Speaker 3: Thank you. That that that item passes. And so we look forward to that information coming back. Let's see. Next up is. I think item 27 I believe.
Speaker 4: Holds a correct.
Speaker 3: So I'm 29. That local emergency proclamation, I believe is tied into this. This as well. Is there another item here? Mr. Modica.
Speaker 6: There is the declaration of the emergency.
Speaker 3: Okay. Let's go ahead and do that item, please, madam.
Speaker 0: Item 29 Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to review the need for continuing the local emergency proclaimed by the Director of Civil Defense on May 31st 2020 and ratified by the City Council on June 5th, 2020 and determined whether to terminate the local emergency at this time. Citywide.
Speaker 3: Okay. I have a I have a motion in a second, but is there, is there a staff report on this at all, Mr. MODICA.
Speaker 6: Just a brief one. So we committed to you at the last time that you adopted this, which was Friday. I believe that we would bring it back to every single meeting for consideration. The police chief and I and myself are both recommending that we keep this in place, at least for one more week. We do not see this to be a long term emergency, but we are still seeing a lot of activity in our city. We are also, you know, hoping to get reimbursed for the costs that we have had associated with our response. And so that those costs do continue for the next several days at least, if not for another week. So we are recommending that you approve this for one more week and we will reconsider next Tuesday.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I have a motion by my customers in Dallas and a second by Councilmember Pearce. I'm assuming that's a second Councilman Pearce or just a Q cousin? Did they have to do any comments? In the US now. Customers in the house. Are you muted?
Speaker 1: Thank you. And thank you, Mayor. No, I'm very supportive of this item. I think that, yes, we we need to continue it for now, hoping that we will have to continue it.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Councilmember Pearce second.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mayor. I believe this is the item that Tom said that we should ask some questions about what happened on the night of the 31st. Is that correct, Tom.
Speaker 6: That if you did have questions, this is the appropriately agenda item to ask questions.
Speaker 2: All right. I had a lot of constituents and business owners reach out to me and want to hear about exactly what happened on the night of. And I want to say I appreciate the the op ed that our police chief put out. There are two areas that I got a lot of questions on. Like I said, the businesses wanting to understand more of what. The chief has already laid out with the mayors already laid out. But we as a council have not met since then. And so this being the appropriate moment to hear from the chief one more time and to be able to ask him some questions and then to. On the incidents that happened outside of the photo with the baton, wanting to understand what that timeline is for us to get a report back from PD. So those are my my two questions. One on the businesses. And and if you can just outline one more time for community members in case any council members have questions on that. And then, two, the timeline for the investigations.
Speaker 3: Okay. So I think that was my question to Mr. Monica. You and. And Chief Luhnow. Yes.
Speaker 6: Chief Vernon's here and is available to answer questions.
Speaker 3: Okay, great. So I think if Chief Lewin also you want to I know that I also read the op ed, I think that councilmember was speaking out. If you want to maybe re highlight some of that and then answering your questions and mentioned the. And then answer the second part of the councilman's question as well. Thank you. Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council in regards to what happened on May 31st of 2020. We had information that we were going to have protest in front of 400 West Broadway. Right before that or the previous weekend. From all the news reports and things that were happening across the nation. We were monitoring all of the activities. So our police department, actually, weeks before due to COVID, started to enhance our civil unrest training, whether it was training for command staff all the way down to the the street level officers equipment and everything else that we may need. So going into that previous weekend, to be exact, that Friday, if you guys all recall, there was a lot of unrest not only across the country but here locally in the city of Los Angeles, which caused us to significantly upgrade our response plan. We actually activated our department operations center that Friday before the 31st and also activated our incident management team that Friday as well as we went into that Saturday. Previous to that Sunday, the 31st, we brought in additional police officers. And luckily for us as a city, we didn't experience any activity or any protest activity. And but the city of Los Angeles did extensively so through the L.A. County Sheriff's Department Emergency Operations Bureau, they asked for mutual aid. And we sent several dozen officers to the city of Los Angeles. They served up there very well. It came back. Everybody came back safe. And then came Sunday. On Sunday. We got information again that we were going to get some protest out in front of 400 West Broadway, although we didn't have any numbers associated with it. And in getting ready for that day, we brought in hundreds of additional police officers so that we can be ready for almost anything that happened. And I can almost tell you that based on the information we had, we actually overstaffed for what we thought was going to happen. But unfortunately for us, what started to happen is you've got a lot of protesters that came in. And I want to emphasize that the majority of the protesters that were here were peaceful. They're doing the right thing, protesting for the right reasons. And although the majority of the protesters were peaceful, there were many others who were specifically there looking for a confrontation with the police. And there was other smaller groups that were there, unfortunately, just to commit acts of theft and and some of them fed off of each other. And what really appears to be a coordinated attack on our city with thousands of protesters, three or four different groups doing different things and. So when you look at the whole thing, obviously we had some damage to some of our businesses, which I got to tell you. And there was a lot of conversation in the last couple of hours about our police department, our police officers and the way they respond. I couldn't have been more proud of the way our officers responded. And no one's more upset than they are, other than probably the business owners themselves who lost a lot that day because they feel like they should have done a better job of protecting them. And so do we. So I guess I can kind of wrap that up by saying that our biggest win that evening was not having anyone get critically injured or killed, because that was our top priority, is to make sure no one got injured or killed. But our biggest disappointment was feeling that we failed some of our individual business owners. So like anything else or everything else in the police department, we will go back. We're still under a state of emergency. We're still deployed with a lot of police officers out in the field. So the first opportunity we get, we are going to go back, have a critical incident debrief and make sure that we go over everything. All the good and anything. Lessons learned from us. But I want to stress this, that just like being involved in any event for anything that we may have fallen short on, we immediately made adjustments specifically that Sunday night into Monday morning. And I want to say that since then, we have had 24 protest in the last nine days, ranging from small protest to ones that contained several thousand people. And our command staff has done an outstanding job of planning, setting out strategies that facilitate all the First Amendment activity and trying to make sure that nobody ruins the message that the peaceful protesters are trying to put out there. And again, I can't say enough about what the our people have done. And I just want to end it with this. Again, a lot of talk about our officers this evening. I believe that we all owe our officers a huge debt of gratitude who came to work. They didn't hesitate to get on the front lines and took abuse like you would not believe from name calling to getting urine and feces, feces thrown on them to being attacked with bottles, rocks and more than hundreds. And most of them are still working straight with no days off. So as we talk about our police officers, the defense, the defenders of our community, I hope we don't forget the job they've done this last week. Now, switching gears on you, I'm going to turn it over to Assistant Chief Jeb Bush, who's going to talk about the second part of your question. Thank you, Councilmember.
Speaker 7: And thank you, Chief Luna. So the second.
Speaker 3: Part of the question about the the photograph of the of the baton, we learned of that.
Speaker 7: Photograph on June 4th.
Speaker 3: And immediately began investigating.
Speaker 7: The circumstances surrounding the photograph. We found that a probationary police officer had taken the photo and posted it on a social media site. In reviewing the.
Speaker 3: Photo and the image.
Speaker 7: Depicted there, I realized it wasn't consistent with our policies or procedures.
Speaker 3: Or the core values of this organization, and it really impacted.
Speaker 7: Those same very same officers the chief had just mentioned. So we subsequently subsequently relieved the probationary officer of duty on June 5th that Friday.
Speaker 2: So my question was not about the about that photo. My question was about the officers that used use of force that that had use of force situations. Curious about the timeline for those investigations and more specifically, the public and myself, we don't know what that process looks like. So my very first question really is, are officers that use force like that, do they remain in the field? Are they pulled from the field? How long is an investigation? When can community expect, you know, some response on that? That's more my question or question.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's up. Robert Luna here again, Councilwoman, I don't know what specific use of force you're talking about.
Speaker 2: If your bullets, the rubber bullets.
Speaker 3: There were less lethal munitions that were utilized from launchers out specifically at third and pine after the officers were attacked. Like I just stated, with the rocks, bottles and M-1 hundreds those launchers are used there target specific at only individuals who are attacking the officers. And absolutely, yes, any time any officer on this police department utilizes any form of force, they are required to write a report. That report is to be reviewed by each line of supervisor, sergeant, lieutenant, all the way up to the deputy chief level. And if somebody files a complaint, that would end up going to Internal Affairs, where it gets further scrutinized about everything that they did from the beginning of making that decision to make sure that it was well within our policy procedures and training guidelines.
Speaker 2: And is that the point that something would end up at the CPAC? Like if it goes to the deputy chief and then it's being reviewed. And I'm asking just because people don't know, you know, and and if we can be transparent and upfront whenever these situations happen, it relieves it relieves a lot of stress in the community . And that's why I'm trying to drill down and really understand the line by line questioning.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Councilwoman. This is assistant chief. Michigan we're talking about, I think two different things. We're talking about complaints that would go to the P.C.C. And the.
Speaker 7: Use of force.
Speaker 3: Within our organization and internal review. Not every ever use of force is a complaint. So if we received a complaint associated.
Speaker 7: With a use of force, that information would then be provided.
Speaker 3: To the PCC so they could conduct an independent investigation based.
Speaker 7: On the citizen complaint that we receive associated with the force that was used.
Speaker 2: And the reason I clarified on that was because the Chief mentioned the process, but I didn't hear him mentioned the PCC and so I just wanted to know where that was in that process. My thank you for that. My, my other, my other question was when we were at the press conference with you, Chief, after this Sunday's event, you mentioned that there was going to be a report about the, uh, the arrests that were made, the type of arrests that were made and what happened with those arrests. And I know that the prosecutor's office is involved as well, but unfortunately, I did talk to a business owner in the second district that was arrested that night and released because he was arrested and not there was no proof of what they were claiming happened. So I think it's important that as we go through this process, when we talk about transparency and accountability, while it's difficult, you guys are, you know, doing great about talking about your process. But really the data points are so important. And so when can we expect that report about the arrests that were made that night?
Speaker 3: We're still gathering the information, as you can imagine, with the entire department deployed, even our administrative staff getting some of these reports are going to be delayed some. And even as of today's date, I got more information about more arrests that took place back on the 31st of May. Between noon on the 31st and noon on June 1st, which were up to a total of 98, which included 71 citations. Now, just for clarification, when I talk about a misdemeanor citation, that's equivalent to an arrest. So somebody may have been cited. And technically, it's a misdemeanor arrest, but they may have been released. But I know that that night we also had several arrests for either looting or what we call commercial burglaries, individuals that were breaking into businesses and stealing things as part, unfortunately, of the the protest that was going on.
Speaker 2: And. So my question is not that I need a report today, it's that are we looking at two weeks? Are we looking at four weeks? Are we looking at eight weeks? Being in progress doesn't help anybody understand where we are. So I'm fine if it's it will take six weeks to get a report. But having some in timeline, I don't you know, I, I think that that is the least that we could do for a community that has been through a trauma, just like your police officers have been through trauma. If we did make arrests for looting, that word, which I still don't know the better word to use, but if there were arrests made for that, my constituents that are asking me where were police during this instance? We would be able to say 40 arrests were made that night in the case of looting. And so I'm not I'm not asking for a lot of information, asking for very like, here's the numbers, here's the types basic and I know that everybody and is exhausted and tired and you guys are working around the clock. So I don't need a report right away, but a timeline, a deadline. I do not think it's too much to ask. So I hear you and I and I hear you standing up for the police officers that serve this great city. And gosh knows I've called them and needed a police officer. But I also, while thinking about what it's like to be them, I was in this protest on Sunday and I walked past six of our police officers at the Renaissance that stood proud and did not budge when some of the people walked by and yelled at them and threw things at them. And I was I was proud and I was happy at that moment. While it was hard to see, I thought to myself, you know, I'm told that we have de-escalation and it looks like it's paying off. But I can't imagine the anger, what it takes to get somebody to go up to a police officer and yell in their face. I cannot imagine what that takes. I really appreciate everybody's efforts in the end. Thank you for sitting with me asking some of these questions. I know they're not easy. One last question that I have to get a more specific answer for, for some of my constituents is one that has already been answered publicly. If you could answer one more time and the mayors mentioned this is in order to get the National Guard here. It's my understanding we have to exhaust all other resources before we can do that. What time did we exhaust all other resources and what time did we call in the National Guard?
Speaker 3: If you allow me a second to look at a specific timeline. That I have in regards to the process and the way it works. Within an hour of the time that the protests started, our incident commander called for mutual aid. The way the mutual aid system works for the Long Beach Police Department is we go directly to, again, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Emergency Operations Bureau. They determine, one, what the need is and how they're going to fulfill it if they're going to fulfill your need. If you remember on that Sunday, the entire region was impacted by civil unrest. All of L.A. County, almost all of L.A. County, the city of L.A. and other surrounding jurisdictions, I believe both the city of Beverly Hills and Santa monica was significantly impacted, which drew a lot of the sheriff's resources up that direction. So when we called for mutual aid, we got an extended ETA from an outside another law outside law enforcement agency that was enroute to the city. At that point, we continuously were asking for more resources. And it was at that time that the local area had expanded their law enforcement resources and then had to turn to the National Guard for assistance. So eventually the the Guard got here. I want to say they got here around midnight. I'm looking at my timeline here and my eyes weren't so bad. I can quickly identify it here. But yeah, if you don't mind, let me get back to you on the specific time. I know we called for mutual aid probably between four and 430 ish that afternoon. So that's when the mutual aid process started. And it was, again, the sheriff's department who determines who we get. And within that process, that's how eventually the National Guard came to Long Beach. Does that answer your question or would you like more detail?
Speaker 6: And this is Tom. I'll add to that as well. I remember that very clearly. It was around 840 or 845, and we got the word that it had been exhausted, that there was nothing else coming. They had asked, you know, would you accept the National Guard? And one minute later we said yes, and that's how it happened.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you. And hopefully you mentioned, Mr. Modica, that this item will be back on the agenda next Tuesday. If by next Tuesday we could get an answer to the specific timeline for the report on the arrest. I would be greatly appreciative. That is all of my constituent questions that I committed to asking tonight.
Speaker 3: So let me I'll add one thing, Councilman Pierce, also to that. I think it's good and I think it's a good question. And I think that the I've been asked the same question about the National Guard, and a lot of folks asked why was it, you know, why was the National Guard called in earlier? And I think that what you're hearing from the chief and city manager is the national. There is a process. I mean, the city of Miami does not control the National Guard. Obviously, that and that the resources directed through the state of of course and and and through the mutual aid system. And so we we're very aware that folks have that question and that once only when mutual aid is then exhausted can the National Guard then begin to come. And I'll just say and I'm not sure if I've shared this with with with you, councilwoman, with others. And just to ensure that that once the you know, within minutes that I was told that mutual aid was exhausted and that we were calling in the Guard. I also personally put in a call to the governor and let him and his team know that that request was in and that we needed assistance immediately. And so I think the process, as the chief laid out, is, is one that I think is important for folks to know that it was it was done as soon as we were able to do so. And with that, let me turn it over to our customers and ask.
Speaker 1: The questions were answered earlier. So thank you for that. And I just want to say, on behalf of the business owners, how this was really devastating for them. But I'm looking forward and I'm committed to helping them through this process, being a district that was one of the districts that was hit the most by the looting and and the devastation that happened on Sunday night. I do believe that we're going to come out stronger out of this. And I just want to say publicly that I look forward to working together to rebuild these businesses in my district that were affected. So thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo.
Speaker 1: Yes. I'd like to first start by saying that I don't speak on behalf of any particular agency, but I will say that I might be able to bring a little bit of context to some of the questions I think Councilman Pearce is asking. Many agencies, fire, police, others are all plugged into similar deployment systems. There was a presentation a few years ago, and I believe Chief Avila was at the same presentation that I was at. I was there on behalf of my day job. He was there. I represented Long Beach PD. But there are systems that talk about and deploy resources. And so when you talk about have you drilled down and deployed all the resources available? Part of the challenge for whoever is monitoring and rolling the operations center from the county level, the regional level is that as was witnessed throughout the more than 20 protests in Long Beach over the last nine days, even the organizers do not know the size of the peaceful protest, and organizers are not notified by criminals who have intent to come and take away from the messaging of the peaceful protest. And so the region doesn't know where those individuals are going to target, and they could go anywhere very quickly. But typically they just target areas that have a high utilization of police officers. And social media has really changed the way in which criminals can communicate and move around the region and really cause havoc and havoc and despair . So I just want to say that. I'm not saying the system works. I think perhaps on a regional level or on a federal legislative level, we may want to discuss and potentially invest in the systems that are funded through some of the federal grants that come down for mass gathering and mass event management. Because those resources and the way in which they interact between different agencies at the local, state and federal level are very different. So I'm going to leave it at that because I don't want to have Charlie Perkins tell me that I'm too off topic, but I'm happy to discuss more of what I've learned through working with these systems. And then I hear the frustration in Chief Luna's voice, because, of course, he wants. The most resources available at a moment's notice. And. You, of course, would want them here in advance, but. Because of the way the system works. He's he's in a position where we as council members need to learn those systems and then we need to advocate for change, change that protects our protesters, change that protects our First Amendment, and change that doesn't allow people who are distracting from those messages to come and vandalize and loot and terrorize our city and our residents. So I'm happy to work with you on an agenda item for that, if you're interested.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Pryce.
Speaker 1: You, Mr. Mayor, and I appreciate the conversations and the questions that were asked. I think we've all received questions of that nature from our residents. So the answers were very helpful. I did agenda is this issue for our June 23rd public safety meeting. I think our first agenda item. That's for police and fire. Because let's not forget that our firefighters were super busy that night putting out tons and tons and large fires and the team really relied on each other, police and fire, and they were united, at least from what I could see from the updates that we were all getting and communicating and also what I was seeing on TV. So the item that we're bringing to Public Safety Committee will be a report from both chiefs on lessons learned as a result of the unrest that occurred after the protests. Being very mindful that that those individuals, in my opinion or not, part of the protest, I don't consider them part of the process. So I've been trying to be very mindful of when I'm using the language that refers to those who really were not there for the same purpose as the protesters. Because I think that's a whole different category of. Public safety threat that police had to deal with that was very different than interacting with the protesters. So we will get our report back. And I put it for June 23rd because I knew that the Chiefs probably need to get some data in order and have a moment to breathe before they can answer a lot of these questions. But I appreciate the information that we've heard tonight. And I do want to say, Chief, I'm appreciative of your leadership with your officers. What you said tonight at our meeting I think will go a long way for all of them because I don't know about the rest of you, but I have asked myself many times over the last week. We need good police officers. We need police officers who are. Ethically, morally principled and and have values that honor the oath of service that they have. And a lot of things that we're seeing and hearing, it's just made me wonder what kind of quality of people are going to want to go into this profession, because we need high quality people with good morals and good ethics and good values in regards to respect and justice and fair application of the law to be the ones that want to enter into this profession. So I want to support we talk, we spend a lot of time talking about the bad actors and there are bad actors in every profession. But I really appreciate, Chief, that you took a moment to acknowledge the good actors, the ones that were standing tall, the ones that were allowing people to be able to protest in their anger, in their grief and in their sadness, and weren't taking it personally and were there in a spirit of protection, but also in a spirit of respect. And and I think that is the majority of the officers that we have in this city. And I'm so grateful, Chief, that you recognize that. Are there lessons to be learned about Sunday? Absolutely. I had no idea how many really skilled Monday morning quarterbacks we have all around us, including myself. There's a lot of things that we think I should have done this or would have done that, but we've also implemented a lot of lessons learned very quickly, and we're able to have a lot of peaceful protests in the city throughout the week. And Chief, I want to thank you for being the kind of man who's not afraid to stand up and say there were lessons learned and those lessons were implemented and will be implemented as part of our future operations, because that's what this whole conversation is about, accepting where there could be improvements and incorporating those into our practice. So thank you, Chief, for being willing to do that, because to me, it's more important to have a leader who's willing to do that and to have a leader who's doing everything perfectly. So thank you, Chief.
Speaker 3: Thank you councilwoman councilman Sunday has that I have you cued back up or I'm sorry about that. I did I really call on you for this item? It's not clear.
Speaker 1: That you did. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Richardson. Thank you.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to take a minute and. And I acknowledge a few things that have come up. So, one, I think Chief Luna, I think it was the right call to privatize life of the property. It could have gone very, very differently if we overreacted in the situation. So I want to acknowledge the composure that many of those involved, the local police showed during that moment of prioritizing life or property. It's important to note that my constituents that attended the protest, they've told me that the majority that this protest majority protests were peaceful. Certainly any uses of force. I acknowledge the photos and all those things and they certainly need to be investigated. And I've seen you take action on those behaviors. So it's very, you know, so we need to acknowledge that many of our city staff in all departments, even this morning, as well as the police department, many people feel the same way about reform at the same rate, about the direction we should be heading. So we should acknowledge the distinction between how you treat uses of force and actions that are outside of policy and recognize the hard work of our entire city team. I think it's important that comes from our leadership. A question here. Are the National Guard officers still here in our city?
Speaker 3: Councilman Richards They are not. They left several days ago and we went down to thank them all for their service to our community. They did a great job while they were here. A lot of people were walking up, wanted to take pictures with them, and they really enjoyed their time here. They were treated very well, not only by our city employees, but our community.
Speaker 5: And I think that's that's good to know. The reason I ask is because, you know, when the National Guard initially came in, it was to help with the humanitarian efforts with respect to COVID 19. And we were very public about, hey, they're in plainclothes and they're here to help with our response to COVID 19. When this moment happened and they returned in military clothes, it sort of changed the tone in the community about it. And I think it's time we acknowledge, you know, the protests have been peaceful. It's time to demilitarize. It's you know, it's time to sort of, you know, acknowledge that it's been it's been it's it's been peaceful, largely . So thank you so much for for for your answers.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I think I was on mute also. Customer supernova. Thank you.
Speaker 5: Mayor. It's been mentioned that these issues will come to the Public Safety Committee on the 23rd, and I serve on that committee, so I'll save my questions for that venue. But I just had one item and I communicated with Tom Modica on it today, and that is on Monday, June 1st, we requested a list of businesses that had been looted. Victims of commercial burglar vandalized. We thought it'd be a good idea to reach out to those businesses and to assist with forward ups or whatever other help that they might have. As of today, we still don't have that list. And the reason I'm bringing up tonight is if there's anything we.
Speaker 3: Could do to expedite that, there are some.
Speaker 5: Folks out there who are still looking for help that our office would love to reach out and help them. I'm not criticizing anyone for this taking so long. I just was unclear on why it would take so long. But I'm not saying it's not justified, but moving forward, that is certainly something I think we should realize that the victims of crime could really use some help to get back on their on their feet in this situation. We'd like to help in that process. Thank you.
Speaker 6: Yes, Councilmember. And we believe that list is going to be ready very shortly. The reason that it's taken some time is that it keeps getting added to, as we hear about more, as people are calling it in, as they're filing insurance claims. Our economic development department has been reaching out and asking specifically for businesses to share that so that we can get an accurate accounting for all of the processes we're going through with the state for reimbursement and to help them as much as we possibly can. We're educating businesses on how to, you know, keep receipts and file for their insurance and those types of things. So that number has been changing. We wanted to make sure we have an accurate estimate and we don't have businesses saying, you know, you didn't know about a whole bunch of different businesses that we had, you know, that we had left off the list. So that number is coming and we will provide that. Thank you. And the chief has sent wants to add to that as well.
Speaker 3: General Austin. Sorry, go ahead. I'm sorry, Mayor. I just wanted to add to something the city manager just stated, because it's very important and it's along with the arrest data that Councilwoman Pierce was asking for, the information is changing every day. And what I mean by that, even with the whether it's looting or commercial burglary, a lot of the information we're getting is not all activity that occurred on Sunday night. So we've had activity occurring periodically and a lot of it not even associated with protest. But people are calling and they may say it was associated with their not to argue with them. They're still a victim of a crime. And as Councilman Super now stated, we need to take care of them. But the information's being added. It's different areas of the city and it's not all from the same night. It's actually been happening continuous as we were being challenged with a commercial burglary problem before the protests started and a lot of that attributed to the zero bail challenge that we've been facing. Thank you. Councilmember Austin.
Speaker 4: Thank you. And Chief, I appreciate the very candid report. And I want to acknowledge the also acknowledge the work done of the very difficult work done over the last several days. I understand how your department, the men and women of your department have been taxed. I have been in constant contact with the commander in the North Division, as well as lieutenant acting commander over the course of the last few weeks. And and they have demonstrated great professionalism. I think for the most part. Your officers, I mean, have have exemplified great professionalism in this during this time. And I think your leadership speaks for itself in that regard. I will say that that. Like Councilmember Richardson. I'm glad that life was preserved. You know, we had no serious injuries, injuries officers or members of the public. We know life was lost and the damage with All Things Considered could have been much worse. A couple of my colleagues have talked about living through civil unrest in the past. I. I remember very well the 1982 riots or civil unrest and things were or were not didn't turn out as well. Right. And so all things considered, I think the matter was handled as well as it could have been handled and great composure was was was exemplified by a lot of these PD now, some who were questioning the tactics and of course, things were being sensationalized and looped over and over on the news. And and, yes, property damage happened throughout our city. I want to say that, you know, at least a couple of dozen businesses or more in my district were hit that evening. And it appeared to be most of the people who did this came from outside of the city. The question that I have in it and that reoccurs with several of the business owners that I have interacted with. As many of them are trying to now get insurance claims for losses and they are having a hard time getting police reports for work for that. Will we will officers be freed up to. Do you foresee officers being freed up to give those reports to help those businesses in the near future?
Speaker 3: Councilman Austin The answer to that is absolutely. We have as things are slowing down on the protest front, we have many officers out there who are going to be doing exactly that. So if any of you in any of their districts hear of challenges there, please let us know. Start off by communicating with your division commander and we'll try and rectify that as soon as possible. And I want to give credit also to a deputy chief, Eric Herzog, who's sitting here in the audience. They've put together a task force that's dealing with a lot of the looting information that we had from starting Sunday. So for many people who think they may have gotten away with stealing from our businesses here in Long Beach, they got a surprise coming to this task. Force of investigators and officers will be out making sure that they follow up on every clue we're getting from video to social media feedback so that people know they can't do that. They can't conduct themselves that way in our city. Thank you.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I think you're up again.
Speaker 1: Yes. I just wanted to use this opportunity to say a couple of quick thank you. When the National Guard did move in, many of these individuals had to pack quickly and move into a facility in our city. I want to give a thank you to the CVB who reached out and helped them with some supplies that weren't available upon their arrival. Things that are basic to some people and can usually be coordinated between hotels, whether they're shampoo or shower shoes or things like that. So big things for the CVB. And then a big thank you to Lowe's on the morning after the unrest. There were well, I guess during the unrest, a few of us council members had coordinated with Greg Beck to get a cleanup started. And in the morning, we kind of did an inventory of what had been used within the first hour and what we would run out of. And Lowe's was so great on Bellflower to apply a 10% discount to all the products that my office purchased to get delivered, and then public works on a truck to pick up over 100 pieces of plywood and all the cans of one coat paint to cover the graffiti and all of that stuff. So it's a big thank you to those two and all the others that I'm not aware of that pitched in and helped out because every single business is important and valuable and we needed to work together to help them in their moment of need and we need to continue to do that. Is it possible, Chief Luna I believe that many are using the Long Beach Police app to make their police reports. Is that still available or not for this level of crime?
Speaker 7: Thank you, Councilmember Mongo. It's Assistant Chief. She has that. And that's the other part of that is that our online reporting.
Speaker 3: Mechanism is in place and the business owners can file.
Speaker 7: Their reports online as well.
Speaker 1: Perfect. We've been putting that out in our newsletter. And I think that one of the other things, even one business being looted or damaged is too many. I don't think the people know that. The IRS reports that we have 43,000 businesses in Long Beach and it's devastating that 170 of them had damage from the various levels of damage range from standard graffiti all the way up through major looting. And I look forward to seeing that report. But I will say that. It's nearly impossible to protect all of them, especially when we're reliant on mutual aid and the drawdown system. And I will just once again confirm my consistent support of a reserve program. We have so many of our community members that want to learn more about policing, join the reserve program, go through the academy, learn what they're learning, and help fix the system from within. Additionally, we have police officers who are retiring. Let's ensure that we move forward with a package that gives a hourly rate that is significantly more affordable than drawing down certain kinds of aid. And let's make sure that our reserves are available and trained to be supportive so that every single one of our 43,000 businesses and have protection in. Also, the thousands of protesters need protection. I don't think people hear it often enough that there are often anti protesters who show up to hurt or harm. Protesters and police officers are there to protect them, too. And we need to make sure that we have enough support for the large scale presentations of our civil rights are our First Amendment rights. And right now, the number of police officers we have would not be enough to support a city wide effort at that level. So excellent work that you've done so far. Great thanks to all those who are our mutual aid supporters. But once again. I want to see our reserve program and I want to see more participation from our community.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Councilwoman, let me go ahead and conclude that so we can take a vote on the item. Chief, I want to thank you for answering all these questions tonight. I want to thank you again. I know we've had a chance to talk, of course, all week, especially since since Sunday. And I just want to thank you for your leadership and for the work that you and your the deputy chiefs and the command staff have been working. I know that the entire team has been working just every single day without much rest or sleep. And we just appreciate you and Amna and all the the entire team I mean, all the all the men and women out there that like the council member said, I worked really, really hard, not just that day, but every day we've had. Like you said, I think 20, you know, a combination of 20 protests and or types of demonstrations over the last week, since Sunday evening, they've all been peaceful, which is what we support, which is peaceful demonstration for for the causes that people believe in. I want to, again, uplift that that the fact that we had only one major structure fire and that Long Beach fire was able to put out dozens of other kind of smaller fires and they wouldn't turn into a larger loss of property. And with your work in partnership was really great to see. And I want to commend you, Chief. You've taken quick action since Sunday on a variety of other issues that have come up from the community, whether they're issues around discipline or whether for the one officer I know that there was an issue with within social media or whether it's been just you out there working with the mutual aid partnership. That's been good to see. So thank you for that. And finally, I want to also just thank the National Guard system and the National Guard for their time in Long Beach. They came when we asked for their help. And I want to thank our state partners for also being partner or being in partnership with the National Guard. I had a chance with you, Chief, to thank some of those young men and women that were out here in Long Beach doing their duty to protect the community and their country. And we thank them for their service as well. And so with that, let's go ahead and take a vote on the motion. Thank you.
Speaker 7: District one. I district to district three i. District for. Hi. District five.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 7: District six. I District seven. District eight.
Speaker 4: II.
Speaker 7: District nine.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 7: Ocean carries.
Speaker 3: Thank you. So that concludes the next section of the meeting. The next we have 11 items left that are just different topics. Let's try to get through these expeditiously. We don't need a report. I know a lot of these. We already have the reports. We'll just go ahead and take votes. I think that what we can. I know we've been it's been a long evening already. So let me just go. We'll start going through some of these and we'll get them off the agenda.
Recommendation to review the need for continuing the local emergency proclaimed by the Director of Civil Defense on May 31, 2020, and ratified by the City Council on June 5, 2020, and determine whether to terminate the local emergency at this time.  (Citywide)