Speaker 1: We're going to do a photo. Thank you. Now I'm going to go ahead and have the clerk read the charter commission appointments.
Speaker 0: Item 29 is a communication from Vice Mayor Andrews, Chair of the Personnel and Civil Service Committee. Recommendation to receive Charter Commission appointments approved by the Personnel and Civil Service Committee.
Speaker 8: All right. Thank you. And the following individuals were approved by their personnel and civil service committees for appointment to new ethnic commission and are now recommended to the full city council for approval. And I would like to have read the names off of those, please. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I'm going to go ahead. And as as we know, the voters of Long Beach passed measure in the last election, and as part of that, they created a new ethics commission. And I want to thank all the work that's gone into the development of this commission. I also want to thank Councilman Al Austin, who had put this issue forward in front of the City Council for support of the city council. And he's been very involved as well in the process. And of course, the council for supporting this moving forward. I want to note that this is the first commission in the city that is has appointments that are not just done directly by the mayor, but two are done by the mayor. Two are done by the city auditor. And then those commissioners will select the next set of commissioners to that body as as laid out directly in the charter. I also want to introduce those commissioners and just as a reminder to all the charter also lays out the types of the types of of members that the commission is looking for. And so in the appointments that the auditor makes, the charter lays out that those appointments should be experts in the field, should be folks with policy experience within the scope of the commission. And then the appointments that the Mayor makes are appointments that are community service and community driven appointments. And so those are the appointments that are as follows. And so I want to bring those up. And as soon as I read those names, I'm going to ask the city auditor who is going to make a few words. The first appointee is Susan Wise, who is an appointee that we all in the city know as a well-known attorney in the city of Long Beach has been a resident here since 1974. She served as a port of Long Beach Harbor commissioner and as a governing board member of the Alameda Quarter Transportation Authority. Ms.. Weiss has been awarded this Rothmans Miss International of Long Beach Award Women of Distinction, the Long Beach Bar Association Lawyer of the Year Award and has worked with Legal Aid Foundation as a board member. She received her J.D. from the University of Chicago. And also we congratulate Ms.. Wise on being the first ever commission appointment to our ethics commission. Congratulations to her. We also have as another appointee, Mr. James Shotwell. And these two appointments are in the policy. The two policy appointments. Mr. Shotwell has been a resident of Long Beach for 13 years. He is a director of Corporate Compliance and information governance at Southern California Edison. In his job, he is responsible for the promotion of an ethical culture and the development, implementation and oversight of company wide programs for compliance, management, management, affiliate compliance, privacy compliance, information, governance and Policy Management. James received his J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law and is a part of the ethics and the Ethics and Compliance Initiative as well. So let's give Mr. Shotwell a round of applause as well. Congratulations to James. Our next appointee in the in the in the in the community appoint a section of the charter is Kimi Maddox. Kimi is the recent recent former executive director of CCJ, which is the California Conference for Equality and Justice. This is an organization based in Long Beach that works to transform individuals and communities, heal conflicts and build unity. We all are aware of the many programs that CCJ is involved with, both at the school district, at our university and throughout the city. Kimi has over a decade of service to CCJ, having led not just the organization but its flagship youth programs, including the Building, Bridges, Camp and other programs throughout Southern California. Throughout Southern California. She also currently serves on the Human Human Relations Commission. And we all know Kimi as someone that is working across the community with CCJ and has been for many years. So let's give Kimi a round of applause. Congratulations to her. And our final appointment is Laura son. Laura was ten years old when she when she came to Long Beach from a refugee camp in Cambodia. She, like many Cambodians, suffered incredible trauma and saw genocide happen across their country. She founded the Mae Center here in Long Beach, which promotes healing and through old time techniques of meditation, gardening and education. She's also the co-chair of the Equity for Cambodians to End Gerrymandering program. And Laura has a biochemistry degree from the University of Redlands. And Laura also was came with a strong recommendation from Common Cause, which, of course, is a leading statewide organization on on who leads the creation of ethics programs and ethics commissions across the state and the country. And so I want to thank these four commissioners. I think that they have a enormous job ahead of them, the biggest of which is actually being the founding members of a commission that is going to grow and develop with their leadership and their diverse experience. So one, with that, we do have a motion and a second. I don't have any public comment for for this item. And I want to ask the four of them to come up once we take the take this vote. Our vice mayor, Andrew, said, Councilman Ringo, you have anything else to add?
Speaker 6: You said all mayor.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Right. Well, let's go ahead and cast this vote. And I'm going to ask the committee, the new commissioners, to come forward.
Speaker 0: Motion carries.
Speaker 1: Thank you. If I can have our city auditor, I think she is here. Let me have her say a few words as we have our commissioners come up and she can just stand next to our auditor. That would be great.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Mayor. I just want to say how pleased.
Speaker 3: I am to support.
Speaker 7: These.
Speaker 3: Four.
Speaker 4: Commissioners that are as our first.
Speaker 3: Four commissioners for the Ethics Commission.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 3: To our Councilmember Austin for his support for the Ethics Commission and for.
Speaker 4: The.
Speaker 7: Committee.
Speaker 3: For submitting it to the council tonight and for the council's support. Thank you very.
Speaker 7: Much. The Ethics Commission will play a very significant.
Speaker 3: Role here in Long Beach, as seen in the Los Angeles Times recently with.
Speaker 7: The serious ethical violations that took place in the city of Los Angeles. The Ethics.
Speaker 3: Commission did and.
Speaker 7: Did do an independent investigation.
Speaker 3: Report and.
Speaker 7: And penalties for those who have violated the laws. So this is a significant commission that will help.
Speaker 4: Identify areas for improvement in our city. And as a city major, I look forward to working with.
Speaker 7: Them and promoting ethical behavior.
Speaker 4: For our city.
Speaker 3: And to prevent.
Speaker 7: Detect fraud behavior.
Speaker 4: As well, so that we're operating with the highest level standards.
Speaker 3: Here in Long Beach. So thank you all very.
Speaker 4: Much for your support.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Out, Councilman Richardson.
Speaker 9: Thank you. Just want to chime in and just say congratulations to the four commissioners. I think it's important with every new commission, particularly, especially this commission, to have community credibility. And what I see here with these four appointments is that we're certainly heading in the right direction. The four of you, some of you I know, some of you have heard of, but you all have great reputations. And I know you'll do great in this new capacity. Congratulations and look forward to all the work you'll do.
Speaker 1: Thank you. And Council member Austin.
Speaker 6: Great. This is a great day for our city. And I want to just take this opportunity to, first of all, congratulate and thank Mayor Garcia and Auditor Dowd for their excellent choices of individuals who I am very confident will serve proudly, responsibly and diligently in their role as the first appointed as the first ever Ethics Commission for our city. Just a bit of history. This is a really a long time coming. There was an ethics task force put together. I'm going to say maybe 15 years ago. And from that task force, this was a recommendation. Then council member Barney Lowenthal asked for that task force to be put together and asked for study. And there was a lot of due diligence put him to place to to to look into ethics and establishing guidelines. I think one of the recommendations was to establish an ethics commission. It was this city council. It was the voters of the city that that made that happen. And so I just want to, again, take this opportunity to congratulate you, and you have my full confidence and support in your work moving forward. Congratulations. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. And with that, if I can just please ask the council to join us as we take a photo. So let's give them all a round of applause again. Well, thank you. We are moving on to our next item that's going to be item 16, which is an item by Councilwoman Price.
Recommendation to receive Charter Commission appointments approved by the Personnel and Civil Service Committee pursuant to Section 509 of the City Charter and Section 2.03.065 of the Long Beach Municipal Code.