Near the end of the Commission's Feb. 16 meeting, Commissioner Jeff Rowe made a non-agendized motion (allowed under the Brown open meetings Act to discuss and schedule future items), seconded by Commissioner Roland Scott. to place an item on next month's (March) agenda for a discussion to recommend that the City Council reconsider the Federal Inspection Station.

Commissioner Rowe volunteered no reason(s) for his motion, nor did Commissioner Scott in seconding it. No Commissioners asked them for their reasons...and in a matter of seconds, a vote followed:

• Yes: Rowe, Scott, Anderson, Mineghino
• No: Cruz
• Abstain: Chaney
• Self-Recusal: Sherman, Ray
• Absent: Gosling

[Scroll down for further.]

City Hall's Airport Advisory Commission is advisory only to the Mayor/Council (which created it) and has no independent decision-making or enacting powers. LB's Municipal Code describes the Commission's duties as "generally to consult with and advise the City Council in formulating City policies regarding the development and operation of" Long Beach Airport and "to study and analyze, for the purpose of evaluation and recommendation of policy, problems which have been referred to it by the City Council..."

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The AAC's next meeting is scheduled for March 16. If at that time an AAC majority were to recommend that the Mayor/Council reconsider a federal ijnspection facility, its recommendation would be conveyed to the Mayor and Council, but [to our knowledge] there's no legal requirement that the matter be agendized for possible Council action...but it could be. The issue pitted a number of familiar LB corporate/business interests, JetBlue employees and some residents against a visibly and audibly large number of grassroots energized neighborhood residents spanning five of LB's nine Council districts (most from districts, 4, 5 and 8) and many active for the first time.

On Jan. 24, the Council voted 8-1 vote (Andrews dissenting) to "receive and file" (take no action on) JetBlue's request for a customs facility at LGB (that couldn't be limited to JetBlue and would also be available to other international passenger and cargo operators.)

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Meanwhile, as reported last week (here and here (first again by LBREPORT.com), some persons or entities (presently unknown) have hired a professional firm to conduct a telephone survey of resident attitudes and potential campaign messages for a possible ballot measure that could require the City to allow the customs facility. The nature and extent of the questions indicates the effort is more than an simple "opinion poll" and is more consistent with a strategy used to test attitudes and messages in mounting a political campaign for a ballot measure.

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A similar strategy was employed locally a little over a year ago when LB's police and firefighter unions hired a firm to test public attitudes and responses to various campaign messages ultimately used to conduct a campaign for a sales tax increase sought by Mayor Robert Garcia and the City Council.

LBREPORT.com has learned that on the evening of Feb. 16, residents in parts of LB's 8th and 5th Council districts received calls from a firm asking roughly 10-15 minutes of questions focused on recipients' views of incumbent city officials, various special interest groups, and reactions to various messages related to a potential ballot measure...and specifically asked if they'd favor such a measure.

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