Adding to the outrage: although the City had reports of City Hall seismic issues stretching back to 2005-2007, it failed to request bids or proposals for an economical seismic retrofit of City Hall.

And as a final outrage: the City Council didn't see the proposed contract. Why not? Because a majority of the current City Council, as with past Councils, hasn't want to see -- and doesn't want the public and the press to see -- ANY contracts before they obligate taxpayers to pay for them.

Keeping contractual terms secret is anti-taxpayer and anti-transparent. That secrecy isn't required by any law. It can and should end with Councilmembers directing city management to disclose THIS contract's terms now because once that contract is signed and needless millions begin being spent, it will create a natural disincentive for the incoming Council -- at least five new members as of July 15 -- to purse the more responsible course: insist that management seek bids and proposals from firms actually doing retrofits to find out how much -- or how little -- a more economical seismic retrofit of LB City Hall would be. And yes, retrofitting was included as an option that the Council could pursue in addressing seismic issues at City Council.

As long as a majority of this City Council talks transparency but lets its management treat contracts agendized for Council approval as just "drafts," they enable concealment to try and evade disclosure under the Public Records Act.

We urge Councilmembers who value transparency to direct their City Manager, who is supposed to work for them and not vice versa, to provide them and thereby provide us with the contractual text that would bind this city's taxpayers to spend millions upfront to pursue the Taj Mahal project.

During his final "State of the City" message, Mayor Foster didn't mention this possibly needless project in claiming the future of a "10 year old" was his guidepost in fiscal actions. If that 10 year old remains in Long Beach, he will end up paying for this for the next 30+ years. [LBREPORT.com named the Council majority's action its "2013 Outrage of the Year."]

It's time for the Council to require contractual transparency, and stop enabling contractual cover-ups; details of deals involving big sums should be disclosed before the deals are done. LBREPORT.com says the public has a right to see the Civic Center RFP preparation contract now -- all of it including small print and addenda and attachments -- before taxpayers and their children and grandchildren may be forced to pay for its consequences.

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