all right good evening everyone and
welcome to our second meeting of
february hope everyone had a great
valentine's day and
uh took advantage of the unusually warm
weather today but
let's get the show going happy mardi
gras
and happy fat tuesday yeah all right
good evening and welcome to the regular
meeting of the council of the city of
long beach held tuesday february 16th
2021 at 7 p.m we have a roll call
council member deliri
president councilmember mandel president
councilmember truston vice president
mcginnis
president president bendo present
let the record indicate the president's
city manager donald gaiden and deputy
corporation council rich barrios we'll
have a slow to the flag
all right i'm gonna ask councilwoman
treston to lead us
hands over heart 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
all right thank you and i guess we will
start with the city manager's report
um thank you good evening everyone um
can you move uh ron walsh
up he's my first speaker for tonight
okay ron go ahead all right good evening
everybody
um i just wanted to bring to uh the
board's attention some excellent police
work
uh by two members of our police
department that actually took place on
two separate incidents
uh the first one happened on uh friday
february 2012 just uh last week
uh pl mcculloch was assigned to a call
for a dog at large
uh he was able to locate the dog but
wasn't really successful in trying to
capture the dog a lot of times when you
pull up to these scenes
you open up the door of the car and you
know the dogs jump in
this particular dog wasn't having really
any part of that whatsoever
so at about 706 the dog seven or six in
the morning
the dog runs down onto a dock and the
area where this took place
uh there was like waste deep water and
there were like weeds and reeds that
grew up so made it kind of look to the
like it was solid ground uh the dog
jumps into the water now the dog jumps
into the water and immediately starts
having
a lot of difficulty swimming because the
reeds and everything are getting stuck
around its legs and it's too deep for
him to stand
uh as this was happening the fire
department was there and the
um animal control officers were there
the animal control officer was trying to
put on his wetsuit to jump in and trying
to rescue the dog
but the dog started to drown wasn't able
to keep itself
above uh water so officer mccullough
brian mcculloch jumped in the water with
his
boots his uniform his gun every single
piece of equipment his vest jumped right
into the water and
went over to the dog rescues the dog
carries it to safety
and uh you know they evaluated him with
the fire department value with him but
uh you know that's a very selfless act
in in water that was up to his uh
chest apparently and uh i really wanted
to bring attention to great work and i'm
sure our animal lovers will
absolutely love the fact that he did
that uh and uh
i just uh hope that the city council
joins me in uh
thanking him for a great job so um
i don't know that brian made it on to
the call uh tonight we tried to reach
out to him
but uh i'm sure he would appreciate any
words that you guys might have to say
about that
i think it's an outstanding effort
commissioner and
very selfless and i'm sure hopefully
he's all right after that
cold water he's okay too and uh
it's amazing but thank you yeah you're
welcome
truly up and above outstanding thank you
um the next uh officer i would like to
um bring to our attention and dave i
don't know if uh
officer holsten made it on do you do you
see her that she's on it all
right i just allowed her to talk okay
great so uh maybe at the end of this you
guys can ask for some questions but if
you want to
think of yourselves but on um
i guess i'm trying to just find the date
here uh
so officer halstead is one of our newest
officers she actually came to the police
department uh
as recently as this november 20th so
she's been here for
about three and a half months she she
had four years experience uh with the
nypd
but on the evening of january 19th uh
2021 officer holstead was patrolling
broadway
when she observed the vehicle go through
a red traffic signal without stopping
uh she conducted a traffic stop on the
vehicle in order to write a ticket but
she kind of sensed that something wasn't
right with the individual
and she began to do a more thorough
investigation
through our digging deeper uh officer
holsten was able to discover
that the driver had multiple suspensions
on his driver's license and an
active uh arrest warrant from suffolk
county
an active bench warrant from nassau
accounting and while
finding those things is laudable enough
during the arrest processing and while
doing what's called
an inventory search of the suspect's
vehicle officer holsten discovers that
the driver has approximately
10 pounds of marijuana packed in
airtight containers
in the trunk of the vehicle which is a
class d
uh felony now in police work uh making
vehicle stops we never really consider
any of them uh routine they're usually
some of the most dangerous things that
we ever get involved in
but officer holstad actually recognized
uh
you know and even though her initial
reason for the stop was a traffic
infraction she recognized that
something wasn't right she was very
tenacious with this particular stop
she went with her insta instincts and
really made it out uh standing arrest
uh and uh the city of long beach in my
opinion is very lucky to have office
holster on board we look
forward to a lot more years of of her
service
and for me these two examples of our
from our police officers is just
another example to this city of the
outstanding work
that our officers do their commitment
and i want to congratulate them both but
i believe megan's on the line
and i wanted to say thank you to megan
and open it up to you guys if you have
any uh questions or comments for her
officer house dad this is liz treston
and to the police commissioner i just
want to thank
both of you for adding to
our council with our new refreshed look
at our police department
and the and the risk that you take
every day and thank you
thank you megan if you're muted they
won't be able to hear you i don't know
if you can talk
all right okay uh yeah but great great
job uh
this is the kind of great news our
residents want to hear about
uh i guess this is the stuff that a lot
of people
unless they get pulled over they really
don't have much interaction with our
police so they don't
know all the stuff that's going on out
there and
um um what our officers are doing out
there so this is uh
this is this is good stuff and
commissioner i just wanted to ask um
um at what time of day or night
did this happen was it like in the wee
hours or do we know
you know i i i just closed my details of
this but i believe megan's
megan's was definitely in the evening
and it was a it was it was a um
it was i think i think 11 o'clock is
coming to mind at 11 o'clock at night
she now works day tours for us she
recently uh was moved
to a detour position but this was around
11 o'clock at night when i i believe
this started 10 or 11 o'clock at night
and it was a relatively uh difficult uh
arrest to kind of get through with her
because it was very involved you had
traffic infractions you had
two different kinds of warrants an
arrest warrant and you also had
a bench warrant so they had two separate
kinds of warrants
then you had the d felony you had to
voucher all the drugs and stuff like
that it was really outstanding work
uh with her and uh it was actually uh it
was funny i know she's on the phone but
when i called her
originally i called her to congratulate
her for the work and uh
i think she was a little taken back
because uh she's like gee why's the
commissioner police calling me did i do
something wrong
and it was really to compliment her on
just great work
and the type of thing and the tenacity
that we're really looking for in our
officers
and uh made me very proud to be
associated with the department as well
as brian's i mean
i don't know that i would have jumped in
uh you know chess deep water in the
middle of february uh to rescue a dog
i mean i would have done whatever i
could but jumping in the water might be
a little bit beyond my my body's ability
to tolerate
so i really compliment him i just think
it's fantastic that we have such
dedicated cops i really do
yeah i agree commissioner thank you
officer halstead it's great job
thank you great two great officers thank
you and thank you commissioner
sure thank you all right thank you
commissioner
um next is monique powell from youth and
family services and community
development
thank you good evening all um so just as
an update of youth and family services
uh we again we activated the department
making it as a whole
uh we have streamlined the systems
uh as far as our daycare early childhood
programs
so we talked about that previously we're
moving forward march
1st will be the launch date where we
will
inform families um staff is currently
doing training this week
about how we're launching this new
software which is a student information
system software called procare
uh so we are all excited for that and
staffing
um this whole week staff is doing cpr
training updating our training so that
we are
up to code and requirement um youth
youth services we have a couple of
programs that's going along we have a
black
black kid magic that is on february 27th
currently we're doing the
african-american
um scavenger hunt at the local city
parks
where kids as long as they have
permission of their families
can visit a local city park in their
community in their area
and look for the qr codes that we placed
at the parks
they can scan the qr code and learn
about african american inventors
so that's currently going on last week
we had a
cupcake decorating it went live as far
as the photos and the results of it
where the kids were able to decorate
cupcakes
and they took home two dozen cupcakes to
their valentine
right now we're going to start the
youth academic tutoring services
one-on-one
where families have an option to come to
the magnolia center on the second floor
for their tutoring
or they can have the one-on-one tutoring
remotely at home
so we're currently starting that as we
move on to
our senior services we started to look
into the survey that we provided
and one of the needs where that our
senior said that they need to be in
touch with families and friends
so melissa cohen and i are looking into
more detail of what that look like so
that we can meet their needs
um and we you know we have some examples
so stay tuned
for that but uh we are excited uh to
start the senior services as well
we're not doing in person right now but
we're going to try to meet their needs
providing food drive through and even
some type of remote services to them
for community development we are
starting to look at the needs of the
community
and one of the programs that we are
going to start is the
micro enterprise business program
so we're very excited to launch this
micro enterprise business
program uh it's going to start in march
and what it is is a program that helps
small businesses
that has five or fewer employees uh
to and provide them with assistance
during these times
um and that could be as technical
assistance training
resources in addition to that we're
doing small
business assistance where we're going to
help those
who would like to start their business
and of course this is community
development funds
so we're looking into the minority uh
businesses
to help minority uh to increase minority
ownership
in long beach and as brief
that is that's what we're working on
are there any questions for moani
okay the micro enterprise is on the
agenda tonight for a vote
um the next person that i have
is mr john morando and during our last
meeting roy lester
asked some questions and mr miranda was
not
on the call um that particular night so
i asked him to give
roy a call to answer those questions and
what i said to
everyone that was at that meeting i
would ask mr morando to come back and
tell
the public what the answers to those
questions were
so that everybody would be on the same
page so
john miranda if you would go ahead i'd
greatly appreciate it
john
he's unmuted
john we can't hear you
okay he just muted and unmuted
john you may have to go back go out and
come back in
and while we're waiting for that we can
go on to john mcnally
sure everybody can hear me okay
yes good evening everybody uh city
manager just wanted me to give a
brief update on kovid so
uh for the week ending february 14th
there were 116 new positive cases in
long beach which averages out to
16.62
per day over a seven day period so
that's we are
we are down from the numbers are still
higher than we were over the summer
but we are obviously down from the
holiday peak roughly half of where we
are
or where we were uh for instance the
seven day average per thousand residents
is 0.5 now
where we were hovering you know just
above one
uh during during the holiday peak that
we had we will see if there is a
super bowl peak um we we hope not
i certainly hope that there's not a
mardi gras peak two weeks from now
for the long island region as a whole
you know the key metrics that the state
is looking at is percent of available
icu beds
that's holding at 21 it has been
remarkably consistent
and the positivity rate for nasa on
suffolk combined
is four point five eight percent so
statewide it's in the mid threes uh but
long island for the first time
you know really since the holidays uh
has gotten below that five percent
threshold so that is good news um
and then in terms of vaccination
information uh we would encourage folks
to go to nassau county's website because
they have information that is
independent of just the state so that's
nassau countynwy.gov
and they have a search bar up top the
easy it's not an easy link to get to so
i would just hit the search bar
and type in vaccine and it takes you
right to their vaccination page which
tells you
not just information for the state site
uh but information for some of the
county sites
for northwell um so it gives folks some
additional opportunities to potentially
find
an available slot to get a vaccine
similarly
new york state still is running their
hotline and the number for that
is eight three three six nine seven
four eight two nine again that's eight
three three
six nine seven four eight two nine
we still remain in the same situation
that we've been with vaccines where
uh demand just greatly outnumbers the
supply
last week the governor included
comorbidities
so you know cancer patients immuno
compromise there's there's a whole list
on the state website
uh and even the county's website on what
those comorbidities are or underlying
conditions
that make you know that population more
more vulnerable
or higher risk with kovid so
including that new subset there are now
10 million new yorkers eligible
and the state is still just getting over
300 000
vaccination slots a week so
you know i know some of the sites are
booked up through april at this stage of
the game already
but we do know that the people that
receive the calls on the vaccination
hotline the state hotline they get live
data
so if somebody shows up to jones beach
to get their vaccination
um and they showed up and they had two
separate appointments and they were
holding on to a later date
that that second appointment that
they're not honoring that day
um immediately goes back into the hopper
for somebody else so
uh even though you know even though
reservations are full
continue to try um use patience and you
know hopefully with uh
johnson and johnson getting approved
next week potentially
that's going to increase supplies as
well um
donna do you want me to re-talk about
the the pop-up again from last week
because there still
seems to be a little bit yes there's
still questions people thinking that it
was the city
sure so um as i think a lot of people
are aware at this stage of the game the
city
hosted um a vaccination pop-up site at
the magnolia center
last thursday this is a
program really run by the governor's
office they reached out
the prior friday and said we would like
to be holding this in long beach
it's part of their equity and
vaccination distribution efforts
so what they're trying to do is get the
shots in the arms
of you know really minority and
low-income populations those populations
uh have been the most disproportionately
impacted by covid they're
you know extreme high number of cases in
those communities
and there are also communities that both
historically and presently during
this pandemic um have very low
vaccination numbers
so this is a concerted effort to you
know if you have 10
of the population is african-american 10
of the
population that gets vaccinated should
be african-american
um and it's really you know in terms of
um in terms of low-income
what the city did in in addition to
reaching out to
or opening up the facility the city
worked with our long beach housing
authority which is our public housing
um and the housing authority they have
four separate
senior buildings and they knocked on the
door of they knocked on every single
door in those buildings
um and and made those seniors aware that
this was happening and
our transportation department worked to
shuttle those folks
and all in that one day we got 386 shots
in people's arms
over a five hour period um and amongst
those folks were
um more than 50 percent of the the
population in our senior housing
so you know this is a governor's
initiative we're never going to say no
to any opportunity to get shots and arms
in our community
uh we continue to advocate for them to
expand
opportunities and increase opportunities
locally walgreens came online last week
so we'll continue those advocacy efforts
and really make the case
uh why we need we need more resources in
long beach
um but this was you know a good effort
that had some great results
um you know and are thankful for the
governor and you know senator kaminsky
um and even our faith-based leaders who
helped do some of the outreach to this
in the community to make sure that
the governor's target population was was
really reached um
you know through this pop-up event any
questions
okay mr morando
john we're still not hearing you you're
unmuted but we're not hearing it
now john try try to mute yourself and
unmute yourself again
donna why we're waiting do we know what
the questions
were that roy had well miss whoever
asked it
what they it was roy and i have roy on
the
roy is in the meeting um and he texts me
um because he did say that john did talk
to him
i don't have the questions with me
well if we can well i was gonna say if
we can't get this to work here in
the next i was going to say uh roy has
his hand up but i was going to say
that's the end of my report
okay we could always cover this at the
next meeting
what'd you say i said we could cover it
at the next meeting if we have to
yeah but you need to roy has his hand up
but that's that's the end of my report
donna oh hi roy hi
uh you know i i just wanted to tell you
people what happened
john was great about it he really
educated me a lot on the recycling
basically you know my concern is what
it's costing us
and that people aren't aware of of
uh how much more expensive it is to put
a piece of paper in the garbage can
um but basically he was telling me that
it goes
to i think it's sanitation area
one or sanitation district one and from
there it goes to omni
and um you know it just
he says it's a lot cheaper that way um
i don't quite understand and i i'm not
sure he
quite knows why when we get a middleman
involved it gets
cheaper usually a middleman costs more
money
but um he did answer most of my
questions
i still you know i'm curious about the
amount of tonnage and stuff like that
there are a lot of numbers that i would
like to know but he he was really good
about answering it
and uh it's something that really has to
be addressed because
and this is not just a long beach
problem it's a national problem
we're running out of landfill we can
only burn a certain amount
um you know it's something that has to
be addressed but i i don't do want to
tell you john did answer the questions
and he answered them
telling me where the recycling is going
where the regular garbage is going and
stuff like that and the cost of it and
basically he said it's 85
for regular garbage it's 80 85
a ton eighty dollars a ton for the glass
recycling and forty dollars a ton
for the um paper recycling and the paper
recycling
up till this year was 250 2.50 cents a
ton
so you know it was a shame that nobody
knew about that because
everybody would have made a lot more of
an effort to throw away their paper into
the recycling than the garbage
if they knew it was costing us that much
but uh
he was great about it roy i would have
to say john mirando did a really good
job in giving you the information
because you spit
back the information for the public to
hear and that is the correct information
so i appreciate that you came on since
we can't hear john
um and and especially to to thank john
for
giving you such great information thank
you
you're welcome that's the end of my
report
okay great so why don't we uh
move on to the agenda then uh john i
just have a
quick update please okay
um i don't know if everybody is aware
but um we're hitting uh an important
milestone next week
here with the council on the city
administration
uh next week marks a year in service for
city manager donna gayden so we have had
we have had a dedicated
and outstanding professional city
manager
of long beach for the past year
this signals continuity in our
leadership
and i think she her dedication to the
city
is unparalleled and we're very grateful
that she's
uh she's staying uh she's still here
with us so uh thank you on behalf of
everyone
donna thank you thank you thank you very
much
what a year huh yeah
[Laughter]
and then some
you could write a book on your first
year donna yeah
still waiting for the locusts to show up
yeah i was just gonna say you're still
waiting for the locust though
uh all right let's move on to the uh
to the agenda okay our first item is a
public hearing for resolution granting
wave of off street parking requirements
for 163 east park avenue street floor
for kosher foods and grocery products
shop we have the owner
on hold on okay i've asked him to
unmute
okay sorry yep there we are
okay john the the owner is on okay
great uh so uh good evening and uh
so uh what are we doing here you just
moving across the street
yes okay so uh
thought maybe we might get a second
location but all right well as long as
you stay and that's good
so uh how long have you been in business
in your current location
over 24 years wow
okay uh is the new location larger
not really it's more or less the same or
smaller
oh okay okay um
and you're going from this is
councilwoman trusting and you're going
from where to where
172 is park avenue going to 163 east
park avenue
right across right so right now he's
next to baskin robbins
and he's going across the street next to
curves
oh okay so he's basically crossing the
street
so uh i mean yeah i mean you're already
a business here so i mean i don't really
have a
a lot of questions i don't know if any
of the other council members uh
have any questions
all right hearing none why don't we see
if we have any from the public
nothing at this time great okay uh why
don't we uh
why don't we vote on that now so uh mr
zaghi doesn't have to stay on the line
okay so we're gonna call calendar item
number two which is a resolution
granting waiver of all street parking
requirements
for apartments 163 east park avenue
street floor for a kosher foods
and grocery products shop i'll introduce
some of the adoption of this item
i will second
i will voting customer delivery
yes and good luck thank you oh
councilmember mandel yes councilmember
tristan
yes vice president mcginnis yes
president pendo yes and we hope you are
successful in your new location thank
you so much
okay you have a good night you too thank
you thanks for inviting me
okay take care okay let's move on to our
next public hearing okay our second
public hearing is for an ordinance to
amend the code of ordinances of the city
of long beach regarding vehicles for
hire
okay um and i believe
yeah let's just say is anyone speaking
on this uh just uh
oh and we have an amendment we have an
amendment that's uh that's what it is
that's right
sorry sorry we do have an amendment um
i'd like uh to move we amend at the
bottom of page one for item three under
section
2479 second sentence
where it says inside storage rates may
be determined by agreement of the
parties
i'd like to propose we change parties to
tow operator and vehicle owner
do you have a second
i will voting on
to amend uh council member deleri
i'm just writing it in on my sheet um
yes
councilmember mandel yes councilmember
tresten
yes vice president mcginnis yes
president fendo yes okay
okay so uh
so anyway uh just what we're doing here
is
and i don't know if donnie if you have
anyone was going to speak but which
we're just basically updating um
some of the uh uh some of the fees
and uh some of the criteria
for the tow companies that operate in
long beach this hasn't been done in a
while
so uh we're bringing uh
uh we're bringing us into the 21st
century on this
hello donna you got anything with dave
you got anything to add or yeah
this this pretty much brings us in line
with
with a lot of the fees and um some of
the policies of the town of hempstead
most of our tow operators are based in
the town of hempstead
so typically we follow suit with them it
just makes things a lot easier for us
when we're
in in sync with the town
okay and i guess uh
i'll just note one thing for the for the
council members that uh it's not
clear in the ordinance
on page one under section 2478 towing
charges
section a then there's subsection one
uh in the current code there's also a
subsection two but that's
being removed um normally
uh that would be shown in italics uh
when we're removing something but uh
for whatever reason it didn't make it
here but it's being removed
um president
i just have one question for rich um
the rotation tow list fee it's probably
been in here
um
who do we know what that is i mean
is that a fee that we charge
the licensed vehicle tow owner
it's what we charge the tow operator to
be if they want to be included
on the police tow list okay thanks dave
no problem and uh i got
a question um the the bottom paragraph
on page one it talks about
um uh outside
uh storage charges but then for inside
storage charges
it just says um agreed by the tow
operator and the vehicle owner
what we define all the other charges why
did we not define this one
we followed the that's the way that's
defined with the towns we followed their
okay their definition so it just makes
us consistent with that right
okay um any other council members got
questions
all right when we open it up to the
public
okay we have roy lester hang on one
second
go ahead right
keep trying down mute um john i i've
made the suggestion before
and um it would be great if we could
know
what the charges are being upped
in other words like you said normally
when we take something out we put it in
parentheses
since we're changing something why can't
we put it in parentheses but just for
transparency so people know
you know uh it's now going to be the
first miles uh 175 it used to be
10 or something like that or it used to
be 200 or
just whatever it changed from it's
really not that difficult to put it in
and
and people would be able to read this
with a little bit more comprehension
well it's also not difficult to do what
the council members do is we go on the
city website
we look at the code of ordinances see
what it says now
and then we look and see what it's being
changed what john john
you guys are already doing it why should
the public have to do that why make it
difficult for the public right
right now thank you thank you
okay any other comments i have no other
hands at this time
okay let's move on to the next public
hearing
hold on one second i'm just trying to
okay there we go
sorry about that okay so
our third public hearing is an ordinance
to amend the code of ordinances of the
city of long beach
regarding licenses and business
regulations
okay we have an amendment on this one
as well um
i would like to propose let's see
under section 14-213
the first sentence where it says sign
shall be erected and maintained at all
times at each
entrance to every parking lot i would
like to
move we add the word private between
every
and parking so it says signs will be
erected and maintained at all times at
each entrance to every private parking
lot
do i have a second second
morning customer delivery uh yes as
amended
uh councilmember mandel
uh council member tristan yes there's
amended
vice president mcinnis yes president
bender
yes okay
all right any words of wisdom on this
one
from dave rich
donna anyone
i can yeah garage let me start
um so this is essentially taking out
section 14-212 for maximum rates
if you'll remember during some of our
working sessions we discussed
some of the impediments or inhibitions
that private lot owners have
to go into the parking business and
procure a mercantile license
this was one of those provisions um that
would kind of put a cap on what they
could earn
so we removed said cap to enable them to
have the incentive to go ahead and
and potentially you know operate a
parking business on a
unimproved uh parking lot and um
the other portion of this code amendment
which is as it relates to section 14-213
uh just kind of zeroes in on the sign
requirements that these private parking
lot owners should they decide to go into
business
um what they would have to put on these
signs um
also includes in section 14-15
the uh the rates for the mercantile fees
and distinguishes them from
parking lots that are associated with a
with a with an incident business so for
example parking lots
a parking lot mercantile license for
someone like 711
would have to pay 155 because they don't
charge for parking
it's just incident to their business
and that's that's what i have
okay anything you want to follow up on
uh mcnally
they're not covered no i mean i think i
think it that
that covers the general gist of it but
you know the the origin of this is
obviously
that the city was leasing uh three total
private lots to the tune of 150
000 a year and only receiving 50 000 a
year in residential permit fees
um and considering the financial
constraints that the city is in
uh the the decision was made to not
continue
those leases so uh this was a way to try
in and i'm about to get attacked by
three little girls sorry
uh this was this was this was
decided to be the uh the solution for
this of get the city out of
of the parking business and um
make this at least an attractive offer
for the owners of the private lot so
that they could
they could operate these things in a
profitable fashion because previously
uh they would have been capped at only
being able to charge a hundred dollars a
month
and that's obviously not going to make
it worth their while so
um this allows them to you know be on
the free market and
and charge free market value
also it doesn't mean necessarily that
these private lot owners will go into
said business it just at least gives
them the incentive to do so it's not
like we have some sort of deal cut with
uh
private lot owners at this point okay
thank you rich for that clarification um
um by the way before i start thank you
very much for addressing this as fast as
you have
um it's almost like
lifting up the restrictions or the
ceiling
should somebody want to test the market
for
parking rates um rich i have a question
for you um tow companies telephone
contact number and tow rates along with
the verbiage
would i be correct in saying that
should a person want to privatize a lot
and they put up a sign and the tow
company or the tow
operator uh information
does that co-operator have to
pay a fee under
the previous um
item number three that we just talked
about
where it says rotation tow list fee
or is this mutually exclusive
i can answer that uh no they wouldn't
have to pay the necessarily the
rotational total fee but they do have to
pay
the licensing fee and be a licensed um
and proper tower so they do have to be a
licensed tower okay thanks dave
yep so today's point yeah you basically
still have to register as a towing
company to do business here
um thank you oh thank you both
okay um any other questions from the
council
all right we got any from the public
no hands at this time all right
okay on to the regular calendar item one
is approval of minutes from prior
meeting of december 15
2020. do i have a motion for to approve
i will second i will
voting councilmember delury yes
councilmember mandel
yes councilmember treston yes vice
president mcginnis
yes president pando yes
okay so we already called and voted item
two
uh item three is in order to amend the
code of ordinances of the city of long
beach regarding vehicles for hire
hearing has been held on this item
already
item four is an ordinance to amend the
code of ordinances of the city of long
beach regarding licenses and business
regulations a hearing has been held on
this item already
item five is a resolution before we move
on we didn't do it but
let's close both hearings on item three
and four
okay so okay officially closed
okay item five is a resolution declaring
excuse me and designating juneteenth
as an official holiday in the city of
long beach
all right uh i can talk on it or donna
do you wanna
talk on it or no you can go ahead okay
so
uh you and karen
okay so um
so what we're doing is uh we've we've
worked with a couple of the
cities unions and we're going to make uh
or
we're proposing to make juneteenth the
holiday uh
what they will do is they will
give up uh right now they currently get
lincoln's birthday
and presidents day both what will happen
now is instead of getting
um lincoln's they will give up lincoln's
birthday and now get
juneteenth as a holiday instead so the
same number of holidays
um now that means because lincoln's
birthday just
happened that um
they will not get juneteenth this fiscal
year or this year because they got
lincoln's birthday so this will go into
effect next year
but uh it's just a a one for one swap to
acknowledge it
and um and
karen i don't know um
you know i'm really proud of of long
beach for um recognizing the importance
of juneteenth
i think this is something that um
everyone of all cultures
and races and religions should um
just from eba to see if this will apply
to them as well so
uh once that's determined we may wind up
having to vote for
for them as well but uh any questions
from the council
johnson i'm sorry may i say something
yeah
i just wanted to thank uh john mooney
and bill dodge for coming to the table
and really hashing this out with us they
did a
phenomenal and quick job of just sitting
down and hashing out the uh
the particulars of this very simple
agreement but uh
it's a gesture that means a lot so thank
you to both of you
and i would like to echo on that thank
you
to both of them okay
uh so seeing no more from the council we
got any from the public dave
yes we have james hodge okay
hello well i would like to uh
thank you for uh this
thank you for uh allowing this to
be recognized in the city of long beach
uh we could say late uh
but thank god it's here uh again this is
a hundred
and 156 years late 18
uh 1863
and then two and a half years later uh
somehow it seemed like the delivery
person or the messenger kept getting
killed
or somehow the message never got to
texas
so uh and actually just before it got to
texas
uh lincoln was killed itself so in 1865
uh there were over 200 250
000 slaves that got the message that
they were freed
but even the enslaved uh slaves that was
freed when they started to go out and
speak up and let their slave owners know
that they were freed
uh they started uh it was lynchings it
was
killings and it was a lot of uh uh
it was a bloody it was of course it was
the one one of the bloodiest wars
for this freedom but again think uh you
know the governor
uh designated this and order executive
order 204
that it's a state holiday last year and
uh it went through with some great
friends that i have
in the legislature there and uh it went
through
in october of 2020 and so the city
making this
uh action in 2021
is i thank you because again we're still
learning
about uh history and as we
look to celebrate everybody's history is
important just seems like
sometimes when we talk about african
american history we just try to
go by it but again uh this is good it's
41 years
41 years later the first state was texas
in 1980
and again you know i'm excited that
long beach because again all of our
history
is important so people should look into
uh juneteenth and what the meaning is
uh because it's not just another day off
and i would love for
you know as a community advocate and
activist i would love for the city of
long beach to be able to celebrate
within the community because
black history is american history and 28
days ain't enough to tell the black
story because
365 days of the year everybody history
is important so the shortest month is
you know and really the coldest month
but but everybody's history is important
so i think the city for taking this
on uh as it is a state law uh written
into order
like i said 204. and uh again
let us even have a celebration on that
day
uh in recognizing that it's the it was
the
uh end of slavery uh recognized
supposedly
you know it's a long story we can talk
about that james that's your three
minutes
please please wrap it up thank you all
right thank you
thanks james thank you
okay anyone else safe that's it
okay i just want to say something
thank you all for this passing this
but for all of those that do not know
we're not aware
the city gave all of the employees
juneteenth
off last year and that is very important
and so even though it did not go on um i
heard that it was a week late
nothing is ever too late as long as we
get to get the job done and get a good
job done
so i want to say to to you all thank you
good all right let's move on to item
six item six is a resolution authorizing
transfer of funds for the 2020 2021
fiscal year
okay i don't know if anybody's going to
speak but this seems pretty
straightforward we got to fix our street
sweeper
um yeah yeah i'll speak on it it's just
that we're moving
money um that we had in street
maintenance and the pump
equipment rental to uh help prepare for
vehicles
all right any questions from any of the
council members
all right any from the public uh roy
lester
okay god right
okay um normally what do we have
for the vehicle repairs i mean we have a
a fund put aside for this
and i guess this kind of caught us by
surprise but
can you tell me how much that fund is no
i
roy um is not owens and i i don't have
anybody
but yeah it was the budget typically
what she budgeted for what
they thought they was budgeting for we
have a whole lot more repairs than
anticipated
oh that's not good okay thank you
okay anyone else dave that's it
all right let's move on to item seven
item seven is a
resolution authorizing a budget
amendment to the community development
um fund for the 43rd program year
all right monique yep
good morning yep thank you all so uh
previously the funds were asked to be
transferred
um i'm reactivating that micro
enterprise line so in 2017
there was a cdbg application for the
43rd year
um i wasn't here 2017 2018
but it was to create a micro enterprise
small business development program
um what i realized that it's more
relevant now than anything
based on census data based on previous
uh
surveys i have a north park community
survey i have uh
creating resilience so i did my history
on research it was already here
um and to rise as one of the programs
that i believe community development
um can do um and it's to help
minorities open small businesses and
help already businesses that are
considered micro enterprise
five or fewer um and provide them with
technical assistance as i previously
previously said uh the reason why that
it may have been transferred
to speak for those who came before me is
that there's a lot of documentation and
reporting
that is needed and that is required from
nassar county for such program
um and my background i have an mba and i
do small business consulting
so i believe that well i don't say i
believe i know that
i can assist small businesses um and
then
being that i already have the experience
the knowledge and the resources it is
not so costly where
most majority of the funds can go to
direct activities to help out
these businesses and it could be as
simple as
a business plan start-up business plan
assistance
software for business plan writing uh
marketing
um small funds startup uh any grants or
loans and
so this these are some of the activities
that will go under the program so i find
that it's necessary just
to reactivate and start this program to
finish developing the community
okay any questions from any of the
council members
all right i just um this is karen i
remember
i remember asking about this uh you know
back when it happened because it looked
a little confusing that we were
you know potentially paying for an
elevator i think
from uh community development funds but
um
um i feel that this micro enterprise um
investment is in the true in the true
spirit of the community development fund
programming
and i want to credit monique for her
diligence
into figuring that out and to helping
our our small business owners which are
particularly hurting right now
so thank you thank you cameron you're
absolutely correct i think
that um thanks to donna giving me the
time and the resources to find it and
ena has helped me
to locate it and paddy you know just to
be able to see the money there and have
confidence i really thank my co-workers
for doing that in addition because of
the reporting and documentation so i
will continue to need
my colleagues and the city council and
of course donna city manager i'm sorry
um miss gayden um to assist me with this
because it's a lot of document and
reporting but
i believe that we can do it and i think
the community will really really benefit
from this as a whole
great um mike you're leaning forward you
got a question
just a quick question because it may
come up um this is the 43rd year
the next one up will be the 47th year so
if
mo monique could just explain briefly
what resolution seven addresses and then
eight thereafter but um the 43rd year
is a couple of years ago
yes and the goal of this also is that we
we've applied for these programs
and it doesn't matter who was in the
position but as uh the city of long
beach uh you know to execute the program
and to implement it is very important
for
for the city and for nassau county so
these funds have been there since the
43rd year which is about 2017 2018
so we're trying to do less transfers and
actually do what we applied for
to continue that sustainability and
relationship building with nassar county
um and you know and continue our
objectives that we originally said
and have it aligned to actually what the
community needs right now are
at the end our strategic plan looks like
we're being effective
and you know we're optimizing our
resources so that's why
i i went back to the previous year as
further as i can
i have highlighters and i'm asking
questions about any money that's left
over
that we could then align to meet the
goals that we're trying to meet as a
whole
as our goal as ms gayden has has set me
up to do
all access community development program
for everyone
um so that's what that 43rd is i'm using
funds as
previous years as i possibly can and
also to show the nasa county that we are
using every dollar i am zero everything
out
um and that moves us to the 47th year
with the hopes of
continuing the micro enterprise because
i i know it will be successful and i
know that is needed
uh this micro enterprise because as you
service in the community i need
you know the funds that we have it's not
a lot um but if we could use 47 funds to
add on to this micro enterprise
i believe it'll be beneficial and so
that's what number eight is number eight
is the resolution to file for
application
uh for the 47th year that's coming up
and the application
is due march 16th thank you monique
because i just
i know it's a multiple do a lot of work
you got to do a lot of alignment
this was no easy um
straightforward you know assignment it
looks easy what i'm looking at because
that's the finished product
but what you had to do um and i'm glad
you're here to do it
is you're you're you're matching up
community development funds which are
needed and you could spend it
and then we could move on and on and on
and that's
the goal and i appreciate your efforts
thank you thank you michael
all right anyone else all right
anyone from the public dave yes james
hodge
welcome back mr hodge welcome back uh
president
uh just wanted to uh say
also with the community development the
community development has uh
throughout nassau county in a lot of
communities some of
the issues that many communities have
and sometimes the money is not used
what it is geared towards but i know
that uh
marvin mcmoore uh sherry james uh
had did and and previous had did a lot
of work
with the micro businesses and a lot of
meetings
uh with patty bourne throughout north
park throughout the city of long beach
and it was again speaking about
funds and being able to put funds
together to be able to help
uh diversify businesses in the city of
long beach and give
a little help in hand with those that
meet all of the criterias to be able to
do that
and again you know for which the funds
come in
and as you know the communities as we
you know send out and fill out for that
uh 47 and 43rd uh 47th pro
program year i would say there's a lot
of organizations that
uh again sometimes get cut out
out of funds that could really help them
out and it's for low to moderate income
uh and i just think that again the city
should continue
looking to see what they can do to help
all of those
that meet the criteria and not just with
the community development fund but if
the urban money
from the the urban development money
goes there also i know it's a hundred
over a hundred thousand dollars that
come from the land use
of war bound so i just think that uh
hey listen it's great to hear that uh
you're looking to do
something with the businesses that and
you found a lot of the paperwork that
was there because i know that said it
it wasn't but you know it's great it's
great to hear this it's great to hear
that
we're looking to help out uh businesses
and startup businesses
so uh again uh
just happy to hear that and let us
continue to just
utilize those funding like the vice
president said
uh for the areas which those funds are
seat
on behalf of thank you for your time
thanks james
all right anyone else dave that was all
okay let's move on to item eight and our
last item is
item eight which is a resolution
authorizing the filing of an application
with the county of nassau for the
purpose of undertaking a community
community development program under
title 1 of the
housing and community development act of
1974 as amended and title 2 of the
national affordable housing act of 1990
as amended
for inclusion in the city's community
development program for the
2021-2022-47th year
this item is for publication only a
hearing will be held march 2nd at 7 pm
now on to the voting
we're going to start at item number
three which is an ordinance to amend the
code of ordinance of the city of long
beach
for regarding vehicles for hire we'll
introduce a move the adoption of this
item as amended
i will second
i will thank you council member delorey
yes councilmember mandel yes
councilmember treston
uh vice president mcginnis yes president
bendo
yes
uh we can't hear you dave your lips are
moving but we can't hear you
item four is the city of long beach
regarding
um hold on
yeah we're having some connection issues
here can you hear me now
yes okay
so i'll call that one again so item four
is an ordinance to amend the code of
ordinances of the city of long beach
regarding licenses and business
regulations
which just remove the adoption of this
item as amended i will
second i will
thank you voting council member delorey
sorry yes councilmember mandel
yes councilmember tristan yes
vice president mcginnis yes and
president banda
yes item five is a resolution declaring
and designating juneteenth as an
official holiday in the city of long
beach
don't you just remove the adoption of
this item i will
second i will voting cast member delorey
yes councilmember mandel yes
council member treston yes vice
president mcginnis yes
president bendo yes and item six is a
resolution authorizing transfer of funds
for the 2020-2021 fiscal year
who introduced move the adoption of this
item i will
second i will let's guide scott
councilman
voting council member to lurie yes
councilmember mandel
yes councilmember tristan yes
and thank you monique for all your hard
work
uh vice president mcginnis yes
and president banda yes
okay item seven is a resolution
authorizing a budget amendment to the
community development fund for the 43rd
program year
i'll just move the adoption of this item
and second who do you have for the first
i'd lose for first uh sure i'll take a
second
okay voting councilmember de laurie
thank you monique for all the hard work
yes councilmember mandel
yes councilmember tristan yes
vice president mcginnis yes president
banda
yes and finally item eight is a
resolution authorizing the filing of an
application with the county of nassau
for the purpose of undertaking
a community development program under
title one of the housing
and community development act of 1974 as
amended in title ii of the national
affordable housing act of 1990 as
amended
for inclusion in the city's community
development program for the
2021-2022-47th year
we'll introduce a move the adoption of
this item
hi well thank you
voting customer delivery yes
councilmember mandel
yes councilmember truston yes
vice president mcginnis yes president
pendo
yes we'll make a motion to close the
meeting
come on mike
i will second
hello
given the fact that it's 10 after eight
and i i begrudgingly
yes i vote to close the meeting okay
councilmember mandel
yes councilmember treston yes
vice president mcginnis yes president
bendo
yes okay okay
on to good and welfare so uh
everybody gets uh who wants to speak
raise your hand
you get uh three minutes and
okay who's first first up is james hodge
and
third time's the charm well
i just want to again uh it's always an
honor
to be able to come to those that are
elected
uh and be able to speak to those that uh
you know govern the city and also the
city administration
i just want to say uh happy
uh black history month each and every
one of you
and also again thank you for adopting
the uh juneteenth uh i i
again i i would say let us continue to
recognize each and everyone's history
everyone's history is important at the
same time let us continue to
uh recognize the history of even our own
uh city manager being the first female
city manager not just
first female city manager but the first
black
uh city manager and uh that means a lot
you know it means a lot because
sometimes children only replicate what
they see and they don't see a lot of
black teachers in long beach in front of
them and sometimes they only believe
that they can achieve
what they see and so i would say let us
do whatever we can to be able to also
city manager get you out in in the
streets with us i'll be willing to
walk you around and i know you already
do a lot but again as a community
advocate i know it's very important for
these young ladies
and these young men to see you as a
person that's been in long beach
since 1976 and knowing that it was only
uh very few blacks in executive
positions
in the history of long beach uh your
position is very important
and so what you do in your dash from the
day you start
today you end is very important to all
of the children
also just want to say for the police
commissioner
i know that executive order 203
reimagining police departments again as
a community activist
an advocate uh the community
would uh i'm not exactly sure how many
people that you're working with
but again long beach has only had about
five black police officers in the
history of long beach
two being higher than 19 1968 67 one was
my mentor and one was a
president of the uh mlk and that was
sergeant merkelson the late sergeant
ferguson
and also officer simon and officer
edwards and
officer beau madden and then the two
current that we have now and it was 40
some odd years later in 2008 when the
last
two were hired and that is sergeant
allen
and uh also uh the other officer so
i just want to say let us continue
recognizing and remembering
everybody history is important thank the
city
for giving the permission to the mlk to
move forward programs as we still
continue to meet
to go over long-term leases and all of
that and whatever it would look like
but again the children and the community
has been out
close to over a year and again
very hurt very again
sandy sandy did a lot the pandemic did a
lot
and those are two major things that
affected everybody but
drastically the statistical data shows
that it even impacted those that were
already going through
even more so james that's your time so
thank you again thank you for your time
i appreciate you
all right looking forward to the program
i just wanted to say to james thank you
very much
just so you are aware i am out in the
community quite a bit
uh i actually have been out meeting some
of the seniors passing out ppne
and commissioner walsh and i have
actually been out shoveling snow with
some of the seniors in the north park
area
so um i am out there
uh we i will continue to be out there
and when it gets
warm commissioner walsh and i have made
an agreement that we will be out there
on a regular basis so thank you very
much
okay and who's next dave
next is roy lester all right welcome
back
hi john um john i have to say it i kind
of it's kind of tough in 180 seconds
twice a month to bring up all the topics
that i'd like to address with the city
and get the questions out and i don't
understand why we have to be that
limited when they're only a couple of
people speaking
when we have 20 or 30 i understand but
you know it's something
i think it's important to ask questions
about the city and
you know you you guys do limit us
anyway i have a couple of questions and
they can be addressed after i'm done
um whatever happened to the lg lbgt
money
and have we collected all of our sandy
money
do we owe any out right now or basically
are we even
and uh then i want to talk about the
benches for a minute
last thursday at the work session tommy
cannon was talking about the benches
and he said that because of the uv rays
and the saltwater environment the
benches keep breaking
and to fix the benches right now would
be a 111
960 dollars if we move the fourth leg on
the bench it would be 300
000 uh 960 dollars
he said that they just spent 35 000
four months ago and fixed every bench
and now four months later we have to
spend another hundred twelve thousand
and he said in order to move the legs
out the benches have to be taken out and
brought to the shop
that was to put the fourth leg on but
tommy also said that would be
it would be very expensive to use
different products because the benches
would have to be moved
but if they have to be moved anyway to
fix it i don't understand why it would
be expensive
he said that the material we we've been
using is very brittle in the sun and i
have no idea why we would have bought
benches
with material that breaks down in the
sun but anyway
so last thursday john bendo suggested
moving the ends of the benches out and
staying with
the three legs everyone thought it was a
great idea worth exploring and we talked
about
having some sample benches but what i
don't understand is back in september 17
2019 18 months ago john miranda said the
exact same thing
and now it's 18 months later and we're
coming back to an idea that we were told
about
a year and a half ago and nothing's been
done
and during that time period we've spent
literally
hundreds of thousands of dollars fixing
these benches
and now we're looking at exploring an
idea
that was that our public works person
who knows this stuff
suggested 18 months ago and i know
listen i know a hundred ten thousand
dollars it's not a lot of money
um you know in a 83 million dollar
budget but like i tell my kids you don't
flush a nickel down the toilet it's only
a nickel but you don't flush it down the
toilet
and i also don't understand why we knew
this was going to be discussed at the
work session why
nobody knew what the contract actually
said the people who bought the benches
do they have to pay for maintenance but
nobody bothered to look at the contract
and i didn't hear anything today
about you know where we are with that
contract or if we can actually charge
the people and i don't believe we can
charge the people boy that's your time
can i just finish uh
wrap it up in a sentence or two right
you can call and talk about this with
any of us you know that
i know that but why can't the public
know it i
you know people resent it when there's
private conversation
and i can understand that and i would
resist right
because we can't have an hour and a half
of one person taking up
time at a meeting this is the same
taking an hour and a half john
you know anyway let me just finish right
now we're charging i believe three
thousand a bench plus a thousand
insulation
i went online i found benches sold to
other municipalities
with 50 year warranties made with
uh recyclable plastic costing a single
bench
760 dollars i don't understand it i
don't understand the money situation
okay okay right
speaking i will have to look into the
lbgt money
um and look into the sandy money and
just as we did before we'll get the
answer and we come back on
next at the next meeting so that the
entire public can hear
the benches i understand what you're
saying i can't tell you what happened in
2019
i just know where we are right now and
although
it does seem like a hundred thousand
dollars is not a lot of money
a hundred thousand dollars to the city
of long beach is like a million dollars
to other cities
and so we are looking at that and the
reason that it was brought up
is because it is something that needs to
be taken care of but nobody knows where
the money is coming from
so roy you and i and nina can talk
probably the beginning of the next week
and is just as we did with john miranda
we will come back
on and make sure that the rest of the
community has the answers to the
questions that you asked
okay
all right i just i just i just have to
comment that um
right i take issue with your comment
that you said that the city has spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars quote
unquote
since september 2019 on repairing the
benches
i i find that hard to believe and i'd
love to see
exactly where you got those numbers from
because you said hundreds of thousands
of dollars
and i feel that that is a disingenuous
comment
now secondly i also wanted to point out
that last
last week was the working
session this you saw
us discussing possible solutions
for the benches okay when have you ever
seen
council members working with staff in
discussions
for an hour and a half prior to this
administration
so i'd like you to think about that um
in terms of the lbgt money
donna is following up on that but i can
confirm for you that that money was
was that was not accrued in previous
audits
so therefore if we do get anything it
will be
a um an add-on to any future
any future budgets i hope this helps
clarify some issues for you
roy um i appreciate your questions um
i'd love to
keep us with a dialogue um i also want
you to remember that this council is
working 24
7 working
seven days a week 24 hours
i talked to her you know most of us talk
to her every day
and that we can't we have hundreds of
millions of dollars of issues
tens of millions of dollars in interest
payments so our priority is those things
right now
and of course we want to fix hundreds
hundred thousand
problems as well
you are promoting excellence in
everything that we do
and we agree with you so let's keep the
dialogue open
okay who's uh who's next dave
next is judy vining okay
hi judy
okay hello hi judy hi
i guess um i'm probably not asking for
money so that's a good thing
um i'm again asking us to take a look at
our ordinance about social host time is
running out
the proposal that the governor has put
forth
doesn't even allow a local option for
communities under a hundred thousand to
opt out
even if he chose to so um
there's not a lot you can do beforehand
or after but at least let's protect our
kids in terms of the social hosting
and make that amendment to the um
ordinance
it seems kind of silly that i'm still
asking you for this
since um january
at least um and it's a simple fix i
don't know if rich is still on
but if he is i mean he knows what the
law is and
it's an add-on it's just an amendment so
can we
think about doing it instead of talking
about it
yeah there was actually a conversation
today about it
that i was actually part of so uh can
you share
uh no was just talking about doing it so
uh
um i mean i mean i can send you another
prototype but you don't you
you don't need it i don't i don't think
i mean what we have
our law is the prototype for 14 counties
across the state
and 38 communities based on our law
because we were the first
um i also have literature um
from a paper that i was part of from
wake forest
school of medicine on social hosting but
i don't think you need that
anymore no i think i think rich knows
what
what needs to get added marijuana
simple 17 right judy
what you're talking about chapter 17
right our seven our social hosts
yeah yeah yeah yep
okay so you know we're on it
okay let's get on to before the governor
gives it to us and we can't be on it hey
judy did you have you have a projection
as to when the governor's rollout's
going to be
anything well um it's he's got a tied in
listen we don't know what it'll be we
know what he's proposed
and it's tied into the budget so we're
looking at april 1st
but honestly i should probably send you
guys the council that is
some of the things that are in it that
you may
want to um join together and object to
because it removes a lot of the
city's autonomy
judy you sent it to the council and sent
its administration of the
of the city i can i'm sorry what send it
to the council as well as to the
administration of the city oh sure
absolutely and there's only one other
little thing and i'm going to talk fast
but
you know we've been doing this weekend
food drive from long beach aware
in conjunction with the school district
and trader joe's
well i got a call right before the
vacation from west school
that um they had collected money and
they want to donate it
to us uh they did donate to us they
collected 1126.
20 and 40 some odd cents and
um i just thought maybe that was such a
great thing from all these kids
at west school that you guys might want
to recognize them for
judy that's your time yeah yeah that's
that's great that they did that
that's that's incredible so uh
um you know maybe i know you sometimes
um
give proclamations or whatever to kids
that you know or are recognized in some
way i know it's harder on zoom but
i thought you might want to take note of
this well like sure we'll see we
will we'll see what we might be able to
do
yeah i can give you the information
offline yeah yeah please send it
okay okay thanks judy
all right who's next dave that's it
that's it wow okay
so thanks for joining us folks and um we
will see you at the
at the next one and everyone have a good
night
anybody got any closing liz anything you
need to remind anyone of
the double masking is now required thank
you
and tomorrow's recycling day citywide
for
metal uh plastic and glass
okay so thanks for joining us and uh
we'll see you next