Councilwoman Price Latest Officeholder Account Report (July-Dec. 2015) Shows Relatively Small Total From Prominent Contributors, Expenditures Mainly For Public Meetings / Events

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(Jan. 31, 2016) -- A disclosure form (required of all officeholders) timely filed Jan. 30 by Councilwoman Suzie Price shows that between July 1-Dec. 31, 2015, her officeholder (non-campaign) account received a sum comparatively small compared to other Council incumbents, with sums mainly from prominent contributors and expenditures mainly for public meetings or public events.

Contributors included developer George Medak, attorney Skip Keesal, immediate past 3rd dist. Councilman Gary DeLong, Signal Hill Petroleum and the Long Beach Police Officers Ass'n PAC, along with Belmont Shore's K.C. Branaghan's LLC and SE LB realtor Dick Gaylord.

Price used her officeholder account for expenditures mainly for public meetings or public events.

To view the full report, click here.

Councilwoman Price was audibly uneasy when other Council incumbents moved in Jan-Feb. 2015 to increase the allowable size of Mayor and Council officeholder accounts. The Council voted 5-3 (Mungo, Austin, Price dissenting) to triple the size of officeholder accounts after defeating a substitute motion (by Austin, joined by Price and Mungo) that would have doubled current officeholder accounts to $20,000 per year for Councilmembers and $50,000 per year for citywide electeds (failed on a reverse 3-5 vote.)

Councilwoman Price's officeholder account reported collecting $5,250 for 2015 compared to over $18,000 by Councilwoman Mungo and over $28,000 by Councilman Richardson.

Under LB's ordinance, LB incumbent electeds can solicit and accept sums for "officeholder expenses associated with holding office" under CA Government Code sections 89512-89519 but the ordinance excludes uses under sections 89513(e) and (g) relating to loans to candidates, political parties or committees.) It specifies that officeholder expense funds can't be used or expended in connection with a future election for an elective city office but doesn't preclude incumbents from giving funds to various groups and entities (including advocacy and political groups) whose support might prove useful to an incumbent in a future election.

Officeholder accounts can be filled from contributions from various persons and entities, which the incumbent may then disburse to neighborhood groups or for community events or use for officeholder expenses. (These sums are in addition to LB taxpayers spend to operate the Councilmembers' offices: $451,633 for each of nine Council office; $919,593 for the Mayor's office.]

LB Councilmember officeholder accounts weren't part of LB's voter-approved Prop M (1994), enacted by the public to do the following:

[LB Muni Code section 2.01.120 (E)] Officeholders are responding to high campaign costs by raising large amounts of money in off-election years. This fund-raising distracts them from important public matters, encourages contributions which may have a corrupting influence and gives incumbents an overwhelming and patently unfair fund-raising advantage over potential challengers. ...The integrity of the governmental process, the competitiveness of campaigns and public confidence in local officials are all diminishing.

Councilmember officeholder accounts were added in a controversial 1995 action by the Council without a vote of the people over the objections of a number of Prop M supporters who called them "slush funds."

In 2007, the Council voted to raise the allowable officeholder amounts over the objections (again) of some local residents -- but with the support of LB Auditor Laura Doud-- who argued at the time that the then-proposed increase would let Councilmembers use donated sums to support district events instead of tapping taxpayer resources.

In late January-early February 2015, all Council incumbents (4th dist. vacant) voted to increase the allowable size of their officeholder accounts but with disagreement over how much. The Council voted 5-3 (Mungo, Austin, Price dissenting) to triple the size of officeholder accounts after defeating a substitute motion that would have doubled current officeholder accounts to $20,000 per year for Councilmembers and $50,000 per year for citywide electeds; failed on a reverse 3-5 vote.)

Watch for LBREPORT.com's reports on other incumbent officeholder (and Council candidate campaign documents) as they come in.