At a noon-hour press event today (Feb. 25) on the sidewalk alongside Colorado Lagoon, Mayor Foster credited his own record with, he said, leaving Long Beach stronger than he found it. Foster praised Garcia for supporting him in those actions, and Garcia praised Foster...but indicated he (Garcia) would take the city in a different direction. Garcia didn't cite any specific policies under Foster that he'd seek to reverse.

LBREPORT.com provides extended on-demand video below.

Mayor Foster exited swiftly with Garcia, Foster indicating they wouldn't be taking questions as they exited the podium. LBREPORT.com and LBRegister reporter Joshua Steward independently had an unanswered question on the same subject. Stewart caught up with Foster first and asked if Foster was involved with an independent expenditure committee (Friends of Long Beach) supporting Garcia for Mayor [previously reported by LBREPORT.com on Feb. 1 at this link] or would become involved in it. Foster replied, ""I may, I don't know, we'll see, I haven't, I haven't, you don't see my name on it. Not right now." LBREPORT.com's Pearl tried a second time (asking our question in the present, not future): "Do you have anything to do with the independent expenditure committee?" Foster replied "not right now," got in his car and left.

In July 2013, Foster announced he wouldn't seek a third term via a write-in after a poll [presumably though not admittedly by Foster] surfaced showing that 2/3 or more of its respondents had a favorable opinion of Foster but only 40% favored him against a multi-candidate field (not including Garcia at that time.) A few days later, Foster said he needed time to "pursue private opportunities" and write, study and spend time with his family in declining to seek a third term, and Garcia announced his Mayoral candidacy one day later.

In his remarks endorsing Garcia, Foster credited his period at City Hall with leaving Long Beach stronger than he found it and credited Garcia supporting him. In accepting Foster's endorsement, Garcia credited Foster for his record but said he (Garcia) would take the city in a different direction. He made no mention of supporting restoration of police and fire levels that taxpayers previously received.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, Foster attended a December 2013 campaign fundraiser for Garcia (at downtown LB's "Federal Bar") where he stopped short of explicitly endorsing Garcia but described Garcia in terms (one source says "gushing") that left them with little doubt Foster was backing Garcia.

In recent months, Garcia voted for and strongly backed a Foster-supported Civic Center rebuild and awarding raises for city employee unions -- including city management union and other city management staff -- that Foster calls "pension reform" because part of the raises will be paid toward the employees' pension share.

In the latter half of 2010, Foster named Garcia to chair the Council's Public Safety Committee. Garcia, elected in a 2009 1st district special election in which he received less than a majority among a multi-candidate field, announced his candidacy by saying his first priority would be "clean and safe streets." Once in office, he voted for management-proposed/Foster recommended budgets, with few Council amendments, that made the largest reductions in citywide police staffing for taxpayers in Long Beach history and also left some LB fire stations without fire engines.

In September 2011, Foster opposed, and Garcia voted against, an alternative budget proposed by Councilmembers Schipske, Gabelich and Neal, strongly opposed by Foster, that would have used already collected oil revenue to avert some management/Mayor proposed cuts in various areas. For the past two years, Garcia declined to discuss the public safety impacts of management proposed/Foster recommended budgets in the Public Safety Committee.