Editorial: Council Should Withhold Approving $1 Mil For Bloomberg "Innovation Grant" UNTIL Mayor/Mgm't Provide Transparency, Openness And Oversight Guarantees And Explain How $1 Mil Spent Will Produce $1 Mil In Taxpayer Savings/Revenue

LBReport.com

Editorial

Council Should Withhold Approving $1 Mil For Bloomberg "Innovation Grant" UNTIL Mayor/Mgm't Provide Transparency, Openness And Oversight Guarantees And Explain How $1 Mil Spent Will Produce $1 Mil In Taxpayer Savings/Revenue

One week delay is sensible, along with Council reproval of city releases that initially hid $1 mil cost.

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UPDATE: Council votes 8-0 on Feb. 3 to approve item allocating $1 mil to accept Bloomberg "Innovation Grant"

(Feb. 3, 2015, 12:50 p.m.) -- LBREPORT.com urges the City Council tonight (Feb. 3) not to approve allocating $1 million in scarce taxpayer dollars, and instead direct the Mayor's office and City Manager to return next week (Feb. 10) with specific measures to ensure inclusion of public transparency and Council oversight over how $4 million dollars ($3 million from a Bloomberg Philanthropies "innovation" grant) will be spent to produce specific pproved outcomes and will at minimum save or produce $1 million that the Mayor/Management seeks tonight.

In addition, the Council should politely but firmly express its disapproval of Mayoral and city staff releases, email blasts and social networking dispatches that concealed the $1 million taxpayer cost. Reproval is appropriate word here, "to express disapproval of." Because Mayor Garcia has chosen to belittle the concealment as "no big secret," it means he will do it again, which the Council shouldn't invite or ratify.

At a time when the Council fails to provide an LBPD field anti-gang unit and leaves three fire stations without fire engines, the Mayor and Management want Councilmembers to fork over a million dollars that could otherwise fill potholes, repair infrastructure and provide real city services. City management just told the Council (as reported by LBREPORT.com) that for the immediate future it can't expect uplands oil revenue to help fund such taxpayer services citywide (not just in the Tidelands.) This is the wrong time to expect LB taxpayers to allocate a million dollars for unspecified "economic development" -- what? where? when? for whom? with what results? -- without public transparency and Council oversight.

The Mayor/Management grant application said it aims to make "economic development" city staff's focus [a policy shift from public safety, which management previously said was staff's focus] and to act as a "concierge" for those wishing to do business in Long Beach. "Concierge" services to do what? For whom? In what Council districts? With what neighborhood impacts? For whose benefits?

In our estimation, the Mayor/Management's grant application treated Councilmembers and their taxpaying constituents disrespectfully. It included an operational matrix that didn't indicate any serious oversight role for Councilmembers, who are the policysetters representing taxpaying constituents. Taxpayers were given no routine transparency access in the process we could see.

LBREPORT.com only learned about the $1 million taxpayer cost for this grant because we happened to make a Public Records Act request for the information. We reported the details on January 2. We stood alone in reporting the story for fully one month...until management agendized tonight's (Feb. 3) item requesting the $1 million.

Yes, a number of other grants require city matches, but management usually seeks voted Council approval to apply for such grants. The taxpayer cost isn't kept secret and dumped on a duped Council and the public with a demand for payment.

We think the proper remedy here is for Councilmembers to do the right thing tonight In our view:

The Council should withhold approval for a week and direct the Mayor and Management to return with details on how the $4 million will be spent. That means including, not bypassing, Council oversight and public transparency in the process. It means explaining what cliches like "economic development" and "concierge" service really means. Where will it be? What neighborhoods will it impact? What entities will receive it and by when?

How will the $1 million in taxpayer money the Council is being asked to allocate save or produce $1 million in taxpayer savings or new revenue for taxpayers?

We also urge Councilmembers to make clear that they disapprove of hiding the grant's $1 million taxpayer cost in touting the grant in communications with taxpayers via city releases, emails and social network dispatches. Politicians know that impressions initially made are hard to unmake, so omitting a key fact was in our opinion deliberately cynical. In our view, what took place was plainly inconsistent with the transparency and openness to which LB City Hall says it aspires.

Asked by PressTelegram reporter Eric Bradley why the $1 million taxpayer cost hadn't been disclosed, Mayor Garcia is quoted as saying it was "no big secret." That's a very revealing response. If this Mayor thinks what was done in this process was appropriate, he will do it again.

That means the issue tonight really isn't what the Mayor did; the whole city saw that. It's what the Council will do; the whole city will see that too.

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