As the Long Beach City Council continues its discussion of the 2025 budget, the Community Development and Library Services departments presented their priorities and challenges for the next year.
These two departments make up roughly $98.7 million of the City’s $3.6 billion proposed 2025 budget.
Library Services
Long Beach’s public libraries have seen a steady increase in attendance and use of services, almost up to pre-pandemic levels, according to Director of Library Services Cathy De Leon. The library’s proposed 2025 budget is $21.6 million, and De Leon quickly remarked that they can use more funding.
Library Services currently has an 11% employee vacancy rate, with 192 employees, 106 of which are full-time. The department has 12 vacancies including a senior librarian, junior librarian, library clerks and assistants.
Challenges identified for the Long Beach Public Library, according to De Leon, include:
- Staff and patron safety at all locations
- Continued need for social services presence and outreach
- Aging facilities and deferred maintenance
- Loss of shared digital resources from CA State Library due to state deficit
Though De Leon identified safety as an ongoing challenge, she said that the libraries “feel safer” following the City’s ordinance to support a Library Code of Conduct in March 2024. De Leon said they “haven’t really” had to enforce the Code of Conduct, saying that having the special services police officer at the Billie Jean King Main Library, and another working overtime at the Mark Twain Neighborhood Library have helped to “de-escalate situations.”
“We’re seeing a decrease in the severity of what we used to see before,” De Leon said.
She said the department is in the process of hiring someone to report to the Health and Human Services Department, who will rotate through 12 locations but be based at the main library. This person would oversee the three outreach workers the library has now, and all four will work to reach vulnerable populations and connect them with services.
The Library Services Department is soon making a change to its name to embody its evolving mission, said De Leon. The department will be renamed the Library, Arts, and Culture Department.
The department is also planning to debut a Filipino Language & Heritage Collection at Harte Library. The collection will be similar to the African American Resource Area at Burnett Library and the Khmer collection at Mark Twain Library.
Other priorities for Library Services include:
- Adding a General Maintenance Assistant to address aging facilities
- Structural funding for SSO (special services officer) at Mark Twain Neighborhood Library in response to safety concerns
“The historics storms and extreme weather of the past year made evident that our department needs more support in the area of deferred maintenance,” De Leon said. “While we’ll continue to partner with Public Works for major capital projects, the addition of a general maintenance assistant to our facilities’ staff increases our capacity to work on smaller, yet still critical maintenance issues.”
The library will be launching a new online catalog and interface, which public libraries tend to do every 10-15 years, De Leon said. This new interface is set to launch in early November.
The department is also planning on launching a 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, “that will help guide our department and help us to better align with the City’s 2030 Strategic Vision.
Community Development
This department provides services related to housing, code enforcement, permits and neighborhood grants. The proposed budget for this department in 2025 is $77.2 million.
Almost half of the department’s revenue ($36.9 million) comes from its Development Services Fund. This amount comes from fees, applications and permits from residents, businesses and developers.
The Los Angeles County Tenant Right to Counsel program is also funded through the Community Development Department. The Tenant Right to Counsel program assists tenants facing eviction through legal representation. So far, the program has assisted 1,499 tenants in LA county with legal services.
In 2024, Long Beach allocated $1.5 million to the program, but Los Angeles County used up other funds before dipping into this amount. As a result, $1.2 million from 2024 will roll over into next year. The City is also adding $375,000 to this fund.
Vice Mayor Cindy Allen asked the City Council to increase the allocation to the LA Tenant Right to Counsel to $500,000.
“We have so many tenants in our city that really do depend on these services … Every dollar we invest in that program, to say it makes a difference in people’s lives is an understatement,” Allen said.
Over a dozen residents, including representatives from Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and Long Beach for a Just Economy asked the City to contribute another $1.2 million to the fund.
Priorities for Community Development in 2025, based on recommendations from Mayor Rex Richardson, include:
- The Queen Mary
- Pier H
- Long Beach Convention Center
- The Elephant Lot
- Shoreline Drive
- Coastal lease opportunities
Five people in the department will be tasked with focusing on these projects, according to Community Services Director Christopher Koontz.
Koontz said that several programs are facing budget cuts too due to shortages on the federal level. These cuts will affect the Community Development Block Grants, which is the primary funding source to serve disadvantaged communities for things such as sidewalk and street improvements, affordable housing developments and more. The (HOME) program, which finances the construction of affordable housing projects, is also facing cuts.
The department’s emergency solution grants, which Koontz said is “a small drop” of funds used for homelessness outreach and responses, is also facing cuts.