Recommendation to approve renaming the community center at Houghton Park the "Doris Topsy-Elvord Community Center".
Russian Kurds. Item 19, please. Communication in Councilman. Super Nature of Government Personnel and Election Oversight Committee Recommendation to approve renaming the Community Center at Horton Park the Doris Topsy Alvord Community Center. Somewhere. I'd like to go ahead and move the motion. Yup. And you're can you please go ahead, councilman. Okay. So this is a. This comes from our committee and we unanimously supported this naming. So I'd like to make the motion. Thank you. And there is a second by. I believe this is Councilman Austin. This was for this item, not the not the last one. Correct. Correct. Okay, great. There's the motion in a second. Obviously I want to lend my support to this item. I think there's a lot to be said about the process. This came before the city council received unanimous support, went to the Parks and Recreation Marine Commission and received unanimous support, and then then back to the Governance and Personnel Committee where it received unanimous support. Obviously. Mother Dawes, former vice mayor, former harbor commissioner, is a iconic figure in her own self, somebody who was a trailblazer in our city, someone who was a mentor to many, many, many city employees, but also elected officials in the city and around the region. It is only fitting that we we name of the Highland Park Center for her. And I want to just give a nod to Vice Mayor Richardson for his leadership in getting this issue to this point. And I would encourage our full support of the council. Thank you. Thank you. By Sam Waterston. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just want to take a moment, and I thank everyone who's been involved from the committee that helped put all this together, community committee to the Parks and Rec Commission, the Government Oversight Commission, to get this done. Prior to my daughter's 90th birthday, we set a goal to get it done this June. And today, pending this vote, we are we are going to make sure that Mother Doors has a well-deserved and happy birthday and thanks to city staff for all of their work to make sure that we have a good plan on how we're going to recognize this this moment. This is this is I mean, this is great. We're we're you know, this is recognition of, you know, the first black councilwoman, the trailblazer of the term vice mayor. And, you know, she one of her quotes that she you know, that she know for is you can get anything done if you don't care who gets the glory. And I think, you know, I certainly, you know, mother daughter could teach me and a whole lot of folks that lesson right there. So, you know, I certainly want to thank Mother Doors and look and thank everybody involved and look forward to opening up the tops, the other community center. How important. Thank you. Councilman Mongo. Thank you. I'm a big supporter of the councilwoman. And and as a former councilwoman, I think it is appropriate that perhaps this is a time that we could have that discussion. I think that this is one of many names that have come before us through an amazing process. But there is a administrative declaration that we don't name things after people who are alive or have passed recently. And I think perhaps it might be appropriate to ask council member Soup or not to provide some recommendations to us if that is a necessary policy anymore. We have some pretty amazing people who have done some amazing things in the city, and that administrative mandate was not from a city council. And so I think when you have great people like the councilwoman and the legacy that she had among others, I see that it is an exception to the rule. But there have been a lot of exceptions lately, and I am wholeheartedly in support of this. But as a leader and a former councilman, I know that she would be a person who would want us to to look at what we're doing and make sure that we are being honest with ourselves about what our true policies are . So, again, thank you to her for everything she's done for the city. It has been an amazing legacy, and I'm honored to be a part of the council that makes this happen. And I just can't thank her and the committee enough. Thank you. Councilman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. I also support the committee's recommendation. Of vice mayor. Doorstop Silver is a truck with a just a total trailblazer in our city, and I firmly believe that public facilities and spaces should be named after upstanding leaders who represent the best of us and vice mayor. Doris certainly fits the bill. So, so happy to support this. Thank you. Councilman Sorrell. Mayor. I want to thank Vice Mayor Richardson for his leadership on this item. And, you know, I think it's fitting that this renaming the community center follows Juneteenth because it's really important to celebrate the amazing work and legacy of a black women, particularly because I think that, you know, there are numerous obstacle I'm sure she has had to overcome in order to be able to do the work that she does. And I think it's important that those that come, we follow her, know that and hear about her history and celebrate her. So thank you, Vice Mayor, for honoring and celebrating the Honorable Doris Tulsa, Albert. So thank you so much. And I support this item. Thank you, Councilman Ringo. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you very much for bringing this forward. Now, before we were friends, we were opponents. Doris and I ran campaigns against each other. And for jealousy, she won over me. But she was also one of my mentors. When I was 20, she was a civil service commissioner. Not many people remember that, that before she was elected to the city council, she was a commissioner in a civil service commission work where I worked and we became friends there. And I just been proud to follow her legacy, to see how she's gone, just from an individual who was very important to the community, to one who is become an iconic. And the name of this building will certainly be that for her and for us in that community forever. So I'm glad to support this. Congratulations, Doris. Let me be. Thank you, Councilman Superman. Thank you. And thanks to Councilman Munga for bringing that point up on on our policies. So what I did was I had a conversation with Deputy Deputy City Attorney Gary Anderson prior to that meeting, and I asked him to go ahead and please be on that meeting with us. And we took the time to explain the policies and how it does not apply to council. So I think it is an important point of clarification. And and so we did it by the book. So thank you for asking that question. Thank you. And I want to just add again, I think this is a wonderful opportunity to name what a great building, really. I'm after a really great person and has such a strong legacy within the broader language community, but also specifically just the history made within our own black community. So just echoing what everyone else said, and I think it's the really great, great naming is your public comment? Yes, Mayor, we have public comment. Karl Kemp, please begin. Yeah. I just want to again thank the city council. You guys are on fire and doing great things. It's so great to give this woman who has dedicated her life to this city before she was on the city council while she was on the city council, served as vice mayor two times, went over to the Harbor Commission and made history there. And at each one of her stations, she has done something revolutionary to make lasting change in policy, to make lasting change in the lives of the people that our city and its institutions interact with. All of us probably have individual stories. I have a bunch. I will simply say that I would not be here today if it were not for doorstops. The board president, Bob Maxim, identified me as somebody that needed somebody like her, and she took me under her wing. My first job out of college was working for the city of Long Beach, and she is nurtured and looked after me every step of the way. My mom gave her permission to engage, I'll say simply for the public to engage in corporal punishment if necessary. She was truly she is truly another mother for me and has served of that while my mother was here and after my mother passed. And it's just beautiful that Vice Mayor Richardson and Councilman Austin and the entire city council have saw fit to give her this wonderful tribute and give her a chance to smell her flowers right now. And I just want to thank you on behalf of all the people like me who have had their lives changed by by this wonderful, wonderful blessing that we call mother daughters. Michelle Dobson, please be in. Michelle Dobson, please begin. Thank you. My name is Michelle Dobson, and I wanted to take a moment to thank each one of you for supporting this. I read the minutes as this has gone along the way, and the unanimous support all the way through is just heart warming for a woman who is an inspiration to many of us here in the city, raising her sons while getting her master's degree to the Long Beach Original from Saint Anthony High School. She remains a proud alumni and supporter of that school. And I know personally she was extremely supportive of us as a youth group. To me, ACP, when I was coming, who she helped as a city city council member, sent us to several national arts and academic competitions, and the timing here is just perfect. As was mentioned previously, there's a gospel song that's sung in our community called Give Me My Flowers While I Can Smell Them, which is just say this could not have been brought forward at a better time. And I want to thank Vice Mayor Richardson for leading the effort and for bringing this to the community and the council and anything that we can do as a community to support it. Of course, we are here and I think it was unanimously supporting this all the way through. Thank you. Any more public comment? No, that concludes public comment. Okay. Then with that, we will go take a roll call vote. District one. I. District two. I. District three. I. District four. I. District five. I. District six. District seven. I. District eight. District nine. I. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. I think we have to a one time certain item which is supposed to be after 630 and then another request to come up to move early. So let me let me do item 17. And then after that I am 13, which is which is a row for the transfer on rowing. We'll do right after that. I think that was supposed to be anytime after 630. So those will be the next two items. The next item 17. Communication from Councilwoman Mongeau. Councilwoman Dan Diaz, Councilwoman Price, Councilmember Your UNGA recommendation to direct city manager and the Fireworks Committee to develop a fireworks free neighborhood incentive program and waive the fees of all submitted and approved block party applications for this upcoming July 4th, 2021 holiday.