Recommendation to: 1) Approve an ordinance of the People of the City of Long Beach, California, adding Chapter 3.62 to the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to Transactions and Use Tax;
Thank you. Okay. Public comment is complete. We're going to take two items up. First, we're going to take both item 14 as well as item. I apologize. Item 11. So 14 and 11 will be the next two items and they will go on with the rest of the agenda. So item 14 Madam Clerk. Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to one Approve three ordinances of the people of the City of Long Beach relating to transactions and use tax to to impose the transactions and use tax to be administered by the State Board of Equalization and three to establish a budget stabilization fund. These are the second reading from last week's vote. I'm a city attorney. I believe we can take these all in one vote from. That's correct, Mayor. Okay. So second reading, public comment on the second reading, please come forward. There's public comment on the second reading. Please come forward. Mayor and council members. My name is Janet West, and I've lived in the city of Long Beach continuously for over five decades. I am opposed to this ordinance for multiple reasons. Why should we believe you'd listen to a citizen advisory committee when you're not currently listening to your citizens? Why would citizens of Long Beach make purchases, especially major purchases in Long Beach, when they could go to a local city and buy those items for 1 to 2% lower? You're moving expenditures out of the general budget. To this new ordinance money. And that just leaves more money in the general budget, which allows you to spend money on other items. Councilman Supernormal says that he's the new sheriff in town. But did he use Common Core math to determine year one vote can change the other eight votes? Councilmember Sue Burnham has supported the Citizen Committee in order that he can sleep well at night. Please save taxpayers money and businesses lower sales and just buy yourself a teddy bear. From The Beachcomber. The spending problem is demonstrated by looking at recent data. The medium income. A full time private sector workers in Long Beach is $41,455, which while the median income of full time city employees is 85,900. And what benefits? 111,940 between 2013 and 2014? Total Sitter City Employee Compensation jumped $11,000,336 602. That's a 24%. The reason we don't need a tax hike. Is that true? People are hurting financially. The private sector has a downward pressure on wages. I want city employees to earn good wages. But right now in this economy, you need to freeze their salary and benefits. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. By Tom Stout on information on file. Just the way this is written, approve an ordinance of the people. You have to be kidding me. This is not for the people. This is for you. That's the most absurd thing I've read in a long time. And you repeated it three times. You got to be kidding me. And what is that rainy day fund to stabilize the astronomical pension hit? We're going to take in 2021 $150 million, which will carry forward for another 15 years. Get off this thing about 700 positions. There were 700 positions that were not needed, that were funded so that you didn't actually have to make any real cuts and get off. The thing about pension reform. It's a farce. If we had reform, we wouldn't be spending $150 million in the next five or six years. Those pensions will increase by 10% a year, according to CalPERS. Not me, but CalPERS own information. Then one thing I've always wondered about on Prop eight. Yes, we needed to raise those the tax on oil, we need to raise it again. But it should not have been given only to police and fire. There are so many needs in this city besides them. That's what I don't understand. Compensation for police and fire is somewhere around 70% of the general fund. 90% of the general fund is compensation. About 10% or less provide services. How much do we have to. I mean, how much should it cost to be safe? Think about that. How much should it cost to be safe when you're some of your constituents ask you for more police protection? The Andrews comment was you got to pay more. Now we don't. We give you more than enough money. You know, and you say anybody that disagrees that the city has cut this their budget to the bone. I mean, what a demeaning thing to say to your constituents. Anybody that disagrees with you is wrong. I think it's the people up here that are wrong. So I guess it's going to be business as usual. You know, I you know, you talk about 67% of the people said this tax is great. Well, I don't know who you talk to. I haven't met any of them. You know, and you won't release the information about the study. So, you know, it's probably a farce anyway. Thank you, Mr. Stout. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council members. My name is Peter Santillan. I am the business. Manager and secretary treasurer of Labors Local 1309, representing over 2000 members, the majority of them which live in the city of Long Beach and immediate surrounding areas. I'm just simply here to thank you for your prudence in moving forward with this matter ballot to help secure and pay. For the infrastructure costs that have been put off. For too long. Also, public safety putting off infrastructure needs is only going to cost more money down the road. I was thinking. On the way in. I know I have a problem at home with the leaking. Faucet and in the bathroom and I. Know the longer I let it go, more money is going to cost me. So. Infrastructure needs, of course, is a much bigger scale. And again, I'm just here to thank you for your prudence. And we will be doing everything we can to encourage our membership to help. This measure pass. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Very good. You click as the address. If you want this measure to pass, what you've got to do is rewrite it to reflect the fact that you've abandoned the buffoonery inherent in replacing the city hall with what's your plan. But instead, I build here an income generating paradigm, two of them one hotel, another an office complex, and the main library will go, is what I suggested. Develop a paradigm where the or their rent as outside school do the requisite language. Promise that. All right. And once that starts, come back to the people. With a reasonable plan, a plan that would include we eliminate the full time mayor. And we reduced the number of council people. Two seven. That will demonstrate that you're serious about the future of this city. The previous speakers have hit the nose. Right. And this is right in the head, period. This is something like Bernie Madoff would perpetuate and put forward. I have yet to come across anybody that supports this tax period. Most of them recognize the buffoonery and the deceit. That everybody is buying into. You just got to step up to the plate and say, hey, we made a mistake and you had the ability to change that. You can have a nice fountainhead of revenue in this terra firma and this city hall complex now where the city hall is. I continue revenue stream. If you do it right. Absent that, you're just digging the hole. And, you know, when you find yourself in a hole, what's the first thing you do? You got to stop digging. Period. That's what you have to do. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Ottawa Mayor. City Council Member. My name is Carl Song from the Central Area Sixth District. Now I know that this is difficult at this particular time when we are talking about raising any sort of taxes. But I want to let you all know that I am here to support the idea for a couple of reasons. If you look in a central area. When we talking about the infrastructure, indeed something must be done. Now I am going to talk about crime. In the central area. Often time my fellow Cambodian have come to ask to see whether or not they can get some help in time. But after I learned that many position has been cut. And there's a lot that need to be done. That's the reason that I come to the conclusion we have no choice but to support. This and they should to move forward. And I would hope that Mr. Mayor and a city council member think and make sure that this initiative will approve. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Song. We have one final speaker here coming down, and then we'll go to a vote. Mr. Mayor, Honorable City Council. My name is Jake Elwood. I'm the vice president of Long Beach Firefighters Association and also a resident of the fifth District. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of all the professional firefighters to the city of Long Beach. For this agenda item, we support this measure. Today, earlier today, the Public Safety Committee received a report on the response data for the city of Long Beach for the fire department. And it was alarming. It was disturbing. And it needs to be addressed. Obviously, we are not meeting the response times for 91 calls for all of our citizens and on behalf of all of us. The only way to fix this problem is the restoration of services. Your fire department, your firefighters are behind this 100%. And we thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. If we can, please go and cast your votes. And again, as a reminder, this vote tonight is to is to have the voters make the decision in June. So please cast your votes. And this is to put on the ballot for the voters to decide. Motion carries. Thank you. And now we'll go ahead and move on to the next item, which is, I believe it was 11. If I apologize, Councilwoman. PRICE Was it 11? Yes, Madam Clerk.