The Long Beach City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to move forward with a City Manager-led, 90-day review regarding the development and implementation of a Local Workforce Training and Local Hire Policy.

The proposed policy would include two components: local hire provisions and workforce training to ensure the residents of Long Beach receive access to a state certified apprenticeship program.

In the current economy, this is could push Long Beach in a prosperous direction by creating more job opportunities for local workers.

In the agenda item’s background, Councilmembers O’Donnell, Austin and Gonzalez explain, “As our city works to create policies that ensure a skilled and well-paid workforce, it is essential that we look to our own procurement process as one path to accomplish this.”

It is important to maintain objectivity within the report and review both the pros and cons of this policy, Councilmember Price said.

The policy, as it currently stands, would be required as part of the qualifications to bid on all new CIP and enhancement projects costing over an undetermined dollar amount. This could possible be a deterrent to stakeholders, including businesses and contractors.

“I want to make sure that we don’t set forth policies that hinder people from wanting to do business in this city. We have a missed opportunity if we are setting forth policies that would impact the hire ability and the ability of a business to receive a benefit from doing business in this city,” Councilmember Price said.

Mayor of Carson Jim Dear spoke about the importance of this policy for both Long Beach and Carson, and the success of his city’s project labor agreements.

“It creates careers in Carson as well as people living in long beach and working in Carson,” Mayor Dear said. “Think of this as a long term strategy for your resident.”

Councilmember Andrews has previously been a proponent of this policy and others having to do with workforce development and training in Long Beach.

“We need more policy in place to get people back to work so they can put food on their table and so they can recover as well, ” Councilmember Andrews said.