All Three 4th dist. Council Candidates -- Supernaw, Chico, Lindemann -- Sign This Statement, Urging Council To Direct Mgm't To Take No Action Related To [Adding] Customs Facility Enabling Int'l Flights [By JetBlue And Others] @ LB Airport Until After New 4th dist Councilmember In Office For At Least 90 Days

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All Three Candidates In 4th dist. Council Race -- Supernaw, Chico, Lindemann -- Sign This Statement, Urging Council To Direct Mgm't To Take No Action Related To [Adding] Customs Facility Enabling Int'l Flights [By JetBlue And Others] @ LB Airport Until After New 4th dist Councilmember In Office For At Least 90 Days

Statement parallels March 3 agendized item by Councilmembers Austin and Uranga

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(Feb. 27, 2015) -- All three candidates seeking to become LB's next 4th City Council member have signed a statement (text below) urging the City Council to direct city management to take no action related to adding a U.S. Customs facility enabling international flights [by JetBlue and others] at LB Airport until after the winner of the April 2015 special election has been in office for at least 90 days.

The statement, signed by candidates Daryl Supernaw, Herlinda Chico and Richard Lindemann, parallels an item agendized for the March 3, 2015 City Council meeting by 8th district Councilman Al Austin, joined by 7th district Councilman Roberto Uranga.

The statement signed by candidates Supernaw, Chico and Lindemann reads as follows:

[Scroll down for further]

We urge the Long Beach City Council to direct City Management to hold off taking ANY action related to customs facilities or international flights at the Long Beach Airport until after the newly elected Councilmember for the fourth district has been sworn into office for at least 90 days. The people of the Fourth District deserve to have adequate representation before any decisions are made or actions are taken.

When asked "Are you for or against international flights at Long Beach Airport?" at a Feb. 24, 2015 candidate forum organized by the East Anaheim Street Business Association, the candidates stated:

Herlinda Chico: I think the proposal was just made public yesterday, so I've been told that it's not going affect the noise ordinance and I'm committed to protecting that and I'm also committed to protecting the number of flights in and out of the airport. I but think we have to be very cautious when we move forward, just because we want to make sure that in allowing international flights that we're not opening ourselves up to litigation which we've seen happen in the past. So I'm open to talking about it and hearing all sides and perspectives but I think that we really need to be cautious in moving forward, so I support the concept but I want to make sure that there aren't any significant impacts on the health and safety of our residents because that will always take precedence.
Richard Lindemann: Well I would have to say I agree with that also...[W]e do have to vet it very completely so as not to interfere with the noise ordinance that are in place because that's very important to our livelihood in the city, but it needs to be something that needs to be looked at and again vetted very, very carefully that we don't make any mistakes and open up ourselves to different kinds of problems.
Daryl Supernaw Well first I'd like to say I have a long history in the community of supporting the noise ordinance. My wife Cheryl was on the original HUSH group that got the noise ordinance instituted in the first place. We're very fortunate to have two incredible experts in city staff, and that is Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais and our City Prosecutor Doug Haubert and I think we really have to defer to their judgment in this case...I would just like to defer to our experts, and what they're saying, what I'm hearing now, is that there are some issues, there are some inherent threats with bringing the international flights forward. So again, this needs to be vetted, and thank goodness we have the experts right at City Hall.

The jointly signed candidate statement was circulated by Neighborhoods First, a grassroots group that stresses the importance of protecting neighborhood quality of life in City Hall decisionmaking. [Disclosure: Veteran neighborhood advocate Joe Sopo is among the leaders of Neighborhoods First. Mr. Sopo is an ELB realtor and a long time LBREPORT.com supporter.]

The item agendized for the March 3 City Council meeting by Councilman Austin, joined by Councilman Uranga, states:

RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Direct the City Manager to delay any action regarding requests for an international customs facility at the Long Beach Airport until receiving further direction from the City Council, and direct the City Manager to delay any request for direction regarding a customs facility until 90 days after full representation on the City Council is completed.
BACKGROUND:
A commercial airline operating at the Long Beach Airport has publicly indicated an interest in building a customs facility at the Airport to allow for international flights.
International flights at the Long Beach Airport could potentially have significant impacts on the operations and finances of the Airport, as well as on the quality of life of neighborhoods throughout the City. This issue must be fully and publicly vetted by the City Council before any action is taken with a request for a customs facility.
A number of council districts are impacted by flights at the Long Beach Airport, and residents in the Fourth Council District are among the most impacted. The flight path of many flights landing at Long Beach Airport is directly over homes in the Fourth District.
The City Council declared a vacancy in the Fourth Council District on December 16, 2014. A special election is scheduled to elect a new Fourth District Councilmember on April 14, 2015.
It is important for the entire City, including those neighborhoods directly impacted by operations at the Airport, to be represented before discussion on a request for a customs facility is held.
FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact.

Councilmembers Austin and Uranga (joined by Councilmembers Gonzalez, Price and Richardson) have endorsed Ms. Chico in the no-runoff April 14 special election. The vacancy resulted when (now-former) 4th district Councilman Patrick O'Donnell pursued and won a Sacramento Assembly seat roughly halfway through his four year term of office.