Speaker 1: Communication from Councilwoman Price Council Member Super Councilman Austin recommendation to request that the fireworks steering committee reconvene starting in March of 2016 through the 4th of July holiday in an effort to be proactive with fireworks, education and enforcement.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Price.
Speaker 5: Thank you. On September 22nd, the Public Safety Committee listened to testimony from numerous residents concerned with the use of illegal fireworks on the 4th of July holiday and months leading up to and after the holiday. In addition to the testimony given at Public Safety Committee, the mayor and city council offices received even more written communications and emails from residents expressing identical concerns. In past years, the city led an effort to inform the public on the dangers of fireworks and that fireworks are illegal in the city of Long Beach. A fireworks steering committee met on a regular basis beginning in the month of March through the 4th of July holiday, in an effort to be proactive with fireworks, education and enforcement. A number of city departments participated in the committee, including City Council, Harbor Public Works, Fire Police and Special Events and filming. The committee was responsible for such tasks as creating public service announcements and videos, press releases, distributing multilingual fliers, posting banners and signs, electronic messages, public education in schools, and notifying block party permit holders that fireworks are illegal. The reestablishment of this committee is a step in the right direction to curb the use of fireworks in Long Beach and to conduct necessary public education and outreach. I would like to thank my City Council colleagues, SUPERHOT and Austin, for your support on the Public Safety Committee on this specific item. And I asked my council colleagues for their support and their reestablishment of a committee. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Austin.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And I want to thank Councilmember Price for bringing this forward. And yes, we did hear about this at our most recent public safety committee. And I think every one of our council officers were communicated with during the 4th of July holiday this past 4th of July. I'm in complete support of this because, number one, we want to make sure that our residents feel safe and know that our job as city council members is to do everything we can to facilitate a safer city. And so because of that, I am in support of this, and I look forward to a a practical, robust conversation about this within our steering committee moving forward. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Andrews.
Speaker 3: And thank you, Mayor. I want to thank also Conceptualist and Councilwoman Price for this, because I think it's a great step towards claiming, you know, really clamping down on firework noises, you know, before, during and after the holiday, New Year's, 4th of July. And I would like to see a more aggressive approach. And thank you.
Speaker 0: Q Councilwoman Mongo.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I was very excited for.
Speaker 8: The shifts.
Speaker 1: That we had in the committees this year. I was disappointed that I missed out on this discussion and that the public safety meeting. But I'm very thankful.
Speaker 8: That Councilmember Supernova.
Speaker 1: Was able to join and I'm glad that this will be coming back. I think it's very important that we really take our community seriously when we talk about the dangers of illegal fireworks and what we can do as a council to set the right example and put proper stiff punishments in place while still protecting our police department in going out into these communities when they're making these illegal fireworks. So thank you for bringing this back. A great work public safety committee. And I miss you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez.
Speaker 5: I too, just simply want to say thank you for bringing this forward. I know many of our residents in downtown have, you know, dealt with just the noise, with the issues. And I know our public safety, they all do a fantastic job of doing what they can to enforce when they can. I know it's always very difficult, but hopefully this will provide a different avenue for us. So thank you very much for bringing this forward.
Speaker 0: Thank you. I just want to just add that I'm very supportive of this. We've heard from the community repeatedly that there was particularly an issue this last year in the amount of legal fireworks that were going on in neighborhoods. I'm just hopeful that as this committee moves forward, Mr. West and councilwoman prices, we're going to be kind of leading this effort. There were a lot of folks that obviously came to the whether it was a public safety meeting or the council and that had ideas and had suggestions on ways of possibly helping to solve this issue or getting information out. And if we can just engage them in the process so that they are heard and that we take their ideas and that would be that would be great. Any public comment on this item? Please come forward.
Speaker 7: Very good. You think as the UK is fully supportive of this concept and I want to restate what I stated at the Public Safety Committee meeting. I believe first of all, number one, all city employees that are in enforcement position, if they want to, should be out there on that night enforcing. And number two, we should have a $10,000 fine for anybody. Violating the law that you will establish, 50% of which will go to the enforcement team that arrest the individual. In addition to that, anyone arrested and found guilty will spend 1999 but 1000 hours working at the animal shelter. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 6: Good afternoon. Gary Shelton's my name. My address is 240 Chestnut Avenue. I think I can point in the right direction. It's about a block that way. Is that block that way? Thank you, Lina. Yeah. I get turned around in this room, and I appreciate that this item is here. Thank you very much. Council members, I don't know exactly how the steering committee, the Fair Work Steering Committee is going to function, but I appreciate that the city manager and Councilmember Price are going to be key pushers of it. The folks who were not lucky enough to be at any meeting where this has been discussed before need to understand that we're certainly not talking about safe and sane fireworks here. Those are illegal in the city of Long Beach, as well as the types that we're talking about, which are basically aerial bombs that go off through the type that explode in red or purple or green with a force that fills this room with showers of sparks and fire. And these we were able to watch from our balconies just a block away from here to the north while the Queen Mary fireworks were going off to the south. We had tea with no exaggeration. Aerial fireworks, locations that were going up. One just in the 500 block of Chestnut Avenue that was sending up to two three of these a minute. I want to thank Councilmember Andrews for bringing up that the that the New Year's holiday is critical, also, in case you haven't been aware of it . These have already begun to be exploded in this community starting about ten days ago, we're hearing not nightly yet, but it's going to be nightly as we approach New Year's Eve. And the the solutions can be varied. But one of the things that I think needs to be impressed upon the Fair Work Steering Committee is that if anybody is shooting these things up into the air to the tune of dozens of them an hour, that means that. Every day, and especially the morning of July 4th, somewhere in their house. They have boxes of them. They have pounds upon pounds upon pounds of explosives stored. I don't know, under the kitchen sink, in the hot water closet. I don't know where they're stored, but they're stored near children, they're stored in dogs, they're stored in their families, and they're stored near other homes in the neighborhood. And one way that could possibly bring a halt to it would be to, in addition to a public service, the money that goes into a public service type of announcement process would be to also have rewards for tips that would lead to the discovery of the cache of these bombs that are being held in people's homes. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing nonmembers, please go ahead and cast your votes.
Speaker 1: Motion carries.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next item, please.
Speaker 1: Report from City Manager, Financial Management and Public Works recommendation to amend contract with Ford SC for the Naples Island Permanent Seawall Repairs Phase one project to increase the contract amount by $300,000. District three.
Recommendation to request that the Fireworks Steering Committee reconvene starting in March of 2016 through the 4th of July holiday in an effort to be pro-active with fireworks education and enforcement.