Sorry, Supervisor Knabe; We Don't Object If You're Redistricted Out of Long Beach, Because...

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So we regret to say we don't support his efforts remain in an election district that includes Long Beach, which may come to a crashing end today (Aug. 9) or in the coming weeks.

In a meeting we plan to carry LIVE on our front page -- www.LBReport.com -- starting at 9:30 a.m. today, a Board majority may carve up the already gerrymandered County district lines to put most of Long Beach in a coastal district (extending up to Santa Monica and into WLA) now represented by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky with a chunk of NLB put into a district represented by Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas.

If that plan is adopted, Supervisor Knabe will still remain on the Board where he can be a moderating, sensible voice but he will no longer be able to use that voice in Long Beach's name to amplify misguided policies that we believe run counter to the interests of Long Beach residents and neighborhoods.

In our view, Supervisor Knabe has done this by using his status as a publicly elected official to enable staging an artificial annual "State of the County" event that serves as the largest annual fundraiser for the Long Beach Area Chamber of Comemrce. The Chamber is a privately run policy advocacy entity which has honorably advocated policies that aren't shared by a number of taxpaying Long Beach residents, grassroots groups or at times the Long Beach City Council.

Supervisor's Knabe's Long Beach "State of the County" event is the civic equivalent of an Elvis impersonation. There is no official "State of the County" address. It's a de facto replacement for former Mayor Beverly O'Neill's practice of turning her official "State of the City" address into an annual Chamber fundraiser. When Mayor Bob Foster, much to his credit, put an end to that deplorable practice, the Chamber's leadership concocted its artificial "State of the County" event, using Supervisor Knabe as a willing prop.

The net effect in our view is a thumb-on-the-scale that amplifies the Chamber's policy views above other grassroots neighborhood and advocacy groups. By letting the LB Chamber use him as it has, Supervisor Knabe in our view elevates the Chamber's policy views above others. To us, that's wrong on principle.

As for specifics, while we support the Chamber's 1st amendment right to take policy stances as it wishes, we believe that group has been a Wrong Way Corrigan on multiple issues. Among those: the Chamber's leadership (its dues paying members aren't directly asked) opposed federal Breakwater study funding (supported by City Council) and opposes Sen. Lowenthal's now-pending styrofoam ban/recycling promoting bill (supported by City Council). If the Chamber wants to advocate those views, it should use members' dues to do so, not rely on a County Supervisor to amplify its fundraising.

Worst in our opinion was Supervisor Knabe's failed attempt several years ago to pressure the Long Beach City Council to adopt what could have been a costly and counter-productive gargantuan expansion of LB Airport's permanent terminal area facilities. The Council wisely resisted when Knabe took a position similar to that backed by then-Chamber leadership, that in our view would have left Long Beach with unsustainable Aquarium style debt and undermined our Airport's biggest selling point, its boutique easy in-and-out features. In our view, and although he'll likely deny it, Knabe's stance also could have laid the groundwork for undermining Long Beach's neighborhood protective noise ordinance, Based on his past performance, we have little confidence that Supervisor Knabe would support neighborhoods if the Chamber's leadership (again) advances similarly misguided actions.

Supervisor Knabe has also failed to use his position on the Metro governing board to require overdue release to the public of graphics that show what planners are quietly planning for a 14-lane I-710 freeway expansion. That option includes elevated truck lanes through part of Long Beach, yet taxpayer paid consultants continue to use Soviet-style excuses for treating these images as state secrets that no one should see until the EIR is released. (LBReport.com has managed to pry loose and publish some early versions, but we believe they've changed and we believe Long Beach neighborhoods and taxpaying residents have a right to see what's planned for them before those they're paying put it in fast-drying draft EIR concrete.)

Supervisor Knabe has also been too silent over a now-advancing plan by FEMA to dragoon parts of NW Long Beach into a bureacratically designated "100-year" flood zone in which the homeowners with federally backed mortgages can be forced to buy costly FEMA "flood insurance." When the late Congressman Steve Horn confronted a similar issue along the L.A. river, he sprang into action. In contrast, when County levees are at issue, Supervisor Knabe didn't even mention the approaching FEMA issue in his ersatz "State of the County" address last year.

If Supervisor Knabe is redistricted out of Long Beach today, he'll still remain a sensible voice on the Board for now; he just won't be able to do speak in Long Beach's name. If his district continues to include Long Beach, we'll continue to editorialize against stances he may take that we consider unhelpful.

LBReport.com plans to carry today's Board of Supervisor proceedings on our front page -- www,LBReport.com -- starting at 9:30 a.m.