Recommendation to direct City Manager to report back to the City Council on establishing an Artists Fund that would provide emergency $500 direct or other financial support for a period of six months to cover cost of basic needs, for qualifying artists who live in Long Beach and have been impacted by COVID-19. These funds would be paid through CARES Act Community Block Grant Funds. We should look towards funding up to 150 artists who qualify across the city.
Great. Thank you. Next, we're going to do. I think I've got four items I've been requested to move up. I will do those four, and then we'll we'll do general public comment and then the rest of the agenda. Item 52, please. Recommendation to direct city manager to report back to the City Council on establishing an artist fund for qualifying artists who live in Long Beach and have been impacted by COVID 19. Thank you. I want to just first start by thanking Councilwoman Mary's and de Haas, Councilwoman Janine Pearce, Vice Mayor Andrews and Councilman Austin for for supporting this and to their work. I also want to just begin by saying this is we know that we are living in a very difficult time with COVID. Ever since March and the major shutdowns, the industry that has been just one of the most impacted has been the arts and cultural workers, in fact. You think about performances in a theater. You think about our municipal band, the symphony, the playhouse, people that play gigs, you know, at a restaurant or a guitarist. It has been a huge impact to artists, and in fact, it's the most constant request. And what we hear is just the need for to help these people. The other piece of it, which is critical, is as a city, our artists and our cultural workers are the lifeblood of our community. They make our city strong, diverse. They already are. Many of them are already lower income folks who are, you know, who do the work because they love it, not because it's highly paid. And so anything we can do to bridge their ability to stay in our city during this difficult time is really important. This is this is a proposal that will go to the staff. Mr. Modica with them, prepare a program to come back to the city council, hopefully soon, for final approval. There will be final approval on that. But I want to also just think I asked them not to speak tonight because of the time constraints, but I want to thank all of the arts organizations that have been working on this, the musical theater, West Long Beach Opera, Long Beach Symphony, the Playhouse. Some of the musicians from the municipal band and really all of the arts organizations across the city A.C.T., the Museum of Art, Moala they've all been involved and been working on this. And of course, the Arts Council, Long Beach. I'm we're looking at these these are would be cares act community block grant funds. So it's already part of the CARES program. And again, it would be and also a great way of supporting this kind of guaranteed income work that is happening all across the country. And it's really an extension of the tenant assistance program that this council already adopted. And so with that, I'm going to turn this over. There's no public comment, and I'm going to turn this over to any comments from Councilwoman and the House. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, for this. This is something I'm very, very excited about. I'm so glad that this is something that we as a city can look forward to. Our entire city has been impacted by COVID health crisis, and I'm supportive of any and all assistance we can get to our residents at this time of extreme need. This type of assistance would target artists that call Long Beach home. So that's why I am especially excited for this. So thank you very much. And I hope that everyone can support this. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilmember Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to just give my short comments on this. I certainly fully support this. Our our artist artist community has been devastated by the impacts of COVID 19, like every many other sectors of our economy. This item here is a creative initiative for a creative culture that is very important to the identity of our city. These are human lives individuals who will need to pay rent and pay their bills. And so I fully support this item because it will help provide economic assistance to another group that has been very, very negatively impacted by this pandemic. So I encourage everyone else to support it as well. Thank you, Councilmember and Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and congratulations to the artists. We still have to develop the program, but they certainly have reached out in over email and demonstrated their enthusiasm. I just. Just a note for staff. I know that if you could just speak to this quickly, I know that you identified a staff position and do some research. I'm interested and I certainly understand the connection between the tenant assistance. I know that we're going to expand the tenant assistance to include payments to help people get out of back payments. And then we have this program for artists. But I'd love to see a comprehensive or hear what you're thinking about in terms of a comprehensive strategy for this. We talked about outside dollars. You know, what's the strategy to bring in outside dollars? So I'd love to just hear from staff if they're uncomfortable about where this could go in the future. And that doesn't have to you can speak to it briefly, but that doesn't have to come back today. I'm hoping that you could do some work and come back to us. Yes. Thank you very much. Richardson, Councilmember Richardson. So when passed in the budget, the council did provide about $100,000. That was the recommendation from the mayor to provide some staffing to really start to dove into universal basic income for us to, you know, do some best practice research to help support some of that. And then, of course, as part of that motion, it was going to be some outside dollars that were going to be able to hopefully leverage to for that program. So we're at the beginning of that process. We're going to be bringing on that person, and that would certainly come back to the council for some of, you know , as we learn more to talk through that kind of program and what that could look like. Thank you. Councilmember. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to share my support for this. I think it's a great stamp on the work that we've already been doing on guaranteed income. So I look forward to seeing that comprehensive work that staff is working on. Thank you. Thank you. And actually, we may have one person for public comment. I apologize for that. Is there a public comment? Yes. Tiffany Davey. Yes. Good evening. Me a baby address. On. File. I just wanted to state my support for this item. And its prime request for a feasibility study from the city manager to assist those within the arts community who are facing devastating impacts of the coronavirus. Thank you. Thank you. Roll call. Roll call. Vote, please. District one, district two I. District three. I. District four I. District five. I. District six. And. District seven. By District eight. District nine. High motion carries. Great. Thank you very much. Next item we have that was asked to be moved up. Sorry, we're going to do item 66.