Long Beach Treasures

Council Adopts Fiscal Year 2019 Budget

On Sept. 4 Long Beach City Council voted to adopt a balanced, $3 billion budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019

“The city team worked tirelessly on the development of the coming year’s budget,” said City Manager Patrick H. West. “We addressed concerns about potential shortfalls early in the process and finished it up with a strong budget addressing homelessness, the arts and everything in between.”

Included in the adopted budget are investments into:

• Addressing homelessness.
• Maintaining and enhancing public safety services.
• Infrastructure and critical needs such as street repairs, alley improvements, sidewalk and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) curb cut improvements and more.
• Additional economic development resources.
• Efficiency and service delivery improvements.
• Arts and culture.
• Social equity needs including funds to support youth and children well-being.

The new budget also includes Mayor Robert Garcia’s recommendations which consist of:

• A Justice Fund to support immigrants in the community who need legal assistance.
• Additional support for the city’s Language Access services.
• Funds to expunge low-level marijuana misdemeanors.
• Support for Partners of Parks.
• City staff development and training funds on LGBTQ issues and anti-bullying.
• MOLAA’s facilities master-plan efforts support.
• Directive for city staff to identify new revenue sources to restore Engine 17 and to restore a Community Rapid Response Bike Team of six new police positions in FY 19 and for staff to strengthen the city’s proactive residential inspection program, preventing properties from falling into disrepair and fixing slum properties.

For more information about the budget or to access the Community Budget Book, the City Manager’s Budget Presentation and Mayor Robert Garcia’s Budget Message, those interested can visit the Financial Management Department website at http://www.longbeach.gov/finance/city-budget-and-finances/budget/budget-information.

CSULB a Leader in Diversity

Long Beach State University awarded the second-most bachelor’s degrees in the United States to minority students during the 2016-17 academic year, according to the latest issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

The rankings signify an upward trend for the campus, which placed third in the magazine’s 2017 analysis.

The Long Beach campus awarded 6,100 bachelor’s degrees to African American, Asian American, Hispanic and Native American students during the 2016-17 academic year. That number signifies an 11 percent increase from the previous year, according to the magazine’s annual report on the United States’ Top 100 institutions awarding degrees to minority students.

“These rankings affirm our commitment to both inclusion and degree completion,” President Jane Close Conoley said. “As we welcome the largest class of students to ever attend Long Beach State, I want to commend our faculty and staff for helping students from all backgrounds access a quality education.”

How Long Beach State ranked in other categories:

• Bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanic students – 3rd place
• Bachelor’s degrees awarded to Asian American students – 10th place
• Bachelor’s degrees awarded to Native American students – 73rd place
• Master’s degrees awarded to Hispanic students – 14th place
• Master’s degrees awarded to minority students – 34th place
• Master’s degrees awarded to Asian American students - 36th place

The rankings are the product of the sole national-level analysis of its kind for the U.S. Department of Education’s most recent data for the 2016-17 academic year, according to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

“That ranking is very well-deserved, and it makes me proud to be the student body president of a student population that represents students of color and that we’re actually getting those students of color to graduate,” Associated Students President Genesis Jara said.

In July, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education published a ranking of the United States’ top degree producing institutions for STEM fields. Those rankings included the finding that Long Beach State University ranked in 14th place for the number of bachelor’s degrees in engineering awarded to minority students.

New Athletic Viking Logo

For the first time in Long Beach City College history, an athletic logo was unveiled depicting the College’s Viking mascot.

“We are extremely excited and proud to introduce our new athletic logo to the community,” said LBCC Superintendent-President Dr. Reagan F. Romali. “The new athletic Viking logo builds on the original mascot that has been with us since 1927. The new Viking logo creates includes features that makes it uniquely Long Beach City College.”

The new LBCC athletic logo shows a black outline side profile of a Viking wearing a helmet accented with red. The Viking’s face is gray to reflect LBCC’s pride and belief that diversity is a great strength. The College’s school colors of black, white and red is used throughout the logo. The Viking’s mantle was inspired by ocean waves and a palm tree frond.

“This is a strong mascot that reflects LBCC’s history and pride,” said LBCC Athletic Director Randy Totorp, who originally commissioned the logo. “We have a top-notch Athletic program here at LBCC and we are so happy to have this amazing logo that we can feature on all of our athletic uniforms.”

Long Beach City College’s Public Affairs and Marketing department designed the new logo with feedback from LBCC students, faculty, staff and management.

This athletic logo will not replace the current LBCC logo, which was introduced in 2008.

Award for Heart Care

The MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at
Long Beach Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation’s secondary prevention guidelines for patients with heart failure.

Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure is a quality improvement program that helps hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, research-based standards with the goal of increasing care recovery times and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. Launched in 2005, numerous published studies have demonstrated the program’s success in achieving patient outcome improvements, including reductions in 30-day readmissions.

The MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at Long Beach Medical Center earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of the more than 800 heart failure patients treated each year. These measures include evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies, such as ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta-blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants and other appropriate therapies. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“The MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our heart failure patients,” says Ike Mmeje, chief operating officer, Long Beach Medical Center. “Implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure program helps us to accomplish this goal by tracking and measuring our success in meeting internationally-respected guidelines.”

“We are pleased to recognize the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute for their commitment to heart failure care,” says Paul Heidenreich, M.D., national chairman,
Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program. Get With the Guidelines research has demonstrated the impact of lowering 30-day readmissions and reducing mortality rates.”

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million adults in the United States suffer from heart failure, with the number expected to rise to eight million by 2030. Statistics show that each year about 870,000 new cases are diagnosed and about 50 percent of those diagnosed will die within five years. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.

Amended Agreement to Future Operations of SERRF

The City of Long Beach, in partnership with Covanta (NYSE: CVA), has announced an amended agreement covering the continued operation and maintenance of the Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF). On August 14, the Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to provide for the allocation of capital investments by both the City of Long Beach and Covanta for facility equipment maintenance and allow for opportunities to process higher-value waste. The agreement provides for the operation of the Energy-from-Waste facility until at least June 30, 2024.

In operation since 1988, the SERRF assists the City of Long Beach and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County with sustainable waste disposal and has been a critical component of the city’s comprehensive solid waste management system. After source reduction and recycling, the residual waste that remains is processed at the SERFF to generate clean electricity for approximately 35,000 homes. The facility also recycles nearly 10,000 tons of ferrous metals annually.

In 30 years of operation, the SERRF has:

Converted approximately 13.8 million tons of municipal solid waste into over 6.5 million megawatt hours of clean, renewable energy – enough to power over 580,000 homes for a year.

Recovered and recycled approximately 170,000 tons of metal extracted during the disposal process, the equivalent amount of steel used to build 145,000 automobiles.

Avoided the generation of greenhouse gas emissions through the elimination of methane from landfills, a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than CO2.

Under the contract amendment, the City of Long Beach will invest $8.7 million from a dedicated SERRF Fund within the city’s Energy Resources Department and Covanta will supply an additional $5 million to ensure continued, sustainable operation of the facility.