Among the numerous discussions and presentations at the four-hour March 19 Long Beach City Council meeting were a proposal to move university continuing-education workforce-development courses to downtown, an update on the City’s digital-inclusion roadmap and a conversation on how the City can work with traffic- and navigation-app companies to reduce the prevalence of cut-through traffic routed through residential streets.
CSULB downtown
The city council authorized an agreement with the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Foundation to provide continuing-education workforce-development classes in downtown Long Beach, in an amount not to exceed $1 million for a period of 10 years.
“There has been a proposal that the City and the university have been working on for the last couple of years, and that has been to bring the university to downtown Long Beach,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “As we know, when universities go to downtowns, the downtowns thrive, and the students also open themselves up to incredible opportunities and experiences.”
He added that the proposal includes many parts and that one large component of it is to provide housing for students and faculty in the downtown area.
During the staff report on the agenda item, Nick Schultz, executive director of the Workforce Development Bureau, explained that the goal is to include classes in the city’s primary area of business, which is adjacent to the Metro Blue Line.
“The proposed 10-year agreement of $1 million to the Cal State University Foundation will provide the university with a portion of the resources necessary to establish 16 classrooms with an estimated 25 seats each, 400 total seats, to deliver [College of Professional and International Education] continuing-education programs to advance the careers of current professionals and provide additional space for classes provided at its main campus,” Schultz said.
CSULB President Jane Close Conoley was in attendance and said the undertaking allows the university to deepen its partnership with the City. She explained that the project will involve three phases, the first of which is educational. She said the programs preliminarily offer certification for human-resource management, emergency medical technicians, event planning, cyber security and Internet technology, as well as degree-completion programs in public safety, psychology and health science.
“The second phase will be to establish an innovation center that we feel will spur innovation and entrepreneurship in the city,” Conoley said. “And the third phase– that we’re very excited about– is to create faculty, staff and student housing that is currently conceptualized as bringing 800 individuals to the downtown area.”
First District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez added that a second innovation center will be named after Shaun Lumachi, the former publisher of the Long Beach Post, who died in a car accident in Florida in 2011.
The motion carried with a vote of 8-0.
Digital inclusion
The council voted to increase appropriations in the general-services fund in the Technology and Innovation Department for $40,000, offset by 1st-district council office one-time district-priority funds transferred from the General Fund in the Citywide Activities Department to support the development of the City’s digital-inclusion roadmap.
Lea Eriksen, director of the Technology and Innovation Department, shared an update on the roadmap, after the council had provided policy direction a year ago.
She said the City conducted online and in-person surveys at all Long Beach libraries and at community events in order to analyze the impact of the “digital divide” among residents.
“The [Technology and Innovation] Commission’s findings from the survey analysis informed a series of recommendations– 22 in total– that address digital literacy, access to devices and broadband connections, infrastructure deployment and also recommend research and evaluation, applying rigorous standards and advocating for local control and privacy standards at regional, state and federal levels,” Eriksen said. “These recommendations will be used to inform the development of the City’s digital-inclusion roadmap. In addition to the work of the commission, the City’s made progress in other areas too, including hiring an economic and digital-inclusion project lead [and] convening stakeholder roundtables that include community partners, city departments and Internet-service providers.”
The focus areas of the roadmap will be capacity, connectivity and technology, and it will be structured with a “collective impact and equity lens” approach that involves community members and two consulting firms in its development, according to Rebecca Kauma, project lead for Economic and Digital Inclusion.
“It is imperative that low-income communities and communities of color are involved in the decision-making process for setting the common agenda and developing shared measurements,” Kauma said. “We want the community to have ownership over the roadmap’s vision, goals, objectives and strategies.”
Councilmember Gonzalez, who was the driving force behind the project, said the $40,000 will help to “close the loop” in the divide, as well as find other areas where it exists, mentioning that there have been 50,000 residents identified as lacking access to broadband Internet.
The council voted 8-0 in favor of the item.
Traffic navigation
Third District Councilmember Suzie Price’s agenda item 23 requested that City Manager Patrick West report back within 60 days on how the City can work with traffic- and navigation-app companies to reduce the prevalence of cut-through traffic that is routed through residential neighborhoods.
Price explained that some residential streets are not appropriate for heavier traffic because of narrow roads, noise impacts and a lack of crosswalks.
“The request, really, is to have staff reach out to any of these app developers to see if there’s a way that we can take some of our residential streets that are being used as cut-through-traffic alternatives out of circulation for these app developers,” Price said.
Second District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce said her office has received several community emails on the matter and that some of those residents had expressed a resistance to being limited in which streets they can use. She asked West if other cities have had success in working with navigation-app companies. West said there has been mixed results.
The motion carried with a vote of 9-0.
CAAP
The council heard a presentation on the City’s first-ever Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), a project focused on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, preparing the community for impacts of climate change, improving quality of life and enhancing economic vitality in Long Beach.
Paramedicine program
The council also authorized the city manager to work with fire, health and other appropriate departments to report back in 120 days on the potential costs, benefits and challenges in forming a Long Beach Community Paramedicine Program. The community-based healthcare model is intended to provide more effective, efficient and affordable services and allow paramedics to function outside their traditional emergency-response and transport roles to facilitate more appropriate uses of emergency-care resources while better providing access to primary care for medically underserved residents, according to 5th District Councilmember Stacy Mungo, who had brought the item forward.
The item passed 7-0.
Laura’s Law
The council also authorized West to provide an update within 60 days on Laura’s Law and how Los Angeles County is applying and funding it.
The law, also referred to as assisted outpatient treatment, was initiated following the 2001 killing of 19-year-old Laura Wilcox by an individual suffering from severe mental illness. Former Assemblymember Helen Thomson authored Assembly Bill 1421, establishing the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Demonstration Project Act of 2002, or Laura’s Law. It allows the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to serve seriously mentally ill individuals at substantial risk of deterioration and/or detention as a direct result of poor psychiatric treatment compliance, according to the County’s website.
Ninth District Councilmember Rex Richardson remarked that it is important to consider the rights of individuals who may be opposed to treatment, for whatever reason. Pearce said she has signed on to receive the report but wants to be clear in opposing the criminalization of those suffering from mental illness.
The motion passed 7-0.
Administrative hearings
The council also voted 7-0 to authorize the city manager or designee to execute an agreement with the California Department of General Services Office of Administrative Hearings to provide administrative-law judges to conduct disability-retirement and other appeal hearings in a total amount not to exceed $175,000 for a period of five years, with the option to renew for up to three additional one-year periods at a cost not to exceed $35,000 per year.
Electric vehicles
The council voted 7-0 to adopt a resolution to enter into a contract with Acme Auto Leasing of North Haven, Connecticut, for the lease purchase of 51 Chevrolet Bolt and 19 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles.
The next Long Beach City Council meeting will be Tuesday, April 2 at 5pm in council chambers, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.
