Do the readers responding agree or disagree with their statements? 53% disgareed; 47% agreed.

Do the two Council incumbents' statements' make the responding readers more or less likely to trust their judgment on taxpayer issues? 53% of respondents indicated they're less likely to trust them; 47% indicated they're more likely to trust them.

Councilwoman Suzie Price: "...[F]or anyone who says, you know, there's a lot of fat and we're wasting money, you have no idea what you're talking about; you have no idea what you're talking about. I challenge you to actually look at the books and stop the rhetoric because that's not what we've been focused on for the last two years. We've been living very prudent times here in the City of Long Beach and that's just the truth."

Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal: "...I'm proud of this Council that had very, very, very fiscally prudent policies and had the ability to cut, to reduce the 700 positions that the Mayor talked about and to save more than $250 million over the last ten years on pension costs, and has leaned this government as he said, but in leaning the government we still kept our eye on maintaining quality of life...[T]his doing more with less is not sustainable going forward. The question now becomes, now that we have stabilized our economy here locally, our city operations and our budgets, what is the city that we want to be today and what is the city that we want to be going forward?...

...[D]oing more with less is not sustainable and I echo Councilwoman Price's statement that anyone who thinks that there is fat really has not done their homework, that hyperbole, and invective and rhetoric and all of that really has to stop because that is just, the purpose of that is just distraction.

Ten years ago, before I ran for Council, when I was working on improving our development projects here in downtown Long Beach, I had coined a phrase about our city and it's not a nice phrase and I wasn't happy to call our city that but I said that we suffer from a "collective municipal inferiority complex." We did not think that we could actually deserve better or do better and so we took what was good enough.

And I think what we have to do is look at ourselves today and exercise some confidence. We have city employees that are talented. We have city employees that we have to compete to have them work with us here as opposed to work elsewhere. I think paying for talent is what we do in every industry and I am not embarrassed or shy about the fact that we will pay for talent because this city deserves it, and so let's crawl out of that collective municipal inferiority complex that this city suffered from for so long and that we have actually come away from and let's not revert to that and let's join with our residents and look at these solutions together and ask them what it is they want this city to be going forward.

The reader responses were collected from January 27 at 9:30 p.m. to January 29 at 2 p.m.. Our survey is unscientific.

The vast majority of respondents indicated they live in the eastern or south-eastern parts of Long Beach; about 40% indicated they're in areas between Studebaker Rd./Stearns St. to Carson St./Bellflower Blvd.; about a third said they're in Belmont Shore/Naples/Belmont Heights areas; another 13% listed unspecified parts of East Long Beach; the remainder were from Cal Heights to Alamitos Beach.

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Nearly 58% said they'd lived in Long Beach for 20 years or more; about 31% said they'd lived in LB from 10-20 years; the remainder between 5-10 years; percentages are rounded for simplicity.

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Here's a sampling of reader comments/opinions re Price:

Tidelands Funds is a great example. There is no accounting for the use of PUBLIC money. It's not part of the general funds budget but if the way they manage this fund is an example, they tolerate waste, inefficiency and zero accountability.

Intentions are good but ignores folly & waste re City Hall rebuild...

If the council had been prudent for the last twenty-five years I would not be so infuriated with this stupid whining

Just look at the $200K club! City employees are Not underpaid.

Only the ill-informed or un-informed would agree with her.

I respect her, but what about the annual "one-time" funding the Council budgets for its discretionary pork barrel projects?

She's speaking the truth.

A tax increase is a must.

With the exception of a few minor items and one big one (Civic Center) I think Council is generally prudent.

Here's a sampling of reader comments/opinions re Lowenthal:

We will have Suja in office for another 6 months. She's a lame duck and nothing she says (or has ever said)

This Lowenthal is the worst of the three Lowenthals. The second district is a disaster of overcrowded apartments, homeless druggies, and no parking. Simple, municipal parking lots, this would bring revenues, and help businesses and property values...Ms. Frugality she is not.

She's on to her next gig. What does she care.

She is using false figures to justify her statements.

So glad she will soon be gone!

As a person Lowenthal is a narcissist. However, she's also right here.

How much money wasdiverted from the General Fund through RDAs to developers and public infrastructure downtown?

She has done nothing in her time to convince me she is credible.

I personally think Suja can be a little outside the main stream (goats, bikes, too quick to let residents make decisions that professional staff should make, etc.) but when it comes to core services I respect her.

Opinions expressed by LBREPORT.com, our contributors and/or our readers are not necessary those of our advertisers. We welcome our readers' comments/opinions 24/7 via Disqus, Facebook and moderate length letters and longer-form op-ed pieces submitted to us at mail@LBReport.com.

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