NLB portion of LB's six 2014 murders to date

A Feb. 24 mass emailing from 9th dist. Councilman Steven Neal's office indicates that Neal and LBPD North Division Commander Robert Luman, in partnership with the Long Beach Ministers Alliance, Light and Life Christian Fellowship, Men Making A Change and Andy Street Community Association will hold a "community town hall meeting to address youth violence" on March 3 at 6:30 p.m. at Light and Life Christian Fellowship, 6465 Cherry Ave.

In the mailing (titled "A Call For Unity," Councilman Neal writes, "Generally in this space we highlight the great things happening in North Long Beach, however today this space is reserved to acknowledge recent events concerning the killing of 3 young men in our community. We extend our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of those affected."

"On Monday, March 3rd, 6:30PM, we are partnering with Commander Robert Luman, the Long Beach Ministers Alliance, Light and Life Cherry campus, the Andy Street Community Association, and the Men Making a Change program, for a discussion on youth violence and the public safety response to these incidents. We hope this will be a productive discussion on the measures we can all take to protect our youth from the affects of gang violence. I hope you will attend."

Councilman Neal was elected in April 2010 and took office in mid-July 2010, after outpolling two term Councilman (then Vice Mayor) Val Lerch who was seeking a third term via write-in. At the time, Lerch also chaired the Council's Public Safety Committee.

In 2007 and 2008, Council majorities (on the recommendation of Mayor Foster) approved sizable raises for LB's police, fire and non-public safety unions (POA 2007, LBFFA and IAM in 2008), all of which had endorsed Foster's 2006 Mayoral candidacy. None of the raises included pension reforms. After the "great recession" began, Mayor Foster insisted that the three unions change the contracts to pay a larger portion of their pensions and also recommended that the Council not fund replenishment Police Academy classes for taxpayers in FY 10 and 11. The Council did so without dissent, causing LBPD's sworn officers for citywide deployment to fall by over 130 officers and likewise decreased LBFD resources and staffing.

In August-September 2011, Councilmembers Neal, Schipske and Gabelich proposed an alternative budget using already collected oil revenue to avert further management/Mayor proposed cuts in various areas; Mayor Foster opposed it and a Council majority voted it down (Garcia, Lowenthal, DeLong, O'Donnell, Andrews, Johnson).

After Lerch exited office and was replaced by Neal, Mayor Foster appointed then-Councilman (now Vice Mayor) Robert Garcia to chair the Council's Public Safety Committee. For the past two years, Garcia has declined to hold hearings of the Public Safety Committee on the public safety impacts of management/Mayor proposed police and fire budgets. Those included an August 2012 Mayor-recommended budget that would have eliminated an LBPD field anti-gang unit; the Council avoided part of this in September 2012 by tapping one-time funds to give the police chief discretion to restore up to half of LBPD's anti-gang field unit.

In August 2013, LBPD management acknowledged that LBPD's field anti-gang unit had at that time (entering FY14) roughly 6 or 7 officers compared to 22 sworn officers budgeted for taxpayers in previous years.

Developing. Further as we learn it on LBREPORT.com.

Further to follow on LBREPORT.com