Last night , the Council supported an agenda item which I sponsored and which was co-sponsored by Councilman Patrick O'Donnell that will ask the federal government to waive a cap on how many local hires we can require on the construction of the Gerald Desmond bridge. Because federal funds are being used from the federal highway administration, the project is capped to requiring only 30% of the jobs go to local hires.
Long Beach has 14% unemployment -- one of the highest rates in the state. So it makes no sense that any projects that will hire workers would be capped at on 30% of those jobs going to Long Beach residents.
So Long Beach needs to asks the federal government to waive the cap and allow more than 30% of the jobs to go to Long Beach residents!
The agenda item now goes to the City Attorney who will work with the City Manager to craft language making this request of the federal government.
