Speaker 2: All right. Thank you. Would you please cast your vote? Motion carries now removed item 21 1:00 please.
Speaker 1: We report from financial management recommendation declare ordinance approving resolution number WD dash 1392a resolution of a Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners establishing the rates and charges to be charged for water and sewer services and declaring the urgency thereof, and providing that this ordinance shall take effect on October one, 2018. Read and adopted as Read 21 permit.
Speaker 0: I'm sorry, sir. Staff. Is there a staff reporter now? No, I don't. No. Oh, no. Okay. That's fine. There isn't. Others must in a second the public comment on this.
Speaker 4: Unit. Tom Stout Information on file. Wow. Didn't take long to get that race going again. It's not a new tax. Well, it sure is. But I guess the money's gone to the families, so it's always good to have the family well taken care of. Maybe it needs another lawsuit to see if this can be turned around. The last one lasted, what, three months? So maybe this one will be a little more in duration. You guys always talk about you're trying to help the the needy, the less fortunate, the lower income people. Well, this doesn't help anybody but you and the city employees. It's sad. You spent, what, $1,000,000? $1,000,000, most of that taxpayer money, a large percent of it donated by the police and fire union. It's tough to compete with you guys when you can take our taxpayer money and fight us with it. Maybe we need a new ordinance that would make it so. You have to provide taxpayers with the same amount of money that you piss away on these measures so that we could have a fair and level playing field. Maybe that's what we need to change in the city charter. So you can't keep stealing money and fighting the taxpayers with it. It's pretty pathetic on your part, but it seems to be the way this mayor and this council want to do business. And I'm glad to see that the no button actually does work. I was going to ask you to get Carolyn Barnes husband, an independent contractor electrician, to come down and check the button. It seems to work very intermittently on the no side of this anyway. So like I said, it's sad that this is going to happen. You guys lied. You lied on all those brochures, and you got away with it so far. So I guess lions. A way of life and politics.
Speaker 2: Thank you next week.
Speaker 8: Carolyn Byrnes I am guilty as charged. The wife of the electrician. I have to correct one thing that Tom said. He was unfortunately, at the district budget meeting the evening of the water hearing. So he missed the announcement by Diana Liggins that there will be another lawsuit against the water department. Personally. I'm against these lawsuits. There's only one person, two people who make money on those lawsuits, Trisha Pesci and Eric Benet. Eric Benet is running a mill. Shame on him. City after city after city. We are not first, we will not be last. We're five years behind the rest of them in being sued for these amendment violations of Prop 13. It's another matter. I went to this water commissioner's hearing and I saw a lot of my colleagues from the neighborhood groups there. And we spoke and then we found out from Michael Anthony, the city attorney. That in order to block. Them. From having you vote to approve the water increase that 50% plus one of the customers needed to be protesting either by mail or email, by telephone or by public presence. Well, I think the grand tally was 57 or 58 for all of those things that I just mentioned as far as protests. So didn't quite cut the mustard. And here we are ready to vote again for an increase in the water tax. There's a lot of things on your agenda and it ain't number 11, number 13 and number 15 that all have to do with grants for people who are in need, people who are on the cutting edge crisis of homelessness, people whose budgets they can't afford to live here. They need housing. They need mental health services. I am not saying we shouldn't give it to them. I'm saying that we should make it easier for them. We shouldn't keep taxing and taxing. I see that you're going to look at the cash tax and potentially support the no vote to repeal the gas tax. The average family with two vehicles. Will have received a burden of $778.39 per year as a result of what our state legislature did when they passed that gas tax. Tom and I have gotten thousands of signatures, as have others. But we really strongly encourage you to endorse a no vote on Proposition six. It's stealing more money out of the pockets. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you very much. Would you please cast your vote? Okay. Mm hmm. Michigan.
Speaker 4: Jo Jo Weinstein And in case my information isn't on file, the 4000 Linden and District eight. I was at that hearing, that protest hearing. And what upset me is that it was called under misleading and false pretenses. For one thing, the I don't recall the meeting actually ever being formally adjourned properly. Instead, the city attorney volunteered an opinion that seemed to imply that because half or more of the customers weren't up in arms, that it would automatically this this fee increase should automatically happen. The water board didn't have to do that. The water board could have said, you know, we had only 57 protests, but some of them made some good points and we should reconsider. And they could have done that. Instead, they dumped it on to you. And as you have been warned because. The possible result of this increase and the stated the stated purpose of the increase to those people who looked at the notice of hearing was that Measure M had been passed. The passage of Measure M does not require a water rate increase. It purports to allow it, but it did not require it. So the fact that Measure M was passed was no justification in and of itself for a water rate increase. And yet that's what I recall being. Receiving in the notice of hearing, which was so way in advance of hearing that people forgot about it, of course. That was the alleged justification for this increase. It's not a justification. And as you know, the courts have held that the utilities are supposed to public utilities supposed to use that money just for the purpose of solid, well-maintained, well-planned utility service, not transfers to a charity or to a general fund of a city or anything else. So of course, there will be a lawsuit. And as you heard, the likely winners of the lawsuit will be the lawyers. The losers will be both the city budget. And the taxpayers. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes item 21. Members, please go and cast your votes.
Recommendation to declare ordinance approving Resolution No. WD-1392, a resolution of the City of Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners establishing the rates and charges to be charged for water and sewer service and declaring the urgency thereof, and providing that this ordinance shall take effect at 12:01 am. on 
October 1, 2018, read and adopted as read.  
(Ordinance No. ORD-18-0022).  (A-3)