Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing and adopt resolution approving the Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement Area program and assessment for the period of October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016; and authorize City Manager to execute an agreement with the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau for a one-year term.  (Districts 1,2,4,5)
Great. Well, thank you very much again, guys, and thanks for coming down. Thank you. Okay. We're moving on to Madam Cook to hearing one. A report from Economic and Property Development. Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the hearing and adopt resolution approving the Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement Area Program. An assessment for the period of October 1st, 2015 through September 30th, 2016, and authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement with the Long Beach Area Convention Visitors Bureau for one year term districts one, two, four and five. Thank you. I'm going to turn this over to city staff. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the city council. I believe Steve's going to have a very exciting presentation for us today about all the great work that our CVB does and his partners here in the audience. But first, I'd like to turn it to my Conway to give the staff report for the hearing. Mayor Garcia, members of City Council, the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes and markets the city of Long Beach as a tourism destination, using funds generated through self-assessment of hotel properties located in Long Beach Tourism Business Improvement Area. The Self-Assessment District was established June 21st, 2005. City Council action this evening request approval of the continuation of the program in assessment and to authorize the city manager execute an agreement with the CVB for an additional one year term. The CVB continues to promote and market the city of Long Beach at an unparalleled level of excellence at its helm as its President and Chief Operating Officer. It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Steve Goodling. All right. Thank you, Mike. Hi, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Council members, city management. We appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening and present to you an update of what's been happening in the last 12 months. Also, honestly, I think it's the best private public partnership that I've had the privilege of being part of. It's between the business improvement district and the moneys from the city. It truly has helped us create a really strong economic environment within our city. That economic environment is over $300 million impact out of the top five industries in Long Beach. Tourism is the second. Manufacturing, which includes the port is the first. In addition, this last year, another benchmark is over 23. Almost $24 million was collected in bed tax. This is Council Member Andrews favorite favorite number four. For every $1 that we receive in the city contract, we generate $6 in return and we're really pleased with that number because I think it shows the efficiency and and the effect of what we're able to accomplish. If you look at the last five years, in 2011, it was 17 million, then 18 million, then 19 million. Last year, 21 million. This year, 23, almost 24. In five years. That has been a $6 million increase in total collections or a 35% increase as a city. And with our hotel partners and our entire hospitality community, we could not have achieved those successes without a really strong, dynamic relationship with our partners in the city. But also the economy has been extremely strong as well, and we've all benefited as a city and as individual businesses because of that. One of the key marks that helped us, that helped separate us from the competition was the opening of the Pacific Rim. This occurred roughly 18 months ago. Since that room opened, we've booked an additional $100 million in economic conventions. And basically what we're hearing from the clients is this room separates us from the competition. They can come in. It's turnkey. They don't have to spend a lot of money for extra rigging, lighting, sound. It's all they have to do is tell us what colors they want. And $100 million is a really, really significant number in terms of our overall outreach when you think 300 million a year. So that room has done a significant, significant job for us. In addition, on a smaller scale this year in our city, we will have four holiday events, corporate holiday events that normally actually never met in our city. They were outside of our city because we didn't have the facilities large enough to accommodate from 1200 to 2000 and more people. But the Pacific Room is making a huge headway into into this other segment, which is bringing additional people from the Southland into Long Beach and seeing all the transformations. At this time, I'd like to show you a video and you can hear from some of our other clients what exactly the Pacific Room is doing within our niche. Long Beach is on the map in a way that it never. Has been before. Amazing. Breathtaking. I love this space. It was one of the. Most diverse, flexible meeting spaces I believe we've ever seen. An incredible array of different types of venues and options of flexibility. Astonishing. I've never seen anything like it. The wow factor was throughout the entire night. They've made lighting a turnkey event that you can change your mind in just a few minutes to change the whole design. Literally, there are millions of colors and combinations and all the things that you could do with a light. 180 pin point light. So you're going to have 180 tables and it could cover the whole table or we can make it too small enough to cover the center. There's a particular color for your brand, your association, your conference, ask for it and you shall receive it. I was completely blown away. The functionality, the production equipment. There, there's nothing like it that I have seen so far. The group with any budget can impress in. This room such a. Great venue. You can use it for. Just about anything from a general session to your. Closing night party. You can use it for a concert. Or even a welcome reception where you're just doing. Cocktails, great food and networking. I was talking to colleagues in the UK about it before I came and showing them the video and they were all gathered around the computer going, Oh my. God, this is huge. We have a lot of members of our association that are Hollywood studios, TV companies, other creative companies from around the world. So it gives them a chance to show off their creativity. Using it, using the facilities here. It's going to save the meeting planners a ton of money to the fact that they have all the rigging and lighting that's going to be included. What is innovative about this space is the ability to transform the environment into an immersive media based space. The way they can drop the drapes and the lighting and the ceiling that they put in is just incredible. What we've created is essentially a technical ceiling, so it's a large metal structure and then a surrounding curtain wall essentially comes around and creates the sidewalks. The graphic ability of the curtains with projection is really unless you can walk in there and feel you're in a fish tank if you wanted to. I was here earlier when it was just a bare arena, and then when I came back it was like I stepped into another world. A planner can craft an event with very little effort now and totally cost effectively. Can really wow and not have to worry about thousands and hundreds of thousands of surprise dollars. It is a big palette to tell a big immersive story. It's an event planner, event producer. Event promoters dream come true. And an attendee a dream. Come true to experience all that. Mayor Garcia, Vice Mayor Lowenthal, also Councilmember Andrews, you were three that were on the council at the time. Your vote helped us achieve $100 million economic impact. So thank you for that support and will continue to deliver on that. In addition, this past June, we were in Washington, D.C. The mayor cleared his schedule. Mayor Garcia, we appreciate that there is no mayor of any city that actually goes back to Washington to meet with clients. They usually meet with everyone else but clients. Right. And so for Mayor Garcia to be with us, it made a large impact. And we had at that time over eight customer events, 300 customers and 28 partners from Long Beach. Traveling with us to D.C. recognized it. It was a flutter in both social media and also on the ground. In addition, last week we had a site inspection. The mayor had a chance to spend time at one of our events with a meeting planner and her son and mayor. We're pleased to report that as of today, we're about 95% probability of booking an 8000 room night convention because of your efforts. And and it really did your your dialog with the planner and her son at that time meant a lot, and it actually made the city more personal for them. And then when they came out and saw the city, they felt everything was the perfect fit. So thank you for blocking that time. In addition, another great community event this past year was we had the opportunity to host the World Games for Special Olympics, and Jane Netherton is a board member of Special Olympics in Southern California, also a board member of the CVB. And our past chair and Jane reached out and asked all of us if we would be glad to host the athletes coming in from China. And as you can tell from these pictures, we had a full community turnout. There is Councilmember Urahn shuffling in a little bit and Lew and Bynum and then. DH I'm sorry, but somehow the Chinese got the things behind the ears. But anyway, but we really, really appreciate all of you coming out this summer and welcoming the contingency from China. They had a blast. They had a phenomenal experience. And they left going back to China with a really, really warm spot of Long Beach. And that went a long way, especially considering they're one of our major trading partners. Jane Netherton on our farewell. It was a tearful farewell morning, but Jane also has a few words to share on Special Olympics and the event itself. Jane. Thank you. Steve. Mayor Garcia, council members. I would like to also add my personal thanks to all of you. The city, the city departments, Parks and Rec was amazing. They came out and one of our days was in Eldorado Park and it was just outstanding. Fire and Belize, we had so much cooperation. It was it was really great. There was an issue on transportation. I'm not sure many of you heard about it. But on that Tuesday night when our athletes were supposed to be delivered to us, that did not happen. And so about 230, 330 in the morning, we managed to get taxicabs and I wonder how we did that. And some shuttles and we brought our athletes to Long Beach to where they were able to sleep in the beds in the university that we had arranged. The next day, the Chinese consulate came out to Long Beach personally with his staff to say thank you to Long. Beach for making. That extra effort so that their contingency from China did not sleep on the floor in a gymnasium. And he was very grateful for that, but made that personal trip out, which I thought was a big step and just, I think Long Beach and said, if we ever need to get older of and we have cards and he would look forward to helping us any way that he could. Also, the Council of Council Member, we have a commendation from the county for a Long Beach as being a host town. They had us at their meeting the host town chairs and presented the accommodation for the city of Long Beach, which belongs with you, Mayor Garcia. And it just shows that they are they acknowledge we were we were the top of the top when it came down to what we ended up doing for three days. It was all about Long Beach and how well they were received here. So thank you all for making that happen. In addition to Special Olympics and host town. And thank you, Jane. Jane's heart and soul was in that and it was evident throughout the entire time. And it really was a complete community effort. The Queen Mary, the aquarium, everyone everyone came came to the table and actually helped make it just a memorable time. This past week, our hotel community also came together as another community initiative, and the police department came to us. And they had also spoke with Jane earlier about the special victims, those of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and elderly and children crimes. And when these things occur, they need a place for safe haven, sometimes immediately, because they're trying to extricate them out of an environment. And so they wanted some place that they could put them with budgets being constrained as they are. They had asked if there could be help in our hotels, have stepped up to the plate, all of them. There hasn't been one that said no. And they have said that they would provide complimentary vouchers for our police department to use so that when there are experiences and we have to find a safe home for an evening until they can relocate these victims into a better environment, they have accommodations in our hotels here in Long Beach, so we'd like to thank our hotels for doing that as well and for the police department for reaching out on that issue. I in other community. Yeah, it's. Another community effort which which we really like. Everyone understands social and how social media has really changed everything that we're doing. And so we wanted to reach out to the community and say, Hey, show us your Long Beach. How do you see Long Beach? And so we, to our surprise, had 38 submissions for a video contest. This video contest last spring culminated in a social media reach of over 15 million. And what does that exactly mean? Let me give you one example. Chaz Curry, who's a gentleman sitting here. Chaz was our award winning video for the entire contest. And Justin Rudd told me that Chaz, his video was the quickest viral upload he's ever seen in his history. And he had over a half million views of his video and 15,000 shares and look at all the likes he had. I mean, it was an amazing success. And and Chaz brought that into our contest. There were others, too, like Charles Whitehead. And Charles also came to council not too long ago, presented this great song. And of course, many of you said, go talk to the CVB. He did add. And we liked we liked what we heard and we liked where Charles was going with it. So so we encouraged Charles to enter into this video contest. Well, long story short, the videos were so phenomenal and the quality was so phenomenal. We had asked everyone, do we have the rights to your material? And they all, of course, said yes. And so we amalgamated all these different videos into one community video, which we took with us to Washington, D.C. to showcase Long Beach. At this time, we'd like to share with you are what we consider to be our community. Video of Long Beach. This place just south of L.A., where the people. So I mean, it's up for you to see. You could take the family tree like the Queen. Membership and the Aquarian. Once a year you'll see. Cars, racing, industry, people come. From everywhere. Check it out the way. You go to see the show. The place you want to go. A lot of people want to be here in. Down in the water. Here. You can see the skyline. You can even see the. That's been all the time. From the shoreline could take off on. Oh. Hang out with me. People seem to be in this way. The market. The people want for me. Just see something's always going on. Be. Be understanding that we're way downtown with our town. I go in. Downtown. You might. Long Beach. You might just be in Long Beach. You might be in Long Beach. You might just be in Long Beach. You might. Thank you. And also, could we thank Charles White add again and Charles Curry for these great, great templates. They gave us the opportunity to create this great city video. So, Charles. This year is also an exciting year of new firsts. The first was the Formula E race. Formula E is coming back again. We are the only city in North America this year. Monte Carlo, Beijing, Long Beach. Nice combination. And so. So with Formula E, we also had another new event this year and it was called Powell. And Powell hit the seat, hit the streets and hit the scene rather quickly. And we like to thank Pat West and city management for helping us work through this very quickly and getting all the permits done. And John Hall is here as well. John and Julia Wang and also Ron Nelsen from Long Beach Museum of Art. They brought this concept to us. We fell in love with it. We said, okay, how do we run with it? And so we worked with them and won the permitting and everything else. And then we we also took ads out in the Los Angeles magazine. We wanted the folks in Los Angeles to know that actually, we, too, have our own vibe and our own in our own hipness. And quite honestly, it was quite fun because L.A. came down afterwards and wanted to meet with Powell and see if they could expand beyond Long Beach. And and the reality is, is they're very happy in Long Beach. And so. I told them now. And and Jasper Wong, who is the founder of Powell, actually said he felt more at home here than in his hometown in Hawaii. So, Mayor, you, Mark Taylor, our city management team, everyone made him feel welcome. But you saw all the great artwork that was left and they're coming back again next year. In addition to the ads that we took out in L.A. magazine for the summertime, promoting promoting Long Beach and encouraging people to come down to Long Beach and see these ads. We also worked a collaborative effort with the Queen Mary and the aquarium this year. And for the first time, we had four pages in the Sunset Magazine and in triple j's West Ways Magazine, promoting Long Beach as a destination with the aquarium and the queen. So there were a lot of firsts this year, and those were all wonderful. I add at this time, I just would like to to conclude by saying what we keep hearing from our customers. And I just heard it again last week. We had, you know, we had the Unitarian Church here, and they were blown away at how this community espouses a lot of what they espouse. And they've never seen a community work together between elected city officials, city management and also the private sector. And I hear that weekly. And so one, we'd like to thank all of you for helping us in our effort to sell and promote Long Beach. Pat, Tom, we'd like to thank you as well. And SMG, the operator of our convention center, has been a wonderful partner as well, making our jobs a lot easier and also all of our hotel partners if our board could stand and just be recognized. And if the board could stay standing and if staff could stand. Please. And lastly, with over 400 business members and the second largest industry in our city, could all of our partners stand? Be. I will share with you together. And I hear this constantly. It's this. It's this grouping that makes it insurmountable and hands down, we continue to win because of it. So anyway, I'd like to share our customers comments with you. And again, thank you for your support this year. We really appreciate it. All that you may have heard about Long Beach in the past, that's out the door. That's passé. Long Beach is a real gem, one of the best kept secrets in the convention business. A little mini paradise. Long Beach is Southern California personified. Talk about a great package. Have all the big city. Services and amenities that you need. But you have this wonderful small town charm. There in a resort location. But at a convention center. The nicest thing is that it's a wonderful city. Two steps out. The convention center. You're right down. On the water. Everything is close enough, you know, within two, three, four. Blocks to find anything you could possibly need. There are hotels are so close to each other, it's almost like a campus. There's so much to do here. You just walk out the front door and take a look. Are we going to go there or they're there? Everything's at your fingertips. The aquarium, the Queen Mary. There's music. There's arts. There's places to go and dance. The hundreds of restaurants. And everything from your basic and expensive restaurant to. You know, your beautiful four or. Five star type dining. Restaurants. Long Beach is the only city where you actually leave your blinds open in night because of the lighting. Transportation in and out of out of the city is very, very important to us. There are three. Different airports that attendees can plan to from first tier, second tier, third tier and little itty bitty country towns. Which had great access to all parts of the world. When you experience the center, you'll recognize right away that it's not your typical normal brick and mortar convention center. I have two conferences in most convention centers in the United States. This is the only one that has this much versatility within the center already built. And there are so. Many great spaces, whether you're looking for something inside or outside. Small, medium, large. You can find it here. People love. The space. They come here and they love the casualness of it, and people just want to hang out here. The layout of the center is very easy. A lots of little, almost cozy little places for people to gather and can be. I saw more people networking within the convention center and not within the hotels. Our people loved it. We had all kinds of tables set up outside. The weather was gorgeous. The weather's always gorgeous here. We had to do a party for, you know, 10,000 people. And it turned out to be one of the most successful parties in our company's history. What attracted us to Long Beach was, number one, the people. Everyone was super happy to have us and they knew us and people. Who are working in the restaurants and working in the hotels all the way up to the mayor of Long Beach from top to bottom. Long Beach is a unique venue that people will enjoy and want to come back to if you want to be assured of sunshine. Of happy people, of great service and a variety of things to do before and after your meeting. One which is for you. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Long Beach a ten. If it weren't a ten, we wouldn't be coming to Long Beach. I think Long Beach really is the total package. I wish I could put every convention I ever planned in Long Beach. And if. And if you if you couldn't read that last meeting, planners from the National Retail Federation. Right. What great clients to have in our city. So anyway, thank you again for your support. We've appreciated it greatly and thank you for your time this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. We have a couple comments and I'll close. Close us out, Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And we could not have a better cheerleader for our city. I know that the mayor and I talk often about what a great job you do, Steve. And so earlier when we walked in, we thought, oh, my gosh, what's on the agenda? Why are all these people here? So I'm glad it's for a good thing and nothing that caught us by surprise. No one can turn people out the way you can as well. But I wanted to thank you for all your hard work, your board, your staff. You have a very hardworking board. Of course you have a hardworking staff. But a lot of times board members are there to give you advice. But you have a very active board, and I see how hard Jane works and Bill and others. And so there is something to be said about your leadership that you're able to draw that out of your board as well as your staff. And we get a lot of high praise. I know Steve said quite a bit about the high praise we get in other cities in our ability to host conferences, but we are quite unique here, you know, saying that we might be a boutique conference culture conference community might be appropriate. This is a place where conferences can come and feel like the star of the show. And because they're not paired with two and three other conferences happening in the West Wing, in the East Wing, it's just them. And so I think that's something very special and you're able to capture that and all of the renovations that have taken place at the Convention Center with the city's partnership and this council and previous councils, really my entire nearly ten years here, I think we have delivered a beautiful project, a beautiful gem. And I want to thank you for showcasing it, taking the show on the road and bringing more and more people to come here. I do want to thank you. You didn't mention it, but it is our next big thing that your ongoing support for our soon to be constructed pedestrian bridge, which would link the performing arts theater and the convention center. And that's something that's much needed. Of course, people find their way around, but for us to be able to make this easier, that connectivity easier, is going to be something magnificent. And I think it will open up other demographics of conferences, visitors and users just because we added that amenity. So thank you and keep reminding us that we need to keep investing in our CVB. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilwoman Mongo. I really want to thank our hotel partners for what you're doing for the victims of crimes here in Long Beach. That's really remarkable and first rate. And it's it's not often found in local areas. And so to have that partnership with you is amazing. Thank you. To our cab partners and supporting the Special Olympics. I remember the morning that I heard on the news that all those other cities were sleeping on gym floors. And I was really proud to know that our convention and visitors bureau, our team of people, comes together to find solutions. We never let bureaucracy get in the way of finding solutions that make sure that people feel welcome here in Long Beach. And then finally to the staff of the CVB for taking my endless calls and questions, ensuring that any policy we make here doesn't impact our convention business, and that any potential convention or meeting I ever attend . I always solicit them to come here. And I know you've done a lot of packages and many of them have resulted in great bookings and some of them haven't yet developed yet. And I look forward to each and every one of those organizations finding the right time to come here and saying, You know what? Long Beach is the best place I'm going to fall in love with Long Beach. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I want to echo the comments of my colleagues. It's a real pleasure to have all of you here tonight. So thank you. You do turn out in large numbers. And I did say to the vice mayor when I walked out. I think I'm missing some big item on the agenda or something. What is happening. So thank you very much for being such a positive energy to our council chambers this evening. You do amazing work and you do amazing work as a team. Certainly you're led by Steve and he does an excellent job setting the tone for the organization and everyone who's associated with it. But really, the commitment that you all have to providing the best service experience for those who visit and those who do business here is it's just infectious every time you come and speak to us and every time any one of us experiences one of your events or program. So thank you very much for making us look good. And I know I've said to Steve many times that I speak for my colleagues when I say that we're here to be ambassadors for you and everything that you're trying to do and we support what you're trying to do for the city. I think it's it's fantastic. I will say, Mr. Whitehead, the next time I would like to see Belmont Shore, Long Beach, you know, something like that, aquatics, capital, you know, something like that. Maybe we can do a different video focusing on our love for sailing in the third district. But I think that is such a catchy song. My kids actually sing it because they watch council meeting on occasion, and the last time we played it they were so excited that they were singing it for a few days. And so I love that. I love the local energy and that that the heart that comes from what you guys are doing. So thank you very much for being here and for starting our meeting off on such a positive light. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gringa. I guess you should also include a town. Long Beach town. Long Beach. Westside. Long Beach. Yeah. I mean, we have, I think more than anything else, it's an expression of how what a great community we have in Long Beach in regards to not only the people who live here, but the people who work here. And, of course, the CVB and the great work that you do in being able to market. Long Beach is all about branding and marketing, and if there's any one thing that I want to say is that we've done this with a measure that we passed in 2012 measure and that raise the salaries of hotel workers. And the sky did not fall on the opposite. It grew and it's looking better all the time. And we have people who love Long Beach, who want to come here, want to spend their money here. I have the Coastal Commission here. They're going to spend their money up all this week here. But it's it's it's it's a measure of how resilient Long Beach really is and how the business community, the hotels, can really step up and deliver. And it's and it's all because Steve Gooding is just a great cheerleader. And I'm looking forward to a result of our minimum wage study because I know we're going to step up again and we're going to do just as well, if not even better and greater, for the community of Long Beach. And I want to congratulate you on the job well done. Looking forward to having the National League of Cities in Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilman Andrew. Yeah. Oh, thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm getting the same comment that I council vice mayor got when a councilman asked and I was walking in the door and he looked up and saw a guy with a crowd and I said, Oh, it's a Steve Goodman show. So you have to understand, when this young man goes places, Steve, you and your staff, it was a dollar. Now we're going to put two and and we won't be able to get in here next year. But again, you and your staff, you guys are just fantastic. And I just I couldn't believe, you know, we get a large crowd when there's a lot of madness going on. But tonight, this is joy, you know, and everyone that's here, you'll enjoy this. And if you get a chance, please go to some of our convention centers, go around to the hotels, support the city of Long Beach , because this guy Guillen, hey, I tell you, he's the best. Thank you. And your staff again. Good luck, big guy. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Thank you. I just wanted to chime in and say, Steve, where there is Steve, this is this is fantastic. You come here every year. I see all the support you have. It's broad, it's diverse, it's Long Beach. And we we had a chance to see and listen to Mr. Charles's video before, and we enjoyed it. Right. And we did say take at the CVB. So we're I'm really pleased to see that not only did you watch the video, you embraced it and turned it into something else. Right. And and that was really cool. So thank you so much for that. And Charles, you know, I would say that I think we got our own song up in Uptown. What do you think? We think our Uptown Funk. Uptown Funk. I think we got our own song. Thanks a lot. Thank you. What do they get ready for? For their for their comment and the singing councilman Ringo, that was nice. Just just to wrap up for let me just start by thanking just the whole crew that's here from. I see so many of our games from our hotels that are here and our convention related business leaders, a lot of workers here from from a lot of our hotels. And of course, Steve and the whole CVB team and the board, you know, we have a world class like tourism team that I think everyone kind of knows that. You hear it when you travel, you hear from other convention folks, you hear from other cities. And we're just really lucky to have all of you just kind of promoting Long Beach every single day. And I you know, I've said this before, but like, you know, I have officially, you know, deputized all of you as ambassadors for the city of Long Beach because there's nobody in the city. I said I've said this many times. There's nobody in the city that is promoting the city more than you guys. You guys are promoting the city every single day. And that's a great thing. That's something we're very, very thankful for. It's an honor for me to help lead, you know, that that promotion and that and that ambassadorship. And you're all a really important part of what we do. And, of course, Steve is I would say is, you know, he's in the show business. This is your you're the best show man in the show business because you do a great job of selling Long Beach everywhere. Let me close by saying what's really exciting to me is, you know, a few years from now, three or four years from now, when you show that video, you know, downtown Long Beach is going to look pretty different. And it's already looking different, but you're going to see a very different skyline when you show this video three or four years from now. And I think that's something very exciting for our hotels and for the community and for those of us that live in the neighborhood. So it's a very, very evolving downtown. And you'll be able to add some more lyrics as we as we do some different venues. All right. Good. Well, thank you all again for coming out, Steve. Thank you. The board really appreciate that. We have a motion in an hour and a second on this. This is a hearing. I know. So if there is, I'm going to close the hearing, if there's any public comment on the hearing. Great. With that, if I can just please cast the vote. Motion carries. The companion item to this is item 24. If you can just read 24 quickly.