Recommendation to request City Manager to provide a report to the City Council within 30 days identifying the fiscal impact associated with waiving the business license fees for a new business for their first year.
To report from the office of Councilwoman Susie Price, Councilwoman Stacy Mango and council member Roberta Ranga with a recommendation request at the city manager. Report to the City Council within 30 days, identifying the fiscal impact of a search associated with waiving the business license fees for a new business hit for the in their first year. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you. I want to speak a little bit to this item because I want to make it clear what the intent and purpose behind this item was so that we we can move forward with no miscommunication in an effort to come up with ways to attract new businesses to this city. One of the things that I would like to do is to determine what the impact to the city would be, to waive the business license fee that is paid to the city for the first year of a new business. And the reason for the request is because over and over again, when you hear from small businesses who want to establish in the city and in other cities, what you routinely hear is that they get hit from every direction and that it's very stressful and difficult for them to get established because they're paying fees to get established to all sorts of entities. And so I want to find out what would be involved with our city waiving the fees for a year to allow these businesses to establish and perhaps encourage them to establish here in the city. And the costs associated for that business are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but can be very impactful to a small business that's trying to establish itself within a city. It is not contemplated and was not contemplated at any time that the analysis would involve any sort of detrimental impact to our business improvement district. Certainly the assessment fees that they collect, this really is purely an analysis of what the fees paid to the city are to get a business license and how much the city would be impacted if those fees were waived for one year based upon the number of businesses that were traditionally used to seeing in the city. So establishing kind of a range of businesses, the number of businesses that we expect would develop in the city and figuring out what the fiscal impact would be. This is an educational request so that we can get some information so that as a council and potentially as an economic development committee, we can think about what some programs and incentives would be that we could offer to businesses that want to establish here in the city. So with that, I would like staff to take a look at this issue. And I will say that I am mindful that this is not the first time the issue has come before the city council, Long Beach. And I understand it's it's a it's an issue that keeps coming up in terms of a possibility that of something that we can do as a city to make ourselves a little bit more attractive to new businesses who want to come in. It's an information gathering request really is what this is. And I look forward to staff giving us some information regarding what the impact would be to the city. Knowing that having a revenue source is very important to us and not taking away from our revenue source is very important for us in terms of continuing our services to the people, the city of Long Beach. So we'll have to balance all of that, but I'd like to balance it all with full information and reporting from staff. So thank you. And thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I'm really glad that we're bringing this up again. We have five new faces on the council and we're looking to do things creative and different. I also want to comment that there are other motions in the works for our existing businesses. We don't want to limit opportunities to grow to new businesses. We also want to let other businesses that are already here know that we are looking out for them and that those motions are a little more complicated and they're going to take a little bit more time as we're working through some of the staff on some of those matters, but that they are not forgotten and they are appreciated and that we will be reaching out to them. Sector by sector, some sectors have already been contacted and we'll be providing more information to come. But both new and existing businesses are very important to our success in the future of language. Thank you. Councilmember Andrews. Yeah. Yes. I'd just like to kind of chime in on that, because I believe that we did bring this topic, you know, in the past and it went to the committee. You know, in the back in 210, we brought forth the amnesty program, which gave business owners an opportunity to avoid, you know, the pay and penalties as a result of non-reporting, you know, an underreporting in business taxes and license fees, you know, which is very beneficial. And I think it's very I think we definitely need to continue to, you know, look to new ways to keep the Long Beach businesses, you know, friendly. Thank you. Councilmember Austin. Thank you. So council members, I want to commend the council members, Price Mungo and Tauranga for bringing this forward. I fully support the mindset of supporting and creating incentives, incentives to bring new business and start up new business here in the city. I think it's just it's long overdue for us to be thinking like this. And I commend you for the thought. I'm very interested in supporting this item and getting feedback from from city staff in terms of the information requested. I, I want to know really what the impact of this is going to be. How much is the average business license? And how far does this go to really incentivize a new business to come to an empty storefront in downtown or or north Long Beach or on the West Side? I mean, we have to have some some real and realistic expectations here. And I'm also concerned about, you know, the businesses that have toiled away for many years and who who are looking for some relief as well. And so I'm glad to hear that they're we're looking in that direction as well. And so I will I will support this motion. And, you know, I commend you for bringing it forward. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. I want to thank all of you as well. We have a couple business improvement districts in our in our first district. I know a couple of questions that I had. I don't know if this had been thought about or perhaps it could be reviewed as well as the are we talking this is all brand new businesses. Is that correct? Is that the intent? That would that was the intent for brand new businesses to waive their fee for the first year to. Long Beach so they could have a business in another city, say, another neighboring city. And if they opened a location here, that would be a new business. And then the types of fees as well is something that I often hear about from our downtown businesses is the special events fees. Because so many events are going on, they already have a business license fee just for starting their business, but then there's another fee for just having a special event. And so that's perhaps something that could, you know, be included in that as well. And are there thresholds for the size of the business or. I know there's a lot to think about, but I'm just. Those are things that are certainly important on on our end. So. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Marie Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I also wanted to be sure that when staff does come back with their report, when they're looking at other cities, if they could provide either a summary of any studies that were done or any of that data, I think it'd be helpful for at least it'll help me if I'm able to see that kind of back up in your in your report. I don't know exactly what your thoughts were on how you would report back, but it would be it'd be helpful for us to include any studies of measured values stemming from cities that may have wave fees in the past. I think I'm supportive. I think it's it's a great idea. And it's definitely one that could help incentivize businesses and encourage them. But I do want to know what other cities experiences are. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. Just in response to Councilwoman Gonzalez. You know, I. One of the things that I'd like to be included in the staff report would be just an analysis of what are the fees. I understand that the fees vary depending on the number of employees. So obviously the fees of one that one business is paying may not be the same as another, but that's some information that I'd like to receive as part of the report so that we can move forward with all being on the same page. So the size of the business, really, I'd like to know how our fees impact the business size. And in regards to other cities, I think it's important to know what other cities have similar size charge in terms of their business license fees, because one of the things that we hear repeatedly, especially from small businesses, that is that Long Beach is not business friendly or that the fees are too high to allow them to get established. You know, that may be accurate or it may be a myth. I don't know. And that's one of the reasons we need a report like this, because it's really important for us to be able to answer with full information in regards to what other cities are doing and really what we can do. And to even look into this issue and to try to do something to help some of those businesses that are concerned about the additional $300 or thousand dollars that they have to pay to establish is really the intent behind this. This report is what can we do to help them out and help them get established. So with that and in regards to the bids, I do want to talk about the bids. You know, the bids. I don't think there's anybody here who would disagree with the value that the bids bring to each and every one of our communities and to the businesses that are within their organization. So it's not the intent of anyone to impact the service of the bids or to impact their operations at all. This really is about what we can do as a city to help small businesses get established in the city or even large businesses. We don't want the fee to be such a deterrent that they don't want to do business here. And whether it is or not, I don't know. That's one of the things that the report will hopefully convey. So with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve this agenda item. Second. There's been a motion and a second, Councilmember Richardson. Thank you to my colleagues for bringing this forward. I think particularly with the small businesses in North Long Beach and the vacancies that our property owners are facing, anything we can add now that we don't have tools like redevelopment enterprise zones, the tools that we can throw into the into the the the, you know, the shed into the toolbox. Anything we can do to help inspire folks to come here and invest, it's certainly a step in the right direction. Now, I want to, you know, just ensure that we're thinking about, you know, are we are we you know, should we limit this thing, this whole conversation to two small businesses? I mean, and, you know, and we and make sure that we don't expose ourselves to any kind of fraud or folks who might want to, you know, open multiple businesses under multiple names and, you know, and change business licenses every few years. You know, activities like that happen so where they can keep, you know, exposed in the system. So just let's make sure we evaluate that in this study as well so we don't, you know, create a loophole that we got to get ourselves out of. So it may be a way to do that, is when we actually talk about a policy, when it comes up, you know, we ensure there's some flexibility for staff to exercise some judgment there. Thanks. Thank you. Just a few comments. I just want to start by just Mr. West. I want to make sure that we also convey to to the staff that's down there of the incredible hard work that they're doing every single day. I know that our whole business licensing division and the finance group down there and the new business folk that they always get from, for many of us as well as the community, a lot of grief often because it's a very difficult job and a lot of our businesses do go through a difficult process on occasion. But I do want to make sure that we note that the improvements have been made down there over the last, you know, six, seven, ten years have been evident. I think that, in fact, the county recognized the city on a couple of occasions for the improvements made to the system and for moving in the direction of being a business friendly counter and for having service are a few superstars down there. And we hear those stories as well as some of the stories that that we don't like to hear. But certainly the ones that I often hear are of how things have improved, that things are going in the right direction. And so I just want to make sure that as part of its discussion, I also want that relate to them that they are working hard and we're thankful for for the improvements that are being made down there. And I think this is a really good item that this time has come again to have a discussion about. I also am hopeful that as the guiding principle of the Council and ICO and as well and the Economic Development Committee, that we that we look not just at this fee, but what are all the fees that we get to business. And so what makes the most sense if there was going to be relief? What is it that makes the most sense? Because I imagine that in my conversations with Councilwoman Mongeau and others are there are other types of fees and other types of burdens that the city should look at, should look at holistically. So I think that all of that would be great to see. And I know that I believe this will be brought back to the committee as well. So I think it's great. Very supportive. Councilwoman Price. I just wanted to point out because I know I said this has come up before. So, you know, credit where credit is due that this is something that the city looked at before. It's not like the city hasn't thought about it before. In 2011, they had a. Business growth. Incentive act agenda item, and it was a lot more involved than this. So this is more of just a very simplified, broken down request so that we can try to look at, you know, this item first as we think about the holistic approach that the mayor just mentioned. So thank you. Councilwoman Mongo. When we talk about what's happened in the past and where we want to go moving forward, I appreciate the simplicity of the motion that you've brought before us today, and I think that it brings a lot to the table to bite off small pieces. I think that sometimes organizations of our size try to take these giant bites out of things and there can be unintended consequences. So I appreciate the thoroughness and patience of all of our constituents because we're going to keep at this every week. You're going to hear us back here working hard to make sure that we can increase our business presence, our business friendliness, and the sales tax revenue that all of these small businesses bring in and big businesses as well. So thank you to everyone who's been supportive and I look forward to the vote. Thank you all. Any public comment on the item? CNN members discuss your votes. Motion carries. April. Yes. Excellent. Next item, please. Item number 11.