(Sept. 19, 2015, 11:50 a.m.) -- The City Council's Public Safety Committee (Price, Supernaw, Austin), has scheduled a meeting (per chair Price) on Tues. Sept. 22 at 3:30 p.m. on the following items:

• Recommendation to receive a report from the Long Beach Police Department on recent shooting activity in the City;

• Recommendation to receive a report evaluating warnings and citations that were issued related to fireworks on the 4th of July holiday, as well as discuss possible changes that can be made in the future such as higher penalties, stepped up enforcement, and/or a public education campaign.

No materials are attached to the agendized items that the public can see and review in advance.

The Committee meeting in the City Council Chamber is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m...with a meeting of the Successor Agency (full City Council) to the former Redevelopment Agency scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m.

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The Public Safety Committee last met in April, 2015 (prior to Councilman Supernaw's election; he replaced Councilwoman Mungo on the Committee.) Last year and this year, chair Price followed the practice of predecessor chair Garcia in not calling meetings of the Committee to discuss the public safety aspects of budgets recommended by the Mayors who appointed them chairs.

The Committee has no independent enactment power, but a majority can make recommendations to the full Council.

On September 15, 2015 the Council voted 9-0 to approve a FY16 budget, recommended by Mayor Garcia, that didn't restore funding to any part of LBPD's former field anti-gang unit (cut in half in FY13, erased in FY14 and FY15 budgets). LBPD's current and immediate past Police Chiefs have both indicated that the majority of LB's violent crime and police shootings are gang related.

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LBPD's former field anti-gang unit previously deployed 20 officers + 2 sergeants in gang impacted neighborhoods, where officers could observe conditions firsthand, work contacts and gather intelligence. LBPD still has a budgeted anti-gang unit (handling investigations, filing cases and the like) but not the field anti-gang unit it had previously.

During the Council's Aug. 18 budget hearing on LBPD's budget in August, Mayor Garcia told the Council (and the public) that LB's number of murders this year is roughly equivalent to what it was a year earlier...but with the most recent murders, it is now roughly 22% higher than it was last year at this time.

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LBREPORT.com will carry LIVE coverage of Council's upcoming Public Safety Committee meeting on our front page: www.LBREPORT.com, starting at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 22.

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