Speaker 9: Thank you. Let's have item number 23, please.
Speaker 1: Communication from Councilman Andrews, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Council Member, Super Knob. Vice Mayor Richardson recommendation to request the city manager to assemble a business retention team to develop a strategy and identify all available benefits and opportunities to attract and retain. Molina Health Care's key operations and health care services in the city of Long Beach.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Andrews.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, Mayor. I want to thank the vice mayor Richardson and Councilwoman Gonzalez and Councilmember Supernormal for their support in this item. The Molina health care has been a wonderful partner to the city of Long Beach. And while we do not know whether that whether their next steps are, I will decide them in the attempt to have our city reach out to Merlino and see what assistance we may provide within health care. As one of the top ten employees in our city and we always talk about think high and we always talk about hiring local and being business friendly. Any retention term team that will truly reflect that? I have a brief staff report, but one of my staff members.
Speaker 7: Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. Councilmember Andrews is requesting council support in assembling a business retention team for Molina Health Care. What first began as a clinic in Long Beach serving low income patients over 35 years ago, has flourished.
Speaker 1: Into a Fortune.
Speaker 7: 500 company pioneering the health care field, servicing our community and many others nationwide. Of the top ten employers in Long Beach Molina Healthcare is one of three companies hiring locally. Being that job stability and local employment are priorities for the city, it is imperative we take proactive measures to assist and engage in discussion with Molina health care regarding its future. In lieu of Molina's recent challenges, both the mayor and city manager have been in contact with Molina efforts we recognize and appreciate and assembling a business retention team. We are requesting the involvement of all necessary departments, agencies, leaders and officials to explore every option that could assist Molina health care in remaining in the city . If there is an opportunity to expand, we want Molina to expand here.
Speaker 3: Most importantly.
Speaker 7: We want to retain Molina health care here in Long Beach, servicing our communities and hiring our residents. This concludes my staff report. Our team will be happy to answer any of your questions. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. No, I like to have the mayor speak on the side of me, if you don't mind.
Speaker 0: Thank you. I just wanted to add a few things. I appreciate the councilman's efforts in and out of staff. I know that there's been a lot of conversations around this. I just wanted to add that I've been in close contact with the incoming and the new CEO of Molina Health Care. Mr. White and I actually spoke just yesterday here at City Hall, and he wanted to be clear in our conversation, and I'm clear with him that, you know, MOLINA health care is 100% committed to Long Beach and Long Beach is 100% committed to Molina health care. And so I felt very strong and very heartened by the conversations and the leadership of of of the new CEO. They love and value Long Beach and they value their employees. And I just want to thank him and his team for for being great partners. And I appreciate Councilman Andrews, his efforts as well. I think anything that we can do to continue to work with Molina health care and ensure that they have the resources that they need to be competitive, we will continue to do and will and in addition always want to do more. And so I just wanted to thank the council, but just make sure that the public also knew that we're very active in conversations. And and I believe that health care will continue to be a strong partner in Long Beach. So thank you, Councilman. Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know what's good?
Speaker 0: Well, I do when I go through the the speaker's list here. So. Councilman Gonzales.
Speaker 6: Yes. Thank you to Councilmember Andrews for bringing this forward. And I see Mark and Isaac here as well from Molina Health Care. And I want to thank them. And Steve. That's right, Steve Neal.
Speaker 3: Hello, Steve.
Speaker 6: I have glasses on and I still can't see. So I want to thank each of you for being here. You know, Molina, health care would a large employer in our city. And so having an ability to have this retention team that can work together to ensure that whether community or whether a business is thinking of expanding or even divesting, investing, reinvesting again into our city, that we have as much of a presence and we have a much of a plan put together to ensure that they continue working in the city of Long Beach as much as possible. I know that this was a hard pill to swallow for a lot of us, and I know change is always difficult. But at the same time, this is a fantastic corporation that we want to keep here in Long Beach. I would also like to ask, just in general with business retention, you know, just keeping I know that our economic development does such a great job in making sure that we have line of sight to that, but maybe highlighting that a bit more. So we have even better line of sight and better communication so we as elected officials can assist in any way possible. Sometimes we get in the way, I will admit. But sometimes, you know, if we can assist in any way, that would be great. And so I think the Economic Development Department, I think Molina Health care and I think Councilmember Andrews for bringing this forward, I look forward to future discussions.
Speaker 0: Mayor. Thank you. We have Councilman Pearce.
Speaker 4: Great. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this forward. And I think everybody from Allina health care for being here today. I do look forward to hearing from you guys. And I know that you guys have continued to invest in the city. And while we're talking about expansion and providing health care in other areas of the region, I have no doubt that, you know, your home in Long Beach is one that we feel very proud of and that we're working really closely with you guys. And so I just look forward to hearing from you all and finding out how this team can really, you know, what are the challenges that we're trying to address and how we can really make sure we're focusing on those real challenges and but still allowing us to focus on providing services as much as possible to so many of the seniors and so many other people in our residents that benefit from your services being here. So thank you.
Speaker 0: Vice Mayor.
Speaker 9: Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to thank Councilman Andrews for asking us to sign in on this. I also want to acknowledge you and your team. I think this presentation, the fact that we can highlight that this is the ninth largest employer in our city, really justifies why we have this agenda item today. I think when it comes to employment, when it comes to, you know, retaining talent and retaining business interests in our city, this is a strong message that we're sending. The fact that the entire city council's queued up to speak on this, I think sends a strong message to incoming leadership and to the existing employees that actually work for Molina health care and live here and count on it. I've got a Molina Clinic in my district. I think it sends a strong message that we're all hands on deck and we do want to support the success of that business and see a continuing partnership in our city. So, so congratulate so thank you for bringing this forward. And I want to sort of monitor the progress of this and make sure that we we do keep Molina in Long Beach. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Ringa.
Speaker 10: Thank you, Mayor. I'm a little confused on the on the sale. I'm not really clear as to what the purpose of this item is being brought forward here. Why it's being brought here for there may wait here, as the mayor said. I think that the organization is already committed to Long Beach and it's going to be staying here in Long Beach. The way I read this item is that there's a concern that maybe Molina health care is going to be leaving Long Beach, and we should create this committee to look at how we can keep them here. I'm not sure what that would entail. Would that entail some tax incentives without taking some kind of breaks? Some additional. Monetary concerns that they would have to keep them here and keep them from moving. So I'm not real clear in terms of what this means or what the purpose of it is. If it's an opportunity for us to look into maybe helping them. As I heard earlier today, getting in a parking structure or providing some kind of land use assistance, I could see that. However, they are a private business and and as a private entity, they can do pretty much what they want in regards to either staying or leaving. It's not up to us to decide that. And I would I would be concerned spending public funds, public moneys to retain a private organization here in Long Beach when actually they could do whatever they want. It's their prerogative whether to stay or not. But if it's true that they want to stay in Long Beach, then I don't I don't see the concern with this with this item here, because they already are committed here. So what is it that we are trying to do here? I've heard two words that that they have a concern to me, and that is that one is that this is a proactive effort to help keep moving health care in Long Beach. And the other is is is this a preemptive effort to keep building health care in Long Beach? So those two words are somewhat confusing in the sense that if it's a a proactive effort that they ask has well in health care, asked for assistance, in wanting in having them stay here in Long Beach. And therefore, we're creating this committee to help to see how we can do that. And if it's and if they didn't, then why are we doing this? And if it's a preemptive effort, what is it based on facts that they already are making some moves to leave Long Beach? And we want to make sure that we keep them here by creating some kind of effort that will help them reconsider and stay in Long Beach. So there's still some there's still some unanswered questions that I have in regards to what is the total intent of creating this this committee to look at the health care. And finally, the thing that I see here is it's creating the president for other businesses who might say, I want to leave Long Beach, but if you help me, I'll stay. And then there we go. It starts. It starts a slippery slope where we have other kinds of businesses wanting to have that kind of that same assistance that we give to one entity. So we're going to do two for one. We have to start looking at giving it for all. And I'm not sure that that's the direction that I want to take on this. So I'm looking forward to some further discussion you'll find.
Speaker 2: Thank you for those questions and I'll have my chief of staff. John, would you please elaborate on that, please?
Speaker 0: Sure. On the mayor, council members, what? There is no insider information or anything like that. I think that just as an observer. Councilman Andrews, there's a lot of residents of the sixth District who are firmly in health care. John and Mario represented sort of the heart and soul and a very unique relationship with this city and with their departure. As we know, corporations typically are courted and have other business decisions that are part of their profile. So there's a shake up that took place. We're all aware of it. There's assurances that they have no intentions of leaving. However, 400 employees were placed across the bridge. And we we have some vacancy rate in corporate buildings here in Long Beach. And the item calls for outside of the city support as well. And so as we look at the health care debate on a national level, we are also having a debate at the state level and how we can work with strategic partners at the county and at the state level to do everything that we can. Because as it shows here, there's there's only a handful of companies that actually reside in Long Beach that do business here. And everybody from states, governors and mayors and whatnot are trying to attract and retain corporate presence in their cities because it creates a lifeline, because those employees then get coffees and dry cleaning and all the things that that are in ancillary businesses that are supported. So I guess the the intent really in being proactive is that we don't allow an opportunity for 400 more employees to reside here in Long Beach. The preemptive nesses that is to allow other stakeholders, as well as the city of Long Beach, to be a partner with us to make sure that they continue to have their their their national headquarters here in Long Beach. That was that was the intent behind it. We have the same assurances that the mayor has received, but it's just making sure that all strategic partners are at the table and that we are making sure that we are provided we have outside governance trying to take companies from the state. We have other cities that are trying to take companies from other cities. And we have to make sure that we stay competitive in making sure that we provide those opportunities. Thank you. Councilmember Kasim Reed is and anything else on that? Okay. Well, I'm gonna go I'm going to have I have councilman also next. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Thank you. And I appreciate this this discussion. And I appreciate the item coming forward. This is a this one kind of hits home. It's a bittersweet because and I was around in 1995 as an aerospace worker working with my my union as a representative in 1995 when the first red team was established, when this this practice that we are looking at today was actually put into motion. And at the time, it was a. Aircraft called the empty M.D. 95 that was being proposed to be built in another state. We fought we worked with Create a Red Team, and we were able to keep those jobs, about 10,000 aerospace jobs paying aircraft jobs here in Long Beach. Since then, several red teams have been established. And, you know, Boeing went from number one employer here in Long Beach. Now they're number seven. And I'm going to challenge that number because I'm not even sure they're number seven anymore in terms of employees in the city. I think this is a and I want to commend, you know, Councilmember Andrews and the rest of my colleagues for bringing this forward. I think this is a a noble gesture. And we were all, I think, taken aback by the recent shake up within the Molina health care organization. However, I'm my question is, is similar to what Councilmember Urunga is regarding the threat. Right. And there has been no public information. There has been no indication in my that I've heard of that there is a threat of losing jobs here in the city. And so the question is, okay, what harm is it going to be to put forth a a business retention team or a red team of local, county, state officials, economic development professionals, private partners to to show goodwill and so forth, in terms of, you know, our intent in will to keep the Molina health care here, but short of a a real threat, I'm not sure that that is going to be a useful use of of of time for for what kind of strategies are going on where we are really talk about once we get to the table. Right. What type of leverage is there going to be once we get to the table? Everybody, I think if you were to go to the county of Los Angeles, you can go to the state of California.
Speaker 0: You can see.
Speaker 8: This. This body here is going to say, hey, we want to keep jobs in long. These jobs here in Molina, health care here in the city of Long Beach. So if I could offer just a a friendly solution, I don't even want to necessarily make it a substantive motion. But I think this body would be better served by pushing forth in a resolution stating that our strong support and and our will to keep jobs and work with Molina help health care to keep jobs here. I don't know that putting together a business retention team or a red team is necessarily good use of resources at this time. Like I said, I commend it. I support the the the ideal in in concept. But I'm not sure that that that that is the best use of time and resources at this particular juncture. I do recognize it is a privately traded company. It's a it's a it's a private entity. They both did made decisions to leave anyway. Right. Based on markets and whatever else. And we had every every resource in place to do that. Private companies are loyal to 2 to 1 thing, and that is their profits. And so I'm going to end my comments with that. Because I've experienced it. I've seen 40,000 plus jobs leave Long Beach, and we had the same motto in place to keep it in place. Right. And so I'm not trying to turn my back on any way in any way on on the employees or the and the good people. MOLINA Health care. I want to make sure I support the jobs here, but I want to make sure that we're smart with how we direct our staff and our resources moving forward.
Speaker 2: When I was going to finish, yeah, because I'm going to stay with it, go back.
Speaker 0: To my company name, I make some comments.
Speaker 2: Okay, if and with the friendly, I'm going to, you know, deny that because I'm going to stay with what the mayor was saying when he said he spoke with them. And they believe in what they're saying. And I think I'm going to stick with that.
Speaker 0: Well, so let me let me just let me just let me just add and be very clear and I'll just repeat what I mentioned to to the new CEO is the city of Long Beach is is completely committed to mining health care. And I and I have assurances that Molina health care is completely committed to Long Beach. And so we are partners. We'll continue to be partners. Obviously, there's I think that the interests of Council of of the councilmember, from what I understand it, is to ensure that we are doing everything possible just to ensure that we are providing our our largest private employer with as much support as possible in the employees as possible. So I understand, Councilman, you know what? Where you guys are coming from, I think the councilman's intention is to ensure that our city team is in constant communication with Molina health care. And we're doing everything we can to ensure that all those jobs stay here locally in Long Beach. And so I think that's the intention. But I also just want to make it clear that Molina is moving forward. And I think I think that the Mina family has a long history in this community and they continue to be involved in the company. So I just want to make sure that's also very clear. They are still part of of of the company. And and we're very happy to have them here. Councilman Austin.
Speaker 8: So in light of the fact that the friendly was denied, I'd like to just put forth a substitute motion to have the city council or instruct the city manager to prepare a resolution or I'm sorry, the city attorney to prepare a resolution stating the council's full support for maintaining jobs. Molina Healthcare jobs in the city of Long Beach and the city's full support to maintain a constant communication with Molina health care. And should issues come up, we will be in place to to to work with them to maintain jobs in the future moving forward.
Speaker 0: Okay. That's a substitute motion which is on the floor. Councilman Gonzales.
Speaker 6: Well, I'd like to support Councilmember Andrews original motion. And although I understand the resolution piece, perhaps something that could be of benefit is instead of maybe it's just an issue of semantics because we're calling it business retention, perhaps it can just be called the business support team because that's really what it is. And so I know retention often looks like a threat. There doesn't have to be a threat necessarily in order for us to just support a corporation. And so I think we can go back to the original motion. I think that would be perhaps a little bit more beneficial in this in the essence of this item, and would certainly put us on the map in terms of supporting large corporations for the jobs, for everything else. So that would be my recommendation.
Speaker 0: Okay. So that's going to be the recommendation to you, Councilman Andrews. Okay. Next up is Councilman Ringo.
Speaker 10: Thank you very much. Again, I don't want to I don't want to basically disparage. Whatever it is, we're putting forward the original motion. That is not my intent. I have a total, total, complete respect for Bolivian health care. There's no question the impact they've had on this city, they put us on the map, Fortune 500, company, even 100 at one point. What their their value to Long Beach is absolutely unprecedented. They are our pride and joy, but they're a private entity and we are a public entity. And my concern is that by putting together this red team, we're spending public funds for a private effort. And I'm not sure that we're in we're in line with something that we should be doing. I do support the resolution. I seconded the motion because we should let Molina health care know that we are totally concerned about their current restructuring and reorganization. That always happens with every company concerned. Ross had mentioned that, and we've seen it everywhere, across across the economic spectrum, that when a company buys out another company or acquires another company and there's always a restructuring going there, whenever that happens, there's going to be a loss, there's going to be loss of jobs, there's going to be a restructuring, there's going to be a reorganization, and there's going to be movement. Whether it's complete and total exiting the home base and going somewhere else. That's a private decision. That's a business decision. They're business decision. It would be our loss and we would be totally devastated by having that happen. And we don't want to happen. That's why this is a as it's been characterized as a preemptive effort to already talk to them, to make to assure them, to tell them that we're there for you, but they haven't come to us for that. They're not asking for that. At least I haven't heard it yet. But when that day if that day comes, we will be there for them. I'm sure we will, because we all all I've heard here is that we we love Molina health care. We want them to stay here. But that's not we're not there yet. And so we're building a red team. I know it says right here that there's no fiscal impact. There is a fiscal impact. There's going to be obviously we're going to we're going to put staff, resources and time into a rare team locations, meetings to be to be arranged materials, pre-prepared research should be done. There is going to be an economic impact. How much is it? I don't know. Maybe it's minimal, a few thousand dollars. But it's still an impact. And it's still public funding. Public funding for a private purpose. So I'm still having issues with that. I second the motion to send them a resolution strongly supporting their they're staying in Long Beach and if there is an opportunity for them that that they want to look at in terms of moving to another location, we want to be the first ones to counter anything that that that they might be hearing. If they're hearing a better land use opportunity in Texas, so be it. But give us an opportunity to counter it. And we could do it and let the the bidding begin, if you will. But I'm just not I'm just not very supportive of having public funds going for a public company, for a private company, and then creating opportunities for other such businesses who might be in Long Beach. I don't know. I'm not going to if I start naming so companies, I'll probably get into trouble. So I'm not going to do that. But but the problem is, is that there are the companies that might want to do the same thing. You know, there are other big companies. They might not be one of the top ten up here. But if you look at that top ten, you know, at least six of them are private companies. I mean, excuse me, are publicly funded companies lobby state. I'll be CC. St Mary's is a nonprofit Veterans Affairs. I mean, you know, a lot of those guys that they're they're public agencies for those we could do that we did it we did it a few years back a few years back 20 years ago with with the Naval Shipyard, with the Veterans Affairs and Navy Hospital. At those points, I could see the validity of having a red team and working with with our, our sister and brother governmental agencies or public agencies to retain their their services here . But and this this is this is a different situation. And it calls for a different approach, a different strategy. And I don't think this one is the right one to use for that one.
Speaker 0: Vice Mayor Richardson.
Speaker 9: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to take a moment and express my full and strong support for Councilman Andrews and the Molina health care team. I do understand and I believe the council is in the right place in terms of where they want to go. I want to make sure that we don't miss the forest while searching for the right tree. I think both send a strong message and we have a very capable team. We just reorganized the established economic development department, which we've been treating as sort of our red team, if you will, and if by changing language here, there, semantics here, there about support or retention. I think we can very easily say Diana Ting, who handles our state legislation and our county stuff. Our new deputy city manager. Let's get him off the bench. You know, take a look at what resources are around. It wouldn't take very much to say, let's have a discussion. I want to thank the mayor for leading that conversation. But to me, I think it's my opinion when you take that extra step of saying I'm here and so is my experts and my team. What can we do to make sure you understand that we are that you are important to us? So what I don't want to do here is send the wrong message that somehow the council is not unified. I would hope that we can support Councilman Andrew's motion here and give staff the flexibility to do more or less based on the circumstances at the table or on the ground. And even if there is no threat, it's okay. When's the last time you know someone who says, you know, I learned this from Shannon McKee? Actually, it was. When do you how often do businesses get? You know, do we approach businesses and say, how? How can we just help you do more of what you already do? Right. This is just another opportunity to do that, as far as I'm concerned. So I will just ask that we hope hopefully we can get back to Councilman Andrew's original motion. We can be unified as a city and leave some flexibility city manager and the mayor to use what tools they see fit here. Thanks.
Speaker 0: Councilman Ranga.
Speaker 10: Because Vice Mayor Richardson, I read I'm like I say, I take offense to what you said because it's not true that it's not my intent. The intent of the substitute motion is not to divide this council. We all are in unison in the praise and the love that we have for our health care. We're dealing with emotion here. We're not dealing with with whether we want or need a health care to stay or not. It's a it's a it's a process. It's a it's a a a strategy, an approach. That's all we're talking about here. We're not we're not talking about whether we vote for or against Councilmember Andrews resolution. You know, you're you're you're either with me or against me. That has nothing to do with that. Let's stop that, because that's not what this is about. This is about how do we send the message to Molina health care or to any business, for that matter, that it might be suffering from any kind of economic downturn? Just tell them to show them that we care, that we want them here, but we want them here under the the understanding that if and when they come to us for help, we are going to be there. This is not doing this motion. The original motion does not do that. It doesn't. You might think it does, but it doesn't. It say that, you know, we're afraid that you're going to leave us. Let us help. Let us. Let us work with you to help you stay here. That that's not that. I think that's a wrong approach. We don't need to do that. If they want to stay, they're going to stay. They want to leave. They're going to leave. It's a it's a business decision on their part. And all we can do at this point is try to help them stay here. We can do that. But trying to be preemptive and proactive, I think is that's the wrong message. We can work with them. We can work for them. But I don't think that we could say, you know, you're going to see him. We're going to keep you here no matter what. We're going to make sacrifices. I think that's the wrong message.
Speaker 0: Question I got one more. So, Councilman Austin.
Speaker 8: Mr. Mayor, I just had a question for you. Since you are the chief executive of the city of Long Beach, you had a conversation with the new CEO of Molina Health Care. Did you have any indication that jobs were at risk here in the city of Long Beach? From Molina health care during your conversation.
Speaker 0: I mean, I think I think we have to be honest in any conversation with any corporation. You know, you can never say never. And whether that's Molina health care or that or whether that's the ice cream shop down the street. And so I think I think you we should never assume that any job, regardless of who holds it or where it is, is always going to remain in the city. What I feel completely committed to is Melina healthcare's commitment to Long Beach. Their headquarters is here. They've got multiple operations here, and they're growing. They have a new they have the new leadership. So of course, there will be changes, but that's part of it. And I think that we will continue. I'm very confident that the partnership between Melina and Long Beach will continue strongly for for many, many years ahead. And so I am not concerned that that there is going to be some sort of large change. I think I think Melina is a great company, and I think we'll look forward to working with them in the future
Speaker 8: . Thank you. And your words right now make me validate, I think the motion to pass a resolution, a strong resolution, a strongly worded resolution stating our commitment to to helping keep jobs here should the need arise. But doesn't sound like there's a need here. And I would rather use our valuable staff resources to economic development on our business corridors and in our neighborhoods, in growing our sales tax base where we can grow that. That's where I'd like to see our economic development department and our city management team be be focused on right now, focused on developing and creating new business, new jobs, new economic opportunities. And not going after something is not moving right. So that's that's that's that's my big rationale. And members I would ask you to support the resolution, I think is a smart approach, but do as you will. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. We have a. A secondary motion and I'm in motion. I have to do public comment. So let me do public comment and we'll come back to the council. Any public comment on this? Okay. CNN So we have a substitute motion on the floor, which is a resolution of support by Councilman Austin and Councilman Ringa . So please cast your vote on the substitute motion first.
Speaker 3: Motion fails.
Speaker 0: Okay. We're now back to the original motion, which I believe Councilman Andrews accepted the friendly from Councilmember Gonzalez, which was to frame this as a business support team. Councilman Andrews, is that correct? Yes. Okay. Please cast your vote on that.
Speaker 1: Motion carries.
Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. And we'll go on to the next item. Madam Clerk. I think we'll do 24.
Recommendation to request City Manager to assemble a business retention team for Molina Healthcare comprised of all necessary departments, county and state agencies, business leaders, economic development officials, and Molina Healthcare executives, to develop a strategy and identify all available benefits and opportunities to attract and retain Molina Healthcare's key operations and health care services in the City of Long Beach.