During the Sept. 3 Long Beach City Council meeting, which primarily consisted of a dialogue about and finalization of the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 budget, 3rd District Councilmember Suzie Price emphasized the importance of engaging all nine districts when discussing funds allocated for citywide efforts.
During a six-and-a-half-hour meeting that began Tuesday night and concluded early Wednesday morning, the Long Beach City Council approved a $2.8-billion budget for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, instituting a few changes to the draft budget that officials had issued in July. The budget will take effect Oct. 1.
One adjustment concerned the restoration of fire services. East Long Beach’s Fire Engine 17, which had been decommissioned seven years ago because of budget cuts during the recession, will be brought back into use. The council also voted to provide about $1.5 million in funding to immediately implement a temporary replacement for the Los Cerritos neighborhood’s Fire Station 9, located at 3917 Long Beach Blvd., to house the fire engine and paramedic rescue within the service area while that site undergoes mold remediation after having been closed in June. The council also allocated up to $7.7 million of Measure A funds for the next four years to provide a permanent replacement for the existing Station 9, which was constructed in 1938.
The council also voted to provide funding for several programs, adding to City Manager Patrick West’s proposed budget.
The new budget accounts for: an additional $680,000 four-person Clean Team to enhance existing services; a pilot program that will provide weekend homeless outreach and response; an additional $2.7 million during the next three years for repairs to alleys; the restoration of funding for the Be S.A.F.E. program for youth at parks during summer evenings; $100,000 for the installation of historic lamps in Bluff Park; $500,000 to fund HIV- and STD-outreach programs; funding to remove magnolia trees infested with tulip-tree scale; continued funding to provide for extended library hours at certain neighborhood branches; and continued funding for free senior programs at the Expo Arts Center in Bixby Knolls.
Among the initial recommendations from Mayor Robert Garcia and West that the council approved were a $350,000 pilot program with Long Beach Transit to provide transportation for Long Beach College Promise students and funding to ensure all residents are counted in the U.S. Census next year.
One point of contention among the councilmembers was the youth strategic plan, the challenge of gathering input from two youth representatives in each council district and how to distribute funding for youth programs.
Third District Councilmember Suzie Price stressed that money allocated for citywide efforts should involve the engagement of every council district and that, when the council adopted the youth strategic plan, it was not for a specific category of youth or those in a certain part of the city. Rather, it was for youth in the entire city, which need support, guidance and resources, she said.
“We’re not sitting here judging what stresses one set of youth might be dealing with and what stresses another set of youth might be dealing with,” Price said. “When we’re using dollars designed for citywide programs, we need to engage the entire city.”
Regarding the city’s trees, Public Works Director Craig Beck indicated that disease and the recent drought have been the primary issues.
“Unfortunately, going through a couple of drought years, we’ve had a number of our trees in distress, and we continue to lose a large part of our urban canopy, so we do have trees that have had to be removed, and we probably have in the neighborhood of another 500 stumps that need removal,” Beck said. “That is a separate issue from the magnolia-tree tulip-scale that we’ve been talking about as a council. While I appreciate any funding that can be allocated to help address this problem, $100,000 may be a little light. Right now, we anticipate somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 trees that are infected in the city just from tulip-tree scale.”
Near the end of the meeting, 8th District Councilmember Al Austin said that, although “not perfect,” the budget is balanced and takes into account the needs of all nine council districts.
“I think this budget is all-inclusive,” Austin said. “I think it touches on the priorities of nine different council districts, various areas [of] a complicated, diverse city, but, at the same time, it’s a responsible budget. It’s balanced, and it’s one that also thinks about the future. We know that our next year is going to be a tough year ahead. We should not jump into this budget with too much programmatic dollars. I think there’s a lot of one-times being used here, and this is a budget that will allow us some flexibility moving forward.”
