The City is continuing its review of the two proposals submitted by CiviCore Alliance and Plenary-Edmore Civic Partners for the Long Beach Civic Center RFP. Both submittals are incredibly complex, and staff is reviewing each administrative and financial component in detail. The City is committed to providing the best recommendation and analysis to the Mayor City Council for discussion, and will return to the Mayor and City Council when the analysis is complete. It is not yet known when City staff’s analysis will be complete. City staff will provide an update memo to the Mayor and City Council by early next week on this topic.

A July 1 agenda item might have enabled voted action on the controversial item by an outgoing Council majority under outgoing Mayor Bob Foster. "Early next week" (for an "update memo) would be roughly July 1. The next regularly scheduled Council meeting thereafter would be July 8, which is the final meeting for Councilmembers Garcia, DeLong, Schipske, Johnson and Neal and usually reserved for exiting ceremonies. A new Council majority takes office on July 15.

Entering into a "public-private-partnership" to rebuild and operate a new Civic Center (and give the developer/operator the ground under the now-former LB courthouse at Ocean/Magnolia for its private development) is supported by Mayor Foster and recommended by city management. The proposal has drawn fire on various grounds, with some taxpayers (and now-former Mayoral candidates) citing costs, alleging a lack of transparency and public participation, and noting city management's failure to first seek bids to establish the true marketplace cost to seismically retrofit LB's 1970's era City Hall. Instead, city management offered the Council and public an in-house estimate of the cost for a seismic retrofit, contends City Hall has become operationally obsolete and says a rebuilt Civic Center could offer a better use of public spaces.

The Civic Center rebuild has been enthusiastically supported by LB's two downtown Councilmembers: Vice Mayor (now Mayor elect) Robert Garcia and Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, and Council majorities have voted to spend over $1 million to date to pursue the project, with the sole Council voted dissent coming from now-exiting Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske.

Unless five incumbent Councilmembers were to call a special Council meeting on 24 hours notice to take voted action on a city staff recommendation that has no current date certain for delivery, the next voted action(s) on the proposed Civic Center rebuild will come from a new Council majority. It will take office on July 15 comprised of Councilmembers Lena Gonzalez, Suzie Price, Stacy Mungo, Roberto Uranga and Rex Richardson (joining incumbents Suja Lowenthal, Patrick O'Donnell, Dee Andrews and Al Austin) under non-voting Mayor Garcia.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, city management declined on June 12 to provide (in response to a Public Records Request by LBREPORT.com) the two proposals submitted in early June by two dueling developer/operators until after a contract is signed with one of them. [LBREPORT.com coverage here.]

Further as we learn it on LBREPORT.com.