Regular Council Meeting

greetings. Greetings and welcome everyone to tonight's city council meeting time is now 6:00. MADAM Clerk, would you please call the room? Absolutely. Council member well down here council member drew here council member here. Mayor pro tem out here and MR. Boyles is not here this evening very well to start tonight we will have an invocation from tannehill of the bridge church followed by the pledge of allegiance. You know and you that's great, father. Just thank you, lord our first responders or our police fire lord everyone that keeps this community safe. Lord you're amazing how you continue to keep this safe. Lord, I pray your blessing upon this council that they would rule as you would have them rule and just your will and your purpose be accomplished here. Lord you are such a good good father father we just you for what you're doing. We ask your blessing over the council and, their families in jesus name and then you know by the states of america and father and my nation indivisible with liberty and our thank you MR. Tannahill all right. We will start tonight. We have a special presentation for the 2023 holiday parade winners marcia, are you here to right the chamber will present lillie craig, special assistant to marcia. >> yes, smart aleck sir. Good evening, mayor pro tem pimentel and members. My name is lily craig here tonight as the chair of the board of the chamber of commerce which trust me that's where to say after 42 years. But first we would like to thank the three of us again for partnership in making the offering into a holiday parade holiday parade possible for now 59 years you along with incredible sponsors bring smiles to thousands it also gun down south bay residents each year and we're very very grateful. So now I'm going to go on to the awards we're going to kick off the awards by the best performers adult cartoon category award and I go for the dickens christmas is the bottom of this winner is endowed with all of us all all we need to do is that's a great way to be single stumbling words all the way up is to bring me on the same bill is double glazed over old all right it is to bring the trophy home and I get the right all right everybody you okay? Let's get everybody in here one, two, three to you guys to patient. We want to try to get with this ,okay? okay guys, one, two, a couple more. Thank you so much and we'll look yes, I'm going to ask you to stay up here for the rest. Okay? Do a great job. Okay. Our next award goes to use of theme for children and that award goes to oscar up nursery school . You go oh, I see. Oh, I love this trailer. So I get everybody you so is there any any chance we could stand up and hold the children hold the children. Oh, gary. Oh, that was great. How about how about this time? How about this? How about how about the fella in the middle here? I'll well, if we can we can we can. All right. It was hard for me to see them. There you go. Now you're showing off your muscle. There you go. All right, here we go. One, two. All right. This would be a lot nicer. Thank you so much . Okay. That that's okay. The is also best of theme but this is for community civic and that award to new city church it MAY not be your work group all right so we're going to move on to the best holiday spirit children award and that goes to the alpha gordo girl scouts . You know . All right. And see everybody okay? Sure do you all right. Girl scouts and nice smile here we go on to a couple more. Thank you so much. Girl scouts you okay? Followed by best holiday spirit business commercial and that goes to ed co disposal . Hey, how are you ? Oh, good. Okay, we can step back just a little bit. You very good. Here we go. Yeah, you want to hold them for one more year? All right. Thank. Next on the losers for best performers as children and that goes to the kelly school of traditional wow. Look at you like you. All right, perfect guys know how to light up. That's right. What about your sister? She's the one. Come on. Okay, very good. Okay, here we go. Irish dancers have a more and more. All right. Thank you so much . Okay, the next award goes to the best musical band in high school and the word goes they're also going to high school eagle marching band and color . I'm not against the honor. All right. Okay. Here go a couple photos here and have a look and one more. Thank you so much. Okay followed by best holiday spirit community civic two moose lodge 1780 three right here . Yeah, right. You just said come on, come on, get in the middle there we go. I give you a couple more. No more. Thank you so much . The next award goes to best use of theme business or commercial and that goes to el segundo brewing company wonder they're making they're making beer or accepting the award on their behalf GOD. Okay the next award goes to the best holiday and santas choice business or commercial and that goes to one 800 got drunk and has the way to do do it didn't get it right all right I think we there I go. I want to see carol also we go you got that one too and one more. Thank you so much . So we saved I'm sorry you went to church. Okay. so we saved the most prestigious award for the last for the suspense. Not like they don't know that they got it but it's kind of cool. And so now for the grand marshals award which is chosen judges as their favorite, the 2023 also going to holiday parade grand marshal award winner created a float for our guests in honor and carried our grand marshals in style. This year's recipient is also the rotary club right here. And how are you doing? Here we go. One to a couple more. More. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll see you next year on DECEMBER 8th. Oh 60th annual holiday parade. Thank you no, no . All right. You, marsha and lily now we will move on to public communications for public communications. If anyone is here, we've got items for public hearing. Separate it out about the communications. Yes. All right we have 2 minutes per speaker on public communications because I think we have how many 1215, 16? Yeah, 1615 I counted 15 but I MAY have gotten one more thing. Yeah, 50 go. No 15 is just for public comment for open that's not for the public hearing so we will do we have 15 that's 30 minutes for public comment so 2 minutes per speaker about becoming MADAM Clerk our first stop can welcome and radio my name's ken wagman good for 17 washington street and pretty much you'll find that most of us are here due to the fact that you know we've denied the parking permits for our street and on our street is horrendous daily you know you can't if you move you're not going to come back and find a place park your car. So you basically have to protect your parking space in order to be able to, you know, find a place to park your car when you come back. You know, friends can't come by because there's no place to park you know I got to france with learn that you got to kick it around the corner because you parked around the corner and parking on that day street sweeper so I mean it getting a little ridiculous then I understand that you were able to give permits to illinois and indiana but not to california I've got to kansas university was great going on you MR. Margolin . Jim, do you cordova hello jim de cordova for 21 washington street I've been a 40 year resident of el segundo and too I'm here to talk mentioned and to you a little bit about our situation on washington street that I don't think that you're aware and the major part of our problem is two things there are businesses in close proximity to washington street that do not have apparently enough parking for their employees so they're parking our street every day. Then you have airport parkers who will come park their car on a monday or tuesday and conveniently come back at like a m on the following thursday so they don't get a and then you have what told is the zone three where washington street was recommended to be in zone three by the city engineer and for some reason it was taken off and. The problem with that is that if you permit people indiana and I forget the other street over in illinois all those park all the people can no longer park there where are they going to go? They're going to the next street over to washington street. So even though it's not on the agenda today that's I'd like you to keep it in the forefront of your thought amongst other things I'm sure. And when it comes up again or if it can come up again, I really think we need to include in zone three to really help solve our problem. And don't forget there's development going on in close proximity to washington that a lot of people are very unhappy with and one of the big fears is again that parking thank you thank you MR. Do good other other heather sutherland I didn't expect to be so fast. Okay see I prepared something . Good evening mayor patton and, members of the city council my name is heather sutherland and I'm also the current council pta PRESIDENT. I'm here to extend a personal invitation to you and to you to come to our honorary service awards and founder's eight event as you know this event happens every year to recognize the amazing contribution is by our volunteers, teachers, administrators and community and I've also gone to school I guess I literally do meetings all the time I'm shaking right now. Okay we are so fortunate to have such a growing community this year. We are grateful to the efforts of the el segundo fire department and the el segundo police department. As you MAY know, these two departments have worked closely with the el segundo high school to provide workshops for students and parents this year el segundo fire department provided a cpr training to parents and students I am delighted to report that over half of the 44 attendees were students. We think it's exciting to have the opportunity to educate the next generation on these important life saving skills because of the overwhelming success we are already in the planning stages for the fall cpr class on campus to further exemplify our partnership with the city. They're also going to police department. The el segundo high school ptsa will be providing a women's safety course APRIL 20th for our high school students and. our school resource officers will be providing two presentations to parents and students on being a new driver and prom safety and excuse me all of this top of the ongoing support that our schools and students receive in keeping them safe. I hope that you are able to come join us as we celebrate the contribution of the fire and police department of our educational community. You thank you for some of them this was the date on the tables . The date on the tables it is MARCH 4th at four $0.30 thank you ladies . All right. Next up cheryl smith. Hello. Good evening city council I'm here to thank you for recognizing that my is cheryl smith I live on 416 kansas street I'm here to thank you for recognizing that there's a parking situation and the southeast corner of el segundo I'm thrilled by your directives to the city to launch a 24 hour parking permit. This is exactly what residents in this area have been asking for for several years. However, I'm was really surprised that this was enacted for illinois and indiana streets as you've already acknowledged there is a parking challenge on holly in california as there's permit that's already in place there. But the to this but the decision at the last city council meeting to in essence squish washington and kansas streets between these two parking permitted areas is a little confusing as evidenced by the slides from last at the last meeting. Kansas and washington are impacted especially during peak times and by implementing a solution for one part of the quadrant means that there will be a rolling impact onto other surrounding streets. I would like to ask if you would please agenda is the parking permit for the next council meeting to create a 24 hour parking district to include indiana. Illinois. Washington. Kansas. California holly and pine streets between east grand avenue and mariposa. Thank you so much. Thank you for lisa moen malone I'm sorry . Hello, my name is lisa maloney. I've lived in el segundo at 435 washington street for 23 years and we have a parking problem as you heard and inside one it just would like to echo everyone said. There are airport workers there ,business partners and it's very difficult to park in front of your own house. Thank you. Thank you, pat. Great counsel. My name is pat curry. I live at 412 washington. 56 year resident who lived at this address for 25 years about six years ago became noticeable that we were having problems with parking trash on our street beer cans, bottles, condoms vehicles have been broken into. It's a problem. We couldn't have no parking for our guests our gardeners pool guys just no place park. We filed for petition for times. Our street in the last five years is this copy of times in five years we've been ignored. Nothing's happening. We get airport parkers. We can get vehicles that sit for days. We have them towed but they're smart. They know they've got to move within 72 hours jim and jack by 8 A.M. Got eight employees minimum parked in front of our house by 9 A.M. All the big house corporate towers have strapped studios. They all start parking the all right skateboards though right they don't care how far they drive these kids they'll they'll they'll move to center street if they have to. Tonight I'm respectfully asking you to reconsider adding us to zone three parking as suggested by your engineer and staff and hopefully reconsider this. And thank you very much. Thank you very typically guys we don't applaud during public comment just to keep things moving. So even jason tabak agrees the names jason tayback I live at 44 washington street. We've been there since oh nine. I'm here to ask you to reconsider the city parking plan that for the residents that you put in place at the last meeting for for pine and illinois on the east side of freedom park I think I watched the video of that of that meeting and there was a discussion amongst council members about that you know your thought that it would just push that problem further into the city so I ask that you you know that you amend that to include washington street and kansas and to follow engineers the original recommendations I know the city spent a lot of time and money on the consultants to come in and you know and take a look at happening and the city you know employees who thoughtfully kind of thought through some some resolutions for it so please to amend you know what you put in place at last meeting to include a washington and you know everyone in the red zone from the city engineer. My recommendation thank you. I think it's still like cathy my good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm kathy MAY know most of you business owner for 30 years we've lived in town 30 years we're at four nine washington I just want to stand here with my neighbors and say that we have a terrible parking problem today. Two gentlemen thank you thank you. Two gentlemen actually approached me because my neighbor took a picture of them doing work in front of my house. So jim and jacks, there's a guy jumping jacks doing work on his car in front of my house the enterprise people enough to leave a car in front of my house today after I think my husband left he left 10 minutes. He couldn't find a parking space. We have to stack our cars three in the driveway. We're actually afraid to leave the house if all three of us leave the house and nobody can park in one of the parking spots in front of our house we don't have parking so we have a really bad parking problem on our street. You know, I most of you know me I'm not one to complain but I just want to stand here with my neighbors and let you guys know it's a really big problem on on washington. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Benton . Michael me saying things you said thank you, mike. Thank you. I believe this is nathan brown . Hi. Nathan brown hundred washington street. I'll keep it short. Everything everybody said already it's it's just it's a nuisance like I'll take my kids to school in the morning and by the time I mean they're on center street it takes me 2 minutes dropping off the parking spots gone by the time I get back trash cans sometimes there's they can't put them on my curb so I have to put them in front of my driveway pat. You put up a great point with the trash. It's just filthy jim and jack people they parked their cars. They just dump their trash out and I live right next door next door to jim and jack. So like my house is the first one to get it. Yeah. There's never any that's all I got to say. Thank you, MR. Brown jim woods . Thank you, councilmembers my name is jim. I work for greystar which is a real estate company partner with griffin capital on a proposed development north of at holly in washington. And so I'm just to to take two statements quickly. One is to support these neighbors. There is a parking problem and a 24 hour parking district I think is an important part the solution to that and second to state for the record that the development at our site can be excluded from that proposed parking permit such that we don't want to make any problems worse. So any residents come to our proposed project would not be benefits of that. Thank you very much carmen curry hello, my name is carmen curry. I live on washington 412 washington expressway. I am a little so forgive me if I felt our pass we've submitted petitions for help. You have not responded yes. Last meeting you pulled off we were so close and instead just took us off. Thank you because. now we want we need 24 seven all the way to california because we're the red zone and you need to make it the green zone again. That's what el segundo is. It's the green zone. Thank you thank you got carried steve overall well, I know how to say that name is quite close enough. You got it. I just well city council airport how's it going again? I live it for steve overall I work, I work, I live 48 washington street. I work there too sometimes and again I'm going to I'm going to skew a little differently it's part of the issue is also the it is the you want to call it I call it a transient population as well that tends to park their vans and then they have like pat was saying there'll be condoms and beer cans and food and whatever just laying on the ground. I have a 12 year old daughter who has to walk those streets, you know I know some of the other members on the council also have daughters and it's a little discomforting to think that there's these vans parked there for days on end. I've told her before before the site was just deconstructed I actually told my daughter not to walk down that alley because there are so many homeless transients being in and out of that spot. I wasn't sure if somebody all somebody had do is just robert. And so I think that the is just now the secondary part of correcting the issues that have been going on in that neck of the woods in our neck of the woods and it would be very we'd be very grateful have the 24 hours 24 hour parking there's times when I come home and I literally have to park in my own in front of my driveway because I can't park in my driveway because I have a wife and she had a friend over and when I get there and there's so many cars and the jim and jack's guys are there, they're very nice to me. I mean I wave to them, I say hi but as I'm driving away from work they're pulling up, you know, and I leave at 640 in the morning to go to work. So thank you. Thank you, MR. Bolton, chris kim kim, how you guys doing? Thank you for hearing us out. My name is chris king. I live at 413 washington street. I have two daughters, four cars in our household which is a special joy that we contend with both of my daughters have been made to feel unsafe walking to their cars in the morning there'll be people in the cars who just want you know, guys, workers, whatever just watching them, you know, walk to their cars. As a result I no longer park in the driveway. I make sure that they do but then that leaves me without a place to park today's hybrid working schedule I will very frequently work home, go out to client meetings, hustle back for a video call this past monday immediately after the super bowl I had a meeting a client meeting at 9:00 in playa vista. once that was concluded I had to hustle home for another video chat. There was no parking. I parked on holly rolled the dice. It was a monday. There was nothing else I could do. There was no other place to go . I parked the car, I went in, I did my call. I came back out boom there's a nice parking ticket for me so you know which is which is a nice little cherry on top of of the annoyance of having no parking on our own street. So it was it was upsetting to hear that we were so close and I know my my neighbors have been doing such an amazing job for the past five years of trying to get this problem helped and solved and it seemed like we were right there and then to have it taken away was an especially difficult thing to hear. So we appreciate you guys hearing us out. It a very significant problem on our street and we would love it to be addressed. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking taking the last but not least christian bravo move. Hello. My name is christian bravo and I live in washington street 400 block 416. So I moved to el segundo about ten years ago and one of the very big appeals was the safety aspect of el segundo. Right. So it was very surprising. They as soon as we moved into washington that when my kids were walking to the schools. Now keep in mind he's a couple blocks away, right? It was we would come kids not to go through that this trip between washington and kansas and holly just because of the different cars that we just didn't know what was going on there. They have to walk a different way because we just didn't feel safe for four kids and in and now when for example, we walk at night when with my wife you know we try to avoid those areas like around the park where there is cars and there is people we see people sitting in the streets as we walk by right on the on the sidewalk and we have to walk in the middle of the street just to feel a little safe. I just don't really want to make you know, we walk together at night. We want to feel like that that feeling that actually made us move to our window in the same type of safety that the pastor mentioned in at the beginning of this of this meeting right in in in spokane might not make might not make everything right but it will definitely make it better will definitely get us there or at least it will help. Right. So the 24 hour parking in that area is definitely going to help. So here you are. You are the ones who are supposed to be providing, you know, some of that safety for us. So but for one thing thank you. Thank MR. President that concludes the city manager comments. Yes, mayor at this point with the comments pertaining to the permit parking I guess I would just say what is the will of the council at this point terms of as you know you discussed this matter at the last council meeting. Would you like us to bring this item back for further or. I think there's a few items one of which is a code enforcement item but we we have businesses that are continuing to work outside of that credit one with the rental car company earlier but I think we didn't know if is a determining factor and then I think that it's probably worth agenda using in the future relooking to see what the impact of the illinois and indiana parking district is doing parking so excuse me is doing to washington and the surrounding areas mean obviously washington kansas are hand-in-glove on this but that's my opinion but that's not an agenda item for us to deliberate but to provide guidelines like a report. I do think there's a couple of things jim and jack have mentioned five times so that's been a consistent problem that not only at this meeting I think it's been mentioned before so I if we're going to agenda that we need to start looking at that and also just to kind of recap our conversation from two weeks ago we did have a feeling this was going to end up being the where you take a look at it and say okay, what do we have to address next? So I do agree that I think it should be agenda for discussion but we do have to look at the code enforcement piece too and go from there. But it's definitely if you have 15 people come in here you have a problem so let's at least agenda and discuss it again. I'm I concur concur and then as far as the code enforcement, one of the things we talked about is you know, looking our our current staffing to increase that code enforcement. So if you could bring that onto the agenda as well. Yes, do because it wasn't just for that area but it was all over town, especially down main street, richmond street. Okay. Yeah. So the parking was a pilot program. I'm happy people came to talk because that's how we feedback and we can make adjustments as we need to separate and apart if you feel unsafe, if there are people in your neighborhood you are afraid of, please do not hesitate to contact your police department. They are trained to deal with those types of of situations and I am concerned that we need flesh out this parking issue a little bit further. Has been initiated. Did we start the 24 hour yet with the incident? Good evening. The program has been initiated. We are in the process of fabricating the signs but they haven't been installed yet so were targeting MAY to initiate that pilot project. so we haven't seen the effects yet of anything besides to our enforcement are we seeing effective to our enforcement because tires being jogged the other day? Yeah we not installed the we have not installed the signs yet. Yeah we don't even have the permit set up yet so yeah we haven't seen it yet. Yeah let me recommend this when we have our one on ones with you this week we can figure out what the timeline is to to revisit this because if we and I know there's not agenda item but I would posit that if we start addressing this before we've seen what happens when we put in the parking district and we don't know what that is going to do to disincentivize the area we could put this on have it for for conceivably a second meeting in MARCH but I think it's worth us we can't have we get this now but we could deliberate it with you in the coming week regular. Anything else we individually could provide it but you could not in a surreal manner provide to another council member to be clear city the attorney city clerk we could provide our own individual to you for your consideration. Okay. I took my ab one two, three four last week. Thank you. City clerk. All right. Procedural motions. Do I have a motion to read all the resolutions on the agenda by title only so moot second all in favor I any both do I that I said on real a consent do we have any polls? There's only two items none. All right. Motion to put the second body. No second body no second. All in favor. Motion passes for oh all right. We are now on to our public hearing is the time and place here in fact for a public hearing regarding the bargaining impasse between the city of el segundo and the also going to firefighters association regarding terms and conditions of employment silica it was proper of the hearing give it in a timely manner. It was for the city clerk. Has any written communication been received to the public hearing? No sir. Well the hearing is now open MR. George who will make the presentation? Yes. Mayor pro tem legal counsel lawrence county from labor cassidy whittemore will make the presentation is going to wait website where people are filing in credible resources. All right. Good evening mayor pro tem and members of the council we are here this evening for the public hearing on the bargaining impasse the city of el segundo and the segundo firefighter association staff is recommending that conduct a public hearing on the bargaining impasse between the city of el segundo and the also the firefighters association regarding terms and conditions of employment staff is recommending either to adopt a resolution imposing the city's JUNE 26, 2023 last best and final offer to the el segundo firefighters association. This is pursuant to government code section 35 and five and implementing the related terms and conditions of employment or alternatively to discuss and take other action related to this item. So as a matter of background, the memorandum of understanding between the city of el segundo and the el segundo firefighters association expired on SEPTEMBER 30th, 2021 the city and sfa have gone two complete rounds of negotiations and have not been successful in negotiating a successor in first round of negotiations began OCTOBER six, 2021 and impasse was declared MARCH 21st, 2022. The parties went to a fact finding back on JUNE 8th 2020 to their recommendations and no terms and conditions were imposed at that time. The parties then began a second round of negotiations as you see the history related to this second round of negotiation is detailed on this slide in front of you the parties began negotiations OCTOBER 25th, 2022 you see the parties met eight times between OCTOBER 2022 MAY 2023. You see the detailed chronology of meetings, the exchange of proposals including informal supposedly discussions in looking at the dates in front of you on MAY 17th, 2023 the city communicated that it was putting its full economic authority and also provided a comprehensive redlined menu and language confirming the city's current staffing model which does not include mandatory staffing levels. You see the city issued its last best and final on JUNE 23rd, 2023. Thereafter the city declared impasse on SEPTEMBER one, 2023 and the parties ultimately went to a fact finding on the slide in front of you are the terms of the city's last best final offer so it's for approximately a one year term it proposes a salary increase of 1.5%. It proposes increasing the city's portion of medical contribution from the current 1650 to 1700 per month. It proposes increasing optical dental and life insurance from 135 to 1 84.25 per month. It proposes increasing the basic life insurance policy from 20000 to 50000. It also including temporary upgrade pay for members working a minimum of 12 hours in a higher classification. They would receive 5% of base salary for all hours worked. It also includes a residency requirement for new members of 100 road miles from fire headquarters. It also includes language related to what is currently in place regarding no prescribed staffing levels so it states the city has the exclusive management right to increase or decrease the staffing and assign employees and maintain the efficiency of government operations upon approval adoption of the memo you the city will end its practice of backfilling overtime for 13 unit employees each shift and will have the sole discretion to determine safe and appropriate staffing levels and the type and number of apparatus staffed. So as we sit here today the city does not have any prescribed staffing levels. There is no language to that effect in the memo you or other fire department provisions however assuming for the sake of argument there has been a practice backfilling up to at least 13 what this do is end that practice does not mean that staffing will change including upon if this council were to implement the terms and conditions but rather staff would work with the chief to determine appropriate levels including in the event of any particular vacancies of one sfa as a members will retain their jobs as well as their current salary and benefits and in fact the benefits and salary will be improved based on the terms of the bfa just reviewed. The city will however have the discretion to determine safe staffing for the department which MAY include maintaining 13 personnel per shift. It MAY include increasing of personnel during critical incidents. It MAY include backfilling personnel when there are leaves . What this does not mean is that the city is reducing total number of sworn employees. The city will continue have 43 full time sworn employees. it does not mean that the city is reducing staffing levels for shift 13 association employees plus. One battalion shifts will still be the staffing model. Regular staffing will continue that 14 employees per shift. It does not mean that city is reducing equipment or levels of service. The city will generally continue to operate two engines, two rescue and one truck. What it does mean is that the city currently does not have required staffing levels this will be confirmed in the terms and conditions of employment so no change here. It means that in the event of temporary vacancies or a leave of the fire chief will have the operational discretion to not force employees to work overtime staffing be less than 13 association employees per shift in terms of the procedural exhaustion of the past process. As a reminder, the contract expired SEPTEMBER 30 2021 the parties went through two complete rounds of negotiations. The impasse process has been exhausted fact finding was conducted on NOVEMBER 20th 2023. The report was issued DECEMBER 20th and then posted on the city website on 21st council reviewed the fact finding report including on JANUARY 16th 2024. So the for council's consideration tonight is to either adopt a resolution imposing the city's JUNE 26 last best and final or alternatively discuss and take other action related to this item. Thank think it was guilty the public hearing is now public input 12 so 2 minutes per speaker. First up jeff green we committed to it as the 30 seconds as well that it gives us up to 30 that we go it alone before we begin. It's okay. I I let's get let's go to three MR. Green publicly is the PRESIDENT I do appreciate it. I'm actually to I'm actually going to ask respectfully I know this was agenda was on friday and I've I've collected all the notes and thoughts and messages from 35 members from this labor group that potentially might be imposed on tonight and it a lot and I'm hoping tonight that maybe we could bypass the 3 minutes we can kind of get through one message it might be little long but in out of haste and efficiency it would prevent other members from talking it would just be me and we'd be done so the 11 members would yield 11 speakers would yield time. I don't have 11 members. I have four members that are continue the speech that we we've timed it out to be it it . I could just get it done in a little bit more of a linear fashion if you're like is there anything in the codes of the prohibited so four times 312 minutes but much appreciated. Good evening council local resident local firefighter PRESIDENT Of the el segundo firefighters. I would like to have a conversation with not only council tonight but the community at large tonight the city council is planning to on imposing a contract the el segundo firefighters. Tonight's decision not only affects the firefighters but it threatens the el segundo community as well. And here's. I'd like to start by defining and discussing backfilling backfill is a function used by the fire department management to the level of service to make sure el segundo always has the same number of firefighters and resources on duty per day to meet safety standards and perform as an effective response force. This function demands that current employees who are already working their normal 56 hours per week of straight time are required to work extra hours if there is a vacancy in rank or someone is sick, injured or on leave. Is the responsibility of management to backfill for those open positions? If these positions are not filled it will result the shutdown of an emergency fire apparatus like a fire engine rescue ambulance. Backfilling does create overtime but it is a necessary function of the fire service to maintain the expected of service. Tonight the city wants to impose a contract on the el segundo firefighters that contains specific language that ends and threatens this level of service to the community. It reads effective FEBRUARY 24th of 2020 for the city will end its practice of backfilling overtime 13 unit employees for each shift and will have the sole discretion to determine safe and appropriate staffing levels and the type and number of that the city wants to end the practice backfilling for 13 unit employees per shift. What does that mean and how does it look? The fire department's for 13 members per day 39 members in total. This includes nine captains, nine engineers, 12 fire paramedics, nine firefighters split evenly over three shifts a, b and c each shift two fire engines. Each fire engine has a captain, engineer and firefighter one fire truck captain, engineer and firefighter two transporting rescue ambulances per day, two fire paramedics each. We are currently budgeted for this staffing. So again what would it look like if the city effectively ends backfilling? Let us use an example on FEBRUARY 24th pro the language see shift is on duty sea shift currently has three unfilled staffing vacancies, two firefighter positions and one fire paramedic. Based on this, fire management will not backfill those open positions fire personnel from other shifts. This does not account for any other unplanned sick or injury which would increase the number of vacancies on saturday. This will result in reduced firefighters staffing which will force the shutdown of a fire engine rescue ambulance or fire truck. The fact is this impose staffing language that ends backfilling will provide the citizens, businesses, visitors to el segundo a significant reduction in service. Another serious consequence of this language is that it violates all automatic and mutual aid agreements with outside municipalities an automatic and mutual aid agreement is a contract between cities that is designed to share resources when major incidents occur. For example the 31 fire on alameda street friday, FEBRUARY 9th utilized auto and mutual aid agreements to call for extra resources from outside cities because el segundo didn't enough resources to battle the fire with its current staffing level. These agreements are based on specific staffing and resource levels that each municipality can provide. It needs to be a reciprocal relationship. In other words, L.A. County fire is not going to agree to supplement el segundo with fire resources when. El segundo has nothing to give in return. By ending backfilling which compromises el segundo staffing levels agreed upon in these contracts it violates the agreements and reduces the level of assistance outside fire departments. The firefighters have been told that ending backfilling is the answer to control over time. This is a short sighted and only addresses the symptom and not the root problem. In the last years over 40% of the backfilling for our group was due to vacant positions. Let me repeat 40% of the overtime over the last four years was due to vacant positions. If these vacancies were properly filled and new hires and promotional opportunities the 40% increase in overtime would have been significantly reduced. Overtime should not be controlled by ending the practice of backfilling but by addressing the reasons why it is occurring at a high rate. For example in the 2223 budget for the fire department our group was $50,000 overbudget in overtime. However we were almost $1 million under budget in straight time salaries. This data proves that the fire department is understaffed, that our members are required to fill the vacancies at high rates of overtime understood as one of the most stressful professions firefighting has high rates of cancer, depression, suicide, heart attacks, divorce and ptsd. I also going to firefighters were forced to work longer ship's shifts to fill these vacancies away from their families promoting and exacerbating the traumas of this dangerous profession. Over time is inevitable the profession of firefighting. It is important to manage it a ending backfilling is not the answer. Filling the vacancies in all ranks with proper planning and preparation to test and is the answer to maintain the established level of service per day and else again those effective firefighting force. I need to discuss budget. The fire department budget is about $14 million. The department includes five subdivisions administration and prevention, emergency management, environmental and fire suppression. The ems the fire department alone is 15% of the overall general fund budget referencing annual comprehensive financial reports available on the website I able to see how the fire department has performed within their budget over the last five years. Over the last five years the fire department was over its total budget in 2020 and 2021. But let's be fair recognize that this was during the pandemic response when chiefs in offices working around the clock on an all hands incident management team. Firefighters on the front lines exposed to covid subjected to quarantines for weeks at a time. Lots of money was spent to plan, prepare and fight the pandemic. These mandated policies impacted backfilling increased expenses within the fire department but what the financial report clearly doesn't show are the reimbursements the city received from fema and arpa. The american recovery plan act . A total amount of $2.1 million in reimbursed funds which wiped out all over budget expenses in 2020 and 2021. Bottom line over the past fiscal years the fire department has operated within its overall budget within the fire budget. I want items from overtime over the past five years overtime. Over time has gone up the average overtime expense per fiscal year over the last five years has been $2.3 million. I can understand how that number alone without context can be disconcerting. Any citizen especially if one is not familiar with the purpose and function overtime. What MAY not be known is a portion of that overtime is reimbursed by other cities state and federal governments. This is due to wildland fire response. Over the past five years the city has received over $1 million in reimbursements for overtime spent on these wildfires. You subtract these reimbursements from the total overtime expenses, then compare the adopted versus the actual overtime expenses. Our labor union came in $983,000 under budget over the past five fiscal years combined. The point here is to try and convey improve there is no fiscal emergency regarding overtime. The fire department understands that budgets need to be adhered to but all factors need to be evaluated and understood before drastically stop drastic staffing are used to control a singular budgetary line item. I need to discuss negotiations. Let's roll back the clock 2022 when the city shut down engine 32 for a period of six months. This experiment resulted in negative impacts on the community through delayed response times. An example this was when it took over 12 minutes to respond to an emergency call for a young child suffering from a critical heart condition. Our paramedics had to stop her heart on scene to reset it. This delay was directly due to the shutdown of engine 32 because all of the unit's phone calls and manhattan beach paramedics had to respond. The young girl was doing fine and we are thankful for that. But the patient and her family should not have had to endure that delay for medical treatment. Many times does this have to happen to make it wrong? After the trial period ended in MAY of 2023, this is when the city proposed the staffing language to end backfilling. Now faced with a new hurdle in negotiations, the el segundo firefighters would not agree to this language. It was not only a threat to their safety but a threat to the community as. Impasse was declared and also given the firefighters requested fact finding meeting to try and settle the issues. On NOVEMBER 20th 2023 then the city's negotiating team and the firefighters equally participated in a fact finding meeting to openly and discuss areas areas of disparity with a goal of reaching an agreement. The only real divisive issue with the city's staffing language to end backfilling and by the end of the meeting the city's negotiating team agreed a proposal however it was denied by council. The question is. The fact finder produced a public report on DECEMBER 19th, 2023 that recommended not to change the quo regarding backfilling that in fact the city had demonstrated there is a problem with the status quo. Nor can be improved on with this language. The city rejected this report in its entirety and has decided to impose their terms and conditions on your el segundo firefighters and the community at large. It is generally accepted that a municipality has the right to determine the overall level of fire protection that it wants. However, regardless of the level of fire protection chosen, neither the citizens nor the elected representatives the right to jeopardize the safety of the employees providing those services the city's language to end backfilling is not based on data facts or a comprehensive study to determine the impacts. This is dangerous stopgap method to control one line item in the budget over time and it only addresses a symptom of deeper problem open vacancies. If backfilling is ended it will reduce number of firefighters on duty and consequently reduce the fire engines and rescue ambulances available to the citizens and businesses. El segundo. It is clear to us through recent historical evidence namely the shutdown of engine 32 that the city is looking for a way to reduce staffing and shut down to control budgetary fluctuations like overtime. The city's desire to end backfilling confirms that the city is willing to lower the level of service, jeopardizing the safety of the community and its firefighters to solve a symptom and ignoring the political courage to look deeper the root causes and understand that it will take a more informed and comprehensive approach to reduce over time amid controversial staffing language and also that the firefighters are the lowest paid compared to all surrounding surveyed agencies. We haven't had a cost of living since 2020. Call volume is up 25%. We're facing severe morale issues instability being devalued. We're facing of retention, recruitment and current employee years will leave to other surrounding departments for better pay to provide for their families. New candidates who didn't get picked by other surrounding departments will land here as a temporary alternative not a destination and statistics show that they will use el segundo MR. Bean training and certifications to choose back out departments. Just a little bit more. Sir, I appreciate it. Is that okay? I'll give you a couple more seconds. Write it up again. It's just okay. It was it's one paragraph. That's all I have. We would appreciate it. The el segundo firefighters association strongly disagrees with the decision to impose this contract tonight. But the council's own owens this decision the decision to impose the decision to end backfilling the decision to underpay your employees it's solely on you the council. I expected my city to invest in its firefighters like they have invested themselves into this city. This terms and conditions creates a contentious environment workplace frustrated employees detachment from the community recruitment problems and overall instability. MR. Gurney. Three more seconds please. That's it. And out of it, michael and go where I can have them stand up and read the rest before I go forward. Please, please finish up please . I'm also going to. Firefighters swore an oath to the community when we took the responsibility to protect property and environment. And you the council also took an oath to serve city to the best of your abilities and be stewards of a safe and healthy work environment its employees. If the city imposes tonight be damaging itself more than the apparent object of its frustration. Thank you for the opportunity to voice the concerns of the el segundo firefighters. Thank you, MR. Garrity . Next. Yeah. Kurt crawford. The next three were the report . Very well. Thank you. All the way up to down matt okay, perfect. Thank you. Rebecca. Rebecca gaines stark daughter of former former COUNCILMAN, property owner and my husband is one of your dedicated firefighters. This council has not given its firefighters a fair working contract for almost three years. Do you realize how this harms morale forcing your proposed one year terms now is downright criminal. Your taxpayers residents, daytime population and dedicated employees better. It is not cheap to operate your fire. This is the reality but it must be done properly, safely or not at all under staffing weather by not hiring and training new recruits or electing not to rehire these critical daily positions is criminal putting your community at risk for major exposure literal disaster. If you are unwilling to run your fire department properly do it then do what's right contract with L.A. County. You cannot take can down the road any further. Imposing your 12 month term does no good. I read staff report related to this agenda item. It was prepared and reviewed by MS.. Reddick your H.R. Director. Does she also moonlight as your fire chief. What a busy she deserves. She deserves a raise if not the day off work tomorrow. Meanwhile other departments public works planning building safety police get neglected with no H.R. Support. MS.. Reddick wears her fire chief hat. In any case in this staff report you ask your H.R. Director to explain which goals and objectives are met. She picked fiscal sustainability not one mention of protection of human life or property. My suggestion let your H.R. Director do her job. Do what is right for this community. Go back to the drawing board here with your new fire chief and finally your firefighters a fair working contract. Thank you. You said fred. Chris you good evening city council fred cassio I live on cedar street nelson. I've been here since 1961. My career has been in the fire . I worked all through the south bay and I'm just here in support of our fire department . I grew up here. It seems like over the years. When I was little we had three fire trucks in the city. We had a lot more baseball parks. We had more swimming pools. I know we got a lot of financial issues. You guys got your work cut for you. All I can do is say that we should probably go back and sit and talk before you make some decisions. This has been going on for a while and I can see there was a lot of headaches but I would just take time to think things through a little more. I don't think cutting if that's what you guys are looking at in the future I don't think that's good for the city of el segundo. There was a study. If I'd have known that this was going to be this deep tonight I would have looked this up. But I believe L.A. City had a contract issue years ago probably in the nineties and they I think hired the rand corporation to evaluate everything with the fire department and the rand came back and said for every buck that you're spending on the department you're getting like three or $5 worth of value. They were like don't even touch them. Same thing with the police hats that these guys have to wear. We're all aware but this is like an insurance for the city. The people live here. it's an policy for the police and the fire and the city services all the stuff that the police have to deal with and all the things that the fire department has to deal with hazardous materials shooting stabbings, car accidents, extrication fires that takes manpower and that takes money. But the main thing is the safety of the civilians, the citizens and the safety of the people that are performing their duties the police and fire. So I'm in support of them and if you need to go back and sit down and talk. That's what you should do. I think it's good you danny. Daniel. Daniel daniel mcmillen hi councilmembers. Thanks for having me. Most of you know me but just in case. I'm daniel mcmillen am a 12 year resident of el segundo. I'm here in reference to the motion to change language and having profiles of those to fire department. I sent you a letter this afternoon but I wrote a week ago. I'd like to read you that letter now this was to chief avery. I'm writing this to express our deepest appreciation and gratitude for the outstanding service and dedication that the members of the el segundo fire department showed on FEBRUARY 9th, 2024. My husband were away on a vacation when we got a call that our storage warehouse on the ministry on fire. The fire started quickly and spread so by the time we received the notification and center fred to check on the warehouse it was completely involved. The professional wisdom, bravery and quick response of the el segundo fire department employees was exemplified on this very dynamic. The fire department's prompt arrival coordinated response with assisting agencies and skillful execution in extinguishing the fire prevented further damage to adjacent exposures and ensure the safety of our community. This has been a devastating experience for my husband and I but we find comfort in living in community that has the support of the el segundo fire department. So our warehouse is a total loss. We know that we only lost things the fire department personnel have shown us so much empathy and kindness in one of our lowest times. Through my work as a lifeguard chief for the los angeles county fire department, I've already the dedication to excellence your employees have shown. I would to extend my appreciation to the entire department including the firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers and support staff. Each member plays vital role in ensuring the smooth operation of the department and the the overall safety of our community. once again, thank you for accepting service and selfless commitment to saving lives and property. Please can our appreciation to all members of those kind of fire department your relentless efforts and committed commitment to serving others are deeply appreciated. I'd like to end with this. I'm also responder and a paramedic. I just got off the phone with one of my own work meetings. I was reminded by my that we do what we do because of our love for each other and, our love for the people we serve. I ask that you consider what the employees are risking when they step on that outdoor and are ready. Respond for us. Thank you. And memories and husband hi. Good evening. I'm an american who's in? I'm a resident here in town. I live on acacia with, my husband and her two young children. We moved from L.A. City part for a better public service and to be in a city that values its public servants. When we walk down the street to a park I am proud to observe all of the american flags with a thin red line and a thin blue line and supporting our fire and our police. This proposed plan is problematic in three ways. First, financial I've read the fact finding report. I've heard the comments here today. To solve this overtime problem. it's very simple. You need to fill the vacancies. You will not be able to do that if as I understand it the firefighters are 15 to 20% below market salary rates giving 1.5% raise will not solve that difference. This plan would likely actually cost the city more overall because you will have understaffed and overworked firefighters which will lead to injuries and that will be very expensive in the long run. Second, turning to public safety that language I'm an attorney. That language in the plan leaves sole discretion to the city. It sets no standards. It is not upon a safety report osha standards any other standards? I would never advise a client to sign that contract. Additionally I have heard no mention as to whether the city council has discussed this issue with the many businesses in the city. I suspect because my firm represents some of these businesses that have insurance policies that required certain firefighting standards to be in place a fully staffed fire department within certain mileage. If you fall below that standard, what will happen to those cities and will those companies and will they be in good standing with their insurance policies? The third issue is really a moral a cultural issue. The fire department is in our community. they bring santa to candy cane lane. They're in the parade. They host 911 pancake breakfast that thank you. My three year old said to me when I was coming here I like the firefighters and I wish I could come too. So I just ask that you keep that in mind. Thank scott houston . Good evening. Council mayor tem council members scott houston longtime resident el gained over plus years just coming down as a private citizen and as a resident on behalf of our firefighters. I saw this is on the agenda tonight. You know I wanted to come down at least with my opinion as has been said by many already, this has been such a long standing issue for us. I know. I get it. It's not easy. But at the same time we have a great fire department. We have strong men and women who are here to support us every day. Whenever I hear the sirens and I've heard a lot of sirens recently in our community even during these rainstorms I always about what is taking place in our town. And we also have a very big daytime population as you know. So I'm not anything you don't already know as our elected. But at the same time I think we have to make sure we give the resources to our fire department to do the work that they need to do. And one thing that struck me as really concerned in the reports is our mutual aid agreements because. I think we're so dependent at this time on the mutual aid of our our neighbors when we're understaffed and under resourced and they always have the resources either. So I hope that this does not impede contracts but I think that that's something the council really needs to weigh measure. And then the other thing is I think because do have a new fire chief I have not met him yet but we do have a new fire and I think it would be good for us to hear his opinion that he's come on board to this potential impasse or situation. But long story short, you know ,I think we all love our firefighters. We support them. We want to find balance to make this work. So I want to be a pride jeff kearney in his leadership and the work he's been doing for years this and we have to continue having this dialog but we need to come to an agreement at some point. So I hope that level heads will prevail tonight. Thank you. Vega distribution james of good evening city council city staff chief avery. My name is james falls and the vice PRESIDENT Of the miami beach firefighters association local 3925 here tonight excuse me. i'm currently a fire captain paramedic miami beach fire department and I was fortunate enough to start my career here with the city of el as a firefighter in 2008. As such I feel I have an institutional knowledge of not only the fire service but the el segundo fire department and I hope I can share some light on what's going on tonight. Before I go any further, I'd like to share that the views and the statements I share tonight are mine and those job to the beach firefighters do not of the city of manhattan beach nor the fire city of manhattan beach fire nor am I representing the city in any official capacity tonight I feel an obligation to stand before you tonight and voice my concerns. This decision to impose these conditions upon your your firefighters and ask you to reconsider not only for the sake of the segundo firefighters, its citizens