(Feb. 20, 2010, updated w/ questionnaire responses) -- Five City Council candidates -- including 7th dist. Councilmember Tonia Reyes Uranga -- participated in an election forum organized by the Long Beach Coalition For Good Jobs/Healthy Economy Forum on Feb. 18. LBReport.com was on-scene and provides on-demand extended audio coverage below.
Addressing roughly 90 people attending the event at Neighborhood United Methodist Church (5th/Pacific) were candidates Jana Shields (1st dist.), Tom Marchese (3rd dist.), James Johnson and Councilwoman Reyes Uranga (7th dist.) and Steve Neal (9th dist.)
Speaking order announced by moderator and followed for all candidate responses:
Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga (7th dist)
James Johnson (7th dist)
Steve Neal (9th dist)
Jana Shields (1st dist)
Tom Marchese (3rd dist)
[This paragraph text updated Feb. 21] Organizers released in writing the responses of Council incumbents and candidates who didn't attend the event but did respond in writing to questions from the Coalition. To view the questionnaire with those responses, click here. [end updated text]
The questions were also posed at the event to the candidates who did attend the forum, who also fielded audience Q & A (via cards) and gave introductory and closing statements.
To launch audio, click links. Some of the longer (larger) MP3 files may take a few moments to load (even on high speed connection).
During their closing statements, some took direct aim at their absent opponents.
In her closing statement, Ms. Shields read from written text criticizing Councilman Garcia's support for a LB medical marijuana ordinance (previous supportive Council votes with final Council vote pending). "He is one of five Councilmembers promoting the current medical marijuana ordinance...It needs to be thoroughly rewritten," Ms. Shields said.
On noticing our reference to this upcoming story citing his absence, Councilman Garcia emailed on Feb. 19: "I want to let you know why I was not at debate last night. I was at the Long Beach Heritage Annual Awards Benefit. I was presenting a LB Heritage Award to First District resident Sherron Leno for Outstanding Home Restoration. I had committed to the event long before the forum was scheduled."
3rd dist. Council candidate Tom Marchese criticized the absence of his two 3rd district opponents on more than one occasion...and in his closing statement, he said, "Again, I don't know why my opponents aren't here...You all matter and you all make a difference...I'm an activist; I'm a person who cares" and referring to Councilman Gary DeLong (the Mayor's appointee to chair the Council's Budget Oversight Committee), Mr. Marchese added "I don't believe that the Budget Czar I'm running against has had his priorities straight."
Councilwoman Reyes Uranga said in closing, "We need five votes to again anything done on this City Council. I want you to count the number of people on that City Council who agree with your agenda. Actually we need six if we want to survive the Mayor's veto. So I would like you to help keep at least one of the votes on the Council by filling in the box and writing in my name..."
The forum sponsors also asked the candidates to sign a pledge indicate their support for the following:
In order to make Long Beach work for everyone, I pledge to work with the community to create the following policy initiatives:
A plan to ensure that the Long Beach hospitality industry provides good jobs with living wages.
A plan to ensure that major new developments in long Beach provide community benefits, such as job training, local hiring and affordable housing.
A sustainable plan that ensures that green jobs at the Port of Long beach are also quality jobs.
Their responses can be heard exactly as they delivered them in the audio segment here (pledge section runs from 6:53-12:27 in that audio segment).
The Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community also released results from a community survey it says it conducted of over 300 LB residents (conducted from December 2009 through February 2010 in zip codes 90805, 90806, 90807, 90810 and 90813).
"According to those survey results, 92% of residents considered "Access to affordable, quality health care" very important to them; 87% reported "Access to living wage jobs" very important and 82% considered "Better air quality" very important.
"Very important" was the highest importance ranking in that survey. Sixty percent of residents described their financial situation as either "Struggling to make ends meet" or "Facing serious financial difficulties," underscoring the challenges posed to Long Beach families by the lack of quality jobs in the city.
The LB Coalition for Good Jobs & A Healthy Economy is an advocacy group, a project of the L.A.-based Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE). The LB Coalition sponsored the forum and listed co-sponsorship by the LB Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community with co-sponsorship by the Center for Community Engagement, Housing Long Beach, the Women’s Democratic Study Club, the Immigrant Rights Coalition and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.
The LB Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Economy has dueled/is dueling on several fronts with LB city officialdom and industry interests. It has criticized the Port of LB's version of a clean trucks program and filed litigation challenging PoLB's settlement of a trucking industry legal challenge a backroom deal, positions putting it at loggerheads with LB Mayor Bob Foster and the LB Area Chamber of Commerce.
The LB Coalition also opposed a proposal by a hotel chain to build a Sierra Suites hotel at the Pike, testifying against it at the City Council and ultimately filing a CEQA action alleging the development requires a new EIR. (When the Coastal Commission ruled the high end development required additional fees, the hotel chain halted the project.)
The group also rankled city officials and establishment figures by producing a report contending that taxpayer subsidies to LB's tourism industry hadn't produced a fair return on the public's investment. Critics criticized the report as a product of a pro-labor group seeking to organize hotel room workers.
The group's report, A Tale of Two Cites: How Long Beach’s Investment in Downtown Tourism Has Contributed to Poverty Next Door is on the group's website, click here.
Asked about a page on the group's website listing Steve Neal (now a 9th dist. candidate) and Ray Pok (chief of staff to 7th dist. Councilwoman Reyes Uranga) as Coalition members, Nick Sifuentes, Communications Specialist with the Coalition replied via email:
The two members of the coalition you asked about are both former members. Mr Neal took a leave of absence from the coalition when his candidacy began. Mr. Pok has not been active on the coalition for at least a year or so.
[update] Mr. Neal confirms in a written statement that he has not been active with the Coalition since he began campaigning on Dec. 15, 2009.
Disclosure: Council candidates Tom Marchese, Jack Smith, Dan Pressburg, Brad Shore currently have paid advertising on LBReport.com's front page.
