Team coverage by Joe Mello and Bill Pearl

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Councilwomen Gabelich, who was met by applause in opening the meeting, enumerated arguments made for dividing the Bixby Knolls Atlantic Corridor between the 8th and 7th Council districts...and responded to them point by point.

Noting that city staff had said the 7th district should increase by about 1,300 residents to achieve numerical perfection, Councilman Gabelich said that in her opinion, Councilman Johnson was seseking to add 3,900+ residents (nearly 3,400 residents along the Atlantic corridor and eastward) who are highly motivated voters (adding that the 8th district would would have another Councilmember in a year (i.e. she will not be seeking reelection). Councilwoman Gabelich said she intends to work to put a measure on the 2012 ballot to have future Council redistrictings taken out of the hands of the City Council and given to an independent body. That comment drew applause, as did a number of her remarks.

Councilwoman Gabelich said that she had reached out to Councilman Johnson and to Mayor Foster in an effort to seek resolution of the issue...but said her efforts had been met with silence or promises of return calls that never came.

Councilman Johnson took some lumps from audience members. Southern Los Cerritos area resident John Deats said Johnson hadn't done what he said he'd do as a candidate: oppose an advancing plan for elevated truck lanes along parts of the 710 freeway. [Project consultants say the elevated truck lanes areas will be in part of the area south of the 405 freeway and be at grade level north of the 405 freeway at the Metro tracks; Mr. Deats says he continues to doubt this.]

North Long Beach community advocate Laurie Angel raised an issue that others hadn't, saying Johnson's proposal would effectively dilute the voting power of West Long Beach voters, shifting a large number of Bixby Knolls/Cal Hts high propensity voters into the 7th district where they'd dilute the votes of WLB's lower likelihood voters.

However, Wrigley area advocate Joan Greewood (without explicitly mentioning Johnson's proposal) said Wrigley had been divided up between two (at one point three) Councilmembers and said this had worked well; she said it was up to Councilmembers and the community to try to work together. At the June 7 Council meeting, Ms. Greenwood testified that the Wrigley area had been Gerrymandered in the past and favored having it reunited. Councilman Johnson responded by saying that in a perfect world, Wrigley wouldn't be divided, but said it would remain so. (The resulting vote was 5-4 to advance Johnson's map proposal as the only one for discussion. Yes: Garcia, Lowenthal, DeLong, Andrews, Johnson; No: O'Donnell, Schipske, Gabelich, Neal).

On his motion, Councilman Johnson declined to advance simultaneously for public discussion an alternative map by Councilwoman Gabelich that leaves Atlantic Ave. intact and instead adds 7th district residents at the NE corner of the 7th district. In declining to do so, Councilman Johnson said that proposal wouldn't reunite parts of Bixby Knolls and would make the 7th district even less compact than it is now.

Following Councilwoman Gabelich's community meeting remarks, City Hall's Government Affairs Director Tom Modica discussed the redistricting process. Present at the meeting (although not speaking) was Assistant City Manager Suzanne Frick.

Following Q & A, the meeting split into "breakout" sessions to discuss various map proposals. Prior to the breakout sessions, Councilwoman Gabelich credited Blair Cohn, Exec. Dir. of the Bixby Knolls Improvement Association for business and community improvement, for measures that she said she had followed.

Lawn signs were visible at the meeting stating "Don't Break Bixby Knolls," handed out by volunteers to willing takers (organizers indicated 300 were handed out).

Photo by Joe Mello

Los Cerritos neighborhood resident Christine Zion took a sign as she was leaving and said, "It was nice to see the variety of comments at the meeting from so many different parts of the city." She and her friend Pat Harper said they plan to attend a 7th District community meeting on Redistricting being organized by Councilman James Johnson (details below). That meeting -- which as of midday June 29 hasn't been visibly announced on Councilman Johnson's City Hall or non-City Hall websites or on his Facebook page -- is scheduled for the Bixby Knolls Christian Church, 1240 E. Carson Street, at 7:00 p.m. on June 30.

LBReport.com has learned that Councilman Johnson's office has been telephoning area residents -- apparently including those from 8th district-proposed-to-be-7th district areas -- to advise them of the meeting. Some area residents have reported receiving automated "robo calls" about the meeting. [If you receive a "robo call" on your answering machine or voice mail, save it and email us so we can hear it.]