TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager to participate in regional efforts to identify and develop regional funding options for stormwater compliance costs, including participation in the implementation of a regional City Managers Work Group work plan. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
Staff is recommending that the City Council authorize the City Manager to support the efforts of a coalition of regional cities, led by the City Managers Work Group (Work Group), which have banded together to cooperatively address the stormwater unfunded mandate established by the State and Federal governments.
For the last several years, the City of Long Beach and many neighboring cities have been struggling to develop a plan to deal with the high costs of the 2012 National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater permit requirements, which include the need to fund the Watershed Management and Enhanced Watershed Management Programs. Water quality, including stormwater runoff/mitigation, has been a difficult and complex problem to address.
In order to address this issue, the City previously supported the adoption of a Los Angeles County measure that would have helped fund the work. However, when the County Board of Supervisors did not set a general election on the ballot initiative, the City Managers of the Los Angeles Division of the League of Cities (League) requested that the League and California Contract Cities Association (CCCA) form a City Managers Work Group and Steering Committee of elected officials to work closely together to identify, review and advocate for funding options to address the millions of dollars required for local stormwater projects.
The Work Group directed the completion of a report, “Stormwater Funding Options - Providing Sustainable Water Quality Funding in Los Angeles County,” to document the issues and to propose funding options. The Work Group adopted the report’s recommendations and requested that the Steering Committee develop ...
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