Corps of Engineers SF Office Told City In October -- Three Weeks Before Mayor Garcia Nov. SF Trip -- That It Recommends DC HQ Approval To Proceed With East San Pedro Bay Ecosystem Restoration Study (Which May Discuss Breakwater Modifications That With Caveats May Restore Some Wave Activity)
COE DC HQ Will Make Final Decision
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(Nov. 18, 2015) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that the City of Long Beach was informed -- on Oct. 21 -- by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (COE) South Pacific Division office in San Francisco that the office is recommending that COE's Washington, D.C. HQ authorize proceeding with an East San Pedro Bay Ecosystem Restoration Study. The Study may discuss and recommend modifications to the federal LB Breakwater that could increase wave activity and water circulation if found to be consistent with continuing to protect private property and public (including Port) infrastructure.
The notification to the City by COE came by telephone on Oct. 21, roughly three weeks before Mayor Robert Garcia went to San Francisco, met with COE Brigadier General Mark Toy on November 12 and emerged to send a mass emailing via his non-city email domain (robertgarcia.com) titled "Big News," stating "we finally reached agreement...to move forward with a study of our coastal ecosystem" and indicating that the General would be "flying down in the coming weeks for an official signing ceremony of the agreement."
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However Greg Fuderer, Senior Public Affairs Specialist in the Corps of Engineers Los Angeles office, has told LBREPORT.com that the COE's SF South Pacific Division office had sent the package of recommendation materials to COE's DC HQ on Oct. 21. (He added that COE's DC HQ will make the ultimate decision on proceeding with the study.)
"We informed the City [on Oct. 21] (by phone)" that the package had been sent, Mr. Fuderer said (and declined earlier this week to say if COE's DC HQ had agreed to the SF office's recommendation and didn't offer a timeline for it.)
A City of Long Beach release at nearly the same time was more circumspect; it accurately said that Garcia and Toy had met...but didn't contend the meeting was about reaching any agreement [and it's now clear that SF's COE office had already agreed to recommend the LB-sought study three weeks earlier.]
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Garcia's mass emailing three weeks later told recipients, "This is a moment so many of us have been waiting for. Just a few minutes ago I left a meeting with Brigadier General Mark Toy in San Francisco. In that meeting, we finally reached agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with a study of our coastal ecosystem."
Amnesia File
Ceremonial signings aren't unusual...and one was already held -- on the same subject matter of an East San Pedro Bay Ecosystem Study -- in November 2010 during the Foster administration. LBREPORT.com was present and provide VIDEO coverage of the 2010 event at which the City publicly marked the fact that it had agreed, under previous voted action by the City Council, to pay half the cost (with Tidelands funds.); the new version of the study requires the city to cover 1/3 of its cost; like the previous city cost share agreement; it will use Tidelands funds.
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LBREPORT.com provided VIDEO coverage (below) of the 2010 ceremony. It included then-Mayor Foster, then Councilmembers Garcia, DeLong, Schipske, Johnson and (now Assemblyman) O'Donnell (the latter with a surfboard); Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal; representatives for Councilwoman Gabelich, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, then-state Senator Alan Lowenthal and then-Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D., LB-Carson). Two Peninsula area homeowners also attended the event, carrying signs expressing their disapproval of funding for the study.
Inasmuch as Mayor Garcia met with the COE's SF office three weeks after the City was notified that COE's SF regional HQ would recommend DC approval of proceeding with the study, we suspect Mayor Garcia's visit with General Toy actually had a simpler subject matter: to arrange a ceremonial signing photo op in the coming weeks, very similar to the one held by the previous Mayor and previous Council with the same subject matter under a slightly different cost-funding package almost exactly five years ago.
