Speaker 0: Thank you. Next, we have item 24.
Speaker 2: Item 24 Communication from Councilwoman Pryce, Chair of the Port Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Recommendation to send a letter to the city's federal legislative delegation advocating for safety resources in the federal infrastructure package to include funding for local jurisdictions related to traffic enforcement.
Speaker 0: Councilmember Gonzales comes with a price.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Thank you. This item came out of committee. We did have a presentation by Dr. Tyler Curley regarding some of the federal legislative proposed federal registration dollars and the focus on traffic safety. Unfortunately, the the federal discussions and the proposed drafts of the legislation don't include enforcement by the police in the area of traffic safety. And so I would like, through this motion to request city staff to draft a letter to our federal delegation asking that there be some flexibility to use some of those federal traffic safety moneys for proactive traffic enforcement, for DUI and speed contests and other speeding violations. Our traffic unit at the Long Beach Police Department has been has been reduced by virtue of our budgetary constraints and needs. And my concern about that is that the reduction of the traffic safety, the traffic unit of the Long Beach Police Department has made it more difficult for us to conduct some of the proactive enforcement that we need. I realize traffic safety is not the sexiest of issues, but if you have ever known anyone whose life has been impacted by a drunk driver, whose life or the life of their family members has been tragically ended by a drunk driver, then it will be a priority issue for you. As it is for me, I have dedicated over 20 years of my life to supporting victims of crime, many of whom lost a loved one as a result of an impaired driver or a driver that was speeding or engaged in a speed contest. And I think that we need to have a stronger and. More proactive traffic enforcement team on Long Beach PD. And I'm hoping that some of the federal infrastructure dollars will allow us to build our traffic team back up to allow for more drug recognition experts to be on the Long Beach Police Department, to allow for more directed enforcement teams to do traffic enforcement on our major corridors and to be out there conducting not just enforcement, but outreach, education and warnings about speeds, about impairment and about all those things that really impact traffic safety for our community in addition to traffic design, road design and engineering that we already are focused on. So I'd ask my colleagues to please support this item because the infrastructure dollars can be utilized for things outside of what is currently listed and contemplated to include personnel and traffic enforcement efforts by cities through their police department. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you for Mongo.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm grateful to serve on this committee and very supportive of the item and throughout my time with the council. And actually one of the reasons I ran for city council is because of a traffic light. And I will tell you that the safety of our streets has been a consistent priority. We have tried to use whatever resources become available to our district for flashing crosswalks, studies on lights, trying to make it safer for pedestrians. A majority of the pedestrians that are really moving through our community at certain times of the day are youth. And quite frankly, since COVID, I will say that the speeding, the severity of DUIs and the distracted drivers across our city are completely out of control. And we've had several vehicles run into houses. We've had several vehicles hit pedestrians. And some have been fatal and have really rocked the heart of our district. And. I recognize that you can't have a cop on every corner, every day. But we need more enforcement. And I'll continue to work with the city staff to come up with design changes that really protect residents. We're talking about major boulders being put in front of houses that have been hit multiple times. And we've had cinder block walls just completely annihilated and people are just driving too fast. They're already violating the law. So there's no more laws you can pass, just a lack of disregard for their peers and children and the number of signs that I've seen. Put up, please slow down. Children's play here consistently goes up because the erratic, speeding and distracted drivers are just at a new level that the I. I have not seen in my lifetime. And it's very disappointing. And I don't know another way around it. I've I've heard the study is that enforcement only impacts a resident who gets either the ticket or the fine or the whatever for a short period of time. But at least for that short period of time, the residents are safe from that driver. So I will I will take a moment just to thank our former commander who's here, who on several occasions when we would report the erratic driver, he would make a personal call to either the family or the parents of the individual who were speeding or erratic. But it's just not enough. And we need more. And I'm very supportive of this item and thankful to serve on this committee.
Speaker 0: Thank you. I'm going to just just add some comments and a friendly amendment here. So I think all of this certainly makes sense. And I'm glad that the committee took this up, and I think it's a worthwhile request. I also know that we epithet led committee are organizing requests in alignment with our request for this infrastructure bill. For example, you know, this is one request, but also there's no local dollars in general within this infrastructure bill. There's, you know, there's federal, you know, roads and things like that. But we do want to have a local infrastructure program, which I think is really important. We certainly want to do groundbreaking ribbon cuttings on streets, but we want to do groundbreaking and ribbon cuttings and other critical infrastructure important to our communities, you know, community centers, schools , whatever it is as well. And so I want to make sure that we're speaking with one voice. And so I'll ask that that this go and be a part of the, you know, whatever overall message that we're sending as the sort of route to get there. So whatever that looks like, I know that we're going to have another committee meeting in the next month. I know that in Tyler, Dr. Crowley, we anticipate that bill to move like October-November, is that correct? Yes, sir. We will likely have more details on the reconciliation package this month, but it may take through the end of fall or this year to remove both of those packages. Right. And there may be other things that come up between now. And is that okay with you to make sure we speak one voice?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I. No problem with accepting that as amendment I just timeliness is an issue. And so when this committee was formed, the mayor specifically said to me, I want you guys to take up the federal legislation that's coming out for infrastructure and so that we're just trying to move on it. We've had four meetings now, right? So we're trying to move on it. I just I just don't want to delay. But I think speaking with one voice as a council is always really, really important.
Speaker 0: Good. So, so right. So I think working on the bill is good, you know, giving feedback. But at the end of the day, you know, we're going to speak to one voice of the city. So, you know, I think you I think you've accepted it. So I think we're we're good in that place. Couple of mongo.
Speaker 1: I just. What are you asking for? There not to be an immediacy of the letter that the items rejecting or requesting the items requesting a letter. To the federal delegation. So are you asking that we hold the letter until after the Federal Legislative Committee?
Speaker 0: Is that a question? The motion belongs to Councilwoman Price.
Speaker 1: Councilwoman? I mean, yeah, I guess I just don't. I don't know when the next committee meeting is. I, I just want them to know that this is a priority for us as soon as possible. Now, I want the letter to come immediately. And then how long does a letter usually take when it's possible to put the letter? I know that's. I don't know. When's the next Fed meeting? I guess that would help.
Speaker 0: So I think we I don't have the date in front of me, but I know that you've been working with time has been working with Matthew. We've had a consistent meeting. We've talked about we just got past the last reconciliation bill. Now we're working on infrastructure and the idea that there's going to be a convergence of all the issues that work together. And we certainly plan on, you know, I mean, from you know, we've I think we invited a number of members to actually speak to the committee, federal members. We've talked with, you know, Congressman Lowenthal, who we're doing that process. And so what I don't want to do is start having, you know, different messages come out from different places. We typically have that issue when we talk with like the port, for example, they may ask for a big request. And sometimes we say, hey, let's make sure we ask those questions better. If you're talking to Army Corps of Engineers, for example, they may say the top priority is dredging, and you may say the top priority is to break water. And so sometimes there needs to be sort of convergence of priorities, and that typically happens at a fitness committee and so on. So. So I think what I'm asking for is we speak one voice, we take this letter, whatever else is coming, we deal with it. I mean, there'll be some immediate thing we're advocating today. We're still engaging today. But what I don't want to do is start sending from two committees, you know, shooting from two committees, no different priorities. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's why we brought it to council because this council were to vote on it. We would be speaking as a council. Not if I didn't reach out as the committee chair. I brought it to council.
Speaker 0: When you started that, you said you were you were bringing this forward from your committee when you opened up.
Speaker 1: Correct. It came out of committee to the full council. So as chair, I didn't personally reach out to the federal delegation, because I believe it's appropriate for us, despite our relationships, to come to council and get direction from council. So I think we would still be speaking with one voice if we all, as the council, agreed that this was a priority. And unless I'm missing something, I don't know what the detriment would be to send a letter of support on behalf of the City of Long Beach for this item, and then send another letter of support for other items. I don't think that would be inconsistent, is what I'm saying. But if you'd like to include them together for whatever reason, I'm open to that too. I just this item is urgent, in my opinion, because I want to get it on the radar as they're discussing this legislation. I just I want that to be on their radar because it's not a priority item. It's not like the bridges are important. Traffic safety is not it's not that. It's just as you're talking about traffic safety, can we also include personnel dollars? That's all. So thank you. I don't know. That would be we would be inconsistent. And I'm I'm agreeable to anything. I just wanted to bring this forward so we can move it forward faster. And I thank you.
Speaker 0: I don't think we just go back and forth. You should just you what you want to speak of? Oh, I thought.
Speaker 1: I still had the floor. You asked me to ask Councilman Price the person out.
Speaker 0: You deferred.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you took most of my time. Can I recue? Thank you.
Speaker 0: Councilwoman Mongo.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I see the infrastructure committee as the mayor's instruction to lead on infrastructure. So, Councilman Price, this committee went over this. You had an excellent leadership on your committee to go through the discussion and really bring it forward in a meaningful way. I am very supportive of this coming forward from this council. Now, if it passes with a majority vote, if there was a schedule I know an economic development committee, we set our meetings, we're sat on all of our meetings through February or March. I recognize that certain committees have to pivot and move more in alignment with other agencies and other entities, and that's great. But I'm supportive of us having one voice as a council and voting on this tonight and that this letter would come out. So back to my original question to the staff. When the council typically passes a request for a letter to be sent to the delegation advocating for something, does that take a week? Does it take ten days? Does it take three months?
Speaker 0: I usually takes about a week to ten days or so. Right.
Speaker 1: And so you're still planning to move forward with that as the item on the floor stands? Is that accurate?
Speaker 0: Yes, I understand the item. We would write the letter stating that the Council approved this motion on September 14. Wonderful work and additional resources.
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure that that was still with whatever was going on with the friendlies. I just wasn't clear. And as the second term of the motion, I wanted to be clear. Thank you and still supportive of the item.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay, so I'm just gonna say this. You know, we're seeing these committees. The one thing that resonates with me is if the mayor's asked the Infrastructure Port and Transport Transportation Committee to take a lead on infrastructure bill. That's not my understanding. I know that he has to work on it, but that doesn't that didn't necessarily change from I respectfully when you just make my claim statement. So if that's if that's what the understanding is, I have to talk with the mayor and we'll figure it out. I don't have a problem with finding out if that's your operating understanding coming into this meeting. But I also know that we stood up at the beginning of this process when we changed our committee structure, we said, Hey, this is your lane. These are this is where we want you to focus. And if that's what we're going to focus, then let's commit to the committee structure fully. If we're not committing to a committee structure and I know this has been raised by the members that we'll have, you know, folks jumping in and out of, you know, different committees. And if that's the case and it just comes down to who has a majority on council for every issue and we'll have no order. And if that's the case, we'll just, you know, vote how we feel on every single issue and not have that process, committee process. We did a good job on, you know, let the families process through the Infrastructure Committee process. It worked. I think it you know, we spoke with one voice on delivering the, you know, $208 million there. But the process worked and we anticipate it following that very same process on the Infrastructure Committee. So I'll have a talk with council with the mayor. You know, he has a different vision on how this works. But I'd like to be organized and how we communicate to the federal government as the chair of the Federal Legislative Committee, helping off the. I structure committees. They work when they work. And I would just say, if there's a friendly I believe there is they're friendly on the on the floor or not. It sounded like it was accepted, but they felt like it was rejected. So I'm not sure what they do, except the appointed will work with the village committee to speak with one voice and have a letter together.
Speaker 1: I accepted that. But I also I don't know what the timing of it is. And we have some urgency, in my opinion, with this letter. But I, you know.
Speaker 0: If I we can get through the schedule. Councilmember. Well, I would just say that we've all we've experienced a little bit of frustration with the committee process in terms of moving important items before the, the, the, in bringing items before the Council and the gamesmanship behind the committee process. And so if an item is important to and afraid of on the floor here, I think it's important that we. And we move that item. And then obviously the Federal Lands Committee can also weigh in on that as well. And I would just say, if there is the friendly here, please make sure that they make the friendly so that the Fed actually takes action on the item. Right. And not a report back on item because that's important. Thank you respectfully that the committees the fellows committee has worked. There hasn't been gamesmanship. I mean, the proof is in what we did deliver with the infrastructure plan. We worked together with the mayor, regional agencies. We spoke with one voice. The plan the plan worked. We're going to take that very same approach to the infrastructure package. That's good. I understand this is important to the council. I understand. But our federal strategy of how we communicate work really well. And so I just want to go to Tyler because, you know, I'm just going to I think I'm going to draw this friendly because this is getting really personal here. I just want to ask Tyler. Tyler, what is the the urgency on sending submitting this letter today? I keep hearing that there is some urgency. And as sort of the manager of this process, I want you to explain what the urgency is if we have a plan to engage through the reconciliation process. What is that urgency that we're hearing about tonight? Well, at this point, we don't know the exact timeline of the entire package, but we anticipate it will take a little while longer for them to finalize both the reconciliation package and the bipartisan bill, which is what that presentation was about. The committee level, I would say, you know, the urgency is that we we had a conversation at the committee level and there is an interest from the committee to make this known to our delegation. But again, we don't know the exact timeline on whether the bipartisan bill might be taken up separately. We don't anticipate that, but I'm not exactly sure when this full package will be taken up. Thank you. So the reality is there is no procedural urgency here. This is simply council members saying this is a council priority and I understand that. So we just acknowledge this is an independent council priority separate from what we're doing. And I accept and I receive that. Councilman Superman. Thank you as a member of the Senate led committee. And first of all, I recognize respect the fact it's up to the chair to set the agenda, but I'm not aware that we've embarked upon this at all. I think our last meeting was April 29th. Great presentation by Mr. Small. I think it was really enjoyed that. Yeah, but it was a receiving file. But I don't know that we've so far we haven't embarked upon what the other committee has done. So if we're going to move forward on that, I just don't have any background in it at all. So I just want to mention that, Mr. Vice Mayor, if I could make a suggestion, I sort of think it's okay to say here's one priority. And we can specifically say in the letter that we expect the city of Long Beach to be providing additional information on priorities within the federal legislation. If that is something that the council is worried about. Thank you, Councilmember Mongo.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I think that there's a little bit more to the story, too. I mean, Fed Ledge worked together with economic development on the priorities for the last bill. And I think that in the same way that economic development really took a lead, got out there and met with the community and heard all those things, met with city staff, pulled it all together along the way. There are. I see. And again, I no disrespect to Dr. Crowley. I think you're excellent. I don't think it's his urgency that we're talking about. I think the urgency is coming from hearing that, especially after our discussion today, of how colleagues collaborate and how they have their own committee work. There's value in sending the letter sooner so that our delegation has a formal notice that this is something that we want them to start collaborating with their colleagues on because it's not under consideration at all. And a lot of times that's a planting the seed far. But for any procedural urgency, there are discussions and dialogs that happen. You can bring up topics and other areas and really facilitate the growth of that seed. And so for those reasons, I think that the urgency component is more for a noticing of our delegation. This isn't as much of a noticing to the committees or the formal structure or any of those things. And since that committee has done so much work on this and Councilmember Price has already set several additional meetings and agendas, I think that they're on a great path. And I hope that if you do have a discussion with the mayor about roles and how that works, that in a similar way to what I had the discussion and you had the discussion with the mayor on the previous package that it's a very collaborative process where Councilmember Price also has a seat at the table. I know that for hours we couldn't literally sit at the same table because we were on the same committee and there was all this procedural stuff. But since you both are on the same committee, I think that that's a a very good opportunity to start that collaborative process between two committees.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. And actually, that's a good example. On the economic process, we did begin we began the process of discussing the economic proposal. There was a change at one point in committee leadership, but what ultimately happened was the advocacy took place on the federal side. So the policy work and that happens in a lot of different bodies, the policy work will take place in a policy committee that expert has expertize and then the advocacy happens in advocacy committee, the led, federal and state led committee or advocacy committees. They take those things. They coordinate the advocacy, the lobbying group. We served on these committees together. I think what you're proposing actually is exactly what I'm saying. I think our lobbying efforts should be coordinated. So I don't think the there needs to be a fight here just to talk about we know what works. You know, Councilman Super and I'll mention that April is when we have the committee. Absolutely right. That's when we were focused on the federal the bill, the Federal Recovery Act. And so we focused on the Federal Recovery Act in many ways. And so, you know, so that's what I envision in this process. And I think that's where we can ultimately get to. Are you caught up again, Councilman Mongo?
Speaker 1: Yes, I guess I would just say that having served on Fed Ledge with you for years, back when we first started, advocacy is more than just one committee. A lot of us can work. And I did work along with community members and stakeholders and leaders, to continue to provide advocacy for our priorities for economic development. Though there were no federal legislative trips at that time due to COVID, there was still a lot of discussion around what's possible and other ways that we can engage. And I had several. I remember sitting at the facility next to Congressman Lowenthal and at any opportunity that any one of us has the ability to advocate for our city and us to get funding and our priorities. I just I know that we should take those opportunities because that is what's expected from our residents and neighbors. So glad we came to a place where we can all work together and supportive of this item. And I want to appreciate the work of the committee. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. As any public comment on this item.
Speaker 2: There's no public.
Speaker 0: Comment. Members, we've got a vote.
Speaker 2: The motion is carried.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Now we're going to go to the item 27.
Speaker 2: Oh, we did 27 already.
Speaker 0: I think we're on 22 now. No. 34. Looks like 34. Sorry.
Recommendation to request City Council approve the motion of the Port, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on August 20, 2021, requesting City Manager to send a letter to the City’s federal legislative delegation advocating for safety resources in the federal infrastructure package to include funding for local jurisdictions related to traffic enforcement.