What Did Councilman Garcia Tell/Not Tell His Constituents About Crime In Their Neighborhoods And His Voted Actions?

(December 29, 2011) -- LBReport.com readers know, although readers of some other outlets in town may not, about the number of shootings (since Aug. 2, 2011) and murders in 2010 and 2011 to date) in a part of Long Beach that includes the 1st Council district.

So what has 1st district resident Robert Garcia told his constituents about crime in their district...where he was been their Councilman since May 2009, and his voted actions?

As part of a "2011 First District Report" that arrived in some mailboxes earlier this month (postmarked Nov. 30) it hasn't appeared online yet), Councilman Garcia writes as follows:

CRIME AT A RECORD 40 YEAR LOW [emphasis in original]

Crime has continued to drop this year, not only in the First District, but city-wide. While we still have public safety challenges, our police officers and community partners are making impressive progress.

The mailer includes the image of a transmittal letter dated Dec. 5 on City Council letterhead that tells recipients in pertinent part:

"... Since I began serving you in 2009, we have done a great deal of work to make our streets safer and cleaner. We have increased the amount of green space in our community and we continue to see a decrease in crime throughout Long Beach. This report provides you with an overview of our accomplishments. In the last two and a half years, I have been focused on clean and safe streets, a healthy environment, economic development, and an efficient and responsible city government.

Go Long Beach!"

The map at right shows conditions as of Dec. 28, 2011 in the 1st district under Councilman Garcia. His district, along with the adjacent 6th district (where Councilman Dee Andrews has been in office since May 2007) collectively accounted for over half of LB's murders in 2010.

Blue X=shootings (that we know about) since Aug. 2, 2011 (date Mayor/Mgr. propose FY12 budget) with victim hit. Purple X=shooting with person not hit. Green X=shooting at a residence. Red Xs=2011 murders to date. Brown Xx=2010 murders. Map indicates shootings in vicinity; there were murders/shootings, although a smaller number, in other parts of LB.

Garcia, who headed LB's Young Republicans and lived in the 3rd district, moved into the 1st district (upper Pine Ave.), changed his party affiliation to Democrat and within days after then-1st dist. incumbent Bonnie Lowenthal was elected to Sacramento, announced his candidacy for the Council seat in Dec. 2008. At that media event, he told the media (and through us, potential voters) that he'd make public safety a top priority.

On taking office, Councilman Garcia voted (Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2010) to balance City Hall's spending budget by cutting 140 budgeted sworn police officers.

Councilman Garcia's voted actions (joining his colleagues without dissent in 2009 and 2010) left LB with a citywide deployable police level that's now fallen to roughly the per capita equivalent of cutting over 25% of L.A.P.D.'s officers. (Mayor Foster, elected in 2006 after telling voters he'd put 100 more officers on the street in his first four years in office, has instead overseen the thinning of LB's police levels for taxpayers to roughly where they were when Mayor Beverly O'Neill took office in 1994.)

In 2010, Mayor Foster named Councilman Garcia to chair the Council's "Public Safety Committee." In 2011, Councilman Garcia held no hearings on the Mayor's proposed FY12 budget that advocated cutting additional officers, including 14 Gang officers.

On the Sept. 2011 Council budget vote, the vote was 6-3, with Schipske, Gabelich and Neal dissenting after offering an alternative budget that included funding police and fire in part with accrued oil revenue. A few weeks later, Councilman Garcia instead voted to spend the accrued oil revenue in part to upgrade City Hall's website (he sought $350,000; the Council cut this to $150,000 to start) along with items including increased tree trimming, a shotspotter (gunfire location) system ($350,000) and $1 million (to start) for a tunnel that City Hall didn't disclose could cost a now-estimated $5 million to transfer prisoners from LB's jail to a new courthouse that Councilman Garcia has promoted as a neighborhood asset. Three months later, there's no date ceratin (or a publicly announced timeline) for deploying a shotspotter system; LBPD management says it's conducting due diligence into various systems and deployment sites.

On the September 2011 budget vote, without dissent from Councilman Garcia, the Council failed (for the third year in a row) to fund a replenishment police academy class, effectively ensuring police staffing will fall further in 2012.

On December 9, 2011 as made public by Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske on her non-taxpayer-paid blog (GerrieSchipske.com) and thereafter reported by LBReport.com, Police Chief Jim McDonnell responded to a request by the Council's Public Safety Committee (chaired by Garcia) to provide crime statistics for the first nine-months of 2011.

The Chief provided a memo that cites citywide crime statistics, which inherently combine conditions in LB's safest areas with LB's more crime impacted areas without indicating where those respective areas are. On that basis, the Chief's report report indicates that during the period January through September 2011 [based on reported crimes only; some amount go unreported] compared to the same period in 2010:

• Violent crimes were up by 1.2% (26 crimes)
• Property crimes were up by 11.2% (965 crimes)
• Total Part I crimes (violent crimes [murder, aggravated assault, rape, robbery] + serious property crimes [arson, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft]) are up 9.2% (991 crimes)

In terms of citywide crime statistics, in 2010 LB had the fewest number of crimes in forty years...and as LBReport.com was first to report in November 2011, Long Beach is [and currently remains] on track to have fewer murders in 2011 than in 2010 (when LB had its lowest number of murders in roughly forty years).

However LBReport.com also noted that over half of 2011's murders were concentrated in relatively small parts of the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th Council districts. In the fourth quarter of 2011, LB had 14 shooings in 12 days (from Nov. 23-Dec. 4): half were in North Long Beach (Council districts 8 and 9) while the other half were in an area mainly north-of-downtown-Central LB: three in the 1st district, two in the 2nd district and two on the 6th district.