In an accompanying release, Mayor Foster opines, "This project represents an opportunity to replace aging infrastructure through creative public/private financing mechanisms at little to no additional cost."

Does he mean just like the state's court authorities did with construction of the Deukmejian Courthouse that has severely damaged the finances of the entire court system?

I read the RFQ and it looks like City Hall is using the same play book that the Judicial Council used when it was hornswaggled into using a Public-Private Partnership to build what was originally touted as a roughly 306,480 square foot courthouse costing only $296 Million.

Well after using the "creative public/private financing mechanisms" Mayor Foster now extols, the Deukjejian Courthouse is now going to cost the state's judicial system roughly $2 BILLION over the life of the lease. That's for a project that could have been constructed for less then $500 Million and paid off in ten years.

So much for Foster's "creative public private financing mechanisms."

If Long Beach continues to follow this path for a new Civic Center, in my view the taxpayers of Long Beach will suffer the same fate as state taxpayers will suffer with the Courthouse project.

I will be following the development of this and providing updates as they are received. You can read my February 12, 2013 opinion piece re P3's and learn just how misguided I believe our Mayor and Council majority are on this.

More, much more to follow.

Previously on LBReport.com: Common Sense by Terry Jensen (continuing series):