City Hall-Sought Sales Tax Increase (Measure A) Passes With Nearly 60%; LBCC-Sought Property Tax Increase (Measure LB) Passes With Over 60%; Pearce Leads Gray 50.95% to 49.05% (All Precincts Reporting But With Provisional + Late Arriving Vote By Mail Ballots Remaining To Be Counted)
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(June 8, 2016, 6:45 a.m.) -- Measure A, a City Hall-sought sales tax increase to 10%, passed with nearly 60% of the vote.
An LBCC-sought debt-bond that will raise property tax bills, passed with over 60% of the vote.
In the runoff for LB's 2nd Council district, Jeannine Pearce has 3,393 votes (50.95%) and Eric Gray has 3,266 (49.05%). Caveat: provisional plus late arriving vote by mail ballots remain to be counted (and we don't have that precise number at dawn.)
City Hall's Measure A will raise LB's sales tax to 10% (currently 9% in Signal Hill/Lakewood, 8% in most OC cities) and lets current and future Councilmembers spend its revenue on any general fund items. In putting the measure on the ballot, the Council voted (8-0, Austin absent) to approve a ballot tile and text shown to voters as they marked their ballots that described the measure as for police, fire and infrastructure. The Council also adopted a legally non-binding resolution stating the Council's intent to prioritize spending of the tax revenue on police, fire and infrastructure and approved creating a citizen advisory committee to be chosen by the Mayor that can review but not change Mayor recommended and Council approved spending.
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The Long Beach Police Officers Association PAC gave $200,000 to the political campaign committee for Measure A, and the LB Firefighters Association PAC gave $50,000 to the campaign committee. Both unions also spent a sum totaling roughly roughly $21,000 for a voter poll/survey that concluded LB voters would support a sales tax increase they were told it would fund police, fire and infrastructure items. The political committee ultimately collected over $560,000 (cash + approx $36,000 non-monetary contribs) for a campaign that included multiple mail pieces portraying the general tax measure as for police, fire and infrastructure.
The two public safety unions, as well as other City Hall public employee unions, are preparing to negotiate new contracts with the City following the election. The measure had the support of virtually all incumbent LB City Hall electeds.
LBREPORT.com's City Auditor didn't explicitly take a position on Measure A but (LBREPORT.com learned and reported) shared the findings of an audit by her office -- before it was made public -- with Mayor Garcia (who wasn't the Auditee) that found LB's Public Works Department had let some contractors receive roughly $1.9 million more than they should have under the Job Order Contracting program. The actions involved projects costing an average of $100,000 each, meaning LB taxpayers didn't receive as many as 19 infrastructure projects that they might have.
In April (entering the campaign cycle for the sales tax increase portrayed as for infrastructure), Mayor Garcia agendized an item seeking changes in the Public Works Dept. program without disclosing Audit findings of which the Auditor had made him aware. On May 24, the Council approved City Attorney office-drafted changes to the Job Order Contracting program without disclosing the Audit-based underlying reasons for them. On May 25 (after vote by mail ballots had been circulating since roughly May 9), the Auditor's office released its findings. The Auditor's office has told LBREPORT.com that its timeline for releasing its Audit findings was coincidental.
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LBCC's Measure LB will raise property taxes for residents within the LBCC district (includes Lakewood and Avalon) by $25/yr per $100,000 of their property's assessed valuation for construction projects.
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In the 2nd district City Council runoff, Ms. Pearce currently leads with 127 votes (amounting to 1.9% of votes counted thus far) with provisional and late arriving vote by mail ballots (allowed to arrive until June 10 if postmarked by June 7) remaining to be counted. Ms. Pearce was supported by organized labor and by term limited exiting 2nd dist. incumbent Suja Lowenthal. Mr. Gray was supported by business interests and an independent expenditure committee associated with former Mayor Bob Foster ("you don't see my name on it") that two years earlier backed Robert Garcia for Mayor. (Mr. Gray was an enthusiastic supporter of Garcia's 2014 Mayoral candidacy; Mayor Garcia took no public position in the 2nd dist. Council race.)
Both Ms. Pearce and Mr. Gray supported the City Hall-sought Measure A sales tax increase and were generally uncritical of exiting 2nd district incumbent Lowenthal and City Hall's current leadership.
The 2nd district runoff concludes the 2016 Council election cycle which re-elected incumbents Dee Andrews (6th dist, won with over 50% in April avoiding runoff using term-limits bypass write-in procedure), Al Austin (8th dist., received over 50% in April avoiding runoff) and Daryl Supernaw (4th dist., no ballot opposition.)
