Recommendation to approve the expenditure of $5,000 in the General Fund Group as a reward for information leading to the identification and conviction of the individuals responsible for the desecration of Martin Luther King, Jr. statue on July 2, 2021.
Great. Thank you very much. That concludes item 30. We are now going to go back to the regular agenda and we will do item 35 next. Item 35 Communication from Councilwoman Sara recommendation to approve the expenditure of 5000 and the General Fund Group as a reward for information leading to the identification and conviction of the individuals responsible for the desecration of Martin Luther King Jr statue on July 2nd, 2021. Councilman term. Thank you, Mayor. First I want to thank the Anti-Defamation League for offering 3000 in addition to our 5000 for finding out and catching the person or people who've committed this just awful, hateful act. And I just want to share this as one of the steps were taken to take demonstrate the seriousness of this act, in addition to ensuring that we're getting up to date cameras installed at the park, as well as making sure that we continue to honor the statue by looking into how we can better polish and better take care of the statue. The other thing I want to mention that is also thinking LPD for their assistance in continuing to communicate and work with our community on the ground as well. And I just want to share that, you know, this is it's not only urgent that we address this hateful act, but that we recognize there are many an equity issues that we need to address in the park, in the surrounding area, but most importantly, how we continue to build unity through ensuring that we create events that brings people together. Right. It's been a challenging year due to COVID that we've not been able to come together. But I look forward and working with our community members to bring our various, you know, black community to our Latinos, African-American, as well as our Caucasian community together, so that we're able to ensure that we're promoting unity, as well as just getting to know each other to ensure that we just decrease the division that has occurred through various, you know, through the pandemic and other. So I just want to make sure that we constantly speak about how great Lumbee diversity is. But I want to make sure that we also work towards celebrating and ensuring we do education and of each other's culture and heritage and and so forth. So I look forward in doing that. As a new councilmember of the area, to bridging any divide that we continue to have. Thank you. Also want to thank Council Member Rex Richardson, Vice Mayor Richardson, as well as Councilmember Austin for supporting the item as well. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you. Just. Just briefly. There are a whole lot of things that city council's a whole lot of tools that we have outside of offering a reward. Occasionally we step forward and we do that. We have done some had some success with that. So I want to thank Councilwoman Ciro for offering up this this reward. And in addition to the Anti-Defamation League, we've seen success in the past, and this is an appropriate step. If you want to help support an investigation. In addition to the efforts that our city manager is leading and that our police chief is leading. And so I think this is an appropriate step and I'm happy to support it. Thank you. Thank you. Before I turn over to customers in the house, I just want to just add one. I obviously just again, just condemn this what was a absolutely both a racist, horrible, disgusting act on our Martin Luther King statue in King Park. And again, just note that this is especially offensive and hurtful to the black community and to all those that respect and love Dr. King's message that resonates not just in our community, but across the country, in the world. I also just want to thank I think want to thank the police department for I know that they are actively investigating. This is it obviously was a hate incident and a hate crime and is being investigated as such. And I want to thank that Councilman Zero and the and the members of the council for supporting moving forward with this reward and and the ADL for stepping up also to add to the reward as well. So it is going to be important that we continue to work to catch whoever or the persons or person that committed these crimes. Let me also just add, I think it's also important, Mr. Modica, as I'm talking to some folks, I know that we are we have already obviously made some adjustments to the cameras to put some fixes in place, and we're looking at some lighting. But I think what I'd like to see, and maybe that's something you can put together and I think are already working on, is some kind of definitive timeline so that we can actually share with the community. This is when the camera system will be complete and this is when the lighting will be complete so that there is a firm target date that we can actually share with the community. I know that Councilman Sorrell also wants a firm timeline, so I want to make sure we've publicly asked for that. And if you can let us know whether we have a date now or maybe you can get us a date just sometime in the next week or so that you think we can get these things finished. I guess I can certainly share a timeline for the whole project. The rewiring of the camera that is focused on the statue was already complete, so that was done immediately and rewired and they created a system there. The rest of the closed circuit system needs to be replaced and that's being prioritized. And we can provide a general timeline. Great. And then I guess you'll do that. You'll get to us in a memo format that we can get that information out. Sure. Great. Thank you. And then with that Councilman Sun House. Thank you. This was an act of utter disrespect and hatred, none of which represents the city of Long Beach as a home. We are a city of unity, inclusion and love. We do not stand for anything incited by or affiliated by hatred. And I want to applaud Councilmember sorrow for her immediate response to this crime and everyone in the community who came together to reject this message of hatred and uplift the message of strength and unity. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Was not only a champion for social justice and unity during his time, but continues to be a leader for many of us today in the sense that his actions, his words and his legacy live on in our hearts today. Thank you so much, Councilmember Sara, for this and for the reward. I encourage everyone to participate in this reward and to participate in this investigation, if you know anything. It is it is very important that we put a stop to these hatred hatred messages. Thank you, Councilwoman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. I also want to say thank you to Councilwoman Ciro for bringing this item forward. This was just absolutely the right thing to do. And we need to show our community that this hateful act, this hateful crime, is completely unacceptable. And we have to do everything in our power to catch those responsible. Mr. Modica I do have a question. So the cameras were down when this when this crime happened, and there are new cameras are going up there. Are there systems in place that we know if this camera is tampered with or destroyed or not working in the future? Um, I don't know for that specific system. I'm not the technical expert on that. We do monitor our cameras regularly. We had mentioned some information to you before a couple of years ago. Our cameras were only at about 60 to 70% operational. Council put a lot of investment into that, and as of last week, we had 94% operational. So this happened to be one that was down. There were other cameras in the park that were working, but they weren't actually focused on the statues, though. But I can ask the question about do we have automatic triggers that let us know if they go down when they do go down. It requires investigation and ordering parts, and sometimes it does take some time to replace them. Or even have cameras or, you know, vandalized for any reason. And they're not operating properly. That would be a good thing to know. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Price. Mayor. And thank you, Councilwoman Sara, for bringing this forward. I wonder and I, I think this is an incredible act to try to identify the perpetrator of this. We just did this in my day job with the freeway shooter, a shooting that resulted in the death of a six year old boy on the freeway. And I know that the reward kept growing because the county board of Supervisors put some money in and then a lot of other people did. So I'm just wondering, I think the higher the reward goes, the more likelihood that someone will turn in the perpetrator. And I'm wondering if there's any way we could talk to the board of Supervisors or other entities to see if they could add on to this reward to try to get the likelihood of someone being someone turning in. I don't know what kind of leads we have are probably not appropriate. For the police. Department to talk about that at this point. But I do know that as the reward number went up, the tips that came to our office went up as well. And so to the extent that the city can help facilitate that and see who other interested parties may be to help add on to this reward, I think the likelihood of identifying the perpetrator will increase. So I think it's a great item, and I really do hope that the perpetrator is caught and held to the held accountable to the fullest extent of the law, which really isn't enough. And under these circumstances, I think we would all want the full extent of the law to be implemented. So thank you. Councilwoman. Is there any public comment on this item? There was one public comments and I can say. I just want to say thank you to the office of the of our councilwoman, Dr. Sally Sara, for leading the initiative with respect to offering a reward. As Councilwoman Price has stated, I think when a financial incentive is involved, uh, usually someone is turned and uh, as a member of MASH al-Sharif, which is just a block away from this park. I pray that an enormous police department finds you because we are looking for you. That being said. Thank you, everyone, for taking this as serious of nature as it is. And we appreciate the timeliness of this. And we'll be looking for that member. Uh, Mr. Modica. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Okay, so we have a motion any second. Please cast your vote. Gentleman Price. Motion carries eight zero.