RL NEWS Briefs: April 4, 2015

Downtown LB Parking Meters Will Have More Features, Higher Rates
LONG BEACH — Long Beach will begin replacing 1,114 coin-only parking meters on the week of April 20, in downtown.
The new meters will accept debit and credit cards, and will increase in rates by 50 cents. The upgrade is the result of a December 2014 Long Beach City Council decision to purchase and install the new meters. About 350 meters will be replaced each week.
The new meters will also offer visitors five minutes of free parking with the press of a button. Parking rates at The Pike are not affected.

Five-Year Project Labor Agreement Approved
LONG BEACH — On April 7, the Long Beach City Council voted 7-0 to approve a 5-year project labor agreement that will fund $28 million in annual projects, with the goal of impacting about half of the workforce to be local.
The vote comes after several months of negotiations between the city staff and labor unions.
The project labor agreement will cover city projects more than $500,000 that are subject to state, federal or other funding restrictions. Agreements that city employees usually perform will be excluded from this new agreement.
Among the goals of the new agreement, 40 percent of the hires of any given project would be local and 10 percent of the total hired would be “disadvantaged workers,” which includes veterans and impoverished workers.
The labor agreement also incorporates a partnership between Long Beach City College and the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network to provide pre-apprentice training.