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Gathering Storm Over Mayor-Sought Changes To City Charter (LB's Constitution): Multiple Grassroots Advocates Plus Retired Councilmembers Gabelich And Schipske Voice Opposition; Cambodian Community Members Support Redistricting Measure, LB Firefighters Ass'n (Major Funder Of Campaigns For City Hall-Desired Tax Hike And Utility Revenue Diversion) Swiftly Voiced Support For All Five Measures


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(Aug. 3, 2018, 10:30 p.m.) -- Although someone inside City Hall has scheduled only thirty minutes for the City Council to hear public speakers and vote on whether to conduct a special election (City Clerk estimated cost: $470,000-$650,000) for up to five Mayor-proposed Charter Amendments, a large crowd, pro and con, may show up on August 7 -- despite the inconvenient 3:00 p.m. hearing time.

The Mayor-sought Charter Amendments propose the following:

  • Change LB's term limits law to let the incumbent Mayor and incumbent Councilmembers avoid term limits for twelve years (three full terms) instead of the current two terms and eliminate the public's right to choose a favored incumbent for three or more terms even if voters demonstrate they wish to do so via an incumbent write-in.

  • Create a Mayor-chosen/Council-approved "Ethics Commission" that would lack enforcement powers over the elected officials who chose the Commissioners (and could remove troublesome Commissioners);`

  • Combine LB's City-run Water, Sewer and Gas utilities, presented as an efficiency measure, would move the gas utility from the non-elected City Manager's control to being under the existing Water Commission, which it renames the Utilities Commission. The Commission's members aren't elected but are chosen by electeds: the Mayor, with Council voted approval.

  • Insert verbiage reciting that the City Auditor can conduct "performance audits" (not just financial audits), an ability the current City Auditor has indicated she likely already has. However, quietly embedded in the text are significant additional changes. Instead of requiring the Auditor to file all audits with the City Clerk, the measure would require the Auditor to file Audits with the City Council [with no verbiage legally guaranteeing the public's right to immediately access such Council-filed Audits.] Another change would eliminate a current requirement that city officials give the Auditor "immediate" access to financial records, replacing this with the more vague "timely" access. And another change would eliminate the long-time requirement that the Auditor receive certified copies of all City contracts (potentially enabling some City contracts to bypass the Auditor's attention.)

  • Create a Redistricting Commission to redraw Council district lines every ten years. Its members would be chosen through a complex process (pdf pages 13-14 at this link) allowing some indirect Mayor/Council influence but eliminating direct Council line-drawing power. The Commission wouldn't act until after the 2020 census (at the earliest affecting the 2022 election cycle.)

[Scroll down for further.]




Opponents to some or all of the measures include Robert Fox, Exec. Dir. of LB's grassroots Council of Neighborhood Organizations (CONO) (catalyzed opposition to height/density increases in a City Hall proposed Land Use Element), Joe Sopo (founder/president of Neighborhood First active on Airport and neighborhood impacting issues) and Tom Stout and Caroline Byrnes of the LB Taxpayers Association (waged an underfunded battle against a City Hall sought utility revenue transfer/diversion [Measure M.]) LBREPORT.com has also learned a new, previously unheard-from grassroots group -- People of Long Beach (POLB) -- has surfaced amd signaled it will oppose the term limit measure.

Their collective opposition has been amplified in recent days by two retired two-term Councilmembers: Rae Gabelich (8th dist., 2004-2012) (who co-founded LBHUSH2 and prioritized neighborhood quality of life) and Gerrie Schipske (5th dist., 2006-2014) (who sought City Hall reforms but was stymied by a Council that included now-Mayor Robert Garcia.)

On the other side, supporting one of the proposed Charter Amendments to create a Redistricting Commission are politically savvy members of LB's Cambodian community. The community's voting power has been historically diluted by gerrymandering Council actions that split the Cemtral LB portion of the community between four Council districts (6, 4, 1 and 2). If Council district lines were redrawn to give the Cambodian community a single district, it could become a major force in city elections and on the policy-setting City Council.

A Sacramento-based non-profit advcocacy group (which has an L.A. office) played a role in the Redistricting measure. Documents obtained by LBREPORT.com under the Public Records Act show that by at least May 2018, "CA Common Cause" was working with Mayor Garcia's office to discuss the Redistricting Commission proposal in concept, and at the first public hearing on the measures (June 12), a group representative profusely praised Mayor Garcia for proposing the Redistricting Commission (although Garcia's initial draft drew strong opposition from LB's Cambodian community for continuing to let Councilmembers redraw their district lines.) Common Cause then assisted Garcia's office (which didn't allow public or press access to the discussions) in revising the proposed Redistricting text, publicly unveiled for the second hearing July 17 on the Charter Amendments. In a letter not publicly visible online prior to the July 17 hearing. the group offered a number of suggested changes to the Redistricting text, all but two of which Councilman Al Austin incorporated in the measure advanced on a 9-0 vote to the upcoming August 7 hearing.

The Long Beach Firefighters Association swiftly voiced support for all five of the Mayor-sought measures before any public testimony on them. The group's president, Rex Pritchard, provided a June 12 letter to the Mayor and Councilmembers which stated:

...I am pleased to offer our support for the five ballot measures being considered today for the November 2018 Ballot.

Our members believe that creating a redistricting commission, adding an ethics commission, strengthening our term limit laws, enhancing the authority of the City Auditor, and consolidating our utility departments make sense and will help our City function more effectively moving ahead.

We are proud to support these good government measures and look forward to working with the City Council to put these measures before the voters of Long Beach to consider

The LB Firefighters Association PAC and the LB Police Officers Association PAC were the two largest financial contributors to a political committee, run by Mayor Garcia, that campaigned for the Measure A sales tax increase (June 2016) and the Measure M utility revenue transfer/diversion (June 2018.)

Sponsor

Sponsor

Voicing opposition to the Mayor-sought Charter Amendments, retired Councilwoman Gabelich wrote in an August 2 mass emailing:

None of these items [Mayor proposed Charter Amendments] are critical and could go on the 2020 ballot when districts 2, 4, 6 & 8 will be back before us. The only item that can be addressed as time sensitive is the redistricting that returns in 2020. With strong community input the council can handle this one more time! Asking the public to support those seated there today without having to run as a write-in appears to most self-serving. The council argument is that today, a person can run a write-in campaign as many times as they choose. My opinion is, if their constituents feel they are deserving of re-election 3-10-20 times then they will re-elect them. Three terms when the seated representative may not be doing the best job for his/her district leaves the door open for union support to contribute significantly towards a very expensive campaign on their behalf. Regardless of the level of competence!

Ms. Gabelich included in her email a message from an unspecified community group (that LBREPORT.com has learned came from Neighborhoods First leader Joe Sopo):

2 Terms Is Enough! Hey Folks, Now is the time to act!

On August 7th, OUR city council will give us a few minutes of "their" time (which is really OUR time) so that they can rubber stamp the self serving term limit extension AND the unethical ethics committee charter amendments. Unethical may be a strong word, but when appointed by the mayor it sends a questionable message!

They conveniently scheduled this for 3:00 PM when most of us are working because they do not want to hear our opinion!

Here's how we fight this! Get on the phone right now and make arrangements to take August 7th off, or at least the afternoon. Or call in sick.

Immediately afterwards, get on the phone, yes again, and flood -all- of city council offices with messages urging them to vote against the term limit extension and the unethical ethics committee. Call each of their offices, not just your district’s council member. Ask your friends, neighbors, parents, and children to call as well.

Ms. Gabelich concluded:

Yes, this is all in a day's work, but this is what we do to stay on top of our city government! Democracy at work!...If the council does approve it, then a very expensive, time consuming campaign will need to be run and no one really wants to do that!

Sponsor

Sponsor

Mayor Garcia has described his term limits proposal as "strengthening" term limits on grounds it would prevent incumbents from seeking more than three terms, and City Auditor Laura Doud has echoed the Mayor's stance, saying the change would plug a "loophole" that currently allows infinite terms if an incumbent wages a write-in campaign. To date, no LB incumbent has used the "loophole" to seek more than three terms.

From its inception (by 1992 petition-initiative brought by future Councilman Dennis Carroll), LB voters allowed themselves the choice of whether to re-elect a long-term incumbent via write-in. In 2007, LB voters tweaked the term-limits measure by allowing incumbents who mounted a write-in campaign and finished first or second in April to have their name appear on the ballot in June if needed for a runoff .

In the same 2007 election, LB voters also explicitly rejected a measure that would have allowed incumbents third terms without write-ins...as Mayor Garcia proposes now.

Sponsor


In a recent opinion piece on www.Beachcomber.news (LongBeachomber), retired Councilwoman Schipske wrote:

[T]he real reason for this kabuki theater, is that the current mayor and city councilmembers want another term in office...The current mayor and council "need" a third term because they have nowhere to go politically for another 6-8 years.

Congressman Lowenthal isn't leaving D.C. anytime soon. State Senator Lara may not win Insurance Commissioner if the GOP rolls out enough voters to kill the gas tax -- then Lara stays in the Senate. Assemblyman O’Donnell has six more years left in the Assembly, so his seat isn't "available."

What are a termed-out mayor and council to do but ask you to extend their terms by claiming it "closes loopholes"?

If this group was truly being "ethical" by putting the third term forward, they would make sure it did not impact themselves, but only "future" mayors and city councilmembers...

Meanwhile in a Facebook dispatch, Mr. Fox takes aim at the proposed "ethics commission."

Shall the City of Long Beach create an Ethics Commission?

Well Gosh that sound nice. Is it worth $45,000.00 of your money?

Could you wait until 2020 to have it for free?

And BIG question: Do you want to Mayor always to be appointing the commissioners. I know it is part of his job description, but we are in extraordinary times. Whoever seats the commission (which are always political supporters and donors) they control the outcomes. It will not be an independent commission, and it[s] finding will be buried...

LBREPORT.com notes that as an "advisory body," a Mayor/Council chosen "ethics commission" might also become subject to a proposal -- agendized by city management for July 10 but hastily (and only temporarily) withdrawn by Mayor Garcia to prevent public testimony in opposition -- to have the City Attorney draft Municipal Code provisions to prevent LB City Hall "advisory bodies" from agendizing items for Commission discussion items not approved by the City Manager of his staff. (The non-elected City Manager answers to the elected Mayor and Council.)


With the exception of the proposed Redistricting Commission supported by members of Cambodian community, LBREPORT.com is unaware of calls by any grassroots LB groups for the other four Charter Amendments brought by Mayor Garcia. Two of the measures -- to create an "ethics commission" and a "redistricting commission" -- were proposed in conceptual form by Councilman Austin in a November 7, 2017 agenda item (carried 7-0) that asked the Mayor to convene a meeting of the Charter Amendment Committee within 60-90 days and ask the City Clerk and City Attorney "to develop framework options for the Committee to consider." (Among those testifying in support of Austin's motion was a representative of "CA Common Cause.") The Mayor didn't do what the policy-setting Council voted to do. Instead, without holding Committee hearings that would have allowed robust public input pro and con before formally proposing the ethics and redistricting measures, Garcia waited until after the April-June election cycle was over, then unveiled Charter Amendments from his office with proposed ethics and redistricting commission measures plus three others (including term limits) and scheduled all of them for hearings that could lead to their ballot placement.

LBREPORT.com plans to provide LIVE streaming video on our front page -- (www.LBREPORT.com) starting at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday August 7 of the Council Charter Amendment Committee proceedings on whether to conduct a special citywide November election for some or all of the Mayor-sought Charter Amendments.


Aug. 4, 1:58 p.m. Test revised to indicate Cambodian community in Central LB is currently split between districts 6, 4, 1 and 2.
Aug 4, 7:55 a.m. Text revised and added re city utilities Charter Amendment

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