That means the Budget Oversight Committee may, or may not meet, on Sept. 13 in advance of the full Council meeting. Either way, LBREPORT.com will provide LIVE VIDEO of the proceedings (which could start at 4:00 p.m. or some other earlier time prior to the Council meeting at 5:00 p.m.; we'll update this story as we learn more.

The full City Council will ultimately vote on a FY17 City Hall budget that will decide how many police officers to restore for taxpayers (Mayor Garcia recommends 8 out of 200+ erased since FY10) and how many fire services to restore (one fire engine out of four erased, plus a NLB paramedic/rescue unit still gone).

The Council budget votes will come roughly 90 days after Councilmembers (Pearce not yet in office) approved the following ballot title and text for the Measure A "blank check" sales tax increase to 10%: [verbatim text, all caps in original] "CITY OF LONG BEACH PUBLIC SAFETY, INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIR AND NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES MEASURE. To maintain 911 emergency response services; increase police, firefighter/paramedic staffing; repair potholes/streets; improve water supplies; and maintain general services..."

[Scroll down for further.]

The Mayor/Manager proposed budget doesn't include raises now being sought by LB's multiple city employee unions. LB's police and firefighter unions were the largest contributors to a $600,000+ campaign for the sales tax increase.

During recent budget discussions, Councilman Al Austin inquired publicly how much it would cost to restore half of LBPD's field anti-gang unit. LBPD's field anti-gang unit consisted of 20 officers + 2 sergeants (so half would be 11 total sworn officers). City management has indicated that that ten LBPD officers (pay + benefits) cost roughly $1.5 million.

Police Chief Robert Luna -- to whom LBREPORT.com defers on how to allocate money that the Council allocates -- said in response to an audience question at last week's 4th dist. community budget meeting that [paraphrase] if additional revenue appeared, he'd use it first to provide new officers for training since LBPD faces multiple legal imperatives for continuing training...which require pulling officers off assignments including patrol and other community policing duties. [Comment: Chief Luna's response indicates to us that the Mayor/Manager proposed restoration of 8 officers is definitely too small.]

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9th dist. Councilman/Vice Mayor Rex Richardson recently told his district's community budget meeting that restoring Engine 8 provides a "path" to restoring Rescue 12 because LB Fire Chief DuRee has said his first priority was to restore Enigne 8 before restoring Rescue 12. So, with Engine 8 restored, Rescue 12 is "next" -- but when? And only after Rescue 12 is restored will Engine 17 be restored -- and also when?

4th district Councilman Daryl Supernaw gave the Council a detailed explanation on why restoring Engine 17 would serve a large population stretching from western Los Altos to 6th district Central Long Beach and also benefit part of the 5th district, and Fire Chief DuRee has said this could be done quickly if the Council budgets the money. That would mean budgeting $3.3 million annually to restore Rescue 12 ($1.1 mil) and Engine 17 ($2.2 mil.)

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1st district Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, whose constituents continue to endure disproportionate numbers of shootings (including the murder of a mother and her four year old daughter one month ago today) tried to cover our camera lens when we asked after her district's community budget meeting if she'd support restoring police or fire resources beyond what the Mayor/Manager proposed.

Meanwhile, eastern parts of Long Beach (including Council districts 3, 4 and 5) are encountering residential burglaries and auto burglaries/thefts at significantly higher rates, which city officials blame in part to Prop 47 (reduced some felonies to misdemeanors) and Sac'to budget-driven prison "realignment" which has sent some convicts to County jails where they're often released early.

3rd district Councilwoman Suzie Price, whom Mayor Garcia named to chair the Council's Public Safety Committee, has for the third year in a row declined to agendize an item in her Public Safety Committee during the budget cycle specifically to discuss public safety aspects of the budget proposed by city management and recommended by the Mayor.

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In November 2013, Councilmembers Al Austin, Dee Andrews and Robert Garcia voted to approve double-digit city management pay raises that now cost the General Fund an estimated $1.7 million each year.

In fall 2015, all Councilmembers (prior to Pearce) voted to take roughly $1.7 million annually from LB's General Fund to finance the costs of asbestos removal and demolition of LB's former courthouse that management didn't include, and the Council didn't insist on including, in sums that the City's chosen new Civic Center developer/operator should pay (or share spread over 40 years.)

The City of LB currently provides a police level for its taxpayers roughly 20% thinner citywide than it was when then-candidate Robert Garcia told 1st district voters (Dec. 2008) that his "vision for the 1st district and for the rest of the city" was "always a commitment to safe and clean streets. And you can be sure that my number one priority will always be the safety and security of the people that live in the city."

The Mayor/Manager proposed FY17 budget would leave Long Beach with a citywide deployable police level roughly equivalent per capita to what Los Angeles would have if L.A. Mayor Garcetti and the L.A. City Council cut roughly a third of LAPD's officers.