The group grew out of meetings in late Spring 2018 between Richard Gutmann, Martin Holman and Carlos Ovalle regarding the Wrigley-area Oil Operators property, and Juan Ovalle became involved shortly after passage of Measure M (June 2018). LBREPORT.com has learned that on Aug 1, the Ovalle brothers met with the leaders of a number of grassroots groups citywide on future plans...and the new group elected Carlos Ovalle as POLB's Executive Director.

Two days later, POLB published an ad in the Signal Tribune declaring "Two Terms is Enough" in opposition to Mayor Garcia's proposed Term Limits Charter Amendment. The group has since voiced opposition (along with other grassroots groups and former Councilmembers reported here) to holding a special November citywide election for all five of the Mayor-sought proposed Charter Amendments.

The issue will be decided at an Aug. 7, 3 p.m. special meeting of the Council's Charter Amendment Committee.

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On Saturday Aug. 4), the Ovalle brothers displayed a polite but unflinching approach at a meeting on one of the measures in LB's Cambodian community. Two experts on Redistricting reform had just explained that the Charter Amendment to create a Redistricting Commission could correct years of unjust gerrymandering that split the Cambodian community's voting voice among four LB Council districts. During Q & A, Juan Ovalle politely rose and pointed out that the current text of the Redistricting Charter Amendment would allow a Mayor-chosen, Council-approved "Ethics Commission" (if separately approved by voters) to pre-screen and ultimately decide what applicants could serve on the Redistricting Commission.

Juan Ovalle makes POLB's points at a meeting in Cambodian Town on Aug.4.

Mr. Ovalle methodically explained that although he supports Redistricting reform for the Cambodian community, he doesn't support the Mayor/Council tilted text as currently written...and went on to politely but firmly urge representatives of CA Common Cause not to support the LB measure as currently written.

After hearing Mr. Ovalle's points, Dr. Alex Norman, PhD (who'd just made a compelling case for Redistricting reform) acknowledged that he shares Mr. Ovalle's concerns on the independence of the Ethics Commission and indicated he's awaiting the response of LB's electeds on the matter.

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The group recently offered brief summaries of its positions on the five Mayor-sought Charter Amendments:

1. The mayor and city council want to increase term limits from two to three. The mayor claims that without this change to the charter amendment the mayor and the council members can run for office indefinitely by using a write-in option in the city charter. He also claims that this write-in "loophole" was "recently discovered by the city attorney." However, Mayor O'Neill, one of the most beloved and effective Mayors the city has had in recent memory used the write-in option to serve a third term, as well as two council members. If, as the [current] mayor claims, the problem is the loophole, why not just close it? Because the mayor and some council members want to serve another term!

2. Form an ethics commission of residents to ensure government officials are following the city’s ethics laws. On the surface this seems like a good move. Who doesn’t want a watchdog commission to ensure good governance? However, as with any commission in the city, the mayor gets to handpick who is in the commission and he gets to fire those whom he determines aren't doing their job. In short, it's not a "commission of residents" if the residents can get hired and fired by those whom they are supposed to be watching over. The name for this is the fox guarding the hen house.

3. Create a citizens' redistricting commission to reconfigure the council districts every 10 years. This is commonly called gerrymandering. It allows the mayor to change the district borders not in a manner that follows the natural boundaries of neighborhoods but in a way that he can dictate who gets elected. Furthermore, the so-called citizen’s commission is hand-picked by the mayor, and if he doesn’t like how they’re redistricting, he can fire them.

4. Give the city auditor authority to conduct performance reviews of city entities. Except, the mayor doesn’t explain why the proposed change to the city charter deletes really important language that takes the teeth out of the city auditor’s job and that the proposed change has the potential to allow corruption in the award of contracts and how the city’s funds are managed. There is nothing wrong with the current language, the city auditor as it stands is considered one of the top in the nation and has won awards to prove it. This proposal turns the position from a tiger to a declawed kitten.

5. Consolidate the water and gas departments under a utilities commission. This is really part and parcel of Prop M passed by the voters in the recent election. As with Prop M, this consolidation is intended to save money for the citizens of Long Beach by doing away with redundant forces of the water and gas departments. However, as soon as Prop M passed, which was supposed to lower our utility rates, they went up! The city is now involved in a lawsuit that charges that the city is subverting Public Utility Commission rules that require the utilities to return to their customers any surplus fees. But according to Prop M, the city can now legally keep the surplus as essentially another tax. The same will happen with the consolidation of the utilities. Another bureaucracy gets formed, with the mayor’s pals in power, and we pay for it with higher taxes and higher utility fees.

Developing.

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