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Vice Mayor Richardson, Joined By Councilmembers Gonzalez, Mungo and Andrews, Cite Voter Approval Of City And County Tax Measures And Ask City Mgr. "To Evaluate New and Ongoing Revenue Sources" And Make "Necessary Preparations to Restore Paramedic Rescue 12 in Jan. 2017" And Report Within 90 Days On Feasibility of Short & Long Term Plan For Add'l Public Safety Restorations


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(Nov. 17, 2016, 3:30 a.m.) -- Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, joined by Councilmembers Lena Gonzalez, Stacy Mungo and Dee Andrews, have agendized an item for the Nov. 22 City Council meeting that asks the City Manager to evaluate "new and ongoing revenue sources, and make the necessary preparations" to restore Paramedic Rescue 12 in January 2017 and evaluate and report back to the Council within 90 days on "the feasibility of a short term and long term plan for additional public safety restorations."

The action follows-up on a pledge by Vice Mayor Richardson to pursue restoration of Rescue 12, made to his NLB constituents at an August community budget meeting, and a verbal promise he subsequently extracted from Mayor Robert Garcia during September Council discussion of City Hall's FY17 budget, in which Garcia indicated the City would find a way to restore Rescue 12 during FY17 after the outcome of November 2016 revenue/tax ballot measures.(and the Council's FY17 budget vote included a request that City staff "conduct an analysis of revenue opportunities that include Measure M, Measure MA, and the first responder fee, to study options of restoring Fire Apparatus (including Rescue 12 and Engine 17) by January 2017."

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In their agendizing memo, the four Councilmembers list increased LB Fire Dept. response times and say "now, circumstances have changed" to address the issue because LB's General Fund "stands to benefit" from voter-approval of a LB sales tax increase (June Measure A), LB's marijuana tax (November Measure MA), an L.A. County sales tax increase (November Measure M/Metro transportation projects), an L.A. County property parcel tax (November Measure A/park-open space projects) and a LB Council imposed first responder fee (July, 2015). The Councilmembers state in their agendizing memo:

"Now is the time that we can and must provide the level of public safety services that Long Beach residents need and deserve by adding an additional Paramedic Rescue into the system. Additionally, evaluating the feasibility of'a long and short-term plan for further public safety restorations will ensure a path to a safer Long Beach."

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In their agendizing memo, Vice Mayor Richardson and Councilmembers Gonzalez, Mungo and Andrews state:

Discussion

The Problem

Since 2010, the Long Beach Fire Department has had to continually restructure its citywide deployment strategy due to budget cuts. Response times have increased across the city, and the safety of our residents has been compromised. In a February 2015 report to the Public Safety Committee, the Fire Department reported the following increase in response times over a 10-year period:

Call typeAverage response time
Mins/secs
Percentage within standards
200520152005*2015*
Emergency medical5:125:5574.2%46.6%
Structure fires5:145:2473.2%59.7%
All fires5:296:2368.6%50.5%
All emergency responses5:296:1672.8%46.1%

During the Fire Department's FY 2017 budget hearing presentation in August, Chief Mike Duree noted that one of the department's significant issues/opportunities was to, "Improve response times and response capabilities and continue to meet the expectations of the community by maintaining and restoring fire suppression and emergency medical services staffing levels through the use of new revenue."

The Opportunity

Now, circumstances have changed to address these issues. In the year 2016 alone, thanks to the voters of Long Beach and LA County as well as revisions to Fire Department policies, the General Fund stands to benefit from a number of new revenue opportunities, including:

  • Long Beach Measure A
  • Long Beach Measure MA
  • LA County Measure M
  • LA County Measure A
  • First Responder Fee

Now is the time that we can and must provide the level of public safety services that Long Beach residents need and deserve by adding an additional Paramedic Rescue into the system. Additionally, evaluating the feasibility of'a long and short-term plan for further public safety restorations will ensure a path to a safer Long Beach.

Fiscal Impact

There is no fiscal impact to providing this report.

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