We Question These Statements Mayor Garcia Submitted For Inclusion In Official Election Pamphlet, And He Says... '

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We Question These Statements Mayor Garcia Submitted For Inclusion In Official Election Pamphlet, And He Says...

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(Jan. 22 2018, 4:20 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com is to our knowledge the only media outlet to date that has provided readers with a link from the City Clerk's website showing what candidates for LB city offices submitted for publication in the official election pamphlet that will be sent to all registered voters. State law gives the public ten calendar days immediately following the closing date for submitting candidate statements to review candidates' statements. During this period, a voter may file a formal legal action (petition for writ of mandate or injunction) asking a court to amend or delete statements alleged to be false or misleading, which a court can only do if it finds "clear and convincing proof" that the material is false or misleading. [Source: CA Elections Code section 13313]

The Superior Court court filing deadline elapses later today Jan. 22, while the "court of public opinion" remains open through the election and beyond.

Mayor Robert Garcia, seeking re-election citywide, submitted a candidate statement including two claims we've heard him make elsewhere. On Jan. 21, we emailed Mayor Garcia (using his non-.gov email address) to let him know what we were preparing to say about these statements and shortly thereafter we received a response (via Mark Taylor using his non-.gov email address.) We put them side by side, below.

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Source: Mayor Garcia candidate submitted statement "As your Mayor, I have: [bullet point] Balanced every city budget..." and [bullet point] "...Brought thousands of good jobs to Long Beach, and lowered the unemployment rate to historic lows."

LBREPORT.com says

Mayor Garcia says

[Re balancing city budget] In addition to the fact that state law forbids cities from enacting budgets that aren't balanced, under Long Beach law (the City Charter), LB's Mayor doesn't prepare city budgets or enact them. The City Manager (city staff) prepares a proposed budget that the Mayor can review for up to 30 days before sending it to the City Council with or without non-binding Mayoral recommendations. The Council can ignore or agree with the Mayor's recommendations, and may or may not tweak the Manager's proposed budget before voting to enact it, but the Mayor has absolutely no enacting vote on the budget, only a line-item veto that the Council can override with a 2/3 vote.

[Re bringing jobs/lowering unemployment rate] Even if one accepts the childish premise that a politician can magically "bring" good jobs, the CA Employment Development Department calculates a city's unemployment rate based on where people live, not where they work. EDD data show other area cities also saw decreases in their unemployment rates, and data cited by the City itself acknowledge that most LB residents work outside of Long Beach.

The Mayor has worked and led efforts to balance budgets and expand reserves. He's proud of his work along with the City Council and city staff.

In addition, the Mayor worked to restart the Economic Development Department and has worked to implement numerous policies that have spurred job creation. Unemployment is low, and thousands of jobs have been created.

The Mayor trusts that voters understand and appreciate what he’s done to develop the City’s budget and improve our local economy.

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