TITLE
Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an amendment to the Council Rules contained in the Long Beach Municipal Code to require a fiscal impact statement for items agendized by City Council.
DISCUSSION
It has been the practice of City Manager departments to include fiscal impact statements in items submitted before City Council. Such statements (like the one included at the end of this item) provide an estimate by the author of the financial costs associated witll the I equested actio! l. City CotJIlcil sllould adopt litis practice and require that all items submitted by the Legislative Department include a fiscal impact statement.
During these difficult financial times, it is important that all costs be scrutinized so that city expenditures are prioritized appropriately. The first step towards discussing costs is to explicitly acknowledge what they are. Therefore, fiscal impact statements should be included with future Council items.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no significant cost for this action. To the extent that requiring fiscal impact statements makes the authors of items more cognizant of costs and induces them to reduce or avoid such costs, there would be an unknown positive fiscal impact to the City.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
Councilmember James Johnson, Seventh District
Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, Second District