[Scroll down for further.]

Lambert Adouki and Ian Patton have organized "NO on Measure 'A' -- Stop the Tax on Long Beach Working Families" -- have launched a (website , and Facebook page, and say they've filed papers with the Secretary of State, will use traditional and online media and message and have scheduled their first fundraiser tonight (May 17.)

"The hope is to penetrate through the onslaught of special interest-funded propaganda and provide a naturally skeptical electorate with enough information to make a well-informed choice, with special focus on the tax's prime victims, working families, those on fixed incomes, and our small businesses," they say in an email.

Adouki & Associates is a for-profit firm (website here) but says its efforts to oppose Measure "A" are entirely pro bono. "No contributions to the committee will go toward consulting time or fees beyond reimbursing actual expenses incurred."

The firm adds: "Beyond taking on Measure "A", many supporters have encouraged Adouki and Patton to channel the building frustration with Long Beach City Hall into an organized reform movement. Adouki and Patton intend to explore further efforts in that regard following the June election."

Advertisement

Advertisement

In an emailed statement, the firm says:

Adouki & Associates Principal Lambert Adouki is a twenty-year resident of the City of Long Beach and Senior Associate Ian Patton is a life-long resident. As concerned members of the community -- and after much encouragement from neighbors, friends in the local activist community, and many locally based professionals and small business owners -- Adouki and Patton agreed to spearhead an effort to provide voters with an alternative view to the big money campaign being waged by downtown interests to pass Measure "A".

"The yes campaign has spent a small fortune trying to convince Long Beach that there is only upside to this measure. A cursory, or indeed even a thorough, review of their campaign materials would leave the average voter with little idea that Measure "A" would in fact raise the sales tax at all, let alone make Long Beach one of the most highly and regressively taxed cities in the entire State of California, nor would it leave them with an understanding that the revenue is not earmarked for any of the implied appropriations. Everyone from restaurateurs to convenience store owners to realtors who have contacted Adouki and Patton have expressed desperation that this vessel for further waste and corrupt dealing at City Hall appears to be sailing to victory without a professional outreach campaign to provide voters the real story.

Mr. Patton tells LBREPORT.com in an email "We're putting this together as fast as we can..." He adds that the firm's effort is separate from / has no connections with opposition to the measure mounted by Congressional candidate Andy Whallon (dubbed the "Long Beach Rebellion.")

Advertisement

Advertisement

Thus far, Long Beach Taxpayers Association co-founder Tom Stout (who co-authored by ballot opposition) has basically handed out xerox-copied statements of his ballot argument in opposition outside community meetings. Mr. Stout says that he recently received some small sums allowing him to produce a small number of yard signs; LB Taxpayers Ass'n co-founder Kathy Ryan writes pieces for the LB Taxpayers Association website and Facebook pages.

Arrayed against them has been sophisticated messaging from City Hall, amplified by a professional campaign funded by $150,000 cash from the LB Police Officers and Firefighters unions (both preparing to negotiate new contracts with the City.) The unions' contributions to the "Mayor Garcia, Foster & O'Neill Committee to Support Measures A & B to Protect Police & Fire and Repair Infrastructure in Long Beach" have paid for multiple mailers -- the first six of which failed to identify the unions as major contributors (changed on more recent mailers.) The mailers tell recipients the measure is for police, fire, infrastructure and libraries...although the tax measure text doesn't mention these items and would legally allow current and future Councilmembers to spend the tax revenue on any general fund items they wish. Some Councilmembers have also used their regular monthly community meetings to schedule presentations by city staff and/or the Mayor ostensibly presenting factual information on the measure (at which city officials dispense all information and field all questions on the issue.)

Three individuals from Mayor Garcia's ten-person office staff are known to be involved in the campaign, two taking unpaid leave to do so (one of whom was campaign manager for Garcia's 2014 Mayoral campaign) with Mayor Garcia's Chief of Staff listed as the campaign's treasurer and doing campaign-related work on off-work time periods. In recent days, at least two Councilmembers have sent mass emailings inviting indicating that the sales tax increase will provide more police, firefighter resources and local infrastructure.

Councilmembers could have -- but didn't -- list these items in the tax measure itself, which would have legally guaranteed them for taxpayers with a 2/3 voter passage required under Prop 13/Prop 218. Omitting the items avoids a legal guarantee and would let the City levy the tax with a 50%+1 majority. Councilmembers passed a legally non-binding resolution stating the Council's then-intent to prioritize spending for police, fire and infrastructure (which the Council needn't follow after the election) and added a "citizens oversight committee" whose members the Mayor will choose and will have no legal ability to change Council spending actions .

Councilmembers also voted in February (8-0, Austin absent) to approve a ballot label showing voters a title and a string of specific items including police, fire and infrastructure, and after a string of items adds four words "and maintain general services" to cover spending the tax on items of the Council's choice.

Some neighborhood and civic groups have scheduled one-sided presentations in which city officials, including Mayor Garcia or campaign reps, present pro sales-tax-hike positions without an opposing viewpoint. Some presentations avoid mentioning the tax measure itself and instead recite items for which the city officials take credit (avoiding mentions of less popular Council actions including a costly new Civic Center and management raises.)

LBREPORT.com is told that in recent days, two LB neighborhood groups -- the Belmont Shore Residents Association and the Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance -- tried to present both sides of the proposed sales tax measure but have indicated that proponents of the measure didn't provide a speaker.

On May 18, North Long Beach's Deforest Park Neighborhood Association plans to present both sides of the measure at a specially scheduled Wednesday meeting -- on May 18 from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at 6255 Deforest Ave. The group says it "won't be a debate, but an educational and informational meeting" with Mayor Robert Garcia (who co-signed the ballot argument in support) speaking in support of the sales tax increase ballot measure and an individual in opposition will present the opposing point of view.

In late April, LBREPORT.com offered to organize a debate between the Mayor and a Councilmember of his choice and two opponents of the measure (formal debate style, no spun moderator questions) and received no response.

Vote by mail ballots began flying on May 9. Election day is June 7.