all right good evening everyone welcome
to our first meeting of
march and uh
let's get uh let's get the show on the
road
okay good evening and welcome to the
regular meeting of the council
of the city of long beach held tuesday
march 2nd 2021 at 7 00 p.m
we'll have a roll call council member
delorey president
councilmember mandel president
councilmember truston
yes vice president mcginnis president
uh president bendo present let the
record indicate the presence of city
manager donald gaiden and deputy
deputy corporation council richard
berrios and absolute to the flag
all right looks like councilman de
laurie has a flag
tonight so why don't you lead us in the
pledge okay
president bendo thank you
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
okay thank you real quick before we get
started just want to announce
uh items six and seven have been taken
off the calendar
okay so why don't we get going with the
city managers report um good evening
everyone thank you very much
um i am the first person is
robert spalzino the attorney is going to
give us an update
okay okay good evening i don't know if
you can hear or see me
we can hear you we don't see you okay
i don't know if there's something i can
do about that but
uh
i just moved you up to the panel so you
can turn your camera on
okay there he is there you go okay
so um uh ms gayden hasn't asked me what
to report on but i'm guessing you all
know that i'm going to report on the
haberman
situation so
we have had a conference with the court
there is one
outstanding issue that has to be
resolved before a judgment will be
entered
and that is the amount of the credit to
which the city is entitled
as a result of haberman's settlement
with zander
if you recall xander is the building
next door
at around the same time that folks from
xander
uh asked the zoning board of appeals to
revoke
the uh the permit that was granted to
abram
uh they also commenced an action to
uh stop the the building that resulted
in an injunction
be from 2003 to 2010 so they are liable
for damages during that period
they settled with um peyron immediately
before trial for 23 million dollars
and the city is entitled to a
significant credit
for that amount the court has scheduled
the hearing for april 7th
on that issue we are in conversations
with
the attorneys for the habermans about
how to resolve that
and hopefully we will reach a resolution
before the hearing
okay
got any questions from any of the
council members for bob
thank you for the update yeah we
appreciate that
all right well keep us posted bob thanks
we appreciate it
okay thank you good evening have a good
night have a good evening thank you
my next speaker is joe lupo from
corporation council he's going to be
talking about
you know we've been trying to sell the
garage
the update on the selling of the garage
hello everyone can you hear me yes okay
so as donna said um
the city is planning to sell the central
garage located on long beach boulevard
um and we're currently in the process of
preparing an rfp for that cell
the central garage is used to maintain
the fleet of city vehicles
and to that effect various pollutants
such as gas oil
and other chemicals are stored there
over the years it's possible that those
pollutants either leaked spilled um
etc and could have potentially
contaminated the soil beneath and around
the garage
now this is a concern for the city
because even if we
attempted to sell the building as is and
had a buyer
agree to purchase the building as is the
city would still be lyle for any
uh liable excuse me for any
contamination under the environmental
law
so in essence we can't contract away our
liability
um so in order to insulate the city from
any potential
you know exorbitant costs of an
environmental cleanup
we've reached out to gallagher insurance
company to inquire about obtaining
contamination cleanup insurance coverage
but now in order to obtain a realistic
quote for such a policy it is
you know it's a process so according to
the people at gallagher
if the potential buyer is not going to
demolish the existing building
then we may only need to provide what
they call a phase one survey of the
property
which is in essence a complete history
of the garage its various uses
and the amount and duration of any
chemicals used there and stored there
alternatively which is probably more
likely
of an outcome if the potential buyer you
know wants to demolish the existing
building
then what the insurance uh provider
explains is um
that the likelihood of contamination
issues and the discovery of such issues
is much more prevalent prevalent um in
addition to the phase one survey
we would then also need to provide the
insurance company with a phase two
subsurface
sample report which is essentially an
investigation and testing of the soil to
identify and measure the severity of any
potential contamination
thereafter once we were able to get all
that information to the insurance
company the underwriters would then be
able to provide us with
you know an insurance quote but at this
point you know we're taking it one step
at a time
so we're gathering all the information
to complete the phase one survey
and then once we get that to the
insurance company we're going to have
another meeting to see what our next
steps are
okay joseph
um thank you for that update um i have a
two-part question
um for those of us who are not experts
in insurance
my first question is are we currently
self-insured for this property
um no we actually do have a policy um
through gallagher
for this property however um a review of
the policy
does not cover us for um any kind of uh
contamination cleanup it's actually a
specific
exclusion based on the current policy
okay and then my second question is can
we do an
rfp for other insurers to pitch this
there's absolutely no reason why we
cannot um the only reason why we reached
out to gallagher is just because
we have a pretty good working
relationship with gallagher
um so we wanted to know everything that
we would need to get a quote um
you know if we reached out or set up an
rfp and
you know let's say we selected somebody
else it would just kind of prolong the
prolong you know us knowing what we're
looking at so at this point we're not
obligated to go with gallagher we're
just getting
in we're just getting a quote um sounds
like a responsible process so thank you
again for the update
yes ma'am you're very welcome
any other questions from the council
members
all right thanks joe appreciate that
next update is from mr burials deputy
corp council
good evening members of the council city
manager um
i've been asked to update the council i
guess on a recent uh zoning board
hearing
there was uh at the zoning board meeting
over on february 25th
which was a pretty long one it was about
a five-hour meeting um
the board heard applications on uh six
separate parcels of interest
specifically in the north park area on
east pine street
um the applications were for a mix of
area and use variances as far as area
from things on side yards to front
frontage and on the use aspect of it it
was uh
to convert one family homes into two uh
from uh from that from that presentation
basically the presenters there included
uh
the applicant's managing agent uh mr
gallo
his attorney mr kelly a representative
from habitat for humanity the
nassau county chapter um and the
architect as well
uh right now that hearing is complete we
anticipate the board voting on the
matter at the next zba meeting this
month
i checked the website our youtube
channel that zoning board hearing
is up and available if anyone wants to
see it
i can also cut and paste it on the i
guess in the comments section here for
everyone's reference if you need it
that's basically it and
richie said there was six parcels that
they're looking to do to son
right yes um by way of reference and
historically i believe
two of them were the subject of a
previous application
uh by the same i believe the same
applicant and those were denied last
year so he reapplied
with four new parcels um since the year
had gone by so you're not allowed to
basically apply for a new variance until
at least a year has passed
um so he's brought that application with
all six parcels now
so the zoning board will be deliberating
uh we anticipate having a meeting with
council to discuss
you know the nuances of the case the
case is and
we should have a decision um this month
is this converting the the existing
buildings from one to two family or
would these be
demolition and new construction uh i
believe some are already
up others are demo and knock down
some haven't even been built yet they've
already been knocked down so there's
kind of vacant parcels there
so it's a mixed bag okay
i'm rich there thank you for the update
again
um i think they're when i drove by east
pine street i saw at least two of the
parcels are fully constructed
so therefore that means they do not have
separate meters they're
currently constructed as one family
houses is that correct
yes i believe they are yes can we
confirm that they don't have meters for
two
a two family house right now um i i can
ask i guess the building department to
just take a check
do you know which parcels they were i
can get back to you tomorrow
but i saw two two beautiful houses
um with the habitat for humanity signs
on east pine
that were zoned as one my understanding
is that they are currently one
one family houses right
i don't know if there's meters if
there's meters for a two-family house
that
that seems a little counter-intuitive if
they already
put the meters in for family when they
don't have zoning for one family
we can certainly look into it those may
be the parcels that were previously
applied for and denied i'm not 100 sure
but if you give me a little more
information i can coordinate with the
building department and we'll take a
look
thank you okay so just it's my
understanding our new
newly stood up planning board is um
uh looking at the uh updating the
comprehensive plan um
this all kind of ties together uh we got
to be careful about doing one-offs
especially when we're um updating the
comprehensive plan it all needs to be a
part of the package so somehow we
might also need to tie the planning
board into this conversation
um as as well
the planning board is involved in the
conversation that's why we brought it up
tonight to make sure that you all were
aware
of what was going on because you have
the north park i believe it's the north
park association the planning board
um and there are a few others that are
concerned about what's going on so we
decided that we would bring it forth
tonight
so that everybody would be on the same
page and that
we will keep everybody updated right
it's it's basically a
gentrification versus affordable housing
argument that
this kind of creates
um so okay we need to just uh keep tabs
on this um rich mike delorey
could you just explain use
variance and that is that
before the zoning board right so the the
uh
the six parcels have kind of a mixed bag
of applications it's
uh area and use variances so an area
variance is quite simply
um you know if you want to build a house
or build a deck and it goes out
to the property line you have a certain
frontage that you're allowed under the
zoning code
so if you're seeking more than the code
allows you're asking for an area
variance
and there's a certain set of statutory
factors that the zoning board has to
consider
being the benefit to the applicant
versus the detriment
to the community or vice versa that's
area use variances are a bit more
involved
you're actually um long beach is
composed of zoning districts or zoning
areas right so certain areas are zoned
for particular houses
in this case in these cases the area is
zoned for one family housing
single family houses so he's asking for
a variance on that use
the burden on that's a quite a bit
tougher than an area of variance and
aren't as easily granted
typically as a general proposition so
those are the distinctions between the
two because i recall
back in earlier in the year and i could
be wrong
that's why i'm bringing it up
is does this correspond with anything
that was presented in january
i'm not a hundred percent sure i know i
know the applicant previously applied
for uh something similar about over a
year ago
um i don't think it happened in january
though there's a property you have in
mind and you give me the information uh
it was uh
rezoning a district mike i think they
also preser
mr gallo also presented at a work
session of ours last
winter right
one of my former colleagues presented on
that the north park overlay district i
believe
in january right i was just
concerned is
are we doing one-offs like president
bendo said or are we just
going is there going to be more down the
road
what do you mean by one off i'm sorry
well
uh what does john mean by one off yeah
like
one here one property there one property
there and then
it just continues to just change the
entire area
over time i understand um i mean listen
i can only speak to the to the legal
factors that are required right so it's
pretty hard to get a used variance
because you have to satisfy all the
factors the question will be whether or
not they satisfy those factors
um and i can't really tell you how the
board's gonna vote because i don't know
um but it's it's something i'm gonna uh
you know our office is gonna go through
with them as far as the statutory
factors
we're going to go over the presentation
and you know give legal advice and
okay thank you no problem
rich i just want to take a moment to uh
i attended that five and a half hour
meeting
and just to thank you for your
dedication to the zoning board
as our city's attorney thank you
thank you lots of coffee
you guys at least took a bathroom break
okay yeah i believe there were zoning
members actually eating their dinner
in between so we make it work
one of the other questions was brought
up last week about from mr roy lester
about the pride festival and so rich you
want to give the answer
that we have found for his question
so i know mr lesser had asked about um i
guess what we're planning on doing to
recoup the
uh approximately 75 000 from pride
honestly until mr lester mentioned that
question i
hadn't had it on my radar so i started
to look into it
i don't have enough to intelligibly
speak as to what strategy we would
employ or what the pros and cons are
um but i have begun the uh the search
for all the
relevant documents and uh and hope to
have an update for everyone
at some point soon
okay and um is that it for you rich
um yes unless the council has anything
else for me
at this point and since we're on mr
lester he did ask about
uh he had another question about fema we
are look we are still looking into that
question roy so we will get back to you
and then we will get back to the council
as a whole and the public because i
said that any question that was asked
during any of these meetings that we did
not answer we will come to the next
session
and we would answer those questions so
on that note
mr fabrizio our engineer
for the city is going to give an update
on our lifeguard station
good evening everyone how are you um
just want to give you a little overview
of the comfort stations and lifeguard
headquarters
um just give a little history on october
29 2012.
eight of the city's comfort stations and
lifeguard headquarters were destroyed
by hurricane sandy in regard to
lifeguard headquarters
i was actually standing on the boardwalk
and watching in disbelief
as the structure was knocked off its
footings at the time and it creamed off
the boardwalk and got sucked into the
ocean
i probably have one of the last photos
of the lifeguard headquarters before it
disappeared to the ocean
which i'd be happy to share with you um
now we're here nine years later i'm
pleased to report that we're in the
final stages of completion of
replacement
of all structures that were destroyed
along the oceanfront
in 2015 we reconstructed five comfort
stations
for a total cost of eight million four
fifty seven to sixty these were the
comfort stations at riverside
lincoln edwards national and grand
boulevard
um in 2018 we reconstructed the
minnesota avenue compensation
which was previously in virginia and of
course of 735
000 the final three structures which
includes lifeguard headquarters were bid
out
in 2019 um of which neptune in new york
is complete
the final structure which is lifeboat
headquarters is being delivered this
week
the crane is basically being delivered
tomorrow it's going to be staged and set
up
it's very very large it's like the only
one of its kind
in the area the building's going to
arrive tonight and tomorrow it's
basically going to come on four trailers
it's four prefabricated modules that
each
weighs approximately 100 000 pounds or
50 tons
um we're going to set the building on
thursday which will involve essentially
picking the building and hoisting it
over the boardwalk so the boardwalk will
be closed between um
long beach road and edwards um
over the next month the electrical
plumbing and decking around the
structure will be installed
it's going to be connected to the dune
walk over at riverside boulevard
and the intent is obviously for it to be
open for the 2021
summer beach season um the funding for
this project
was derived primarily through the fema
public assistance program
the total cost to replace all nine
structures
including lifeguard headquarters was 12
million 194 260.
uh the female funding through the female
public assistant program
through the female public assistance
program was 9 million 319
so basically if you deduct those two um
it basically cost the city approximately
2.8 million dollars
but we did obtain nine new structures
new buildings
um that are built you know obviously at
a new height
and uh you know uh much better than what
was there before
um as far as lifeguard headquarters the
new headquarters is gonna be
approximately one thousand square feet
it's gonna have locker rooms it's gonna
have a chief's office
it's gonna have a pull down staircase
that's gonna go up to an observation
deck which gives you basically a
panoramic view
of the entire uh beachfront um you'll
have that same view from the main floor
of the building which is all glass on
the south side as well so you can also
have that
you know paramount view for safety you
can see you know what's going on
on the beach um it's gonna have a first
aid room it's gonna have a bathroom
and it's gonna have a communication room
um and we're very excited it's a long
time and coming it's been
it's been a long time and the lifeguards
deserve it the city deserves it
and um you'll have a chance i would
definitely take a ride down
and check out the crane and the and the
hoisting of it on thursday thank you
hi i'm sorry mr bender
no go ahead liz okay um joe
the boardwalk you said will be closed it
will be closed
intermittently during the day or is it
going to be closed for the
on thursday on thursday it's going to be
close to an entire day from
from during working hours um from
probably
eight in the morning till five at night
um
we don't want anybody to weigh when
they're hoisting
you know hoisting these hundred thousand
pound units over the boardwalk
so it'll be close thursday essentially
okay thank you
all right and uh i guess for john i
guess we're
we'll be doing social media posts and
stuff to let people know that
we we already have been um the only
difference was this was originally
slated to
the the lifting was originally slated to
take place wednesday so
we've now updated because the
construction schedule got pushed back a
day
okay great
all right any other questions for uh joe
all right thanks a lot joe appreciate it
thank you
all right my next speaker is mr sam
pinto
everyone can you hear me yes sir
all right great um no video option okay
i guess to get my picture uh good
evening everyone hope everyone is well
uh the city manager had asked that i
give a brief update on the status of an
issue regarding the fire department
that i know is very important to the
council in the community so i'm happy to
report that over the last few weeks
the city and the union have reached an
agreement in principle
to a moa memorandum of agreement
regarding new terms of employment for
future long beach professional
firefighters
uh this agreement's uh an important step
in promoting better delivery of public
safety at a significantly lower employee
cost
now that these details are worked out it
will facilitate us sending some of the
civil service tested candidates to the
upcoming new york state
career fire academy the the fire academy
similar to the police academy
it spans over a few months of training
and the program focuses on like science
fire science codes and regulations
medical care and other disciplines that
are involved in fire prevention and
control
life safety and rescue skills so we're
still working on the final language of
the agreement and i can't get rid of the
real detail about it until then
but i think it would be safe to say that
we did memorialize the importance of the
recognition
of juneteenth as a holiday and it will
be included in the terms of the
agreement
the negotiations they went back and
forth
but they were healthy and the results we
believe will be beneficial to efficient
delivery of public safety
a lot of hard work went into this i
would like to recognize donna and rich
berrios's commitment to working on this
on top of all their other
responsibilities it's an important step
for the city and for the fire department
and i look forward to the recruits
completing the academy
ready to serve with pride and
professionalism in time for our busy
summer season
so just a quick update on that um and i
just i know the council was interested
in that
great news good to hear so uh
any questions for sam
all right seeing none thanks sam thank
you guys thanks everyone
thanks sam um for last night i know
we were brutal last night going back and
forth for a long time
and um i look forward to the beginning
of may
for us to start the negotiations of the
contract
the next speaker will be ron walsh
commissioner
of police
hi can you can you guys hear me yes sir
hi good evening everybody um so i want
to bring you attention
uh some good work done by the police
department and give you some
updates on some of the other things that
i've uh
taken place with regard to um
the the police and some things are going
on in town
so uh one thing i wanted to bring
attention on on
february 19th approximately 8 30
in the morning i was driving to work and
i hear a call come over the radio
and it's a special police officer
rodriguez
uh he observes a
a van parked in a handicapped spot it's
like a
one of the like an old school bus van
type of thing
but in the van because he looks at the
van he sees it in very poor condition
he notices or hears the barking of what
sounds like a vicious dog
inside and when he looks through the
windows of the van
or sorry should i say school bus he sees
that there's a lot of crates
in the in the uh in the in the school
bus
so um he hears this dog the dog sounds
like it's distressed
uh he calls for a police officer to come
down
he asks for the animal control officer
to come down uh
under control officer o'toole and
sanitation inspector
jacoby also takes a ride down because he
has a lot of expertise
in these things as well they do an
evaluation of the condition of the dog
and in the condition that the van or
truck is in
uh or school bus actually i keep on
saying that because
they call it a van but it's actually an
old school bus that was created into
an animal transport vehicle uh it's a
very
poor condition some freezing
temperatures when parked there the
engine compartment is cold
so it's been there for a while so they
decide
that they're going to enter the van and
take the dog out for uh
its own well-being so as this was going
on and i came into the station house i
call
uh i go to the desk so the desk officer
and i
work out to call the nassau county spca
which is the society
for prevention of cruelty to animals to
come down they have criminal
investigators
that also get involved in this
they take the dog out of the crate and
the dog is paralyzed
from its waist down it's in very very
poor condition
um it has sores all over its legs
uh it has no control over its bowels or
urinary tract
uh really it it did not look like it was
going to
potentially survive um
we get involved with the spca the spca
comes down
the spca gets involved with detective
popper uh
two detectives from the spca comes down
it's a detective
thompson and wasserman they come down
they go down to the van
we decide that we're going to impound
the van the only thing we did when we
get into the van
was we rescue the animal and then the
presence of mine is there to
not go through anything else in the van
we back out of the van we close the
doors
we apply for a search warrant of the van
because all we wanted to do
was handle the exigent circumstances of
the dog that's in very poor condition
so we do an investigation the nassau
county uh district attorney's
uh animal crimes division gets involved
uh and it turns out that as we're
impounding but before the
the impound vehicle shows up to take the
uh the van away
the owner of the vehicle shows up that
person is brought down to the
uh police headquarters interview takes
place there
and at the end of the whole thing
through coordination of all of the
different
um agencies involved
we wind up taking the vehicle getting a
search warrant taking the health
certificates for all the animals
that were transported the woman who owns
the van gets arrested for
leaving the dog unintended in the
vehicle for approximately
seven hours with no heat source so it's
an animal
in the vehicle for uh in extreme
temperatures
she is also involved in transporting
numerous animals to a local animal
shelter not in long beach but uh close
by
which then prompts an investigation into
that
particular animal shelter because
this van is used to bring animals up
from texas
to our local area so
there's an ongoing investigation as to
the health certificates
but you know i want to point out that a
special police officer who's doing
parking enforcement comes across
uh an animal that's in obvious distress
in
in a in a van in cold weather
and does a fantastic job of rescuing the
animal
and potentially starting an
investigation that could broaden
into the into really providing safety
and security for
other animals in our community on on the
island so my compliments go out
to a special police officer rodriguez
the desk officer involved uh are
detectives
the spca for their response the district
attorney's office
uh the united states department of uh
food food and drug administration they
came down
because they're involved with the
interstate transport of animals a very
a lot of coordination took place here
it's just another example of the great
work that the
police department is doing um so before
i go on to any
uh any other part of my report here
tonight does anybody have any questions
on that particular instance
okay so the next one that i want to
bring to our attention
is uh we've been receiving a lot of
complaints in town
about people flying particular banners
around town that
are have foul language what we consider
to be foul language uh the police
department is very very we're
aware of these particular instances
around town
and i just wanted to read a little bit
of very quick information
to the public and to the council just to
give you a little bit of basis here
so um cohen versus california was a case
that came out of
uh the supreme court came out of
california but somebody was actually
wearing profane language on their
t-shirt when they go into a courthouse
and the united states supreme court
basically says
that while foul language are not
words that the general public might use
as poetry
right but um they say that basically
one man's vulgarity is another man's
lyric
and they they determine that
that type of language is actually
protected speech so as much
as it might be offensive to the
sensibilities of a lot of people
there's not a lot that the police
department or the city can do
with regard to the foul language other
than appeal to the
common sense sensibilities of people and
try and get them to
cooperate with us as community-minded
neighbors if you will
so that you know you can get your
message it's not the message it's the
wording
that's being used that some people are
fine finding offensive
and uh you know so even though the city
doesn't promote
the sign or the use of profanity the
supreme court
has said that that is a type of
protected speech in the first amendment
and regardless of our opinion the sign
has to be recognized as protected
speech so i just wanted to kind of get
it out there that we are
very well aware of it and we are working
towards trying to come to some
sort of amicable resolution but
as for the particular wording on a sign
uh we can't do a lot about that legally
it violates somebody's rights uh first
amendment rights civil rights violation
is not really something that the city
would want to take on because
they've already ruled on it and it's not
a winner for us
um are there any questions with regard
to that from anybody before i move on to
my last piece tonight
okay so the last piece that i have here
tonight is
at long last on our city's website
our police reform document is up it is
published
and it is out there so if you go on to
the long beach
the city of long beach's website you go
into the department you go into police
department
you click on that part of the page you
go to the bottom of the page and you
will see
links to our police reform plan
uh it is a rather lengthy document
um it is i think it's 130 some odd pages
overall
the portions that we wrote are uh 58
pages
long uh i can't thank rich de palmer
enough and
the members of the police department you
had you know bill dodge who
worked tirelessly getting us our uh
graphics together
uh we had a tremendous amount of um
new policies that went out over the last
two weeks to get us to the point where
we could put this
up in good faith saying that these
things are part of our uh
our process and procedure not that they
weren't before but the codification
of what's necessary to actually
comply with executive order 203 really
need to take place
um i really want to give a shout out to
everybody involved in what was called
the commissioner's board on police
reform uh these were all
very uh very interested and dedicated
members of our community
that worked alongside myself inspected
the palmer
the city itself to really come up with a
document
that reflects what long beach
as a city and as a community would like
its police department to be doing
so if you can uh beg your indulgence
while i just read the names of the
people that were involved
i think they deserve proper
acknowledgement even
though it hasn't been finally approved
by the board uh you have helen dorado
alessi from the long beach
latino civic association you have father
brian barr
who's pastor of saint mary the isle our
lady of miraculous medal and saint
ignatius
churches rabbi uh elijah fink from
temple zion
danielle uh grussen meyer from the
nassau county district attorney's office
you have henry hall for the north north
park crisis prevention
and post intervention team rabbi baruch
kleinman from temple zion
you have joseph lee he's an attorney and
a city resident
john mcnally from uh the city manager's
office
was a big help pastor mark moses he's
the pastor at the new life church of
christ disciples
of christ in this and and the city of
long beach civil service commission
he was very very involved uh rodney
nellams of
community member jackie odom from north
park crisis prevention
and post intervention team daniel
robinson another one of our nassau
county
district attorney's office uh marcus
tinker from the north park crisis
prevention and post intervention team
uh myself inspector obama uh and uh
bill dodge were all worked our butts off
to get this together
we feel that we've really come up with
something that um
we'll do long beach proud it is a great
commitment to the city
uh to do this uh there's a lot of things
in there uh which we're gonna hold a
special meeting uh
of the council with the council's
approval next week
uh right now it's up we're going to get
feedback we've established a special
uh email box that shows up directly on
my email and uh rich to palmer's so that
we can go through any
any feedback that the community gives us
and if it fits within this in the
in the uh in the document we'll
incorporate those suggestions
into the document for community in
general input
but uh we're very proud of the document
it's going to be a lot of work to meet
it
and to be able to implement it but um i
i
and i know that every one of the council
members the public should know that this
document was given to the council
members a few weeks ago
they read through it i got a lot of
feedback from them everything that was
asked
that we could incorporate was put into
the um into the document
so city manager gaiden will get final
product next week
make a recommendation to the board for
this to be approved by the city council
once that takes place we come up with a
communication letter to the new york
state director of budget
and this goes upstate for them to have
our plan
i'm done any questions
[Laughter]
i have no questions i know a lot of work
went into that document
and i i appreciate everyone's assistance
making that happen sure yes indeed
um commissioner i just want to you know
thank you
thank the members and and the list of
people a diverse group of people that
i'm
i'm sure um my personal opinion is
having
the group together and weighing in
gives a large represented representation
of what
the community policing i guess uh needs
and desires and but just the dialogue
just the communication
is excellent thank you thank you for
your hard work you're welcome thank you
okay um we just
um one more and then myself mr mcnally
i will uh i will keep it brief uh
in way of covid update so for the seven
day period
ending yesterday there was 105 new
positive test results
in the city that averages out to 15
a day or 0.45
per 1000 per day uh
again these are way down from what we
you know what's commonly referred to as
the holiday peak
but still very concerning numbers and
roughly equivalent of
where we were during the peak last
spring so we're
we're we're almost exactly one year out
um from the the onset of this pandemic
and are kind of right back where we were
there's better that better therapeutics
obviously better treatment
hospital systems are in pretty good
shape at this stage of the game
uh and of course the vaccine is there
the the big news on that front is
johnson johnson
vaccine was approved over the weekend
um and president biden today announced
that
he anticipates a vaccine being available
to uh
every resident of the united states by
the end of may
so there is some hope there uh
for folks looking to get appointments
that we are still at a point where
the demand greatly outweighs the supply
but for
folks looking to get an appointment stay
patient keep trying
um the new york state hotline number is
833-697-4829
and nassau county's website for their
sites is nassau countyny.gov
vaccine so that's our
bi-weekly covet update just two other
quick updates as the council i think
is aware do well certainly you're aware
that judy vining has
been calling for an update to the social
host law
to include marijuana uh the council it
looks like should anticipate
having a notice of a public hearing at
the next council meeting so on the 16th
then last but not least uh we
will have recycle bins uh for sale
at cost to our residents no later than
monday
we're just finalizing a few procedural
things on our end
but the bins are in they are the
same exact specs as the blue bins that
everybody has now
except for they are hunter green they
will be available for sale
for 15 each at our uh tax department's
office the third floor
city hall again no later than monday uh
but we'll be making an announcement in
all the usual ways
uh if we can get it out the door prior
to that
that is it unless there are any
questions tomorrow
is recycling for tomorrow is recycling
for
commingled more commonly known as
plastic glass
and metal thank you
if you're if you're my house it's
commonly referred to as the big pile in
the basement whatever is down there
are there any other questions uh
okay so lastly i want to thank
mlk inc on friday they had their soft
reopening
and president bendel commissioner
walsh and monique powell and i attended
and they surprised me with the wall
honoring black history month and so i
want to
tell them thank you very much i was
quite surprised but i did appreciate
that
i also want to thank commissioner
morando and
ena resnick our comptroller um
for all of the hard work that they put
in on
helping us with the memorandum of
agreement
for the fire department um we still have
some work
to do but i just want to make sure that
you know that i
i thanked you also on
tuesdays from two to four we have uh
meet with the city manager virtually
i want to thank we had a full agenda
today or a full
slate of people that met with the city
manager today and i think it went very
well so
if anyone is interested please sign up
you can go on the website and it will
tell you how you can set up an
appointment um the last thing is we are
definitely
in budget season we are trying we are
working very hard to
complete the budget for upcoming uh
year july 1st through june 30th of 2022
and also um we are
preparing the five-year multi-year plan
i want to say thank you for mindy
because she read that entire document
for me
to for grammatical uh information
and so we're moving uh it's moving quite
along
so we will be coming to you all soon
um to ask any additional quest ask if
you have any additional questions
and we will be moving forward from that
and then the very last thing is that we
know we have some charter changes that
need to be made
um especially from some of the reports
that we received
within the last year or so and we will
be bringing that
forth um for april so that
we can publish for the hearing and then
we can also
go ahead and hold a meeting about those
charter changes
so are there any questions for me thus
far
well that ends the city manager's report
great thank you so much donna and uh
dave why don't we move on to the uh the
agenda and the public hearing
okay so our first public hearing or only
public hearing is for the purpose of
providing all persons and
representatives of organizations
with significant social economic and
environmental interests
an adequate opportunity to publicly
present their views
on on and propose activities for the
city's community development program
for the 2021-22 47th year
okay great and i see monique has joined
us so
uh monique you have any um
anything you're gonna you'd like to say
before we uh start the hearing
no okay
so uh who do we got dave
right now i have i have no hands raised
all right
oh wait a minute wait i don't know okay
well as soon as i said that we have two
hands up okay
uh matt graham okay from mlk
hi mack hey what's going on sorry about
that and
obviously i can't um put my camera on
but
good evening everyone it's a pleasure to
be here um again my name is matt graham
i'm the newest executive director at the
mlk center
and um right as you may know the mlk
center we offer community-based
educational
recreational and human services
programming to help our community um
overcome adversity and today we're
requesting support for
our enrichment programming in the amount
of two thousand
twenty five hundred dollars um or twenty
five thousand dollars i'm sorry
um as you may know like cover 19 has had
a detrimental effect on many of our
residents specifically um the black and
brown residents here in the north park
area
uh many of our residents has lost
employment and need financial assistance
or need
assistance with um finding employment um
it has also had a
deteriorating effect on many of our
folks financial and
not financial um physical and mental
health
and it has also had a detrimental effect
on many of our students academic ability
so um with your support we are looking
to enhance our wrap-around services
around
education and human services um
with the with the new building occupancy
um social media
social discipline protocol we will need
increased staffing hours which
to meet the needs of each participant
coming in at different hours
we would also need financial support for
virtual and hybrid programming to meet
our students and families needs
virtually
on programming particularly around
education financial literacy and mental
health
and then we will and we also just need
um financial assistance for cleaning
supplies and technical
technical support assistance um this
year we're looking to
do a community assessment evaluate the
data and then
implement the adequate services needed
to provide um
resources to our community and um i
think that's about it all i have today
but thank you
again for having me okay great thanks
for the input mac
okay all right dave who's next next is
james hodge
all right welcome mr hodge
thank you uh welcome thank all of you
i just wanted to reiterate uh as the
person of the board and board member
reiterate uh and support what
our executive director is saying that on
this hearing
we want to make it uh you know clear
that again we appreciate the city
for what they do through community
development uh
as we are in the city's budget i think
at 0.03 percent
uh that the city contributes
through community development for gas
and electric
and we appreciate that we're asking for
uh the city of long beach as max said to
help contribute
with uh funds for programming so that we
will be able to meet the needs
of the community as we continue to do
need assessments
and do the programs that we do it was
wonderful to have
uh the city here the commissioner and
the city manager
and again just to see that we will
already feel that capacity
on one side that wasn't even we didn't
even promote a time
uh that was just a little word of mouth
just by a few kids and so
again we do need support uh we are one
city and uh sometimes in different areas
there is just less fortunate that need a
little bit more assistance
and we are here to help uh everyone
and do what we can to be that stellar
organization that we have been
in the city of long beach since 1968 so
again
we're here to request the city's help
uh in the area of community development
funds to be contributed
to the mlk center and also that
community development
take a look at the building because it
do have
leaks that the city has already paid
to fix and i don't think that would they
probably would have to pay more i think
they just have to
get the company that already did the
work
uh because that uh it's structural and
it's from the roof
so i would love that to be addressed
through uh community development as
everything else is
in this building is pretty much uh taken
care of through the community
development
that's all i really have to say about
community development
okay thanks james appreciate it thank
you thank you for stopping by on
friday my pleasure
all right dave do we have anyone else
nope that was it
okay any questions from the council
because i uh didn't ask that in the
beginning
okay see you next question but i i do
want to thank monique
for all of her super hard work
on this it was a lot and
thank you monique thank you can i just
add on
that this is the uh there will be more
transparency when it comes to the
community development and cdbg
and i encourage the public or anyone
else that
is interested or want to know more
information to visit our website
um thank you uh to carry android and
tracy murray who has been helping me
to be more transparent and provide
upcoming information that is very
valuable to our community and everyone
else about what we're doing with
community development
so further questions and um information
can be sought out through the website uh
which is on long beach in my.gov and go
under community development
uh and with that my updates will be up
there i'm also
mirroring what the wonderful city
manager is doing is having
virtual chat and shoes with myself about
the needs of the community
and their interest in community
development so uh
starting tomorrow you everyone can go
online
and see the information and we can take
it from there
okay great thanks monique any other
questions
all right seeing none let's close that
hearing and move on to the agenda
okay we're on to the regular calendar um
again
noting items six and seven have been
removed from the calendar
item one is approval of minutes from
prior meeting december 18 2020.
do i have a motion to approve
i will second
well thank you councilmember de laurie
yes councilmember mandel yes
councilmember truston
yes vice president mcginnis yes
president bendo
yes okay item two resolution 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 1 of the housing and community
development act
of 1974 as amended and 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 a hearing has been held on
this item already
item 3 is a resolution authorizing the
city manager to purchase sodium
hypochlorite
from the lowest responsible bidder
i'm gonna assume that's joe again yes
joe is three four and five okay
uh the purpose of this beard was to
obtain sodium hypochlorite for the water
pollution control plant
basically sodium hypochlorite is
utilized for disinfection of the sewage
of sewage in the treatment process uh
there were four bids received
the low bidder was jci jones at 95 cents
per gallon
the second bidder was pbs at a dollar
five per gallon
twin county pools was third at a dollar
twenty nine per gallon
and kuhn was the fourth bidder at a
dollar fifty per gallon
um the city utilizes approximately
seventy thousand gallons per year
of sodium hypochlorite the previous
vendor was twin county
pools at 98 cents a gallon so this is a
three percent
i'm not three three cent i'm sorry three
cent reduction
um from the previous uh cost per gallon
and funding is available in their
operating budget for this uh
purchase
okay uh i just got one clarification joe
um 70 000 just roughly 70 000 gallons a
year at 95 cents
a gallon is is 66 500
but the resolution says there's 12 000
available in the account i assume that
12 000 is just for the remainder
okay right that's the remainder of the
year that's why they have 70 000 for
for the oh yes that's just for the
remainder for the remainder of the year
and then next year it'll be the
the full amount okay i just wanted to
clarify that
all right any other questions from the
council
all right see a nun any from the public
dave
yes roy lester okay hi roy
go ahead right hello john
um yeah this is uh basically chlorine in
our water and
you know it's something that's always a
concern and especially since we had the
uh
the crisis back in june of uh 2019
and we never really quite figured out
what caused the
e coli and the coliform in it but you
know we do have to
have chlorine and the problem with
chlorine and
and uh roy can i just interrupt you for
a second because this is for waste water
this isn't for the potable water system
or the water treatment plant
this is to basically treat uh to
disinfect the sewage
in the wastewater plant the sodium
hydrochloride it's totally different
than the chlorine at the
water treatment plant we don't use
sodium hypochlorite for the
the next agenda item is for chemicals
for the water treatment plant
um it's probably more applicable to what
you're starting to say
okay then cannot wait for the next yeah
you might want to wait till the next one
okay if you don't mind i apologize no
problem
okay okay
then we'll talk to you on the next one
roy um
anyone else dave nope that was it
okay let's move on to item four then
okay item number four is a resolution
authorizing the city manager to purchase
various chemicals
on an as needed basis for the water
purification plant from the lowest
responsible bidders
yeah the purpose of these bids was to
clean aluminum sulfate
sulfate liquid and hydrated lawn for
treatment processes at the water
treatment plant
the aluminum sulfate liquid is utilized
in the open air basins at the facility
of the plant to facilitate iron to
settle out you know our
water that we get from the lloyd is iron
rich so it's used in the process to make
it settle out
the hydrated lime is utilized to
increase the ph of the water
um there were two bids received for each
chemical the low bid for the aluminum
sulfate liquid
was chemtraid chemicals at a dollar
three per gallon
the previous supplier was thatcher at a
dollar five per gallon
so it's a two percent reduction from
what we were previously paying
and it's approximately 45 000 gallons uh
used annually
of that of your aluminum aluminum sector
as far as um a little bit on the
hydrated line was greymont
at 208 per ton the previous supplier was
calm new line at 210 percent so it is
a two dollar reduction um in that cost
and we use approximately 100 tons a year
of that chemical
so um i know it doesn't mention chlorine
specifically that's another chemical
used in the process but roy
i apologize i interrupted you before if
you want to continue
regarding um your
question or comment this would probably
be a good time because it's related to
the water treatment plant
all right um
all right are you done joe i'm done yes
thank you okay
do we have any questions from the
council members
i don't have a question i just want to
thank joe for
being able to when he opens her bids to
do that on youtube for the public to see
thank you yeah and it's great we're
going the price
that what we're paying is going down
that's actually uh
good that's a good thing so nice job
all right uh see no other questions from
the council uh
dave what do we got i assume royce
coming back
yep there you go yes roy go ahead
let me unmute okay i have several
questions uh
quickly we put a lot of chemicals in our
water
and our water is hard no question about
it
i question our um our reports
because our calcium hardness goes up to
32.7 milligrams per liter
microgram per liter and yet our total
hardness is only
5.2 to 8.9 milligrams per liter which
doesn't make sense how the total could
be less than
apart i also the copper and the lead
uh hasn't been tested since 2017
and it's was rescheduled to be tested in
2020 and i don't see that it was
retested and uh i guess the the part
that bothers me the most
is the the chlorine the uh
the sodium hypochlorite that we use the
um chlorine of course it's a caustic
chemical and
you know it's but it's necessary because
it kills things
but we uh a byproduct of that is what's
called a
trihalomethane and the trihalomethane
that we have
is 400 percent higher than what it is in
point lookout
and trihyl methane there's no question
it's carcinogenic
of course you know you can't avoid
carcinogens i'm i'm not saying that
but it i guess what i would like is that
some at some point
have you been hearing me yes okay
at some point uh if we could have a
some sort of a uh seminar on this or
something
because water quality is a big issue
uh carcinogenic water is always bad and
they do say that this particular
chemical causes bladder cancers and
kidney cancers and stuff like that
and you know i know we're nowhere near
the
absolute total limit and stuff like that
but i think it's something that the
public would like to know about and if
donna could arrange for
you know some sort of education on this
where we could actually ask questions it
would be good
joe i don't know if you have an answer
yeah i would suggest a conversation even
with the health department
we could probably get them involved as
well and and possibly we could reach out
and know what prove it everything's
virtual
but um i mean i'm not adverse to it um
and possibly even one of our consulting
firms
potentially we work with h2m a lot we
work with a couple other
um with the working bottle richie um
i mean i might reverse some sort of form
to discuss it
um more at this point like some sort of
zoom needed yeah
at all so do you have a is that
total hardness just an error or
is there an explanation for it no
john yeah yeah the the reason for the
fact that our calcium hardness
is we have a calcium hardness that's
higher is because we use
hydrated lime to raise the ph which is
actually
as compared to the town of hempstead
they use caustic soda
and the benefits to using hydrated lime
is that
it's very difficult to drive the ph into
a dangerous
level because if you over hydrate with
lime
uh it will settle out in the means as
opposed to if you over hydrate with
caustic soda
you will uh you could cause severe burns
on people
so using hydrating lime is a much safer
process no
uh joe the question was how can the
total hardness be less than
uh a part of the hardness because the
hardness
calcium hardness is calculated different
than total hardness
our water is very soft here and that's
one of the reasons we raised the ph
and when when our ph
and naturally in the water is about 4.2
to 4.5
when we drawn up when we had the uh
hydrated lime
we bring the ph up to just under eight
okay and do you know if we were if we
retested for the lead in the copper
we test for lead and copper on our cycle
as required and we have very good
results
no no i'm sorry was it re-tested in 2020
i know we
we tested in 2017 but it was
rescheduled for 2020. yes it was tested
in 2020 those results will come out in
the
in the 2020 uh water quality report
that we put out each year okay
do you know when that comes out just out
of curiosity um
you know what i i think it's in the it's
in process
we have a certain date it has to be out
by um i will follow up with the date
when it comes out
i'll get a copy all right thanks so much
um roy this is donna so i will um
meet with um mr fabrizio
and commissioner mirando and we will put
on
a learn maybe
a learn session for everyone that is in
the public
who may not understood what you all were
talking about
so that they can be educated and brought
up to speed we'll post it on our website
and we will let people know at the next
meeting when that will be
thanks so much donna thank you thank you
okay you done i assume you're done right
okay i'm gonna assume so uh dave yes
okay uh dave anyone else oh that was it
okay let's move on to item five item
five is a resolution authorizing the
city manager to enter into a contract
for the complete reconstruction of boyd
street north of east pine street with
the lowest responsible bidder
all right i'm going to assume that's joe
again
joe you muted so if you're talking we
can't hear you
can you hear me now yes okay um
again on january 21st 2021
uh three bids were received for the
reconstruction of boyd street north of
pine
um the low bidder was thomas novelli
contracting court at 888 thousand
660 there were two other bids one was
mercedo
contracting services and the third was
allen industries
um thomas de valle they're an extremely
reputable contractor that has done
several projects in the city
most recently they completed the
emergency sewer collapse on lindelon
walnut
as well as uh pacific boulevard
reconstruction between broadway and
walnut
um in regards uh to boyd street it's
arguably one of the worst
roads in long beach that's for sure um
that's probably part of this project
when we're replacing the sidewalks the
driveway brings the curbs
we're going to be replacing the old 16
diameter cast iron water main with a new
8-inch water main
and associated copper services with new
hydrants as well
there's going to be a new led directed
decorative street lights
very similar to what's on pacific
boulevard and
forester they're like they're called
post top luminaires they're
12 foot high decorative um led lights
roughly 100 feet on center um
and of course we're going to have a
newly paved road when it's all said and
done
that's going to be well pitched and well
drained to a
new drainage system at the dead end and
also at pine street
um i just wanted to note that this was
designed in-house by our staff
you know a lot of work goes into doing
one of these roads in house we're
probably one of the
few communities that actually still does
it um
you know it basically includes doing a
complete topographical survey of the
roadway
you know i have to draw it up with my
team here in public works on autocad
we had to send it to the health
department to get approval for the water
mains
so i just want to thank you know the
staff that we have here you know
john connor brooke anderson
chandra christine rita uh billy martone
i mean we you know we have a really
small staff and i really appreciate they
really work hard
and um you know probably saves the city
forty to fifty thousand dollars by
designing one of these roads in house
um but but anyway you know funding is
available in the capital budget for this
project and i definitely recommend
awarding it to thomas the valley
contracting they're one of the better
probably one of the best contractors
that we deal with so
and we have funding in our capital
budgets for it
okay uh any questions for joe
no just thank you again for saving us
money
yes thank you yeah good point
uh okay seeing nothing else from uh the
council uh dave anything from the public
anyone from the public
no nothing for the public okay well i
think we all agree that repaving streets
and
upgrading our infrastructure is a good
thing so uh let's move on to item six
i'm sorry six and seven and removed six
and seven have been taken off the
calendar we're gonna go to item eight
which is a resolution authorizing
a correction of error appearing on the
2019-20 assessment tax rolls for the
city of long beach
and that's mr flemmer from the tax
assessment office
hi ray ray go ahead and unmute
hi can you hear me yes we can hi good
evening uh this is a legal procedure to
accept the retroactive tax exemption
exemption application and cancel the
taxes for the 1920 tax year for temple
bethl
now known as uh new bethel uh they were
merged
uh their the properties were
deemed uninhabitable by the building
department back in 2018
uh their organization pretty much didn't
exist so no one
filed an application and the properties
weren't being used for an exempt status
so i was unable to approve any
application or make it exempt for that
year
uh once the tax bills were issued rabbi
goodman
informed me that he was in the process
of merging with uh
temple bethel and he requested from our
state representatives legislation
to allow us to accept this retroactive
application
uh this cancels uh 24 959.89 of taxes
for the 1920 tax year
the city council passed a resolution
back in december of 19
authorizing the acting city manager at
the time to issue a letter of support
for this retroactive tax exempt
exemption and that pretty much covers
everything
okay any questions from the council
members
okay i just have one question of ray
does that do you know if that affects
our budget
for this year that would have been in
the reconciliation of the end of the
year for 1920
okay uh you know could probably
answer that question better than me
okay you know there was a shortfall and
collect
collection of taxes i informed the tax
department at the time that
rabbi goodman came to me and went to the
state
that the taxes eventually would be
canceled cobid
delayed this process a few months right
right okay thank you ray you're welcome
okay any other questions from the
council
i believe ina is on to answer oh there
she is
yeah just to answer the question um yes
um good evening how are you everyone um
just wanted to let you know that this
amount was written off
in fiscal year 2020
as i was aware became aware
through the documentation that i
received from the
office of the tax receiver that this
property is not going to be subject to
the lean sale
okay
any other questions from the council
um yes um does that mean going forward
we will not collect any
taxes property taxes on this property
i think that's the question for ray
actually
yes right moving forward as long as they
file tax exemption applications and use
the property or have a plan to use the
property for a tax-exempt purpose
it will be exempt so
[Music]
is it is there a certain time frame in
which you have to actually
execute your exempt purpose
uh there's a lot of case on this and
generally
as long as they have a plan in place uh
it's pretty much goes to the property or
the exemption
on the constitution side so
they could have a plan in five years
from now to make the property
for a non-exempt purpose yeah but the
plan they would have to have building
plans that have to have the board of
directors approving something there
would have to be some sort of
official plan not just saying i'm going
to build a
new synagogue or a church they have to
have concrete plans to move forward
to retain tax exempt status
that's correct thank you you're welcome
okay any other questions from the
council
all right cnn dave do we have any from
the public no hands are raised
okay then let's move on to item nine
item nine is resolution authorizing the
the approval of a list of eligible
volunteer firefighters for the 2020
length of service awards program low sap
service credit
okay and i see our fire commissioner is
on so uh
john you gonna address this at all or
anything to say okay sure volunteer
firefighters in the city of long beach
will have at least one year of service
uh partake in what's known as a length
of service award program
which provides a defined benefit pension
to them at the
age of 65. uh each year firefighters are
awarded
points based on the number of fire calls
that they respond to
the number of rescue calls they respond
to training events they attend drills
attended standbys
or if they hold certain elected
positions meetings attended
and other miscellaneous work details and
some if on military leave
right now we don't have any would get
credit uh the monthly payout at age 65
is based on the filing for each year
that a firefighter attains at least 50
points
he or she would receive a 20 a month
pension starting at age
65. the total monthly payout is capped
at 400
or 20 years of obtaining required points
this year we had a total of 82
uh firefighters uh qualified that
doesn't mean
some firefighters did qualify and have
enough points
uh however they have already uh aged out
or have already obtained their 20 years
so um now what will happen is once the
council approves this
this information based on the age of the
people that
are eligible uh will go to our actuary
and the actuary will determine
based on the present funding of the
program if
we have to add any additional funds to
uh to support the program going forward
and that's basically unless somebody has
a question
okay mike i know you got a question
well i just want to um um
thank commissioner morando and i uh
i know he thoroughly explained
there were some members that exceeded
the the 50 points
but those that are listed on
this resolution i've checked um
as my council liaison to the fire
department responsibility is
and thank you all for allowing me that
opportunity
um but i think it's a great program and
it's uh
they're uh as far as i understand
everybody who
responds to a call is i believe a thumb
reader
so there's no you know signing sheets or
things like that
and uh i'm very proud of the volunteer
fire department and all of the
volunteers throughout the city and uh
thank you again
yeah okay any other questions from the
council
all right and just another thank you to
everyone that provides this volunteer
service
yeah we got 80 people who dedicate a lot
of time to
this uh to keeping us safe so
uh they deserve our gratitude
but uh all right uh
i guess i'm gonna say don't see any
others so dave any questions from the
public
uh yes james hodge okay
just wanted to thank uh all of the
volunteer firemen that
uh risked their lives uh they don't
uh get paid to do it and uh
you know i thank god for firemen all
over the world
but uh thank god for these special
firemen here in long beach
that uh volunteered to do
what they can to help uh save lives and
uh you know help our city
from nevada to maple from the bay to the
ocean
and uh this whole barrier island and and
they respond even out of town
and cover other fire departments and
help them in different
uh levels of fire so again
whatever we can do to assist them and
help them for their contributions and
what they do
which is a uh you know just to
really amazing job uh going to the
trainings
and you know doing what they do i i just
wanted to add on i appreciate them
and thank god for them and actually god
just keep them safe from all harm and
hurt and unseen danger amen
thank you okay thanks james
um this is this is karen um i just want
to clarify that i'd like to thank the
fire men
and the fire women that served the city
as volunteers
equally yes all of them
the fire fighters yeah the firefighters
because there are women
that's right the volunteer yes there are
yeah
absolutely um thanks gary
okay uh anyone else dave nope that was
all
okay let's move on to item 10. item 10
is a resolution authorizing transfer of
funds for the 2020 2021 fiscal year
that would be eno
you're a mute ena if you're talking
i'm sorry say it again please don't
item number 10 the resolution
item number 10 resolution is for
the transfer from um
the contingency to the fire department
equipment repair law no
no no no no that's item 11. item 10 is
to pay
dyntec services right sorry item number
down you're absolutely right
also uh transfer from the information
technology machinery equipment line
to the information technology contracted
services line
uh thirty seven hundred dollars it
pertains to
the services and david's on the flood
at the meeting so he can correct me if
i'm wrong
um it has to do with the um
work of the consultants who helped us
who helped us with the cyber security
work
back in december and january and
the department of information technology
has some funds remaining
in the machinery and equipment line
about twenty five thousand dollars if
i'm not mistaking
so um they had asked me to
um transfer this money to the contracted
services line
this way we can pick um consultants out
of the
correct line
okay good great any questions from the
council
i think it's pretty straightforward all
right
dave any questions from the public roy
lester
okay hi
again um this was when we were hacked
right
and ron walsh kind of saved the day
yes yeah um who
i mean normally we have some sort of
cyber security
that we pay for i'm sure that you know
it
is standard why could we not have relied
on them or
did we not have that service at the time
or
you know i i mean i i thank god ron was
around
but um you know just that we have to pay
extra normally this is something that
would be covered by your
i.t group or whoever is handling your
i.t
can you just explain that one um
i'm not quite sure there is no i.t group
um really it was just uh
dave and jamie at that particular time
the city did not
carry cyber security insurance um
the very first quote that we received to
help us
was two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars um
uh so commissioner walsh
called um some people he knew in nasa
county and we made some phone calls
and um dynatech came in and they helped
us and they only charged us
it was going to be at the highest eleven
thousand dollars
and so we feel bill comes in at 3 700
and yes we do have its
uh insurance now ah that's great okay
thank you
you're welcome um uh john um i
actually had a question about this okay
um
i was uh looking for a firmer date on
when we're going to receive a
uh security report as a result of uh
of dynex work or someone else's work
about a security assessment uh we we
uh met with the whole team last friday
so within two weeks we should have the
written report
so so then i feel comfortable approving
this thank you
okay uh anyone else stay from the public
nope that was it okay let's move on to
item 11.
and item 11 is also a resolution
authorizing transfer funds for the 2020
2021 fiscal year
all right okay ina
this is for the fire truck
you're still on mutina sorry
um okay so uh this uh
transfer um is needed
uh because we have a fire truck
um that needs repair
i believe uh it was explained to me that
uh it has something to do with the
latter
um on the fire truck and we um
obviously with a lot of high-rise
buildings um
in the city we definitely need to have
this fire truck um fixed sooner rather
than later
so uh we are asking city council to
authorize this uh um
transfer from the contingency account to
the fire department equipment repair
account in amount of fourteen thousand
nine hundred and ten dollars um that was
already
um this um
is based on the quote that um the city
received from the third body that
assessed the damage
and the cost of repair
okay any questions from the council
members
all right seeing none any from the
public dave
nope not not at this time okay
then okay let's move on to the voting on
to the voting
okay so to start with item number two
which is a resolution authorizing the
filing of an application
with the county of nassau for the
purpose of undertaking a community
development program
uh under title one of the housing and
community development act of 1974 as
amended and title two of the national
affordable housing act of 1990 is
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
i will second
i will voting council member delorey
yes councilmember mandel yes
councilmember treston
yes vice president mcginnis yes
president bendo
yes item three is a resolution
authorizing the city manager to purchase
sodium hypochloride
from the lowest responsible bidder what
should just move the adoption of this
item
i will second
i will voting council member delorey
yes councilmember mandel uh before i
vote i just want to thank
joe your entire department john mirando
for your work on this item
as well as items four and five i won't
be redundant and
go through those each time but uh thank
you very much
and uh great cost savings as well so i
vote yes
councilmember tristan yes uh vice
president mcginnis
yes president bendo yes item 4 is a
solution authorizing the city manager to
purchase various chemicals on an as
needed basis
for the water purification plant for the
lowest responsible bidders
which just move the adoption of this
item
i will oh okay president okay
second i will cut okay voting customer
delivery
yes councilmember mandel yes council
member trusted
yes vice president mcginnis yes
president bendo
yes item five is a resolution
authorizing the city manager to enter to
a contract for the complete
reconstruction of boyd street
north of east pine street with the
lowest responsible bidder we should just
remove the adoption of this item
i will second
i will voting council member delury
looking forward to the project yes
councilmember mandel yes councilmember
trusted
yes vice president mcginnis um yes i
just want to make sure that joe you
you get the latest version of autocad
really appreciate it thank you
president bendo yes uh item eight is a
resolution authorizing
a correction of error appearing in the
2019-20 assessment
uh tax rolls of the city of long beach
which
will introduce move the adoption of this
item
i will second
i will voting councilmember delury
yes councilmember mandel yes
councilmember treston
yes vice president mcginnis yes
president bendo
yes okay and item nine is a resolution
authorizing the approval
of a list of eligible volunteer
firefighters for the 2020 length of
service award program low sap service
credit
would you just move the adoption of this
item i will
second voting councilmember delorey
yes councilmember mandel uh before i
vote i want to thank all of our
volunteer firefighters
uh especially this crew because it's
actually those who earned at least
50 points so that means that's the bear
minimum
and a lot of these people probably even
exceeded that so thanks to all of our
volunteer firefighters
and especially this group of individuals
i vote yes councilmember truston
thank you very much i vote yes vice
president mcginnis
yes president pendo council mandel said
it well
uh thank you and yes item 10 is a
resolution authorizing transfer funds
for the 2020 2021 fiscal year
which just removed the adoption of this
item i will
second i will
voting that's what delivery um i'd like
to
thank commissioner walsh walsh and all
the members that helped
um and i vote yes councilmember mandel
i i echo those sentiments i vote yes uh
councilmember treston
vice president mcginnis yes president
benda
yes and finally item 11 is a resolution
authorizing transfer of funds for the
2020 2021 fiscal year
would you just move the adoption of this
item i will
second i will voting customer delivery
yes councilmember mandel yes
councilmember trusted
yes vice president mcinnes yes president
pendo
yes we'll make a motion to close the
meeting i will
second i will voting councilmember
delorey
yes councilmember mandel yes
councilmember tristan okay uh vice
president mcginnis
yes president bando yes
okay on to good and welfare uh
you get three minutes of uh time
uh to talk about what you'd like and who
do we have first
first up roy lester okay
gadry you should be unmuted okay
um i guess i have three questions um can
we get an update on the jetties the
uh rapidly disappearing jetties and the
people that were
taking care of it um also on the
recycled bins
can we arrange for some sort of delivery
to people maybe if they pay three or
four dollars
uh and get it dropped off at their house
because that's
really a burden for a lot of people to
get to city hall during the day
and get it and uh i'm sure there are a
lot of kids that would go out there and
deliver these things for three or four
dollars so i think we could probably
arrange that
and finally can we uh allow people to
ask questions on the department reports
the department reports
something that donna has brought in and
they're really great
they give a lot of information but with
information comes questions
so if we could ask questions on that
information it would be really nice
thanks under three minutes
hey you're under one minute
all right thanks roy uh let's see
um i see john
is joe's not on anymore uh john you have
any
update on the jetties that you might
know of
yes they will continue to inspect them
on an annual basis
uh so they've done one annual inspection
after the for the fifth annual
inspection they'll actually do a survey
of um of not only the jetties but the
location of sand and how the sand is
shifted and moved
uh i wouldn't expect any
help from the army corps on doing
anything different with those jetties
until
at least the end of the five years which
will be in about another four years
and just just as a reminder as of this
stage we have
as a city have not accepted uh
the jetties so i i also i also wanted to
point out that we just voted on at the
last meeting or the meeting before
to uh extend the coastal engineering
contract to analyze and continue to
report on the stat
status of the jetties so we're so
they're on top of it
that's the latest update right those
people represent the city
uh that's coastal planning engineers and
commissioner this is my delorean
wouldn't the um the request
eventually get funneled up to our
federal representatives
we've copied we've copied the federal
representatives on every report
that we've had done by postal planning
and in addition
internal memorandums that that joe and i
prepared
great thank you commissioner
okay and then i just want to deliver you
to bins i guess the staff can take that
back and
uh consider that as a potential option
yes uh as well as uh uh asking questions
on the department reports uh
if there's a way to do that maybe yes
we'll take that under advisement okay
we did the city did that
you could pick it up at west school you
can pick it up at different parts of the
city yeah and then we may be able to do
like they do with the parking passes
have
evening hours or something like that so
people could come uh
um you know after working hours and
things like that so there's things to to
certainly consider
so all right uh who's next steve but
what joe fabrizio is on and he had his
hand up for something oh sorry you know
what john pretty much covered it very
well so um
i uh i'm still here but good job john
thank you all right
thank you uh all right uh who's next
dave
uh next is judy vining all right hi judy
hi um can you hear me yes
first of all thank you for being uh
had a conversation with um
mr pleasure this morning because i don't
know if you know but pre-copied
um we always had a representative from
the corporation council as well as the
da's office
to meetings so i didn't have to like
explain it all to rich because he knew
because he was part of it
so this kind of puts the punctuation on
something that we started in the state
so that's really good for long beach and
good for
our community just you're breaking up a
little bit so i don't know if it's
slowing down or speaking
more directly into the phone okay we'll
try can you hear me
yeah that's better this has been all day
since the wind
[Music]
so anyway um again thank you to rich for
understanding and doing it and thank you
guys the other
is also on the top of marijuana you know
that um the governor is full speed
behind
his proposal what i wanted to point out
to you guys aside from the
kind of information i know i sent you um
your reading pleasure is that
the biggest thing for us is that for
cities under 100 000 there is no option
to opt
out so you might want to consider as a
council
asking for the same privilege that the
city of yonkers has
and writing you know a letter or
contacting the governor and
speaker and the majority leader of the
senate as well as our local
officials so that we can fairly protect
our citizens
and given that
that's why i said what was local
ordinances that can be
initiated by a local community
we're not able to opt out and so there
are things that have worked um
for example in california one out of
five i think cities have
um opted out of selling having stores
you can extend the distance between
advertising and add in houses of worship
and daycare centers and all that which
are not in the governor's proposal
so that we have at least a little more
protective
space around our kids
so those are just the things that you
know to consider that was in the packet
that i
sent you from sam which is a pretty
solid um
research tank in terms of what works and
what doesn't work and
how to get around certain things when
you have a totally preemptive state
because that
is proposal it will be part of the sla
and we all do know how difficult that is
to work with sometimes
so that's all i wanted to put before you
and thank you again for
the hearing and for closing that
loophole
okay great thanks judy
all right uh who's next dave
next is eileen hession all right hi
eileen
can you hear me yes we can good i would
like to thank
councilwoman treston for following up on
something i asked her about
i was getting texts emails and phone
calls
from pseg about their home serve
service about sewer lines to the street
and they sort of threatened that if oh
if you didn't pay the four dollars a
month and something happened it would
cost thousands of dollars so i asked her
to look into it and she did
so it seems like
what they would charge is four dollars a
month
less than brady and it seems almost as
if they are
the same thing so i'm wondering
if the city knows anything about this if
we should sign up for it with pseg
if it's a scam whatever anybody know
anything
eileen this is liz i um i spoke with
commissioner
may this late this afternoon he
is the commissioner from nassau county
for consumer affairs
regarding your concern uh
that this letter that i i'm assuming
most of us
have received it's from it looks like
it's from pseg
but it's a company that is
pseg worry free so you really have to
look at the fine print
it's uh he's going to look into it to
make sure that pseg
is still okay with them using their uh
name uh
as far as whether or not
uh this i'm going to request
in an email tomorrow that the staff look
into it as
we have got we have brady risk
in our in our water bill already that
people don't
sign up for a service that they already
have that would be something for them to
look at
but again it happened after business
hours today
so i will uh follow up with that
tomorrow
so thank you very much liz this is donna
eileen
um i have a copy of the letter um that
was given to me after business hours so
we will follow up with it because
in the letter it says that the customers
of ps eng
long island have no obligation and it is
not the same company as pseg
long island so we will look into this to
see about this vendor
and then we will let everybody know
thank you very much i think everyone got
this letter and they kind of
threatened if you didn't buy it this
would happen so i appreciate
your work on this thank you very much
okay thanks eileen uh anyone else dave
uh yes next is james hodge okay welcome
back james
james go ahead and unmute yourself okay
it's good to be back uh to also to
hear about the uh section 5
24 on the code of ordnance undetended
animals that was a section that i
uh got put in long beach thanks to corey
klein at the time and i was animal
wharton
but i also uh want to speak about also
the
i heard you guys speak about the
affordable housing that's being put
in long beach and i think that if you
guys get the details of this plan
people that speak about gentrification
don't know the details of this plan this
is
north park is an opportunity zone these
investors
are looking to come in and buy these
homes which they have done
and if they're not put into two family
homes
they would have to rent them at a rate
that is unaffordable and that will
virtually make them uh make it
where it will gentrify the neighborhood
if they're not what they're looking to
do
is make them two family homes
and the rate of hud whatever hud going
rate is
and the attorney know that all of you
guys need to get the package
look at the presentation on the zoning
board it was five hours
this is i believe a great deal
and a great opportunity for people
that are low income and can't afford the
5 000 to live in a one family home
which these houses could be but there
they don't have to do this
again long beach and north park area was
designated
as a opportunity zone they came in to
invest
and i'll say this quick piece is that
when i was younger and i was in school
and i said this on the zoning board
right
when when i was getting free lunch i had
a big yellow cart and i used to have to
stand on the other side
of the cafeteria and it was two lines
all of the people were free lunch i had
to have a yellow car and get punched
all the other people stayed on the other
side because they had money
i felt horrible because everybody knew
that i got free lunch and that my father
and mother probably was poor
these houses don't depict that you're
poor
it puts everybody on the same line and
i'm grateful that these owners
are looking to come and give these
nice beautiful homes and make them
accessible and affordable
where they don't have to and so if all
of you get the plan
it's not gentrification i've seen
justification where war bombs is i've
seen my family and friends
get kicked out of there on chester
street that was gentrification that's
the 99-year deal
that was signed in 1983 so
or or 102 across the street from city
hall where that building
burnt down and all of those families got
kicked out of there enough extended care
so these six houses will do nothing but
help this neighborhood
when you get the plan and you see it you
will be able to see how they will help
and they will increase the opportunity
for the houses and the properties to go
up and more taxes
to come into the city of long beach more
of a tax base
so that we can uh have in our city is
good
and and of course the city needs more of
a tax base to be able so they don't have
to raise taxes or
raise user fees so again please look at
what the opportunity zone is
please look at what these investors are
doing and coming in which they didn't
have to
and making these homes affordable
because they
they they want to not that they have to
so again that's your time
okay they're putting us in the same line
and saying we were your opportunity to
live like everybody else
around long beach and something
beautiful and nice okay
thanks for the information james thank
you
all right who's next dave that's it
okay well thanks for joining us folks
and uh
we should be having a working meeting on
next thursday
so for those of you that are going to
join us for that
we will see you then i hope everyone has
a good night