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Given final Council voted approval on April 18 on a 5-3 vote (Supernaw, Price, Mungo dissenting...after Mungo twice voted to advance the measure, Richardson absent but previously voted for it), the ordinance change lets Long Beach elected incumbents give contributors to their "officeholder accounts" (collected from various corporate interests, special interests and supportive individuals) to other candidates seeking local, state or federal offices.

The next day (April 19), Garcia filed paperwork to seek re-election. All five Council incumbents have also filed papers to pursue re-election, plus LB's City Prosecutor.

Two years earlier (Jan-Feb. 2015), a Council majority voted (5-3) to triple amounts LB incumbents could annually collect from contributors in their "officeholder accounts.".

This raised allowable officeholder totals from $10,000 to $30,000 per Councilmember...and from $25,000 to $75,000 for citywide electeds (largest beneficiary was Mayor Garcia.) Some Councilmembers said at the time that tripling the amounts would allow them to collect more money they could use to support neighborhood groups and community events. LBREPORT.com provides quick links below to City records showing how Long Beach Council incumbents in districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 and Mayor Garcia used the changes approved by a Council majority in 2015 that tripled the allowable annual officeholder totals.

The forms linked below are easy to read. Page 3 of the pdf shows total amounts collected between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2016 and cash on hand on Dec. 31. Schedule A shows from whom the incumbents received money. Schedule E (some also filed Schedule D) shows how the incumbents used it.The records below speak for themselves.

• Mayor Robert Garcia
• Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez (1st dist.)
• Councilwoman Suzie Price (3rd dist.)
• Councilwoman Stacy Mungo (5th dist.)
• Councilman Roberto Uranga (7th dist.)
• Councilman (Vice Mayor) Rex Richardson (9th dist.)

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Regarding a Mayoral veto, Section 213 of the Long BeachCity Charter provides:

As to any ordinance, except for emergency ordinances as provided for in Section 211 of this Charter, the Mayor shall, within ten (10) calendar days of adoption of the ordinance, either sign or veto the ordinance. If the Mayor signs the ordinance, it shall become effective thirty-one days thereafter. If the Mayor vetoes the ordinance, the veto shall be exercised by filing with the City Clerk a statement vetoing the ordinance and setting forth the Mayor's reasons for the veto. The City Clerk shall immediately transmit the veto message to all members of the City Council and shall, at the same time, cause the matter to be placed upon the agenda of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council for which an agenda has not as yet been prepared by the City Clerk. At that meeting, or at any time within thirty (30) days of filing of the veto statement, the City Council may, by a vote of two-thirds (2/3) or more of its members, override the veto, in which case the ordinance shall become effective thirty (30) days thereafter. If an override is not voted within the thirty (30) days provided, the ordinance shall be deemed vetoed and shall be of no further force and effect.

By LBREPORT.com's unofficial calculation, Maror Garcia had until Friday afternoon at 4:29 p.m. to transmit a veto message to the City Clerk...but instead signed the measure into law.

LBREPORT.com has covered this issue in detail: