What I Saw/Heard At One-Sided Meeting Staged By Councilman Supernaw With Mayor Garcia On Their Tax Hike Ballot Measure

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Opinion

by Tom Stout, co-founder LB Taxpayers Ass'n

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(Apr. 6, 2016) -- Last week I learned that Councilman Daryl Supernaw sent a mass email stating that Mayor Robert Garcia would be his "guest speaker" at a Mar. 29 evening meeting. Supernaw's email said, "We will be discussing the 1% sales tax ballot measure. I encourage everyone to attend, and please bring your questions and comments about the upcoming June 7th election ballot measure."

The next day I emailed City Attorney Charles Parkin about this, noting that Mayor Garcia is the main author of the ballot argument supporting the measure and Councilman Supernaw voted to put the measure on the ballot. I said the event isn't neutral or "informational" and appeared to be one-sided advocacy while public funds and resources can't be used to advocate passing the ballot measure.

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City Attorney Parkin replied by email that "it is my understanding the Mayor will attend the Fourth District community meeting this evening and will discuss current City issues. Part of this presentation may include a description of the tax measure recently placed on the ballot by the City Council, followed by questions. I can assure you the Mayor, Council, and City Staff are aware of the legal limitations which prohibits a city officer or employee from expending city funds to conduct campaign activities such as supporting or opposing the approval or rejection of a ballot measure."

I went to the meeting and passed out copies of the ballot rebuttal I authored to Measure A to people entering the meeting. People seemed to agree with it. Some asked Mayor Garcia questions based on the handout.

The Mayor tried to blame residents for the lack of infrastructure repair, not the City. But who writes the checks? It's not the residents.

Mayor Garcia claimed residents had kicked the infrastructure can down the road for thirty years. Really? Blaming residents, not the Mayors who recommended budgets and Councils that rubberstamped them? Who decided to spend $100 million dollars a year on pensions and only $60 million on infrastructure? Pension subsidies have cost residents hundreds of millions of dollars over that last 30 years, hundreds of millions of dollars that could have been used to repair our infrastructure.

The Mayor claimed residents haven't given the City any new tax money for thirty some years while voting to give tax money to everyone but the City. But the City has raised multiple fees and taxes on residents and they still say it isn't enough.

Mayor Garcia claimed the City had cut 700 positions. I believe it's actually about 700 hundred phantom positions that were budgeted, but not filled, so city management could say, "See, we made cuts." These phantom positions were gradually eliminated, so no employees would have to be laid off and police and fire used these positions to fund overtime.

The Mayor said city employees agreed to pension reform that will save $250 million dollars over the next ten years. But pension costs will increase from $100 million dollars to $135-150 million dollars per year by 2020 due to CalPERS unfunded pension liability adjustments. Employees agreed to pay what they should have been paying for the past 30 years, because they got pay raises that more than offset what they'd have to pay!

Larry Boland asked Mayor Garcia why the City didn't cut 20% and then ask the public for a 20% match; Mr. Boland said the City had cut nothing and simply asked residents to raise the sales tax. Garcia again mentioned the (phantom) positions and pension changes, and Councilman Supernaw piped up that Mr. Boland doesn't live in the 4th council district. Huh? What difference does that make? Spending decisions by Supernaw will affect everyone in the city.

I don't feel Mayor Garcia was very convincing. He seemed nervous to me.

If Mayor Garcia or other City Hall speakers are scheduled to give a one-sided presentation like this to your neighborhood or business group meeting, please let me know in advance at longbeachtaxpayers@gmail.com. We're doing our best to keep track of what they say and when they say it.

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