Meanwhile, a separate independent expenditure committee, calling itself "Working Families Supporting Robert Garcia for Mayor 2014" has received its first contribution -- $25,000 from "California Laborers for Equality and Progress Small Contributor Committee" -- an entity listing a Sacramento, CA address. As reported two months ago by LBREPORT.com, on March 13, 2014, "California Laborers for Equality and Progress," gave $20,000 to the "Friends of Long Beach" independent expenditure committee supporting Garcia.

The Lyon Communities website offers apartments at "The Lofts at Promenade," "Gallery421" and "1900 E. Ocean Blvd"...and the 1900 E. Ocean Blvd. site is just west of 2010 E. Ocean Blvd. location where the City Council voted to approve an ambitious upgraded development sought by the property owner (from a motel to a hotel with associated pricey upgrades.) However after neighborhood groups and the UnitedHere! hotel workers union filed an appeal to the Coastal Commission, Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal (who at the July 9, 2013 Council meeting made the motion to overrule the appeal and support the proposed project) sent a letter on her City Hall office stationery urging the Coastal Commission to reject the project. Vice Mayor Garcia as a Coastal Comm'n member likewise voted against the property owner at the Coastal Commission after he'd voted to support the project at the City Council.

Both Lowenthal (now an Assembly candidate) and Garcia (now a Mayoral runoff candidate) have since sought to portray their changed positions as reflecting different decisionmaking standards at the Coastal Commission...but an examination of the July 2013 Council action shows that the Council upheld granting the project a Local Coastal Development Permit...which was the same coastal related issue that came to the Coastal Commission.

In mid-2011, Lyon Communities purchased the seven-acre "pumpkin patch" property on PCH near the Seal Beach bridge, and in fall 2011, Lyon opposed a controversial mixed-used development at 2nd/PCH (Seaport Marina Hotel site) which also raised Coastal Act issues. At the time, Lyon urged an overall upgrade in southeast Long Beach zoning (an update to the SEADIP master plan); Garcia voted in favor of the 2nd/PCH project, which a Council majority rejected (3-5); the SEADIP rezoning process is now in its early phases and is slowly advancing.

The $10,0000 sum from Lyon Management Group adds to $30,000 the "you don't don't see my name on it" committee received from two other corporate entities (one in Long Beach, one in northern CA.) since the April 8 election.

• West Coast Agencies, LLC of Long Beach gave the committee $10,000 on April 24. The firm was one of the committee's first two contributors, providing $10,000 on Jan. 24. (The committee's other initial contributor was TMSI, an ELB based company whose CEO is LB Councilman Gary DeLong; TMSI contributed $5,000 on Jan. 24.).

• De Anza Building and Maintenance, a Sunnvale, CA based firm owned by northern CA businessman John Vidovich, gave the $20,000 on April 24. The Bay Area firm contributed $25,000 to the committee on Jan. 26. As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, Mr. Vidovich said in March that the contribution reflects his respect for Mayor Foster and Mr. Vidovich's desire to see Foster's policies continue under Vice Mayor Garcia.

The "Friends of Long Beach" independent expenditure committee collected $101,000 in the April election cycle in which Garcia advanced to a June 3 runoff against Damon Dunn. In the April election cycle the "you don't see my name on it" committee funded mailers as well as campaign signs supporting Garcia for Mayor. Many of the committee's signs were placed on private business properties afixed to light poles, making their quick removal less than simple. There's no independent evidence at the locations of whether the signs are posted with or without the property owner's consent.

March 2014 photo

March 2014 photo

April 2014 photo

Independent expenditure committees must legally operate independently of, and can't legally coordinate their actions or activities with, a candidate or a candidate's campaign. The Garcia campaign has disavowed responsibility for the independent expenditure committee's signs supporting Garcia (which are also differently designed than signs from the Garcia campaign.)