PBID Ballot Result Was 38.9% "Yes" vs. 61.1% "No" From Downtown Property Owners (Unweighted Ballot Count); Result Wasn't Announced And Councilmembers Didn't Ask Before Council Voting (7-0) To Impose Assessment

City Clerk Releases & LBReport.com Reports Details Showing Which Downtown Property Owners Voted "Yes" & "No"

The document shows that the tally of ballots cast (raw count unweighted by the size of the property and its assessment) was 429 "yes" ballots (38.9%) to 675 "no" (61.1%) ballots out of 1,104 ballots cast.

The ballot tally result wasn't announced to the City Council and no Councilmember asked what the result was prior to the Council's decisional 7-0 vote to impose the downtown assessment for the next ten years. Instead, the Council was given the weighted result (including City Hall's ballots) which was "yes" (77.54% representing assessments of $1,103,242.10) and "no" (22.46% representing assessments of $319,617.13).

Under state PBID law, ballots cast by large property owners (who pay a larger assessment) are more heavily weighted than individual homeowners...and in the downtown LB PBID area, one of the largest property owners is the City of Long Beach and its former Redevelopment Agency (assets now handled by City Council as "successor agency").

To view the City Clerk's Statement of Results, click here.

LBReport.com was present in the City Clerk's election center [to our knowledge, the ONLY LB news outlet present] when the votes were tallied...and noticed -- and reported at that time -- that we saw many "no" ballot cast.

Sandra Rendell, spokesperson for Downtown Homeowners Unite, was also present in the City Clerk's election center for the ballot count and kept her own unofficial tally (photo below)...and she indicated to LBReport.com that the unweighted ballot result was close to 60% "no" to 40% "yes."

On May 1, 2012, just weeks after an April election in which 2nd dist. Councilwoman/then-Vice Mayor Lowenthal was reelected, the Council voted 6-0 (Garcia & Schipske recused, Gabelich absent) to sign a petition that if approved by a majority of property owners would start the PBID election process. On June 19, the City Clerk's office reported that the petition to initiate the election carried by barely 50.3% of the vote. At the June 19 meeting, the City Council voted to certify the result and to cast the City's heavily weighted ballots as a large property owner in favor of the assessment (6-0, Schipske recused, Garcia & Andrews absent).

Downtown Homeowners Unite had urged the Council to remain neutral in the PBID process so the wishes of residents would be reflected in the balloting without being tilted by the City's large property holdings.

As a result of the Council's Aug. 7 vote, the downtown special assessment will for the first time include residential property owners, not just businesses. Revenue from the assessment will continue to be administered by the privately operated non-profit Downtown Long Beach Associates.

The 7-0 Council vote to approve the special assessment will require the City of Long Beach to pay roughly $220,000 annually from other city resources to benefit downtown. The downtown PBID has been in place since 1998, but until now applied only to businesses/commercial property owners. Supporters of renewing the PBID and extending it to residential property owners argued that it promotes a safe, clean, energetic and evolving Downtown with enhanced programs and services. Opponents likened it to double-taxation for services.

Some city officials have recently suggested setting up PBID special assessment districts in parts of Central LB and NLB, using the same system used downtown. Central LB and NLB both have large city land holdings...including now-former Redevelopment owned properties.

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