thank the work that. Councilmember Alston put into this. He came out with a budget that I think is balanced, which I think we should celebrate the loss of revenue there. What we need to do is to look into the future. This budget is is good for us today, but it might not be the budget that we're going to have to look at tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're going to have a very difficult, difficult time in building our budget. We're going to have a deficit that is going to be huge, and we really need to look at that. So I'm very glad to second this motion for this budget here this year, knowing that the challenges are yet to come. Thank you. First me, Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, let me take a moment. Just congratulate and thank the Budget Oversight Committee. I know this budget. There isn't a lot of it's not a surplus. And what they did, I see a lot of our needs reflected here. I want to I want to I have a couple questions. And there's one one thing I do want to raise for staff. What's the real difference between the B category and the D category? Because I see a lot of really important investments in B and A really, you know, a lot of investments in D, but I think this would be, you know, confusing for the public. So let's explain why the categories and B funded and in the category things in category B kind of funded or what's the difference between categories being D? Sure. Councilmember. So Category B is using a potential estimate of improve projections for the general fund in FY 21. We are not certain of that, but this is an amount that we feel it'd be a reasonable amount to actually appropriate right now. And so items under Category B are actually being appropriated in the actual dollar amounts. The items in Category D are identified as high priority projects and to allow us to close the year and actually see how the year turns out with actual dollars, and then we would be coming back. The city manager will coming back with his year end performance report for 21 and concluding and summarizing how all of these things would be potentially funded at the end of the year. Okay. So and how are we looking toward the end of the year that look like these things are on the path where you can fund some of these items or not? So that's a great question. I think there are some optimistic signs that we're seeing in terms of some revenue sources that are performing better, like sales tax and measure a. But given this year, with all of the uncertainties, the pandemic related expenses and some other factors, there are a lot of variables that could really swing the projection one way or the other. And so I would say, while we are seeing some optimistic news, it is too early to say one way or the other. Okay. Thank you. Can I add one thing, Mr. Reisman? Just to add to that, before you move on to the next piece, I do think it's important and I know Mr. Murdoch and I discussed this piece as well. And I just want to add that I. We have, obviously for the last few years have had the city manager come back with that with those surplus dollars and presented a variety of different projects. And so I'm very optimistic. I think looking at what's what's happening right now, that the projects that are listed are going to see those those investments. I mean, I think it's always good to be a little cautious and not be sure, but I think we can all. Recall, if you look at, you know, every almost every single year, I think maybe not every year has a measure. It has overperformed. I think every year that it's passed and it continues to do so even even this year in the pandemic. And so I think there's I'm hopeful that not only are we able to fund all these projects, but maybe even more projects that are there. And I don't know. And I'm also optimistic. So I think this is a reasonable list. I think these are in dollar amounts we've kind of talked about. These are achievable. We just need to figure out how much money we actually have and how to allocate them to these. And there may be other priorities that are urgent between now and February. So that's what I'll be bringing back to you, is for an investment and a plan with these as priorities. Okay. Well, it's good that's good to know, you know, that these are these are possible. I see a lot of important projects from, you know, Americo Playground, MLK Statue, North Long Beach Pool, Feasibility study. These are important things. And I wouldn't want to say each one is more important than, say, the Category B priorities. I think they're all important. The second thing I would say is, hey, you took from my time when the mayor put a question. The second thing I would say is you're going to come back with things with respect to the youth fund. First of all, I just want to say before I make this comment that I am and we made a request to take a request to take the 917,000 and make it a clean million. And the Budget Oversight Committee recommendation does that. So thank you to the Budget Oversight Committee for establishing a $1 million youth fund. That's important. We we you know, we talked about this. We advocated for this. The community was very clear. We had our own major U.S. youth townhall to talk about this. So we're really happy to see that. The second part of that request was the community won 80% of those funds to go out to community, and my request was 75%. It was just, you know, give a little more flexibility. What we have today is it's a significant improvement from only 216,000. It's up to 673,000, a significant improvement. I do want to see us do better. That's 67% and do want to see us do better. So my first question is I remember the initial list of items were all categories that are consistent with what we talked about in our U.S. resolution, but what is still remaining in those categories for the youth fund? So you mean what is still like what else could be allocated in there? No, I see that like the youth ambassador program. You found another way to fund that. What's remaining in the other 33% has gone to city staff. So generally and Grayson, get specifics here, we need dollar amount specific. So we have some staffing to be able to support the youth fund and the youth commission. I think that's really important if we want this to be successful. We then in the health fund, we have funding for Office of Equity, about 50,000, I believe. We also then have the older adult senior program to make that structural. And then what's really left is the ones that I think you would have kind of the most discretion over that. At least I would recommend you look at if you're looking at anything else, and that would be some additional program for our library. So there's about 120 roughly thousand dollars for first team programing, which is science, technology, those types of programs in our libraries and teen mental health programs in libraries. Okay. So, so, so in our support, all of those programs, the one thing I would say is what's with it was listed within the youth fund, that library fund, does that have to be conducted by city staff? I think it creates a a double standard. If everyone else has to apply to the youth fund or the libraries get directly funded, like the management of the fund, the youth summit, all that's after you develop that consistent, why wouldn't we just put library funding as a grant to the Library Foundation or some library supporting groups was consistent and we don't continue to whittle away at the 75% because we could be at a hard standard and a commitment to the public by doing that. Is that something that you have? Could that work? And so anything's possible. The way we created this was that city staff would be providing that rather than foundation. Sometimes money flows to the foundation when they raise it and then it gets sent back to city staff. We've not explored a model where the foundation have their own staff that provide this. We were going to provide it with city staff kind of funded through through the library. Okay, I see my time is up. I hear from my colleagues that. But I want to see if there's a way, either the end of the year fund savings are not fund savings projections or measure us like even if it performs better, that funding should still be going the way it was structured. So either that way or by just taking it because I agree with the library funding was structured as a grant because I don't think say the library is any more important than, you know, success and challenges Freedom School or I think they're equally important. I think we should be fair in how we begin to allocate this funding our paths there. I would love to just hear some feedback from colleagues. Give us your councilman, sir. Thank you. You know, I just want to follow with Vice Mayor Richardson's questioning around the youth fund and in the sense that I also want to thank the PBOC for supporting the increase in funding to make it $1,000,000 for the youth fund. I do want to explore, you know, I do agree that 75% is a good number as far as ensuring that it goes to the youth. I, I agree that, you know, we trusted young people to lead in developing in developing the strategic plan. And I think we need to be able to trust and be able to determine where the funding should go for their development and investing in them as far as just, you know, the process and to determine terminating exactly those points and, you know, like to explore further how we can ensure that it is about a 75% that that that that is allocated to young people to determine where that program goes. So that's kind of where where I'm at with this and that I think that we need to indicate to young people that we support their leadership and that they know what is best for them. The other question I have and I want to raise this because I want to make sure that we do at least address how the question about how do we also support our undocumented community members. You know, during the pandemic, there was a lot of funding that went into individuals that undocumented community members weren't eligible for. And I think we had some general discussion around basic income as a possible avenue. So I'm wondering now, you know, Tom or Mr. Modica or the state or maybe you can clarify what the process would be for our undocumented community member to be able to access the guaranteed income pilot program that will be coming in this fall . And so that we know we're also ensuring that we're supporting our and document committee members. Thank you for that question. Councilwoman Sorrell. That program is is in the early stages of development, and it is being developed by. The Economic Development Department. And as with all of the other. Elvira programs or Recovery Act funds, it will be very extensively promoted. And advertised, particularly among the community. Groups that are subject to or that may be eligible for it. So we. Will be developing those programs, and. Before any of them are rolled out, you will be. Getting some kind of notice in advance of the programs being rolled out so that if you have thoughts on it, you can certainly weigh in with the staff regarding that. But that is the ideas that are very heavily promoted, particularly. In the areas where that program, the areas of eligibility for that program. And if you recall, there was a memo from the from the staff to the city council. That very broadly outline what that program looks like. And it was based. Upon a. Lot of feedback and a very specific group that had come together to look at what some of the options for that program were. Great. Thank you. We'll look forward to having more discussion about it. Further comment or question. Thank you. Can I just add something? I think. Rosemary Richardson mentioned. One thing I think that is interesting, which I think is could be part of this custom in Austin, which is that if measure because obviously I think the ABC obviously has gone a lot further than the statue recommendation and you know, pretty close to where with some of the community input has been and certainly hit the over million dollars actually in request. But perhaps if we can take any overages that happen with measure us. I mean, there's certainly certain funds do perform better sometimes over time. And so if the funds are performing better this year or the next year, that those could go directly into the youth fund for that. For that piece that way, I think I think that's a an opportunity for that to grow even beyond the million that might satisfy, I think, some of the smears concerns. You know, I think. I'd be certainly amenable to doing that. I just I think it's very important that we we we show good faith to our library services as well, because those are that's a proven entity. We know we're going to see thousands and thousands of kids on it on a yearly basis. And when we were talking about providing steam education and opportunities as well as mental health services, I think I think that's it will be it'll be troublesome for me to see that it's being proposed. But then this council or BMC or council committee cut it. Right. And that's why I think that that's why I think the request is not to cut the library services piece. Absolutely. I so if we can keep that intact and meet the the voice matters or concerns, I think we'll be fine. Yeah, I think that keeps the library piece intact and just any overages would go would go there. So I think that's I think that's a slight a slight change to that. Next up is Council on Mango. Thank you. I want to thank the chair of the Budget Oversight Committee along with the committee members. I know it's a considerable amount of work to balance all the different requests. I'm excited to hear that the All Abilities Playground is getting some additional funding and there's been a lot of work on that and I'm excited to hear that. Councilmember. Councilmember Brenda's replacement field I'm sorry. Replacement Playground will also be considered an all abilities playground as I go to different playgrounds across the city and see the different apparatus that are available for kids of different needs. It makes me very proud of our city that we're making those kind of investments, and I'm proud to see us move in that direction. Also, I'm very strongly in support of maintaining the funding with the library and all of you know, I'm a big supporter of foundations, specifically foundations that support departments directly on the Library Foundation is going through a transition right now, and the library, as a department, has proven leadership through this pandemic to really be a rock along with our Parks and Rec program for our community and our youth. And I appreciate Councilmember Austin's comments surrounding that, though I do continue to support the Library Foundation and work with one of their board members very closely and see lots of opportunity for them in the years to come. Every time there's a transition, there's also a lot of opportunity. Everyone brings different resources to the table and I look forward to seeing where they go from here. So with all of that said, I just want to appreciate that a lot of these different add ons are a great need for our city. I know that I shared with Councilmember Austin that tree trimming is the number one request for service that we receive in our city, and it has gone from one that was for just convenience and support of the environment to one that's actually really safety related. As some of our older trees have passed away and dead branches have become a hazard in our communities at our park. So I really appreciate and wanted to highlight and lift that up in addition to some of the other really important projects that are listed here. So thank you very much for all of your hard work and I look forward to seeing where we go with this amazing investment. Bless me. RICHARDSON Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to just take a moment. Thank you for that recommendation. I think I think it certainly makes sense. It's it's you know, my concern would be if if we're not, you know, putting as much as we can toward that community grant portion. So I think, you know, if we have end of year projections are higher, putting those toward more community grants, I think that's a good thing. And I would say I don't think it's a library versus others. I think we just have to think of it all as youth and we all have value, whether you're in a park because your neighborhood doesn't have a library and my neighborhood didn't for a long time. I know what that's like. But we also do have the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library. We love programs within that library. So for me, I'm just thinking holistically. This is about youth, not about carving out our little piece for what we what we like. It's about our youth and empowering those youth to be a part of this process. And that's what's most important to me. So I certainly want to thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you, Councilman Austin, for being amenable to that. Conference in the House. Thank you, Mia. And thank you very much to the Oversight Committee for all the hard work that you have done on this budget. I know how how much you have worked on it. And I think that one of the things I'm very pleased to see is the motion that was made earlier by the Oversight Committee to recommend $1 million to to the youth fund. I think I after going to the form that we were at, where there was dozens and dozens of youth speaking out on what their needs were, it was really, really clear to me that they wanted us to really give the organizations that are youth serving the majority of the money. So I'm very, very supportive of the 75, 75% going directly to those organizations that are youth serving and the continued to help our youth and creating opportunities and paths to better, better life quality. So I'm really excited about that. I want to thank all of the youth who participated in our form and really made the their needs shown. So thank you again for that. And I'm again, I'm very, very, very supportive of the 75% at least that going to directly to our youth serving programs all across the city. Another thing that I, I know is that, you know, we continue to see language access in in every budget that we see. And I know that we're giving a lot to add to our language access, a lot of attention to our language access program. One of the things I'd like to see moving forward and and see as a priority is to be able to have language access interpreters in the House. And I think that that is going to be such a valuable such a valuable asset to our city. And I know we're working towards that. So I'm very, very much in support of that. And I really look forward to seeing how how every year we work together and work hard to provide as much as we can. And I know it's a difficult year and it's going to be even more difficult, but I think that when one of the things that this pandemic has shown us is that one language access is needed and and we really need to have that program in house. So thank you very much again for all the hard work on this budget. Thank you. There's a motion to second to approve the B or C recommendations with as written with the amendment that on the youth fund that any additional resources that would possibly could come in from measure us would go to supporting the youth fund as it relates to community community organization programing. Yes, I understand that would be then part of the motion. Yep. Great. Thank you. Please, Gordon, cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. Item A3, please.