good evening welcome to the first city
council meeting of february
um
with that i would like to say a pledge
of allegiance um mr mcnally would you
please say
roll call vocal i'm sorry
sorry
it's okay
to get to business
good evening and welcome to the regular
meeting of the council of the city of
long beach held tuesday february 1st
2022 at 7 00 pm remember roll call
council member possibly president
council member lester here council
member bendel president vice president
trusted here president mcginnis
president
let the record indicate the presence of
city manager donna gayden and
corporation council richard barrios for
now the salute to the flag
mr mcnally would you please say the
pledge sure thing
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands
one nation
under god
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
[Music]
okay thank you
first off we'd like to uh wish everyone
a happy lunar new year
this is the year of the tiger which is a
symbol of courage and strength
which is definitely
something that all long beaches have
after that i just want to uh
to on behalf of the entire council just
say and the residents say thank you to
the city staff for all their hard work
this past weekend
um preparing for the snowstorm and
digging us out
we uh we appreciate all this time and
sacrifice that you made and thank you we
really appreciate you
um with that i'll hand it over to city
manager gady
thank you very much good evening
everyone
mr john mcnally will be our only speaker
for tonight
and i will be brief thank you city
manager gayden i just wanted to give a
quick covet update
um some of the numbers are a little bit
lagging so we're in better shape than
many of the numbers actually
presently show
as of january 26th
71.4
of long beach's total population has
been fully vaccinated
as of the week ending january 24th so
this data is about a week old
there were 224 new cases of covid
in long beach that equates to 0.95
cases per day per thousand residents
that is
at least at that time about average for
where nassau county was but suffolk
county has been able to update their
data
much more recently than nassau and their
trends are showing those numbers cut
basically in half so
everything is trending in the right
direction
hospitalizations are down to almost
pre-surge levels
the positivity rate for long island
currently stands at 7.58 percent
compared to
5.92 percent statewide
but those numbers also are going down
daily so we are uh i think moving in the
right direction
um and remain optimistic that
hopefully we're about to put this thing
in the past
that's all i've got
for tonight that's the end of my report
thank you can i ask a question john
please
of course when you said that suffolk has
updated their numbers more frequently or
more recently than nassar how old are
our
our numbers so our most recent data
and this is i pull it from nassau county
who's worked and partnered i pull it
from newsday who has worked in
partnership with the county's health
departments
um throughout the pandemic
suffolk counties i want to say were from
like the 29th so there's only like a
two-day lag on it
um and their numbers i mean i i could i
could show you and i'll send you the
link to it
you can look at the map it's color coded
um and it shows like a heat map of
how many cases there are per
municipality
they use shades of blue suffolk county
is very light blue at this stage of the
game where nassau county the date is
approximately a week older
weak are very are very dark blue
um so just the difference in the week
has been very meaningful in terms of you
know we saw a very quick spike up in
these cases
and as
everybody predicted we've seen a very
quick drop down
um in that spike that's commiserate with
the increase so we're we're about a week
behind in in reporting on the data right
the hospitalizations are following
the hospitalizations are absolutely
following it i mean every everything
lags approximately two weeks that's
right that's how the virus works um but
at the hospitalization the numbers i
quoted were really for suffolk county
because we have that same lag with
nassau county numbers yes
but the hospitalizations one has to
presume
you know suffolk county as a whole has
had
higher numbers than nassau county
throughout the pandemic lower
vaccination rates than nassau county
throughout the pandemic so
the presumption is and it's always
foolhardy to to make presumptions but
the presumptions is that we're tracking
in the same direction
okay thank you you got it
i i had one question um president
mcginnis can i ask yes mr denali thank
you
i just uh john i know a little bit back
from when i was on the school board we
like worked a little bit on this to try
to assess numbers from like south nassau
just to see you know when capacities
were being reached and things like that
i know now we're in a good you know
seemingly good place but at the height
of things is there any report out from
like south nassau to say you know x
amount capacity or anything yeah we
we've checked in with all of the
hospitals and it's when hospitals are
they look at um
percent of available icu beds and beds
in general we were looking at more than
50 percent of our local hospitalizations
um beds were going to
going to covid patients in terms of icu
but we never got
we never got
south of 25 of beds being available so
conversely there was there was always at
least 25 percent of icu beds available
for anybody so
we never got into that crunch at least
in this surge
um of having a shortage of beds great
thank you you bet
okay
i think we're ready for the agenda dave
okay
our first item is a public hearing for
an order to amend the code of ordinances
of the city of long beach regarding
motor vehicles and traffic and vehicles
for hire
good evening um rich paris corporation
council
has included in your packets and what's
been made available to the public today
we have uh some small amendments to
chapters 15 and chapters 24 of the code
of ordinances
um
with regard to the prices that uh
indicated therein those prices are
indicated or referenced to be a cap on
what um
people who are charged with towing or
impound can actually be charged by the
tow companies
uh the purpose of that cap is to kind of
dissuade or prevent predatory
uh tow prices
in that respect the other amendment
you'll see
is
the removal of the rotational tow list
fee
rationale for that is the city will be
moving towards a single vendor tow
system
more to come on that
and as far as where the prices came from
the prices were basically modeled off of
neighboring municipalities town of
hempstead rockville center freeport
etcetera
here for any questions commissioner
thank you rich so um just uh
so i so we can start off with the items
on the agenda tonight um the council has
been
asking questions to the staff regarding
the agenda items we have about 11 pages
of questions and answers that we got
over the past few days
which some
for this item rich has already summoned
a rise in his presentation
um with that said i'd like to ask the
council if anyone still has any
questions
yeah i do have a question right please
okay rich what happens if somebody is
charged is overcharged what can they do
okay
can you clarify what um rich can you
also clarify what overcharge means
for overcharging you mean in the sense
that if any vendor here
uh in the city overcharges them based on
the caps we set
is that the question
yes
yes okay so
um it's an enforcement question right so
the idea would be and commissioner waltz
correct me if i'm wrong you'd have to be
you'd have to have a complaint from
someone who's been kind of wronged by
the tow company and then there'd have to
be some sort of follow-up by either
either pd
or or my office in that regard
so who would they go to rich that's what
commissioner walsh yeah generally
probably what would happen in that case
was we would get the complaint at the
police department we would do a case
report on it then we would go up to dave
frazier and dave would rescind their tow
license for the city for over charging
but they would
you know if somebody asked me well what
do i do i would say you called the
police department correct if you call
the police department they can go to
dave and david directed us but either
either one of those two but the police
department would take a case report on
it and they could be cited actually for
uh for the for not
following the city ordinance uh it's not
a fine it will be a rescinding of their
ability to take cars in the city they no
longer be allowed to talk here
okay
roy do you have any other questions no
any other council members
okay
um do we go to the public now
yes and at this time i have no hands
raised from the public
okay
no hands raised um
you want to move along we can close you
can close the hearing
yes okay
okay
all right uh on to the regular calendar
uh i don't
i don't want his approval of minutes
from prior meetings
of january 4th 2022 and january 18 2022.
do i have a motion to approve
motion
second
voting council member possibly
yes
that's remember lester
yes house member bendo
yes
vice president trustee yes president
mcinnis yes
oh and i forgot to announce folks items
three and five have been removed from
the agenda items three and five are off
the calendar
okay on to our second item ordinance
amend the code of ordinances of the
state of long beach regarding motor
vehicles and traffic and vehicles for
hire a hearing has been held on this
item already item three has been taken
off the calendar item four is a
resolution authorizing the city manager
to accept and execute a grant on behalf
of the city of long beach from new york
state department of state
that would be patti bourne
good evening patty
good evening everyone
the city of long beach applied for uh
for a grant from the new york state
department of state and we received it
it's for ninety thousand dollars ninety
thousand one hundred dollars the match
is fortunately all in kind there's no
cash match and that means that the match
will be
by staff and volunteer time because we
anticipate having a number of public
meetings and we can count the number of
people that attend the meetings why do
we want this grant
well the local waterfront revitalization
program
allows us to plan for our waterfront and
new york state encourages long beach to
look into this program and execute a
plan because we're surrounded by water
and we have different issues on the bay
front than we do on the ocean front
so the important thing for tonight is
this is a contract which if approved by
the city council will allow the city
manager to sign the contract to execute
the contract so we can send it to the
state and it's important to do that now
because we've been told by the state
that they need to reserve to secure the
funds that if we don't do it now they
can't promise it but the project will
not start right away
we start the project not until the
summer and we have five years to use up
the funds and that makes sense because
right now we're starting our
comprehensive plan update so we want to
finish that get our general aspirations
and goals and objectives in place and
adopted by the city council and then
look more specifically at the waterfront
areas
and of course i'd be happy to answer any
questions
thank you patty um we didn't uh get too
many questions on this from the council
to date but i had did ask that if you
could please forward the council
the city's 2007 plan which was not
accepted by the state
and the obsolete 2015 plan uh just for
our reference so we can get a better
understanding of how this works and that
would obviously be posted on the website
as well
of course we'd be happy to do that thank
you
um council do you have any questions
okay i do okay roy yes uh patty you said
that the in-kind can be either
uh employees of the city or volunteers
and you expect a lot because
of the um
that they people will come to the
meetings
i i'm not sure what you mean does that
count if somebody shows up at a meeting
does it count as in kind
yes um so we would um so we would the i
didn't mention the purpose of the funds
would be to hire a consultant and staff
would of course have to manage the
consultant and their time makes sure
they do what we need them to do so that
our time uh is counted the other part of
the volunteer the residence time and
business people's time is that if they
attend a meeting the state says we can
we sign them in that we can count them
at about 25 an hour per person so when
you add up all the people that come to
meetings that is part of our in-kind
match
wow okay so we really have to get people
out of the meetings
fourth floor
free pizza
all right thanks
great welcome any other questions from
the council
okay any questions from the public dave
i have no hands raised at this time
great
okay
next item
right um item five has been taken off
the agenda
item six is a resolution authorizing the
city manager to enter a contract for
full service elevator maintenance and
repair from the lowest responsible
bidder
that would be commissioner fabrizio
hello can you hear me
yes you can do
can you see me
no
why is that not working
all right well i'm going to put
if you can just
speak a little louder if you can please
just one second i moved them up
reconnect
joe go ahead you can you can turn it on
now there you go
okay this is a resolution authorizing
city manager into a contract for full
service elevated maintenance and repair
from the lowest responsible bidder there
were five bids received in the office of
purchasing on tuesday
11 2022
at 11 am
um this is a contract is for a five-year
term
um it basically uh below bitter was
dynasty elevator port
1460 broadway new york new york and
their bid was 20
400 annually
now this bid is for five passenger
elevators
two chairlift elevators and one pool
lift elevator
they're located at the following
locations at one west chester street
which is this building there's two main
elevators which take you from the lobby
to the sixth floor and the two
chairlifts on the sixth floor um at 650
magnolia there's one elevator there
at the recreation center there's one ada
mechanical pool elevator
on this um just so uh one question that
came up from the council is
um is the
is the elevator that takes you from the
main lobby to the pool deck and
corporate incorporating this uh no it is
not that's a separate um contract with
handilift that's a separate company but
that's uh in contracts for um the next
one is at 150 west bay drive that's our
ice arena there's one elevator there and
a 6 15 riverside which is the mlk center
there's one elevator there
dynasty is going to replace unitec
elevator
um previously held the contract just for
your information there bid on this
contract was 21 600.
based on check of the references dynasty
elevator corp
is a reputable contractor they perform
contracts to a similar size and scope
therefore i recommend awarding the
contract to dynasty
if you have any questions
thank you joe um there were a few
questions on this i just wanted to
mention my question had to do with the
fact that
if within the five-year terms we um
divested from one of the buildings i.e
sold it
so that we didn't own it anymore would
be able to get a price adjustment
council um barrio said that we would
then you know
if that happened we would negotiate an
amendment to lower the price
um
um council do you have any questions
yes i have a couple
um
john did you have questions
yeah it's john's turn to go first this
time it certainly is
thank you thank you uh joe just uh to
clarify this does include uh the
contract uh preventive nation it's not
just corrective right yes there is
preventative maintenance is incorporated
in the contract that's correct okay
thank you
okay
thank you roy
okay um first of all joe
you got four bids on this
thank you
thank you
nothing to do with me but i'll take the
compliment
thank you again
okay i i guess you know i looked at him
and and the
the one thing that does concern me
is the dynasty if we need them to come
out for something that's not covered and
i'm not quite sure what would be not
covered but i believe if the light goes
out and stuff like that they they don't
cover the lights and stuff
but
if we just get a regular field
technician
during the day when it's not double in
price or or you know 50 more in price
um
there's a minimum of two hours
for the field technician and two hours
of traveling
so we're talking about a thousand forty
dollars for the first hour so to speak
or the first ten minutes or whatever it
is
what what has your experience been in
this
the labor rates outside of a regular
maintenance contract yeah i mean it's
typically not something we utilize it's
a mechanism it gives us a mechanism if
there is something you know above and
beyond what would be considered normal
maintenance it gives us a mechanism to
work out um a proposal you know with the
vendor to undertake the repair it's not
something that is used frequently but
it's not uncommon to have like an hourly
rate um
um
you know with with the mechanic to
undertake repairs that
would not be considered maintenance or
even preventative maintenance um
but again it's not something that we
utilize it's really just to give us a
mechanism and i have that like in other
contracts we used to like we have a
street lighting contract and it's based
on um you know there's unit prices in
there and there's also typical items to
say replace a fixture but we also have
in that contract we have an hourly rate
for an electrician in case there's
something that doesn't fall maybe within
the uh
maintenance
um in this case preventative maintenance
so we have a mechanism to um to pay
the uh could you give me could you give
me an example of something that
we would we use it so frequently uh i'm
not an elevator expert quite honestly so
it's not something we utilize that often
um i don't really have a good example
for you unfortunately
um joe isn't it correct that usually in
contracts like this they make those um
those ex those exceptional uh rates
punitive to discourage the
the client from calling them for any
single thing so that you would call it
only if you really need it
yeah right exactly like they couldn't we
would have i mean they couldn't use that
rate unless we requested they would in
other words they would go there and say
you know what
this isn't covered on the maintenance
this isn't considered preventative trend
maintenance they would show me
and i'm really just spitballing here
like you know look come look at the
elevator shaft
yeah right look at the look at this
the condition of the cable there that
cable has to be replaced that holds that
pulls the elevator up and down
um yeah and then of course that's not
considered maintenance right that would
be something that is a little above and
beyond i would think um just like when
we did
during the last round we actually
replaced the elevators under the unitec
contract um that was like a special
project that we did under that contract
um and we came up with a new price a
little bit of the in that case like 300
thousand dollars but you know that that
that contract is the reason that you
have working elevators today right
okay um john um jane or liz tina do you
have any questions
okay um any questions from the public
i have no hands raised at this time
okay
thank you joe
all right
okay
um
next item is item
seven
resolution authorizing the city manager
to enter into a contract for ems
ambulance billing and collection
services from the most responsible
bidder that's commissioner miller
hello commissioner
good evening how are you good and you
good
uh this is a contract uh for the city
entering for billing collections for ems
ambulance service
uh
city could put the contract out to bid
we received three bids on it the
evaluation committee
reviewed it uh the committee suggested
that multimed was the one that came out
on top
while we were meeting we negotiated with
multi
med and lowered the commission
another percent uh
from there we have a three-year contract
with them with the option to extend it
uh for two additional one-year terms
um
and again we've been with multi-bed for
about 22 years now uh they've been
faithfully uh
helping us collect the uh
money
okay great
um
does anyone from the council have any
questions
this time
no john
i'm going quicker
good
all right um
joe how much does the
does the billing service collect for us
each year
i do not have those numbers in front of
me that would have to
go through the controller's office
and they get five percent
uh right
current currently uh they were getting
six with the new contract it'll be five
percent
okay
donna at some point could we get those
numbers
thank you
okay um john
yeah i just uh do we
do we
compare the reports we get from the
vendor with the with the fire department
uh
call logs as a kind of a qa on the uh on
the billing
honestly i'm not exactly sure at this
moment if we do i'll have to look into
that and get back to you on it
okay thank you
absolutely
okay
any other questions from the council no
uh from the public
no hands raised at this time
all right
next item is item eight resolution
authorizing the retention of outside
counsel
is that rich yes yes
good evening again um as the resolution
indicates this is authorizing the
retention of outside councils focal lobe
and stern
llp
primary purpose of this is to act as
special counsel to defend the city and
its officers
in
a case recently commenced the u.s
district court for the eastern district
of new york dock at 21cv07182
at an hourly rate of 235 for partners
200 per hour for associates and 100 per
hour for paralegal time
how can i feel any questions from the
council
um can uh
as council do you recommend
that we uh pass this resolution
i do recommend moving forward with the
retention of this particular firm yes
thank you rich
um council do you have any questions
um president mcginnis
rich when would um so
the actual um
work
in passing this tonight
and time proceeding to uh when you know
the attorneys would would begin could
there is there
like a
stop gap is it immediate is it um
you know what i mean does it then just
begin
being does the rubber hit the road
immediately yeah
so um if the council approves this today
the retainer will be executed and then i
will have a follow-up meeting with uh
outside counsel on the case and then um
proceed in an orderly fashion basically
nothing's gonna happen right away we're
just we're gonna conference first and go
over some particulars but it's not gonna
be full bore
um
i don't anticipate football right out
the gate
rich
rich could you explain how um or who or
how
the um the times um expended
by the um
[Music]
by the lawyers would be managed by the
city
so essentially if um in this particular
case if it's
if it's any outside firm usually when i
retain outside counsel like for labor
for example
i basically direct the work i guide the
work uh i monitor and audit their
billing
so they they're not supposed to work
unless i tell them to work
well that's good to know
okay uh any other questions from the
council uh just
yeah rich do you think it
is there a reason we could not explain
more to the public why we're hiring
additional attorneys
i think there are there are some some
legal considerations that are not
necessarily
i don't know if we can disclose certain
things right with regard to legal advice
as far as why we're retaining this
particular firm
it's to defend for this particular case
right um they're also
uh the retainer also includes some
provisions where they can be used for
other things
um like federal cases pi cases etc but
for this particular case it's just
i i can't really say much more than that
okay
okay
all right
um
dave if you have any questions from the
public
yes we do uh robin donovan
hello robin
yeah miss donovan you can unmute
yourself
hello miss mcginnis how are you
um i'd just like to know
what the basis of robin
this is this is liz just for protocol
could you please just give your name and
address oh okay my name is robin donovan
and i'm a resident of long beach
um i just would like to know what the
basis of the lawsuit is
thank you
so this is the federal claim
it is a public document everyone can
look it up but it's uh it's sounding and
i'm sorry i don't have the complaint but
there's a couple of causes of action in
there
i thought it was the complainant's
violation of his first and fourteenth
amendments right
those are two of them i believe that
should be it
my apologies i thought i headed up
there we go
so 63-page complaint
sounding in
first and 14th amendment violations
so that was right okay we got it right
does that answer your question robin
yes thank you very much thank you any
other questions dave
yes kathleen o'leary
hello kathleen
hello there
uh kathleen o'leary long beach
um i just wanna echo uh roy's question
um
we tend to hire outside counsel quite a
bit considering that we have corporation
council
that is already on staff um
why exactly is it that corporation
council uh council cannot handle this
uh i see this firm on tv all the time i
don't know anything about them but
you know why are they so special and we
can't handle it i'm not getting it i i
just want to
maybe
say
i don't know if can't handle the case is
the right word
okay
um bro um
rich can you uh expound upon that sure i
mean listen the regular course of
business corporation council has always
retained outside counsel for certain
portions of litigation
we are very lucky to have um some very
seasoned litigators with us in our
office right so
mr geiger who i think you've all met
handles a large portion of our personal
injury cases and is really wonderful at
that
i've you know i've litigated some cases
as well but in the normal course of
business my predecessors my predecessors
before them have utilized outside
counsel for litigation reason being ms
o'leary that litigation just takes up a
lot of time
um and to be a true in-house counsel and
to be able to you know wear a bunch of
hats and deal with other departments we
do rely on outside counsel to handle you
know labor intensive litigation um
i hope that helps
okay you know i know there we have done
this before and i understand what you're
saying about litigation but the other
side of it is it's extremely expensive
those rates are reasonable but as time
goes by and the
hours accumulate and so forth it's very
expensive to the city
to to
hire outside council that's the other
side of it
i understood completely and and with
that you know part of litigation is also
resolving disputes right litigation is
just one method to do that
we engage in litigation we also engage
in settlement discussions and
negotiations and arbitrations and
mediations
um
all in an effort to reduce costs to the
city unfortunately litigation is one one
expensive nasty part of it all but
it's uh it's the nature of the beast
okay thank you rich no problem thank you
kathleen you're welcome
any other questions dave
eileen hessian
hello hello
all right hello all i just have a
question how many lawyers do we employ
full time in corporation council i mean
before your question is answered just
for protocol could you just give
yourself yes eileen hessian
long beach new york thank you
uh including myself there are four
attorneys tom
okay it i agree with kathleen it's a
very expensive thing to always go
outside
thank you
how many disciplines rich are there
within the legal profession
or types of lawyers
specializations rather
miles and miles and miles and miles of
legal text um
i feel like a law student here every day
uh so yeah the the practice runs the
gamut from
slip and falls to federal claims to
constitutional claims to zoning claims
um and and we deal with everything
pretty much except family law here so
uh to be a specialist in all of those we
probably
one option is to hire an army of
attorneys um
to work here full-time or we we can rely
on outside counsel right that's or a
combination thereof combination thereof
we're trying to do the dance
thank you
anymore dude
nope that that was all nor the hands
raised at this time before you go to the
next one roy you want to know how much
we made an ambulance
the ambulance fees
yes uh and 18 a million dollars 19 1.1
and 20 it was um almost a million one
um and we projected about a million one
for this budget
now does that go into the general fund
or does that uh you know general
gambling's oh okay funeral fund
yeah fire department is in the general
fund
yeah
all right
okay
okay next item is item nine resolution
authorizing transfer funds for the 21 22
fiscal year
i would be commissioner for brazil
um the next two
good evening everyone again uh this is a
resolution authorizing the city to
perform a routine transfer of funds for
the amount of eighty thousand dollars
from the beach maintenance equipment
lease line to their municipal building
repairs line
now the municipal building repairs line
is basically the mechanism
to fund materials for the repair of all
city buildings uh there's currently only
37 000
retain remaining in their current budget
line
to get them through the end of the
fiscal year
uh their original budget was 200 000. um
just for your information when they did
their budget last year they did ask for
400 000 in preparation of their budget
because um it's been historically
exceeded so we're trying to hopefully
this year you know we're going to sit
down with the city controller and we are
going to request um more money to put
into this again because it is used to
fund repairs
um
for for all the city buildings um based
on discussions with our director of
operations uh operations funding uh can
be transferred from the leasing line
because the equipment that was
originally scheduled to be leased and
the current fiscal year is on back over
uh due to code so we actually can use
the money to
supplement
the repair away
um do you have any questions
any questions counsel
yes
roy
okay
um joe i'm trying to understand this the
vehicle repairs are basically for the
snow removal vehicles how old are those
vehicles
i think that's the next that's the next
item that's the next item roy oh i'm
sorry item 10 is the um we're
replenishing the snow uh
the snow uh repair line it's not still
powerful this is for um
we're replenishing our buildings this is
the building repairs correct
okay now the originally
when we had a budget we had a budget for
the building repair
correct we have 200 000 in that budget
to start the year right
we're set for all the buildings that's
for every single building so
if you need a toilet or if you need any
sort of piping if you need a door if you
need it know it runs the gamut we do the
work in-house but all the materials are
purchased through that line so you can
imagine you know it's it's it's really
the clear all for
um
for anything that the beach maintenance
department purchases because they are in
charge of buildings as well in addition
to the beaches that's another hat that
they wear
so i mean so
that was
it doesn't sound for all the buildings
that that was a realistic cost
and
knowing seeing now that you're adding
this additional money
it appears that it was under budgeted i
agree with you um i think our director
of operations would agree with you as
well
um and this all goes back to one of um
the city manager's fundamental
um request when we're preparing the new
budget is to do realistic budgeting
um
and that's and that's my message too to
what i'm sitting down for the new budget
talks um you know in other words
we're the ones who are going to be here
asked
to explain ourselves you know when a
budget line you know runs over so
we're hoping that our requests in the
future are honored so we need four
hundred thousand dollars and history
historically we spend around four
hundred thousand dollars about four
hundred thousand dollars should be in
the budget so we're not in this
situation when we're well when we have
to find
money from other sources to fill the
budget gap
so this also i want to make a statement
also it has to do with allocation
we are now allocating expenses to the
right line item so when they came before
to ask for additional 400 000
history did not show that four hundred
thousand dollars was needed in that line
item so roy what they're doing is
they're learning the proper way to
budget so it has to do a lot with where
they were allocating expenses in prior
years to allocating into what we
consider the correct line item now
all right so that was one of my
questions was it something was it an
event that caused this additional
money or
i think it's more allocation
allocating it to the right line items
versus other line items that has been
done in the past well it was also it
sounds to me like it was under budgeting
too for these particular repairs i mean
i listen i know what it costs to repair
my house and for all the buildings in
the city two hundred thousand dollars
seems like
you know
yeah to your point it seemed like there
was
you know it was slightly under budgeted
and they've identified it and now
they're correcting it and going forward
they will budget accordingly
so instead of enough we have our budget
meeting tomorrow with
each maintenance department who oversees
the buildings and this is exactly this
is one of the topics that is you know
front and center in our discussions
tomorrow we should talk about this line
specifically
yeah
okay
thank you john did you have a question
uh i do but
joe considering like you said you're
saying next year you're clearly gonna
need uh
more money maybe in the four hundred
thousand dollar range
do we
do we have um
buildings that
quite frankly we're putting more money
into trying to keep them
maintain them than it might cost to
replace them
uh i mean we certainly have some very
old buildings that
need a lot of tlc
um i don't know if they're to the point
where we would say okay we just
um abandoned them i'm like actually i
have to say we did do
i don't know if you've been to our sewer
maintenance building um at the
wastewater treatment plant that is one
building where our sewer maintenance
personnel were where
it is it was so bad
that we've actually moved the whole
sewer department into street maintenance
and that building right now is abandoned
and to your point that building is
likely to be sold
um
and taken out of you know so it's not a
burden on our city anymore so we're not
like we won't be spending money there so
um
that's one example of one that we can
um remove
that won't be a burden anymore
um but yeah the other ones again you do
have to it's just a lot of the buildings
just do require maintenance um
you know go to a bathroom on the sixth
floor you'll see like that's one of the
things it was slated to remove any
repairs that had to be done on that six
floor bathroom um ladies room that you
know where the tile's falling off the
wall and the ceiling is falling in you
know that's where we use the building
repair line you know we'll buy sheetrock
we'll buy water or buy
plastic you know that's that's that's
the mechanism to fund any repair in any
building
okay done are we addressing uh john
thank you donna we are addressing this
overall where we're looking at all of
our real estate you know taking a hard
look at our properties
yes
okay thank you
thank you joe any other questions from
the council
okay from the public
i have no hands raised at this time
that's great
okay so and item 10 is a resolution
authorizing transfer of funds for the
2021-22 fiscal year
yes
um yeah this is a resolution authorizing
the city to perform a routine transfer
of funds in the amount of thirty
thousand dollars from the central garage
equipment rentals line
to their vehicle repair law
the stone removal vehicle repairs line
is currently exhausted there's no money
left in it the transfer will allow the
city central garage to require the
necessary parts
to
repair the plows in the city's fleet
repairs are performed in-house by this
highly trained mechanics
the snow removal rental line is going to
be reduced to 30 000 as a result of this
transfer there was sixty thousand
dollars there's sixty thousand dollars
in it now once we take this money out
there'll be thirty
um i've discussed this with the
department and they have informed me
that this is satisfactory for the
remainder of the fiscal year
if you have any questions
any questions from the council
yes
okay roy go ahead all right going back
joe how old are these uh snow removal
vehicles
we have i could get you the inventory of
the fleet just so you know like when we
do um our snowplow like this weekend we
have the blizzard by the way i'll use
this as an opportunity just to commend
um all of our city workers because they
did an exemplary job
um
you know i i drove around on saturday if
you go to oceanside rockville center
town ohio said nassau county
the pales in comparison to the job that
was done by all workers
but put that aside we have over 70
pieces of equipment that need to be
maintained of varying ages
again i'll get you that list if you
would like we have it it's in our we
have a snow emergency handbook and that
includes a list of all of the city's
vehicles so they range you know we have
obviously newer ones we have older ones
but they're all required to be
maintained and we do all that work
in-house through this budget line
that answer your
question
no
here's i guess what's what's bothering
me again you know
i understand this was for parts not not
the actual uh
the actual repairs but different parts
and
you know for some reason
it an
unanticipated expense you didn't know
this was coming
or we didn't know this was coming and
that's what you know i'm trying to get
it so that
we don't get surprised
each year with something like this
and you know and i'm talking
systemically i'm talking
no i understood in this case from what i
understand a lot of the plows when they
were put back um at the end of the
season the end of the spring last year
they were put away and they were broken
because they didn't have any money last
year so now they immediately exhausted
their line and in july as soon as the
money became available that the 30 000
that was in the budget to do repairs
from last year so it's kind of like
um it's fine it's going it's rolling
into the new year the repairs from last
year and that's why the line was
exhausted so now
um so i think next year you know maybe
we need 60 000 in that line instead of
just 30 um to catch up
um but we knew we knew in may when the
budget came down that we needed that
now that that could have been a budget
issue roy and that person that did the
budget back then is no longer with the
city so that could have been a budget
issue at the time and it wasn't
addressed properly but what you have to
know is that
when you do a budget is to the best
estimate of what we think that we're
going to spend and then we put money in
the contingency so that if we miss
something by a mark we have some extra
money in the contingency what we've told
each department head what ena and i both
have told each department is that you
have to if you go over based on your
budget online items you need to find in
another line item where to reduce and so
that they can come closer but i don't
think
very rarely roy will we ever match
dollar for dollar for what we budgeted
for in certain line items like vehicle
repairs or any other type of repairs
that we will actually have we will match
up whatever we budget for that's what we
will spend that's why we transfer money
because what's important to us is that
we don't go over budget yeah no i
understand that but joe i'm sorry how
much did you say was the total line for
vehicle repairs it started out at the
beginning of this fiscal year at 30 000
apparently that is 100 totally exhausted
so they have no money to do the current
repairs on the plows so with this 30 000
that we're taking from the um rentals
line we will be able to uh continue with
the repairs
roy what i would say um to your question
um that it is hard to budget for vehicle
repairs
and uh and to predict vehicle repairs
but the way to minimize vehicle repairs
is to invest in the fleet properly
maintain a maintenance schedule
and and you know and maintain a
maintenance schedule and then replace
the vehicles after they they they go
through their useful life so your
question is the answer to lower vehicle
repairs is really to stay on top of
maintenance of the vehicle
karen that wasn't my question my
question was and and joe said the entire
budget was thirty thousand and respect
actually sixty thousand on it so and and
i i definitely agree with you
maintenance is very important all of
that stuff is very important all i'm
trying to do is get our projections as
good as they can be because a 100
wrong on their projection is a is tough
and it's you know thank goodness we had
the equipment rental line to take it
from
yeah on a 100 million dollar budget if
we go into percentages on this
particular line and that's that's that's
the art of managing a budget it's not
just a science it's an art and that's
where you have to have lemurs in
different places so
like donna said you're you know
every every year you're learning and
improving upon the budget and so you've
made a great point
and it's and it's also worth noting
we're not spending money we don't
have we're moving money
so the overall budget doesn't change
you know the past practice often was ah
spend it anyway
even if we don't have it we're not doing
that anymore that's why we're doing
these budget transfers
right we're still going to need the
equipment though john do you you know
i'm not saying that but what we're doing
is at least we're staying within our
budget now
and and this is again it's it's year in
year out the expertise of the department
heads working with donna and ena
and euro oh you know there's constant
revisions uh in a budget process so
um we'll continue at it
any other questions from the council
anything from the public
no hands raised
all right
hey on to the voting
so item number two is an ordinance to
amend the code of ordinances of the city
of long beach regarding motor vehicles
and traffic and vehicles for hire which
just removed the adoption of this item
i will
second
i will
voting councilmember possibly
yes
councilmember lester
remember bendo
uh just quick i want to do a blanket
thank you to the staff we peppered them
with a lot of questions again this week
on the agenda
so uh just a blanket thank you for all
the solutions and
yes uh vice president tristan
yes
president mcginnis
yes
item four is a resolution authorizing
the city manager to accept and execute a
grant on behalf of the city of long
beach from the new york state department
of state would you just remove the
adoption of this item
i will
second
i will
morning
customer possibly yes
councilmember lester yes
councilmember bendo yes
vice president tristan
yes and thank you patty for
getting that grant
was it mcginnis
yes
item six is a resolution authorizing the
city manager to enter into a contract
for full-service elevator maintenance
and repair from the lowest responsible
bidder won't you just remove the
adoption of this item
i
will second
i will
voting councilmember possibly
yes that's my role esther yes that's
memory bender yes
vice president tristan
yes president mcginnis
yes
item seven is a resolution authorizing
the city manager to entertain contract
for ems ambulance billing and collection
services from the most responsible
bidder
which does remove the adoption of this
item i will
second
i will
mowing council casamayor partially yes
that's why we're lester yes
uh that's rubber benda yes
vice president trusting
yes and thank you uh commissioner miller
for getting that extra one percent down
president
yes
okay item eight is a resolution
authorizing the retention of outside
counsel don't you just remove the
adoption of this item
i will
second
floating catemary apostoly
yes
councilmember lester abstain
that's remember bender yes
vice president tristan
yes
president mcginnis
yes
item nine is a resolution authorizing
transfer funds for the 21-22 fiscal year
which is remove the adoption of this
item
i will
second
i will according customer partially
yes
that's robert lester
yes
that's riverbendo
yes
vice president truston
yes
president mcginnis
and finally item 10 is a resolution
authorizing transfer funds for the 21 22
fiscal year would you just remove the
adoption of this item
i will
second
i will
voting customer possibly
yes that's rare lester yes
councilmember bendo
yes
vice president trusted
yes
president mcginnis
yes we'll make a motion to close the
meeting
i will
i'm sorry who got that
rory can have it i'll take it okay
okay
voting counselor partially
yes
that's remember lester yes
councilmember bendo yes
vice president treston
yes and i just want to thank the staff
for again answering
the multitude of questions that we give
to them so that we can make just
great decisions moving forward thank you
president mcgannis
yes
um i want to congratulate the council it
is 8 p.m
so we hit it right on the money
um and uh now let's uh move to uh good
and welfare
okay folks for good and welfare please
use the raise your hand function that's
on um
on your screen um you'll have three
minutes to speak
um when your time is up you'll you'll
hear me unmute and you'll hear the
beeping from the clock in the background
that means please wrap it up in a
sentence or two
um all right we have a few people
raising their hands first we have uh mr
depper william depper go ahead mr depper
yes i just had a question about the
ellen
liz
i'm sorry uh william hello do we have to
state your name in your address here too
with the elevators our parts with these
elevators going to be very expensive and
are they going to be something that's
going to be a foreseeable problem
getting if they're not made in the
united states
and also i just wanted to say about um
the cleanup here you guys are doing an
awesome job and
i mean they're working all hours dumping
a lot of slow and the empty lot across
from me
and other than that the only thing i
just want to know is there a doctor that
long beach uses on step i know you have
your own attorneys
you know to make decisions regarding
coded bid or do you just go by what the
cdc doctors say
and that's really it
said joe for fabrizio has the first
question about the elevator in the parks
is if there's any parts associated with
the maintenance that's incorporated in
the contract and the responsibility of
dynasty and there should be no
additional cost for that
thank you yeah
commissioner walsh yeah so
regarding the doctors uh mr douglas the
um
the police department has a surgeon the
fire department also has a surgeon we
use them basically for members who get
sick and uh the police department
surgeon also does the city-wide we also
consult with those doctors uh when we're
dealing with things like you know covert
protocols and things like that to see
how uh you know how we're gonna handle
things from policy direction it just uh
makes helps us to inform our our
decisions
i hope that's not what we were asking
because you know the mandate with the
masks what the governor had and then
what uh the nassau county executive went
against on the governor's orders
so i was just wondering if you um
yeah we try to make it yeah we try to
make our decisions uh outside of the
political realm and inside of uh
informed
scientifically based decisions to the
best of our ability oh great thank you
so much
you are
okay our next speaker is judy vining
muted um hi hi james please state your
name and uh an address for the record
thank you
thank you
um i'm
really um asking to wonder what the
status is of
the filing with the
office of cannabis management in terms
of your opt-out
there's a 45-day requirement from the
mrta
law that says that once uh
municipality opts out we need to
file with the
office of cannabis management within 45
days or 45 days or up friday have we
filed
richard burials is going to answer that
yes we have
oh yes okay rich good the reason i asked
was because there are two sets of
tracking data
one is from the office of cannibal
manage
cannabis management
and the other is from the rockefeller
institute rockefeller institute
tracks the
laws that have opted out the ocm tracks
those that have
um
filed
so
when you put the press release out on
the city manager uh
on the website you need to know that the
ocm numbers lag far behind
the rockefeller institute which goes
um county by county municipality by
municipality so
it's about 57
of
statewide counties have opted out say
what municipalities have opted out and
on long island it's over 75 so
and
all of nassau county with the exception
of the village
of oyster bay has opted out so i just
wanted to put that
piece out there so you know i'm glad you
filed because that makes me breathe
easier i also want to announce that we
were awarded a grant in the amount of
fifty thousand dollars from the office
of
addiction and substance abuse services
twenty thousand dollars of
that approximately will go to the
fund long beach police department
initiatives at limiting the access
of youth to alcohol and other substances
and um
we're really thrilled that we got it
and
um
i think that's about it from that from
my official hat from my unofficial hat
um since the
it's clear that the haberman project is
going to go forward
and
i would love for you guys to take a look
at the possibility of applying to the
state for even a pilot project of one
side of broadway
north side perhaps being resident only
parking because
this is an area where i live so
i'm lucky enough to have a spot under my
building but the point is
it's the surfers beach it is
it's got a concession stand so
the traffic that will come eventually so
it i would love you to take a look at
what you could do preemptively
okay i hear the bill yep that is your
time
thank you um uh thank you
congratulations on your grant it's quite
an accomplishment and thank you for all
your service to the community
um john o'donnell doug ron karen i just
want to say uh thank you to judy too
she's been a great partner to the police
department over the years uh we were on
the phone several times today we're
planning we're actually working uh to
find new and innovative ways to use some
of that grant money too to try and
really uh stem the tide of narcotics use
in the city so it's a great partner and
we really really appreciate it thank you
judy
we'll take your cons our suggestions
into consideration thanks judy
hey that's it
okay everybody i just want you to know
that you can see us back here on
thursday february 10th for our next work
work session because the work never
stops
and i also hope to see you all this
sunday for the polar bear splash
and don't forget the
run on saturday
well i'll be watching not running
okay have a good night everybody
happy groundhog today