Recommendation to request City Manager to update City Council on how Long Beach is actively implementing the requirements of Assembly Bill 218; how it is impacting the City, including the date of implementation, particularly as it relates to contractors; and report back to City Council in 30 days.
And if we can just keep our voices as low as possible. Item seven. I'm ready. Madam Clerk. Item seven is a communication from Councilman Andrews and Council Member Richardson. Recommendation two requires City Manager to update City Council on how Long Beach is actively implementing the requirements of Assembly Bill 218. How it is impacting the city, including the date of implementation, particularly as it relates to contractors and report back to the City Council in 30 days. Councilmember Andrews. Yes. Thank you. Vice Mayor. In October 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 218, which advocated a discriminate, discriminatory practice in housing and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons in California. AB 218, known as Band The Box Law, warned that the removal of the question regarding conviction from state and county and city, and especially decent jobs for convicts and former incarcerated persons. Under AB 218, every county was mandated by the State of California to implement Band the Box by July 1st, 2014. What I am requesting today is an update from the city manager on how the bill is being implemented in our city and how the impact of Long Beach and in particular, how is it related to the contractors that the city does business with? I originally asked for 30 days on this item, but I was told that the staff may need more time. So I would like to make a motion to report back in 45 days. But. What you have. There is a second Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So I want to thank Councilmember Andrews for bringing this council item forward. I know that I remember when the City of Long Beach looked into discussing this in the past, and we were unsuccessful in bringing this forward. But but I'm proud to see that the state assembly, the state legislature went ahead and made this the law of the land ban. Banning the box is the law of the land. And we need to ensure that our city is appropriate, is appropriately interim in implementing this policy. Reintegration is a major issue in our community, and reintegration means that we have to provide job opportunities because you can't reintegrate into a community without the opportunity or the means to support or sustain yourself and your families. As a note, just today, there were a number of ministers that talked about project labor agreements. Well, that's an example of an opportunity to provide a job to folks who are reintegrating into our community. So that's it. Thank you so much, Councilmember Andrews, for taking the lead on this. And I look forward to hearing back from city staff on their efforts to enforce this and implement this law. Thank you. There's been a motion by Councilmember Andrews. Councilman Andrews and Councilmember Richardson. So any member of the public that was to address this body center. Right. Good evening, Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Members of the council. I'm with a group called All of US or None. I was here a few years ago in a different capacity. But today I come to address you about this rule. And I think, you know, certainly, Councilman Richardson, you raised a point that is true. What is unknown about California is that we have the highest recidivism rate, one of the highest in the United States in terms of people who are incarcerated and who are returned to incarceration. Much of that occurs because. The box requirement essentially bans people from being able to get a job. So if you can't get a job, you can't get a student loan, you can't effectively exercise the rights of citizenship. We pretty much steer them right back into incarceration. The challenge with that is that you end up spending, in the case of California, $9 billion a year that could go toward college or something else. The bill that was passed in Sacramento, AB 218, did not mandate that the contractors be part of what you do. What we would like to see in the 45 days, if it would be at all possible honorable vice mayor and members, is that we create an ordinance because ordinances tend to have some level of permanency. If there's a new council next week, while a B to 18 won't change, the issue relative to contractors would certainly be at the option of a succeeding council. And if it's only done as a policy from the city manager, that doesn't make it something that's mandatory, which was not a part of 18. There are a couple of cities in northern California. San Francisco, most notably, has a much stronger policy. I don't think we need to go necessarily where San Francisco went, but we can certainly include the contractors. You mentioned earlier about your project labor agreement. All of this, I guess, is it's kind of symbolic that tonight we're talking about banning the box and project labor agreements because I think they fit pretty much into the same mode. So with that, if we were able to in the next 45 days, I'm prepared to work with the city manager who I've known for a number of years to make it an ordinance so that it wouldn't be something that could simply be changed if the whim of the council change would require a full vote. I appreciate the effort by Councilmember Andrews, who I've known from track and field for a number of years, and I hope that we can make it something that's more permanent so that people could count on that. And I thank you for the opportunity to address you this afternoon. Thank you. Councilmember Richardson, did you cue up again? Yes, I did. I just wanted to acknowledge our former state senator, Rod Wright, who's here with us this evening, who represented portions of Long Beach, including the ninth District in North Long Beach, I believe. I don't remember what the boundaries are, but I believe there were three, which changed a few times. But thank you so much for coming out and we appreciate your service. Thank you so much. Thank you. Councilmember Austin. Thank you. And Senator Wright, thank you very much for coming before us today. Yes. I've watched you legislate over the many years that I've been involved in politics. And, you know, I remember working in Los Angeles when you were an assembly member in the 48 Assembly District. You you've always been been a stand up legislator, one of the smartest in Sacramento. And it's an honor to have you before us today. I just wanted to speak briefly on this particular issue and say that, you know, I support this coming back in 30 days. You know, it merits a very, very careful look. And and as it relates to where we are going with major projects before the city, we should be giving consideration to to everyone and including reducing the recidivism rate. I mean, because at the end of the day, that's, I believe, what this this aims to do more than anything , reduce risk, to reduce recidivism. I currently say that four times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My, my, my, my day job. I work with individuals who work in our correctional facilities. And this is always seen as as the the panacea for recidivism, for times getting getting people employed and making them have dignity and value in what they do and contributing to society. And so I look forward to a report back in 30 days. I'll be supporting this motion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, members cast your vote. Motion carries six. Zero. Thank you. Item eight.