Without Questions or Discussion Prior To Vote, Council Approves Mayor Garcia's Nominees For Purely Advisory "Innovation & Technology Commission," Newly Created City Hall Entity Will Now Begin Tapping $100,000 This Year And Next TFN

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(Jan. 7, 2015) -- As seen LIVE on LBREPORT.com, at its Jan. 6, 2015 meeting, the City Council voted 8-0 (4th dist. vacant) to approve Mayor Robert Garcia's appointments to a newly created advisory "Innovation and Technology Commission." The Council action (motion by Richardson, second by Uranga) came without any Council questions or discussion prior to the vote, and will now effectively begin consuming $100,000 from the General Fund allocated by the Council in its September 2014 FY15 budget votes before the Council had voted to approve creating the body.

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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, the Council created the new advisory body in October 2014 although a city management prepared Fiscal Impact Report on its costs never reached the full Council, The November 2013 Fiscal Impact Report said the annual cost of the advisory body, which had been proposed by then-Vice Mayor/Mayoral candidate Garcia in the run-up to the 2014 elections, would be $142k-$221k annually. That cost estimate, plus the existence of an already existing advisory commission on technology matters advising city staff, led the now-former Council's Economic Development and Finance Committee to "receive and file" (take no action on) Garcia's proposal to create the new Commission.

After taking office as Mayor mid-July 2014, Garcia effectively circumvented the Committee action, putting $100,000 for what he called "start up cost" for the Commission within his proposed FY15 budget. In his July 2014 budget message, Mayor Garcia told the Council and the public that [Garcia budget message text] "to provide support for this Commission I recommend using $100,000 of funds already available in the technology services general fund"...and didn't mention city staff's Fiscal Impact Report cost figure of $142,000-$221,000 annually.

The Council's newly constituted Budget Oversight Committee (named by Mayor Garcia: Lowenthal. Mungo and O'Donnell) recommended that the Council approve Garcia's proposed FY15 budget (which included the $100,000 indicated as "start up costs" for advisory Commission, plus some changes on other items.) On September 2, 2014, the full Council voted to enact the Garcia proposed budget (with changes on other items) 8-0 (O'Donnell, now Assemblyman, absent from Council Chamber but entered shortly after the vote.) Final budget adoption followed on Sept. 9.

The City Attorney's office then prepared ordinance text, consistent with the Council's September voted budget action, to legally create the advisory "Innovation and Technology Commission." When the item reached the Council on Oct. 7, 2014, Garcia noted that the Council had already budgeted the Commission's start up cost and urged its enactment.

After discussion of other issues, Councilman Austin (the sole former member of the Economic Development Committee that received the Fiscal Impact Report) brought up the cost issue. Councilman Austin noted that staff had said in writing that the taxpayer cost would be between $142,000-$221,000 each year but that the Council (as part of Mayor Garcia's budget recommendations) had only budgeted $100,000 for start up costs. "Where are we going to make up the difference?" Austin asked.

City Manager Pat West replied that when Mayor Garcia proposed including the new Commission in his FY15 budget, "we produced a budget of $100,000 that we felt we could manage this Commission on a pilot program for the first year and then sustain it for the next fiscal year."

In November 14, 2014, city management sent the Mayor and City Council a memo summarizing changes made to the FY15 budget by the Council's Sept. 15 voted budget actions. It includes the following text:

The Technology Services Department is renamed to the Technology and Innovation Department and $100,000 in non-recurring funds available in the General Services Fund is used to fund the start-up costs for and to staff a new Technology and Innovation Commission. There will be structural costs for this in FY 16.

Under the terms of the ordinance text creating the Commission, two of the advisory body's seven members need not live in the City of Long Beach, whose taxpayers will pay the six figure cost of the Commission's operation and potentially its recommendations.