LBREPORT.com Asks (Again) And Police Union Chief Declines (Again) To Let Us Hear Recording Of What Its Latest Endorsee (In This Cycle It's Chico) Said In LBPOA Endorsement Interview
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(Jan. 28, 2015) -- LBREPORT.com has asked (again), and the President of the Long Beach Police Officers Association, Lt. Steve James, has declined (again) to release its recording of what the police union PAC's latest endorsee for elective office (in this cycle it's Herlinda Chico) told the union to get its PAC's endorsement.
Below is the Jan. 27 email exchange shortly after the union PAC announced its endorsement:
LBREPORT.com email: "LBReport.com requests the opportunity to hear LBPOA’s recording of the endorsement interview with 4th dist. Council candidate Herlinda Chico. Please advise for publication and thank you."
LBPOA Pres. James: "I truly admire your persistence, but nothing has changed. We do not release the recordings."
LBREPORT.com has routinely requested the opportunity to hear what the LBPOA PAC endorsees said in their interviews since the 2009 special election cycle. In 2009, then-Council candidate Robert Garcia told us he had no objection to releasing the recording, but our request to the LBPOA was declined. "I will never release the recording," Lt. James told us at that time...and he has remained true to his word in subsequent election cycles. Similar requests by us in the 2010, 2012 and 2014 LB elections have also been declined.
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In previous election cycles [and we know of no change in this one], the LBPOA PAC's endorsement decision has been made by a vote of the LBPOA Political Action Committee which is comprised primarily of the LBPOA's Board of Directors but is also open to rank and file officer(s) who may choose to participate [we don't have a number or vote tally.]
LBPOA's webspage states the following in connection with its PAC endorsement process:
...Endorsements made by the LBPOA are on behalf of the organization, and they are only recommendations. Every individual association member has the right to vote for the candidate or cause of his/her own choosing.
...[Endorsement] [i]nterviews will normally be video recorded and the recordings are subject to the control of the LBPOA.
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In April 2009, LBPOA PAC endorsee Garcia was elected to the City Council in a no-runoff special election, took office in May 2009 and proceeded to vote with Council majorities for the largest reductions in LBPD sworn officer staffing within a five year period in the more than 100+ year history of the City of Long Beach.
In the 2014 election cycle, the LBPOA PAC endorsed Council candidates Gonzalez, Price, Uranga and Richardson, who went on to vote for a FY15 city budget recommended by now-Mayor Garcia (whom the LBPOA PAC endorsed over challenger Damon Dunn) that conclusively eliminated LBPD's field anti-gang unit and didn't restore roughly 200 officers erased by Council budgets since 2010.
Ms. Chico has been endorsed [to date] by two of the current Council's incumbents: Richardson and Gonzalez.
Two years earlier in the 2012 election cycle, Ms. Chico, who'd lived elsewhere in Long Beach for several years, purchased a home in the 4th district a few months before entering the regularly scheduled 2012 4th dist. Council race. Daryl Supernaw, a lifelong Los Altos resident, also entered the race.
When incumbent O'Donnell announced he'd seek a third Council term in 2012 via a write-in, Ms. Chico dropped out of the race and endorsed O'Donnell. Mr. Supernaw remained in the race and finished first in April 2012, putting him a June runoff with incumbent O'Donnell. LBPOA's PAC endorsed O'Donnell in the runoff; O'Donnell prevailed and in 2014, two years into his Council term, O'Donnell sought and won LB's Assembly seat, creating a 4th dist.vacancy and triggering the need for a special (no runoff) special election.
Mr. Supernaw and Ms. Chico will now face each other along with candidate Richard Lindemann in the April special election. The winner will have a co-equal Council vote on matters affecting residents and businesses citywide...including police, fire, park, libary and infrastructure budget priorities, proposed developments and neighborhood impacting policies.
Vote by mail ballots begin flying in March for an April 14 election day.
