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On Nov. 10, 2015, after over three hours of discussion, including split public testimony mainly in opposition, Councilman Richardson seconded the fist in a series of motions (and several that followed) by Councilman Al Austin, which carried in 8-0 votes (Andrews absent), approving city staff recommended actions to enable a dense residential development proposed by Integral Communities on the site of the former Will J. Reid scout park at 4747 Daisy Ave. (131 two and three story townhomes on roughly 10.5 acres.)

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On August 19, 2014, Councilman Richardson joined a unanimous Council in voting to deny appeals and approve contracts without new CEQA environmental review (since 1992) that enabled the long-term continued export of coal and bulk petroleum coke from the Port of Long Beach through a terminal used (under a sublease from another tenant) by Oxbow Carbon, LLC.

The Port of Long Beach urged the City Council to reject the appeal; the appellants (which sought to send the long-term (15-20 year) leases back to the Harbor Commission for environmental review) were Earth Justice on behalf of the Sierra Club, Communities for a Better Environment and National Resources Defense Council; those opposing the appeals included the LB Area Chamber of Commerce, ILWU, Harbor Trucking Ass'n and Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.

Although voting to overrule the appeals, Councilman Richardson voiced concern about open coal cars traveling through parts of Long Beach. On January 6, 2015, the City Council's Federal Legislation Committee, chaired by Richardson, voted (3-0) to recommend Council approval of federal legislation that would require covering trains or trucks hauling petroleum coke or other polluting items. [The full Council approved the Committee recommendation.]

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Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union PAC, and the Service Employees International Union Local 721 PAC, gave Councilman Richardson's officeholder account $750 and $500 respectively.

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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.]

The largest sum disbursed by Councilman Richardson from his officeholder account in the latter half of 2015 was $3,000 to CA Political Law, Inc. for [document lists three-letter codes summarizing uses] professional services (legal/accounting). The second largest sum went to The Strategy Group of Chicago, IL for $2,500 (campaign consultants); HSG Consulting received $1372.92 for literature and Progressive Solutions Consulting received $1,324.11 (campaign consultants).

The Chicago-based Strategy Group website (which features a photo of President Barack Obama on its front page) describes itself as follows: "For more than 20 years, nobody in the Democratic Party has earned more high-profile victories than The Strategy Group. What we can say about every one of those wins, whether it was for a state legislator or President of the United States, is that winning takes more than good mail. Winning is more than the sum of your paid communications. Winning takes careful planning, creative thinking, and meticulous execution." The Strategy Group group lists a number of its clients on this page.

Others receiving money from Councilman Richardson's officeholder account in the latter half of 2015 included the NAACP's Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) youth program ($250) and the CA Aquatic Therapy and Wellness Center ($200), the Democratic Women's Study Club ($100) and the South Coast Interfaith Council ($300).

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.)

Councilman Richardson listed $8,140 collected in the last half of 2015, bringing his 2015 officholder total amount collected to $28,735.

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