Speaker 3: Item 70.
Speaker 8: Item 17, please cloak please.
Speaker 0: With Reader Communication from Councilmember Richardson. Councilwoman Gonzales. Vice Mayor Andrews. Councilman Austin. Recommendation to request City Manager to direct financial management to issue a request for proposals to identify qualified lending institutions for short term emergency lending services to City of Long Beach employees and report back in 90 days.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. So. So continue with this theme of helping to support and acknowledge public sector employees. This proposal today calls for the exploration and the creation of an emergency loan program for City of Long Beach employees.
Speaker 5: A recent report by CareerBuilder.
Speaker 2: Indicates that 78% of full time working Americans still live paycheck to paycheck. And this is a far cry from the recommended six month emergency fund recommended by financial experts when unexpected circumstances arise. A lot of times to, you know, good employees are left with few options. And the last thing you want to do is not provide enough resources to our employees and have them look to toward a predatory lending type of option. And so City of Long Beach employees are not immune to this threat. I mean, there's a number of public credit unions and things like that. And in the course of the conversations with a number of public employees, including our local firefighters, we find that they still have a lot of times those credit union loans are still not very accessible to a number of public employees. What we want to do here is assist our employees by identifying a third party emergency loan program. To me, a quality loan program would do a number of things at no cost to the city. So one, it would need to align allow borrowers to manage loan pay back through some kind of payroll deduction system. Two, it would need to be low interest loan services. Three, it would need to include financial literacy, education, and would not require borrowers to have accountability at one financial institution versus another. It would make payday. It would make it would provide opportunities for bubbles to build a credit upon payback. And it would make emergency loans available regardless, regardless of your credit score. And so providing this alternative solution could you know, it could align with a lot of our conversation about retention and resiliency for our public employees. So that said, I move the so I make the motion as written. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Austin. Councilman Mongo.
Speaker 6: Thank you for reading this item. I met with some of the contenders out in the field to know more about this. I appreciate the work that they did in meeting with some of our employees to make sure that these are things that they're interested in. And for me, I would say that there's two key areas. One is the coaching and the ability to have budgeting services. And I would say that those coaching and budgeting services shouldn't only be for those.
Speaker 3: Who.
Speaker 6: Have loans through this mechanism, but potentially anyone who's having financial challenges. And then secondarily, that that should be at no cost to the city. And most of the providers out there do provide it at no cost to the city. They make their money through the interest rate. So I'm interested to see what we bring back.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Vice Mayor Andrews.
Speaker 8: Yes, thank you, Mayor. You know, I decided to hang on to this item because if we can't help our employees during a time of need, we should. You know, my hope is that we find a vendor that can provide emergency loans for our employees who may not be able to obtain one for their banks. And I think it's a great idea for those out there, because times do get like that. And this is a situation where you can't be out. So I'm really totally agree. But this item on the diocese, I do second this motion. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilmember Pierce.
Speaker 6: I guess I also had a chance to discuss this item, and I think that we'll be surprised at how many of our city employees will actually use this, because it is such a quick turnaround and easy to pay back. And my question is for city staff, in how long do we think. I know there's a report back in 90 days, but I know there are a couple other concerns. Do you feel like when you come back in 90 days there will be a policy solution at that time?
Speaker 4: Probably not. Will come back probably about three or four weeks and let you know exactly when we can put this system in place. It ties into our existing ERP system that we're moving forward and when can we put something in place where we can do payroll deductions? So we'll get back to you immediately, probably in two or three weeks to give you an idea on when we can do this, our RFP system.
Speaker 6: Great. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Where the motion in a second is your public comment on this item. Please come forward. My Caldwell first district. My only suggestion on this would possibly be get totally even do the concept of payday loans. Those things are dangerous. I should know firsthand. They're those things. You get one and then you get another. And then you get another. And before you know it.
Speaker 5: You're drowning.
Speaker 1: So the payroll reduction idea that that that that's clever. I'll agree with that. But I say just don't even think of payday loans. Those those things are horrible. Thank you. Any other comment? CNN. There's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes.
Speaker 3: Chicken nuggets. Yeah.
Recommendation to request City Manager to direct Financial Management to issue a Request for Proposals to identify qualified lending institutions that administer short-term, emergency lending services to City of Long Beach employees, and report back in 90 days.