UPDATE: City Atty Instructs Mayor's Office To Revise Its Agendized Item To First Seek Council Approval To Prepare Ordinance; Mayor Foster Agendizes Proposed Ordinance For <nobr>July 1</nobr> Council Action (Without First Obtaining Council Approval To Prepare Measure) That Would Require Public Disclosure Of All Commissions/Fees Paid in City Real Estate Purchases Over $1 Million

(UPDATE 6:48 p.m. June 25, 2014) -- Earlier today, LBREPORT.com published the story below noting that Mayor Bob Foster's office appeared not to have complied with a LB Municipal Code section by agendizing an item seeking Council approval (first of two enacting votes) of an ordinance he wants without first seeking and obtaining Council voted approval to have such an ordinance prepared in the first place. Following publication of our story, the City Attorney's office directed the Mayor's office to amend its agendizing memo to request the Council to consider and possibly vote on July 1 to direct the City Attorney's office to prepare the ordinance sought by the Mayor, whose enacting votes will now likely take place after a new Council majority takes office on July 15.

The Municipal Code section (cited by LBREPORT.com below) is a effectively check and balance that respects the primacy of the policy-setting City Council whose members have votes that LB's Mayor doesn't have. Under LB's voter-approved City Charter, the Mayor can express views and recommendations on citywide matters but has no vote, only a veto that six Councilmembers can override.

(June 25, 2014, 11:55 a.m. updated 2:05 p.m.) -- Mayor Bob Foster (who exits July 15) has agendized an item seeking July 1 Council approval (first of two required readings) of an ordinance accompanied by a transmittal memo (text below) that invites the speculative inference that it is, in effect, a last minute parting-shot aimed at now-retired City Manager Jerry Miller.

In his transmittal memo, Mayor Foster states:

RECOMMENDATION:
To declare an ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Division IV to Chapter 2.84 Relating to Real Estate Purchase contracts, read the first time and laid over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for final reading.
DISCUSSION:
This ordinance is designed to provide full transparency for all real estate transactions in excess of $1 million, in which the City is the buyer. It requires all individuals or corporations receiving any commissions or fees on such sales to be revealed and listed. In the recent past, there have been potential large transactions in which fees could be paid but not made public. This ordinance will require the full disclosure of such payments. The attached ordinance has the appropriate penalties for non-compliance. [City Attorney draft text attached; full agenda item embedded further below.]

To view the material accompanying the agenda item, see below.

Long Beach Mayor Foster Proposed Ordinance re Real Estate Purchases

Mr. Miller retired from his City Manager position in 2007 following Foster's 2006 election. He is now Managing Partner of IMC Municipal Consulting (INCO Municipal Consulting), a service of INCO Commercial Real Estate. [update] Mr. Miller tells LBREPORT.com that he had no role in the prospective sale of LB's downtown World Trade Center to the Port of LB for the Port's new HQ. Mr. Miller says INCO was involved but he wasn't, and adds that INCO and IMC are totally separate companies. [end update]

Purchase of the WTC for the Port's new HQ was strongly opposed by Foster. The proposed purchase was backed by PoLB staff, the LB Area Chamber of Commerce (in which Mr. Miller held a leadership position) and two Harbor Commissioners (Fields and Sramek.) However two of Mayor Foster's more recent Harbor Commission appointees (Drummond and Dines) opposed the purchase (both cited reasons on the merits), deadlocking the deal and ultimately killing it. (Foster subsequently sought and obtained Fields' removal with approval by a Council majority; Sramek resigned citing politics in Harbor Comm'n decisionmaking.)

Mayor Foster has since supported a Civic Center rebuild under a "public-private-partnership" transaction...in which the Port of Long Beach may take part if the Harbor Commission (now with a firm Foster majority) agrees to do so [which would presumably entail some level of periodic PoLB payments to the private developer/operator with the Port as a tenant/occupant in the new facility.]

Regarding the July 1, 2014 agenda item, Long Beach Municipal Code section 2.03.080A states under Ordinances and amendments:

No ordinance shall be presented to the Council or considered by it unless such ordinance has been previously ordered prepared by a motion duly and regularly adopted, or by report and with recommendations of the ordinance committee.

To LBREPORT.com's knowledge, the Foster-proposed ordinance wasn't previously presented to the Council or considered by it or previously ordered prepared by a motion duly and regularly adopted [and there is no current "ordinance committee."]

In the recently concluded Long Beach election cycle, an independent expenditure committee surfaced sponsored by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce that backed Damon Dunn for Mayor. Mr. Dunn finished second to Foster's endorsed choice, Robert Garcia, in an April multi-candidate contest and in a June runoff.

Developing...with further to follow on LBREPORT.com