good evening and welcome to the
regular meeting of the council of the
city of long beach held tuesday february
15 2022 at 7 p.m
we have a roll call
oops councilmember possibly
hello
you're muted
tina
there you are oh so i am so sorry about
that i couldn't get off mute so here i
go
okay you're here councilmember lester
here councilmember bendo
president
vice president treston here
president mcinnes is absent let the
record indicate the presence of
corporation council richard barrios
we'll have a salute to the flag
councilman foster lee would you so honor
us
yes
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
thank you
i just have a quick
couple of announcements
so just bear with me for a few moments
good evening everyone and welcome to the
fourth meeting in the year of
2022 i hope everyone had a great
valentine's day
our city manager the council president
and our communications director are
representing the city at a function
tonight where they'll be providing the
audience an update on what's happening
in long beach and thanking an
organization
for their generous donation of an
accessible piece of equipment for one of
our playgrounds
next there's been a lot of
misinformation out in the community
regarding the potential for installation
of a parking system in the central
business district
unfortunately a survey and letter was
circulated that contained outdated and
inaccurate information
i want to be very clear on this
the city was not consulted with
aware of
or involved in the creation or
distribution of these materials
as for the facts staff have been
exploring this project for well over a
year
and they've noted as such at many of our
council meetings
we the council had our first working
session
on this subject on january 20th
a recording of that meeting is available
on the city's website
and we invite you and encourage you to
review it
we anticipate another working session
with flo bird in the near future that
will be focused on reviewing the
financial and revenue projections
after that there will be additional
meetings on the subject with the public
and we will welcome prior
input to anything moving forward
we know this is a topic that is
generating a lot of interest
and rightfully so
this council and this administration are
committed to getting as much public
engagement and input as possible on the
process
and that's on the parking
tomorrow
just remember the loop parkway is going
to begin
openings that are between the hours of
10 and 2
for work that is expected to be
concluded weather permitting on friday
so please plan your trips accordingly
over the loop parkway
tomorrow is the winter's farmer's market
at the bright eye beer company and the
hours are from one to six
tomorrow's recycling is glass metal and
plastic
i would be inattentive if i did not take
a moment to recognize the athletes in
our school district
congratulations to all the county
championships that are striving for
another county championship and have
succeeded
this our swimmers our wrestlers and
especially our athletic director arne
epstein
the long beach lightning the middle
school wrestling if you take an
opportunity please go and
support your children at their events
and that's all i have dave thank you
okay we'll start with the regular
calendar
the first item is approval of minutes
from prior meeting february 1st 2022.
do you have a motion to approve as as it
was amended
motion
i will
second
i will
okay
voting counselor
excuse me councilmember possibly
yes
uh councilmember lester yes
councilmember bendo
sorry yes
vice president trusted yes
okay i am two as a resolution
authorizing the city manager to enter an
agreement for operation of a snack bar
at the city's ice arena
dave can you get joe on
um i don't believe he has signed on to
the meeting as of yet
fine
all right
i can go
all right good evening council members
rich barrios here as the resolution
indicates this is a resolution
authorizing the city manager to enter
into into an agreement for the snack bar
at the city's ice arena um
as indicated it's 2600 um in annual rent
for two years
with um
with some options to renew for an
additional uh two additional two year
periods at the sole discretion of the
city just for reference of the council
and the public uh we've discussed uh the
matter with the vendor a little bit more
and the vendor has been willing to pay
100 per month in utilities for the first
year and further utilities to be
negotiated after that first year is up
with that
happy to answer any questions
any questions from our council members
just for the public's information this
is uh the philly pretzel factory
is putting in the bid for um to be at
the ice arena they are currently located
at 134 east park avenue
so they are a local business
and rich i understand you investigated
the
cost of the utilities and you you feel
confident that they're not it's
basically an electric charge that
they're not using gas and oil and stuff
like that that's correct based on our
discussions with the vendor the
representations from the vendor are that
he intends on only using electric
um and a lot of his prep will happen at
his park avenue location so
the ice arena location will be used more
as like a warming station for all the uh
all the goods and products served and
and he's taking the premises as is so
the city's not responsible for any
repairs new repairs or anything like
that
that's correct and the vendor would be
responsible if he broke something okay
that'd be great all right thanks
any other questions from our council
mr fraser any questions from our public
yes we have uh mr kevin heller
mr heller go ahead and unmute yourself
you got three minutes good evening mr
heller hi hi happy new year everyone um
thank you uh kevin howell 635 east
walnut street in long beach
um
so this is to operate is this just to
sell pretzels or this is to take over
the entire
um concession
uh mr heller for that uh the old snack
bar that used to be in the ice arena so
it's a small location so he will be
selling pretzels he'll have a menu as
well i think they'll be uh chips snacks
and and refreshments
okay does anyone have an idea in
previous years when it was operated i
assume it was operated by the city what
was that
that sort of annual p l
on the snack bar and before you even
answered just when i read the resolution
it sort of struck me as at 2600 annually
i wondered to myself is it was that a
typo um
seems awfully low and and potentially
not
not really worthwhile so maybe i'm
missing something does anybody have an
idea of the history of the p l of the
snack bar to the city previously
mr heller
commissioner brand
has just been moved up to the panel
perhaps he can answer
your question
commissioner
yeah
yeah the city ran it on a a very limited
basis with a a small menu
um we were good for probably
i don't know i want to say be
a couple hundred bucks a day on a
saturday or sunday a weekend day there
um
there were private operators in there
prior to us running it um what they did
i i'm not privileged to uh they had
different rental agreements at the time
uh but as far as we ran it with a
limited menu um it wasn't uh you know it
wasn't
uh an amazingly profitable venture for
us we were doing it more on like a a
break even type
uh set up where we were just providing
the service to the community
and
i just want to add um and rich correct
me if i'm wrong please
this went out to for proposals three
times
ritual
sorry that's correct we sent it out to
rfp uh on a number of occasions and
just the soul bitter as as fate would
have it
yeah and um kevin the other thing too is
and i i know most people don't see this
because i had missed it originally
there's a lot of uh information on the
uh not in the agenda but right
underneath the agenda that shows his
menu and all of those things
um what do you call it attachments to
the agenda
it's got a specific word
lester
i'm just going to interrupt mr heller
you can find that in the attachments on
the website all of the
information that we see before
okay
i mean it just when i saw the figure it
just struck me as very low i guess it
seems that maybe we're not
looking at this as a real p l center for
the city but more like the kids go to
skate and they have something
something to eat and and and the city's
not bearing the cost of operating that
is that a
sort of correct way to frame it
i think that is
okay thank you
thank you have a good evening mr heller
you too thank you so much
okay
no other speakers at this time
next time mr fraser please
okay
give me one
second okay item number
three
is a resolution amending resolution
number 170 21 authorizing the purchase
of sodium
a bisulfate for breezy i believe
under april i believe yeah that's where
i was going
hello
good evening commissioner
hello how are you it's hard to laugh you
have about
okay
good evening everyone this is joe
fabrizio commissioner of public works um
this is a resolution amending a
resolution numbers 170 21
um from november 16 2021 for the
purchase of sodium bisulfite um the bids
for this chemical were originally
received in the office of purchasing on
uh thursday october 22 2021 at 11.
um on the bid proposal form autochem the
apparent low bidder listed their price
in two separate distinct ways
one that indicated it was 1495 1495 per
330 gallon tote
which equates to 453 a gallon which was
on the original resolution and then they
listed their price at
hundred and ninety five dollars per 330
gallon tote which equates to five forty
four a gallon five dollars and forty
four cents a gallon that is
unfortunately when the original
resolution was prepared the 453 gallon
rate was utilized incorrectly
unfortunately was not realized until we
sent a contract
to autocam and they refused to sign it
at the lower rate
now please note that this was a rebid
um of
from august 2021 and the second low
bidder
the sole bidder on that project was uh
pvs technologies at 8.25 a gallon so
this is still substantially less
um
and
just so you know sodium
bisulfite is basically a chemical that's
used at the wastewater treatment plant
that takes chlorine out of the effluent
before it goes into rental channel we're
actually required to chlorinate the
water
with sodium hypochlorite and then we
dechlorinate the water with sodium
bisulfite so it's a critical chemical
that we utilize
at the uh wastewater treatment plant
any questions
um joe when when we go to um
when we go uh
start pumping it over to uh
bay park
are we still going to have to treat it
or will we be able to pump out what uh
you know just as it comes out
no we will not be um there'll be no more
processing of sewage at our plant none
of those processes will be needed
anymore we will simply be a pass-through
it'll be a pump station that pumps
waste through a 19 000 lydia foot force
main to bay park
um so no none of these processes will be
needed anymore once this conversion
uh the diversion project is completed
well that's good
it's really good
yeah we'll be out of the waste business
mr lester go ahead
uh one other question you say that in
the original bid it had two different
prices two conflicting prices well did i
hear that correctly you did yes you did
they basically listed it as
um
they had a price of 1495
per 330 gallon tote the toad is
basically a storage container yes so
that equates to 4.53 cents a gallon they
also listed it as 17 1 795
per 30 30 gallon tote which lists which
represents a 544 per gallon
so unfortunately in the resolution that
you voted on previously well that was
voted on previously um it was 453
gallons so this is really more of a
housekeeping resolution they have been
receiving the chemical because it's
essential for use at the plant we could
not just not
get it
anymore yeah we needed to purchase the
uh
the actual sodium bisulfite to keep the
plant operating and stay within our
regulatory requirements for effluent
um so i consider it a housekeeping
resolution it was a mistake
unfortunately
but uh why
completely i'm sorry mr lester
completely understood is there any other
question regarding this this item agenda
well i'm curious why
when we saw the duplicate
was
you know how did we
not pick it up is that something that
have we
created a procedure so that won't happen
again or is
was there something that i'm missing on
that that why it wasn't picked up i
think it was simply a mistake
okay
all right
no no other questions
mr bender
um
joe we've already consumed
uh
uh totes this so far this year correct
correct so we basically
so this this
is going to affect the price to what
we've already consumed as well correct
no it's my understanding again they
would they refused to deliver the
chemical
at the rate which was the 453 per gallon
so we have been receiving the chemicals
my understanding and they have been
paying the 544 price because they
refused to take to deliver it at the 453
per gallon
so they have been paying the 544 price
yes
okay but how are they doing that if it
wasn't authorized at 544 a gallon
well what happened is apparently a
purchase order was issued
because we needed to get you have you
can't view without this chemical no no i
understand that all right well he so
here is i guess my point the weight of
resolution is currently written
it talks about
at 544 per gallon for for approximately
5 000 gallons to finish the fiscal year
if we've been paying 544 all along we
have to amend this to reflect what we've
used
the fist this fiscal year right so in
other words
but when we originally in november when
we passed the original resolution of m16
it was for 10 000 gallons
now we're
we've used five additions five thousand
additional gallons since then so we need
another five thousand so you're correct
so the original the five thousand
dollars from november 16 to the present
um was essentially paid at the price so
that i guess would have to be amended to
say that it's really ten thousand
gallons at five forty four not ten
thousand gallons at 453 a gallon is that
what you mean
yeah because it wasn't authorized to pay
at 544 a gallon
correct yeah i i understand your point
and it's a good point
i can make a recommendation on an
amendment to that be it resolved uh
portion of the resolution if that helps
the council at all
okay so
right where councilman mendo mentioned
which is 544 per gallon
right after that language we would put
for an approximate total
of 10 000 gallons for this fiscal year
comma
with 5 000 gallons already purchased
and approximately 5 000 gallons still
needed to finish this fiscal year
comma at a remaining total a total
remaining cost of 26 925
and that should i think
put a ball on it okay i'm not even going
to attempt to write that down so i'll
send it to the clerk
i'm sorry can you can you read that one
more time sure
for an approximate total i'll send it to
dave now for an approximate total of 10
000 gallons for this fiscal year comma
with 5 000 gallons already purchased
comma and approximately 5 000 gallons
still needed to finish this fiscal year
one more comma
at a total remaining cost of 26 925
sending to the clerk right now
okay so do i have a motion to to
amend using the the language from the
corporation council i well
do i have a second
second
thank you
voting on the amendment
councilmember posterly
yes
councilmember lester yes
councilmember bendo
yes
vice president tristan
yes
okay
any
questions from the public
i have no hands raised at this time
let us move on then to the next agenda
okay our our last item is item number
four
uh resolution authorizing transfer of
funds for the 2122 fiscal year
and let me bring up mr flammer
ray go ahead and unmute yourself
can you hear me yet
yes
all right um just camera's not looking
uh this is a request to transfer funds
an amount of seventy thousand dollars
from the tax search very claims line to
the consultants line to pay for
appraisal services
uh prison services are viewed as part of
our financial restructuring process
uh tax startup defense and pending
litigation uh
we have a couple of nursing homes that
are on the court calendar and those are
specialized properties that
we feel more comfortable with appraisals
moving forward
uh as part of that process uh depending
on litigation is with
lethal towers for an easement
uh and with any litigation the courts
will only accept a independent appraisal
and
you know as far as the nursing homes
it's also
more regional
approach to value as opposed to just
comparing against long beach everything
homes they use
as far as queens
the rest of nassau county data as well
to value the properties
um
i guess that's it any questions
some of the council members on this item
yes please
um
yes ray i'm trying to figure out how we
differ
in our tax security than the county
because most of the time the county does
not do appraisals of properties they
have you know literally thousands and
thousands of tax certs
every year and they don't you know i
know i've done it and they've never sent
anybody out to appraise
on the more complex properties where
they can't come to an agreement
uh they do get appraisals uh i've had
you know some of the law firms
semi-appraisals that they sent to the
county uh for example
a couple months ago we did a tax search
uh settlement with whitbreads
and the opposing council submitted an
appraisal that they
had with nassau county um nassau county
also has shared appraisals with us over
the years uh they don't do it on every
case just on cases where they can't come
to a settlement
but before a trial
in a tax social proceeding you have to
have an appraisal your conference with
the appraisers and then you submit the
appraisal as evidence to the uh to the
court
it's the last step in a tax service
process
and all
counties that assess new york city
nassau county they all have
appraisers that they hire to do
independent appraisers
so um
is this uh
every one of these tax certs are heavily
contested so to speak or is this too
prepared just in case they are
well this is i have on the current court
calendar there is
uh three nursing homes and nursing homes
are very specialized in that
when you value the property you're
taking into consideration
uh
medicaid and medicare reimbursement
rates
um health
insurance costs to run the facility
and then you have to uh
include the past couple years of covid
involved so it's pretty complex
and
you know it's a little out of my real
house are the nursing homes
and also have
coming up the uh allegory of hotel
just filed the grievance as well for the
first time in a few years
and that's something we might want to
look at before
it becomes um goes on to the final
assessment rule so it's another property
and with the other properties there's
part of the financial restructuring
process the city properties uh the
financial experts want to see an
independent appraisal
and that's something that we come up by
ourselves
you said for the city properties
yeah that's part of the financial
restructuring
location
so the city property the cost for the
city property
wouldn't that be included in what we got
for the money for the financial
restructuring that the city that the
state just gave us
couldn't we include that
i don't know roy uh i'd have to get back
into tokyo and donna about that
liz just you're not in your head no why
would that be
they're they're two separate i believe
they're two separate issues
no they it's it's for restructuring that
money
it was for consultants for restructuring
the that's not this agenda item
he just said it was part of it part of
the appraisals for the
um
city property has to do with the
restructuring
right
was that correct
it's part of the process i don't know if
it's exactly
you know i'm getting these appraisals
for uh donna
uh as part of the financial
restructuring i don't know exactly the
process uh you know would you like to
yes i can add that uh councilman lester
um
so the grants that were approved by uh
frb
in the number 2021 for restructuring
work on a reimbursement basis so what
this transfer is doing is providing
funds for us to be able to pay for this
assessments now
and
then at a later date will evaluate all
the expenses that pertain to
restructuring
and will definitely include whatever we
can
all right thank you
sure
good as long as we get some money back
thank you
thank you for clarifying any other
questions from the council members
on this
item just just a comment i think it's
just important to note that
this is not
going to be spending additional money
we're not changing the budget overall we
are just taking money from one budget
line item to move it to this one to be
able to pay for this we are not spending
additional money
john if i'm not
if i'm not mistaken cert money
and which perhaps you can tell me cert
money that's put aside that's not spent
goes back into does it go back into next
year's cert money or does it just go
back into the budget
i think the cert budget i think rick
could speak to that but the cert his
cert uh taxer cri settlement budget is a
part of the ongoing annual budget
process for him so he would probably
have to account for this
upon balance
it goes back into the fund balance
there you go
yeah
all right
thank you ina
any other questions
any questions from the public mr frazier
i have no hands raised oh wait
i spoke too soon
hold on one second
so we have n flomenhaft
okay go ahead and unmute yourself
welcome to the meeting could you please
state your name
and
listen to the record
and i live at 10 franklin boulevard
apartment 302.
um i wanted to make a comment not on
this agenda item but a a comment to the
city
for now you will have to wait for good
and welfare if you have another comment
this is a comment only for this agenda
item
thank you
you're welcome see you in a few seconds
okay that was the only hand raised hold
one second
okay oop wait a minute
okay
okay on to the voting portion
so item two is a resolution of
authorizing the city manager to enter an
agreement for the operation of the snack
bar at the city's ice arena wouldn't you
just remove the adoption of this item
i will
second
i will
voting councilman posterly
um yes and i just want to say that we
look forward to having the philly
pretzel factory pretzels at the at the
snack bar at the ice arena and i really
need to try one of the um cheeseburger
pretzels so yes
councilmember lester yes
councilmember bendo yes
vice president trusted
yes
item three is a resolution amending
resolution number 170 21 authorizing the
purchase of sodium bisulfate wouldn't
you just remove the adoption of this
item as amended
i'm sorry
second
i will
voting councilman possibly
yes
councilmember lester yes
councilmember bendo
yes
vice president treston yes
and finally item four is a resolution to
authorize and transfer funds for the 21
22 fiscal year would you just move the
adoption of this item
i will
second
i will
voting councilmember possibly
yes councilmember lester
yes councilmember bendo yes
vice president trusted
yes then thank you mr flammer and
ms resnick on clarifying our questions
we'll make a motion to close the meeting
i will
second
i will
voting casper possibly
yes
councilmember lester yes councilmember
bendo yes
vice president treston
yes
okay
all right folks
for good and welfare everybody you you
can use the raise your hand function uh
if you do wish to speak you will be
given three minutes to speak
um
when when the timer goes off i will
unmute myself and you'll start hearing
the beeping in the background that means
please wrap it up in a sentence or two
um
and we're gonna reset that and let's see
our first speaker this evening is eileen
hession
go ahead eileen
yes can you hear me yes hello
i have a few questions eileen before you
begin just state your name
yes eileen
516 west beach street long beach thank
you
okay i know we're trying to save a lot
of money and i think you should probably
tell us at the beginning of each of the
meetings in the manager's report
how you're saving us money so people are
not uh thinking that we're just spending
too much
next
is their past is it possible to get a
list of the cars and the brand names
that are
being used in the city in the fleet and
how many of them are going home each
night because i hear a lot of lincoln
navigators are there and i'm wondering
why
um
kevin or uh governor
governor hochel has suggested that we
re-zone single housing i don't think we
should do that in long beach and i'm
wondering if anybody is doing anything
about that
and finally about the parking meters
the council put out the survey because
they had information from i mean the
chamber of commerce put it out because
they had information from the council
did they have the complete information
or is there more information coming out
thank you
can you just mute because there's a lot
of background
[Music]
if you can if not just
um
commissioner walsh is here
and i will have him address your parking
questions
thank you
and never woke up
can i be heard yes yes sir
hey hey just fill it with me can i okay
hi everybody yeah so
regarding the parking plan with the uh
chamber of commerce
uh they were
it was basically reviewed the
information that we gave out
uh in the first meeting uh the only
meeting we've actually had regarding the
parking uh plan
um
so far that was a public meeting
um
they spoke about finalized uh course
for the city they spoke about a bunch of
things that were never really discussed
in that meeting i don't have their exact
uh post in front of me uh but when i
read it i was
scratching my head a little bit as to
where some of the information did come
from
i can assure you that
this is in the proposal stage and
development stage we have a very
comprehensive
uh plan uh uh that we are looking to get
uh
more direct input from the council or
the required input from the council
and uh it's very well thought out uh and
um
the public is going to have the
opportunity to make their comments at
those meetings uh
uh as well uh we're trying to reschedule
another meeting uh within the next uh
seven to ten days uh so you'll have an
opportunity to even get more educated
yourself on it so it's not um it's not a
done deal by any means uh it is
certainly something that the city is
looking uh
to do
uh but uh the final manner in which it's
gonna manifest isn't complete
thank you commissioner
dave who's next
yeah
hold on a second because eileen asked a
couple of other questions
i have one short answer for miss
hessian's question on governor hochul's
um
accessory uh
accessory single dwelling proposal yes
we've already signed on nikon sent out a
couple of letters not too long ago to
all municipal um
all municipalities around long island to
basically oppose it i believe we did we
signed up signed a letter against it as
did a number of other municipalities in
the county
thank you rich no problem
i can also make uh uh
tell you that as far as the police
department fleet goes uh no lincoln
navigators exist uh in the uh police
department fleet i know and i can also
know just from familiarity that no
lincoln
navigators exist in the uh fire
department and nor
do i believe any navigators exist in the
city inventory uh that that i know of at
all but uh none existed our fleet you're
right commissioner yeah and yeah thank
you dave so that's a bit of a misnomer i
don't know i'm not sure where that came
from thank you i'd still love to see the
list of cars that we have thank you
i think that's appropriate irene and
now we can ask for that
and uh you know i i think you had
brought up one time before about having
the same make of cars
um that's always something interesting
to look at because it's easier for
mechanics if they're only dealing with
one type and the other thing you brought
up was you know maybe in a report
by the uh city manager the money you
know the efforts made towards saving
money i know that tonight we brought up
a couple of things and uh
you know if that's not a bad idea either
and uh you know i i gonna ask the
council to uh
join me in asking the city manager maybe
for a short
um
report in her city manager report with
that kind of information
thank you roy
thank you for one more thing for you liz
just regarding the fleets uh and to mr
lester's uh point
oh
please yes before we actually ordered
any new vehicles for the police
department we went to the garage and we
got the uh
the historical look of the newest
vehicles that we're buying basically by
chevy's affords is what we buy and uh
the focus was to try and focus to bring
the police department in and use just
ford platforms because they're
in the last group or less last three or
four years they've been more reliable
and less less problems with those
vehicles
than we've been having with the uh
chevys that could change in the future
but we've gone to
ford platform right now in the police
department
so
that's part of uh that's part of our
normal plane that we do we look at the
problem the last two tahoes that we got
in the city were having problems with
the front end and the engines and
electrical systems for new failure cars
basically two years old so we switched
over to the ford expedition and that's
been uh basically problem-free not good
let's hope it stays that way okay
hopefully that gives you a little more
information too
see i think that that proves the old
bandage great minds think alike thanks
thank you all
have a good evening
next mr frazier
okay next
ann flomanhaft
one second
go ahead and mute yourself
good evening again
hi my name is anne flemenhaft i'm a
resident of 10 franklin boulevard
apartment 302 in long beach
i'm here to notify the city council of
the grassroots campaign opposing the
opt-out of legal cannabis sales here in
the city
on friday february 4th we handed in
approximately 655 petition signatures to
the city clerk
and the petition's intent was to put the
question of retail cannabis sales to a
referendum on the november ballot
as you may know the city council's
opt-out of retail cannabis sales was
subject to a permissive referendum and
this means that the law did not take
into account until 45 days after uh the
opt-out
so how we collected the signatures we
had
people sign our petition in person and
the person who is requesting the
signatures we're verifying the identity
of those signing
and making sure that they're long beach
residents
and currently registered we had over 20
volunteers most of them being long beach
residents out collecting petitions
braving the cold temperatures and snow
storms over the past few weeks
the people who signed were registered
voters who live in the city of long
beach
and we were making sure of that
many long beach residents
are in agreement that voters should have
a say in the issue of legal cannabis
sales and it shouldn't be
left to a unanimous decision by the city
council
everyone
every group was represented in our
volunteer and grassroots campaign
including small business owners
taxpayers residents homeowners
et cetera and all of those groups will
also benefit from tax revenue
long beach has never needed revenue more
than now um we've had a negative
um an unassigned fund balance for
several years running and our general
fund is down by almost 9 million since
2014.
our city council acknowledges that we
need a new revenue stream and proposes
to install the parking meters
which will bring in revenue through
parking tickets
which is the most uh lucrative revenue
stream i'm asking the council legal
cannabis sales or parking meter tickets
retail cannabis sales are a better
alternative to the idea of collecting
revenue than with parking meters because
the parking meters would
disproportionately impact people who are
residents of long beach and patrons of
long beach businesses
there's also a racial justice and
criminal justice issue
around
allowing retail cannabis sales here in
the city of long beach
people most impacted by cannabis
criminalization over
the years that it was illegal would be
prioritized for licenses
which could result in an increase in
businesses owned by people of color
in long beach
having
legal retail cannabis
sales establishes control
over this market by the city rather than
the control that now
is had by the black market which already
exists in long beach
um some facts the long island
association says that legalization will
have the following impacts um
seven seven thousand three hundred new
jobs um which would all be union jobs so
um good union jobs are scarce especially
in long beach so there's already a
project labor agreement with rwdsu local
338 that all the jobs of retail cannabis
stores would be unionized jobs so my
questions to wrap up um your time is
expired please wrap it up in a sentence
or two okay before opting out did the
city council do any research on other
states that have legalized cannabis
sales for recreational use will you put
the issue of recreational uh sales to a
referendum and are you aware of the
petitions that we handed in on friday
the fourth
thank you ms
am i saying your name correctly flowman
hacked
yep
great yes we are aware of the petitions
i'm going to ask um our corp council to
richie there
before opting out to the city council um
or do you do any research on other
states that have legalized recreational
cannabis sales and will you put the
issue of retail cannabis sales to a
referendum on the november ballot
so what i can say is we had our public
hearings on it and there were some
presentations by both local local i
guess and and business interests i think
you may have been there as well
um
that was a lot of the information that
was shared i mean i did all my own
research and i'm sure the council did as
well i can't speak for them as far as
the referendum question that's subject
to municipal home rule the strictures
therein right so mr frazier our city
clerk is reviewing the petitions to see
whether or not it satisfies the
requirements of the law he's supposed to
certify that to the city council whether
or not it does
and if it does then it goes to
referendum if it does not then there
will be no referendum
thank you very much
do we have a time frame mr frazier on
when that might happen
next council meeting okay great thank
you
our next speaker dave
okay one moment
andrew keane
sorry okay
don't start the clock yet mr thank you
can you hear me now
yes sir good evening
good evening so my name is andrew keane
30 california street long beach
and my question relates to the council's
failure to constitute a board of ethics
in september of 2020 the nassau district
attorney and the new york state
controller
found after an extensive investigation
of long beach that numerous city
payments were made improperly
and made with quote a total abdication
of oversight by the prior
city council close quote
nassau d.a further said that quote more
active council oversight is also
essential
to prevent the abuse of taxpayer funds
close quote
she called on the city council to quote
ensure that its board of ethics is
constituted and active
to guard against future abuses and
conflicts of interest close quote
so what has the council done to abide by
the da's findings that long beach
have a constituted board of ethics to
prevent taxpayer abuse
to date nothing
the city's website states that the board
of ethics is to consist of eight members
appointed by the council
below the description of the board is
supposed to be a list of members
that space however is blank tonight and
has been blank at least since the da
issued her findings nearly a year and a
half ago
long beach has no board of ethics
the city's taxpayers therefore
are not being protected
to as stated by the d.a help quote guard
against future abuses close quote
in january 2021 the city council issued
a notice asking for individuals to
volunteer for the board of ethics
given my background in law and ethical
issues over a number of decades i felt i
could make a contribution and submitted
my application
it's been 13 months and i've received no
response to my application
it's unimportant whether i'm selected
what is important and troubling
is the inexcusable
failure of the council to meet its moral
legal obligations to the taxpayers of
long beach given the history of use of
taxpayer funds
to constitute an active board of ethics
i recall that current councilman lester
asked several months ago in his capacity
as a private citizen about the board of
ethics during good and welfare
and was not provided with a response
so
respectfully taxpayers having waited 17
months deserve something more than a
response
that we're working on it
we taxpayers deserve an explanation of
what seems inexplicable
that is why given the urgent need for
this council to protect taxpayer
taxpayer funds as per the findings of
the nassau dea and state controller
the council has not set up a board of
ethics more than 17 months after being
told to do so by the nassau d.a
thank you
mr keane
thank you very much for
the statement
you know i agree with you
it's much worse than that in that i
don't think we've had a board of ethics
meeting for many years now
um
it is definitely something that we are
looking into and
you know i can't speak for the whole
council but i'm going to do
everything i can to make sure this is
moved along as quickly as we can
and i i appreciate
that other people are bringing it up too
thank you
thank you mr lester thank you mr keane
i'm i'm sorry miss spendo please well i
was just going to add an additional
piece of information that uh i guess
most most people don't have is
uh
the type of ethics council mr keane is
talking about and that i think we all
want
um
doesn't currently exist
in our city charter the charter the way
our city charter is written
basically the ethics council right now
their job is to make sure
that elected officials and staff who
fill out their annual disclosure
statements that's basically its role
the elected officials and some staff
members have to fill out a disclosure
statement annually saying if they were
given money or gifts or things like that
that's what the current ethics council
is defined as
that is not what we need
so what we have done is we have tasked
the city manager and the staff
to go and come up with basically a
a charter or an outline for what that
type of ethics council that we want
needs to do
and we need an outline for that because
we will have to change the charter to
have that kind of ethics council
and that would be following the da's
advice
that would be following the da's advice
the way the charter is currently written
setting up an ethics council would not
do what the d.a wanted correct
thank you john
that is correct however the way the
chart is written if somebody asks the
ethics board for an opinion the ethics
board
can give the opinion regardless of what
the the topic is
as far as the ethics
so it's something i looked into and and
i don't remember reading that in the
charter but
yeah but um
but you're right let's work on it we got
to do this the right way because because
we all agree we need it
to make sure we don't have the same
mistake i'm not even going to say you
use the word mistakes the same
bad things that happened in the past we
don't want them happening again
but we need to do it the right way
thank you all
next dave
evan heller
dad mr hello
hi uh kevin kevin hello 635 east walnut
um
curious the ability to hold um public
hearings and meetings such as council
meetings by video conferences that
something that is a temporary loss that
starred in the pandemic or has that
always been an ability we had
um and have just used it
uh in in the recent past
i'm going to have our corp council
answer that question for you mr heller
hey mr heller um
so
public hearings in general subject to
the open meetings law there's always
been an ability for council meetings or
public meetings to be held remotely
the distinction i guess in um since the
pandemic is is we've been utilizing it
more right and what happened in the
pandemic was is they amended
the open meetings law or tweaked it such
that
um you're allowed to meet completely
without any physical in-person presence
um obviously to protect the public and
and the council members you know from
infection
now uh right now the governor has
extended her emergency order uh probably
through march 16th so that same
extension is still there
um when that expires we can still have
remote meetings
but there will be some catches to it
so
yeah i thought that was the case and i
just wanted to make a statement then or
a request i would say i have
often found
on agenda
listings things of interest
but then either you know personal or
work
scheduling conflicts didn't allow me to
to uh participate live and
and this isn't necessarily just you know
participating by zoom but the recording
of the council proceedings have been
very valuable so you know when we go
back to live meetings if at all possible
if those can continue to be recorded and
posted
on the city website i'm sure i'm not the
only one
that would find that extraordinarily
useful
mr heller just so you know we did even
when we were live i think we did record
i just think in this particular platform
on zoom you get a better i guess
feel or or sound for everyone speaking
whereas
in our previously live meetings we have
an angle on the camera for our old
youtube meetings yeah um so maybe it
doesn't come in as clear
but
we'll take it thank you yeah if that can
be done that would be fantastic thank
you hello have a good night next day
hey one second uh
lu dubow
good evening mr dabao
i hope you are well
good evening
your name and an address for the record
lou dubow kirkwood street long beach new
york resident of almost 60 years at this
point congrats
yeah this august 60 years um
two questions about the boardwalk i was
on the boardwalk on my bike the other
day over the weekend which is beautiful
um
the new bike lane signs i think they're
great um i see one
two questions about that first of all is
that going to be extended to all the
entrances to the boardwalk and the
suggestion about the signs i have the
tops of the sides are very comes up to a
right angle on the top i think if
somehow that could be
rounded when you get more signs or have
something over it because
i see at some point someone
scraping against it in the city getting
another lawsuit which we don't need more
of those
so that's something i had a question
about and the other thing is
e-bikes i know the e-bikes are illegal
they're not supposed to be on the
boardwalk
and
at this point obviously not a lot of
people are on the boardwalk but i know
in the summertime
anytime i'm on the boardwalk i see at
least at least a half a dozen people on
on e-bikes um
and you can really tell it's an e-bike
because they got that that
big battery that's kind of on the on the
bike itself
and they go zipping by
into the wind doing 20 20 miles an hour
so uh that's something i think needs to
be enforced more vigorously this summer
um
and that's it that's all i have to say
thank you
we will bring that to um
tommy kenner's attention about the signs
and
commissioner walsh will address the
e-bikes
thank you commissioner
it took me a second to unmute sorry i
didn't want to didn't want to behave
i can actually address both of those i
spoke to tommy canner who's a director
of operations for uh public works uh
about those uh those signs uh they're
gonna be spread out more than they are
now
uh to
and and more along the uh the greater
length of the boardwalk they're not
going to be as tight
as they are right this minute uh there's
the next thing also that i wanted to
talk to you about you know um
the e-bikes themselves
technically they're not allowed to be
used you can ride a knee by a bike on
the boardwalk so long as you're not
under electric power right uh so if
you're pedaling uh the bicycle you're
allowed to use the bicycle uh there's
considerations and some discussions
right now how we want to handle this
going forward i think the more important
issue uh from my perspective is the
speed of the bicycles not necessarily
the type of power that they're under
um we do have some challenges in that
you know you don't we have specials up
there we have police officers up there
especially during the summer the last
thing i want my specials to do is
stepping in front of somebody on a
bicycle that's going too fast i don't
need them to either one getting one over
or two
these people most people we try to stop
try to run
so then the other thing is uh do i want
to put them up there on a bicycle and
now we have a bicycle pursuit going on
on the boardwalk where we're chasing
people going too fast and we're going
too fast as well
so uh it's funny but it's dangerous you
know uh funny to say it uh so we're
trying to find the best way to actually
enforce these things we do have some
ideas that we're coming up with um
uh we're talking about the potential of
staggering barricades on the boardwalk
so that you kind of force traffic to
slow down
uh you know the bicycle traffic to slow
down a little bit so you have to slow
down and go around the barricade and
stay within your lane um there's dangers
in that too is that if people aren't
paying attention then they run into a
barricade it's a very challenging very
challenging to be able to satisfy
everybody we're trying to err on the
error on the side of safety so um what
i'm seriously considering this coming
summer
is uh is putting some police officers up
there on bicycles staggering them out a
little bit to try and deter people from
traveling under no reason
we'll run safe speed so that uh we can
try to get them uh a few summon
this issue to get the message out that
we're not gonna tolerate people going
too fast
um
it's been a complaint since i've gotten
here we tried several different things
over the uh over the last year to um
to address it and
it's a very very persistent uh problem
so hopefully that lets you know that
we're not ignoring it
uh but uh you know in my personal
opinion if you're riding a electric
bicycle and you're up there going 10
miles an hour 12 miles an hour that's
not a problem whether you're pedaling or
not the problem is is the speed on the
boardwalk so um but that is also a
decision that the council would make to
actually
change the the whether or not an
electric scooter would be allowed up or
electrified could be allowed on the
boardwalk so these are just discussions
we're having at this point that none of
the is um
is written in stone per se but i hope
that helps to let you know that we think
about it and it's something that crosses
my desk frequently and my executive
staff and i talk about it quite a bit uh
and we're trying to come up with uh some
solution
okay
thank you mr dabao
mr frazier anyone next judy vining
judy go ahead
good evening ms vining good evening
for the record please
judy vining um
speaking for long beach aware 20 west
park
long beach new york
11561.
um
okay a couple of things really first of
all um i too
am so proud of our athletes
and but we i i would feel negligent if i
didn't talk just a little bit about our
director of athletics who was named
athletic director of the year for
section 8 arne epstein and i'm sure all
i know certainly mary and tina know him
but whoever has come into contact with
arne heston
know he's one of the unsung heroes of
the school district
and of the community there's no child he
hasn't touched whether they play for him
or he just knows who they are
and um
i don't know just a suggestion maybe the
council might want to
pay tribute to him as he was just named
um athletic director of the year just a
thought
uh the other thing obviously i need to
talk to you about is um
the permissive uh
referendum and that requires
um which i'm sure mr barrios can confirm
10
of the voters who voted in the last
gubernatorial election in the city of
long beach not
merely 10 of registered voters or
anything like that the other thing i i
would like to point out because you know
statistics you can look at things any
which way i know you guys did your
homework about this because i sent you a
lot of your homework
in terms of other states
but we can tell you that um
for us
we know that
there will be no tax money there will be
no revenue at all until at least march
of 2023 so we do have time but in other
states for example in colorado the
revenue did not come up to what it was
supposed to it was
point nine percent of the state budget
and the cost for each dollar brought in
by marijuana and tax revenue in colorado
has been four dollars and fifty cents
because of increased costs of law
enforcement and they're the oldest state
so they we have the most most data on
that um
uh california revenue fell short so if
you're looking for money i i'm looking
for the quote which i can't really find
but it was from
um former governor coopen how do you
find his name hoping well and he said
you are not doing this to pave the
streets and make jobs you're doing this
so people can use marijuana
uh without any legal consequences and
that we already have in the city of long
beach but what we don't have is an
influx of people coming
and again driving on our streets
impaired there is no test
quantitative test for impairment that's
a big concern of course in with any
substance we know that youth access and
we don't mean that the stores that are
licensed will necessarily sell it but we
need mean that the more access there is
to a substance in a community the more
youth
used and we have that documented in
every single state that has legalized it
so far so that's our focus we want to
keep long beaches a friendly family
centered place where our kids can walk
the streets without
having
marijuana dispensaries and
um
consumption sites in their face 24 7 or
however whatever the hours are and so
the other you know again um
that's your time please wrap it up in a
sentence okay that's about it you know
you'll hear from me again with the
specific data you've already heard from
me but um
again we just we just want to say i
guess that
600 signatures in a city of 35 000
really does speak volumes that you guys
did the right thing
in opting out
i'll leave it just there
thank you judy have a good evening you
do
anyone else steve
oh
kathleen o'leary just just raised her
hand okay
go ahead kathleen
good evening ms o'leary hi
your name is
kathleen o'leary long beach
um i just wanted some clarification
about
um
the funds that we got for rebuilding
um we was in previous meetings they were
talking about
a grant to
rebuild the downtown area and then at
the last meeting i believe they said
something about we had gotten a grant to
rebuild the
bay area so are they the same grant or
is there are they two different grants
thank you
i believe there are two different grants
the one from the last one was the
waterfront revitalization
okay
and i'd be happy to as i have done in
the past send you some more information
on that
so that you have the exact wording
okay so that is separate from the
downtown um
and and is there an update on whether or
not you know what is the status of the
downtown
revitalization grant
not at this time okay thank you
you're welcome okay i will get that to
you thank you
you're welcome
have a good evening anyone else dave
that's it
all righty
thank you everyone for watching
oh
your commissioner boss before we
jump off i want to make sure to make
this announcement on the council and i
know you're aware of it but i'll make
sure the council knows and the public
that's listening on march 3rd
uh we are going to be holding the next
in our series of alcohol and drug
awareness uh uh
throughout the city we've been going
we're going to be moving this throughout
the entire city of long beach trying to
cover all different avenues and all
different manners of people trying to
really make inroads in preventing
alcohol and drug
overdoses
in
2020 we had 48 calls for overdoses in
the state in 2021 we had uh 78.
so we were dramatically up uh we lost 20
uh
we had 27 uses of narcan last year we
lost um
we're still away
hitting on nine people's deaths to be
categorized that way so we're really
trying to make inroads in that in that
regard uh we're focusing basically on um
education
uh awareness uh
enforcement and diversion and prevention
and really at uh intervention on the
part of the police department so uh
we'll be talking about those types of
programs we're also going to be doing
narcan training at this event it's at
march 3rd 7 p.m down at the west school
in the cafeteria and we hope that people
of the city come out for it and uh and
really learn about the issue and uh
we're really trying to make a difference
in and save lives if you can save one
we've really completed our job so that's
something we're really focused on here
in the police department and we're
rolling out an entire new program and i
know uh councilwoman treston has really
been
uh
working with us as well
[Music]
uh as vining the k2ma the west end
neighbors we have quite a few people
that are really involved so
i just want to make sure i made that
announcement thank you
thank you commissioner
and again
uh thank you to everybody watching this
evening thank you to our department ads
and i wish everyone a good night be safe