Chamber issues statement on equal benefits proposal

 Good afternoon, Chairman Gabelich and members of the committee. 

My name is Lori Lofstrom and I am Chairman of the Long Beach Area Chamber of
Commerce Board of Directors.

On July 8, 2009, the Chamber released a statement outlining our position on
Councilmember Robert Garcia's proposed Equal Benefits Ordinance.

At that time, we supported Councilmember Robert Garcia's aggressive action
relative to his beliefs so early in his term and understood that an EBO is a
trend in many cities with wide support and also has the needed support of
Long Beach City Council to pass. 

However, the Chamber likewise understands that business, especially smaller
businesses, are simply unable to sustain increased governmental expense
requirements in the current recessionary environment. 

The Chamber remained neutral on Councilmember Garcia's Equal Benefits
Ordinance. 

However, after many conversations with the business community, elected
officials and Councilmember Garcia, the Chamber decided to support the
Councilmember's decision to seek further review of this ordinance by
allowing it to be fully vetted in this Economic Development Committee. 

We felt that the committee process allows the Chamber and other interested
stakeholders more time to be a part of the process of the EBO's development
which we appreciate.

The Chamber is a strong supporter of equality and is proud to represent a
business community in the most diverse urban city in America.

The idea of an equal benefits ordinance is commendable based on our
collective desire to maintain our standing as a diverse city.

The implementation of such an ordinance must take into consideration the
impact, both positive and negative, to all who will be affected by this law.

After even further discussions with interested stakeholders the Chamber
would like to take this opportunity to respectfully submit our input to help
to craft an ordinance that will work for all concerned and, therefore, the
Chamber urges this committee to consider the following recommendations:

- We would request that City Staff research, understand and present to this
committee, the fiscal impact to the city and business community based on
empirical data from other cities with similar ordinances already in place.
This committee and eventually the City Council must understand that San
Francisco, for example, experienced significant costs associated with its
implementation of a similar program to the tune of $300,000 a year. Any
massive fiscal impact of any proposal must be understood given these tough
economic times for both the City itself and for our local economy.

- It will be critical that the City Manager develop a method of assessment
to monitor costs, savings, and other issues associated with implementing a
new EBO to ensure that the fiscal impact to the City remain stable and
manageable.

- Any exceptions and waivers implemented by the City Manager must be
specific and the process for such exceptions and waivers must be streamlined
to avoid unintended results of vendors being discouraged from doing business
with the City.

- Finally, the Chamber strongly recommends that the impact of this EBO upon
small businesses be carefully considered at a time when businesses are
losing, people are losing homes and credit remains tight if not,
inaccessible. Business owners are being impacted at all levels of
government with increased regulations and taxes. In order to accomplish a
reasonable balance, the Chamber would advocate that the proposed EBO apply
only to contracts over a monetary threshold of $100,000 AND exempt
businesses with less than 25 employees which has been a common threshold to
define "small business".

The Chamber hopes that these four recommendations will be given due
consideration in your discussions today and in the future related to the
decision to move this EBO forward.

Thank you for your time and consideration.