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Mystery Entities/Persons Are Conducting Professional Telephone Survey re Possible Ballot Measure That Could Require City To Allow Int'l Airport, Testing Attitudes And Campaign Messages


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(Feb. 17, 2017, 9:35 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that 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 a customs facility at LB's municipal airport, effectively turning it into an international airport.

The nature and extent of the questions indicates it's more than an simple "opinion poll"; it's consistent with a strategy traditionally used to test attitudes and messages in mounting a political campaign for a ballot measure. A similar strategy was used locally a little over a year ago when LB's police and firefighter unions paid 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 Council district received calls from a firm (which declined to identify who hired it) asking roughly 10-15 minutes of questions seeking responses to questions about the recipients' views of incumbent city officials, various special interest groups, and sought detailed responses to what amount to possible messages related to a potential ballot measure. Among them [rough paraphrase reported by readers]:

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  • Do you feel positively/not positively toward the Mayor? Your Councilmember? The City Attorney?

  • Do you feel positively/not positively toward JetBlue? Other LB Airport tenants?

  • Do you feel positively/not positively toward the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce? LB Convention and Visitors Bureau? Long Beach Police Officers Association? Local Trade Union Council [unofficial name, very rough paraphrase]?

  • Do various statements make you more or less inclined to vote for an international terminal: it would create a substantial number of new jobs; city government wouldn't pay the costs; some people worry it would cause increased future flights; two city commissions had analyzed it; an independent organization studied the proposal in depth; and [very rough paraphrase] how would you feel if JetBlue and/or Councilmembers spoke to the public in favor of a customs facility or set up meetings to present the case for a customs facility?

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After presenting each statement, the caller asked if it made the recipient more or less inclined to support a ballot measure for an international facility...and at two points during the estimated 15 minute call (in the middle and near the end), the caller asked: If the there were a ballot measure for an international facility, would you vote for or against it?

Such a ballot measure could reach a citywide ballot in one of two ways: (1) Its proponents could collect petition signatures for their proposed measure, or (2) a Council majority could vote to put the proponents' requested measure on the ballot.

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On Jan. 24, 2017, amid vocal opposition from residents in five of nine Council districts, the City Council voted 8-1 (Andrews dissenting) not to pursue a customs facility. JetBlue publicly requested such a facility in early 2015, but internal Airport documents (obtained by in early 2014 by LBREPORT.com using state freedom of information law) show that then-Airport management and then-Council incumbents (including now-Mayor Robert Garcia and then-Mayoral candidate Gerrie Schipske) let the Airport actions continue without public transparency or Council discussion through much of 2013 and entering the 2014 election cycle.

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A federal customs facility, which couldn't be restricted to JetBlue, would effectively allow international passenger and/or cargo operators to seek large commercial aircraft flight slots currently filled under LB's protective Airport ordinance. The ordinance protects the City of Long Beach from unlimited take-offs and landings at its Airport at all hours on all runways. JetBlue, which holds the largest number of LB Airport large aircraft flight slots, stated that it planned to abide by the ordinance but also acknowledged that it can't control the actions of others.

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JetBlue arrived in LB following a May 2001 Council voted action (taken after City Hall officials quietly met with JetBlue) that let carriers take and hold LB flight slots longer before flying them (a change that suited then-newcomer JetBlue.) The City Attorney's office told the public that the Council action wouldn't affect the ordinance, but it did; within hours of the Council action, JetBlue took all then-vacant LB large aircraft flight slots, displeasing two carriers, which begat an FAA administrative inquiry that could have escalated to a lawsuit until the City reached a settlement (assisted by JetBlue) with carriers and the FAA.

After JetBlue began operating, a group surfaced in 2005 (its spokesperson was a former Councilman, supporters included a number of LB establishment figures) calling itself the "Long Beach Alliance" that at one point threatened a possible ballot measure unless the City Council moved forward with new permanent Airport terminal facilities to replace then-temporary expanded facilities.

When an Airport hired consulting firm recommended building permanent terminal facilities significantly larger than the Airport has now (JetBlue remained agnostic on a specific size), LBHUSH2 (grassroots group focused on neighborhood quality of life) sought a smaller size. In the 2004 election cycle, two LBHUSH2 supporters displaced Mayor-backed incumbents and were elected to the City Council (including LBHUSH2 co-founder Rae Gabelich) and the Council approved new terminal area facilities that preserved the current boutique-sized Airport terminal facility that LB has now (and customers praise and wins awards; LBHUSH2 has continued to support LB Airport operations as they are now.)

A ballot measure to force the City to turn its municipal airport into an international airport would almost certainly influence (and perhaps collide with, timing currently uncertain) the April-June 2018 elections cycle for Council districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, plus Mayor, City Attorney, City Prosecutor and City Auditor.

Developing.



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