(December 6, 2020, 5:04 p.m.) -- Tom Stout, co-founder of the Long Beach Taxpayers Association, has passed away. A retired public school teacher who taught decades of students auto mechanics, Mr. Stout had been battling an especially deadly form of cancer. He died Dec. 5.
 "Selfie" image from Mr. Stout's Facebook page Mr. Stout was an early advocate of Long Beach pension reform, whose Council testimony was repeatedly shrugged by Councils under Mayors Beverly O'Neill and Bob Foster. When the 2008 economic slowdown made the status quo unsustainable. Foster belatedly insisted city employee unions accept pension reform (but rarely acknowledged Mr. Stout's previous advocacy.) For over a decade, Mr. Stout waged an often lonely effort in support of LB taxpayers, frequently visible handing out homemade fliers outside LB businesses and at public meetings despite facing overwhelming spending by City Hall's allies. In March 2018, Mr. Stout joined in signing ballot arguments against the Measure M utility revenue transfer that sought to restore City Hall's ability to transfer a portion of City-run utility revenue for non-utility City Hall spending and, in a new provision, explicitly enabled the City utilities to raise their rates to backfill transferred sums. (City Hall rescinded its previous measure, imposed without voter approval, in settlement of a lawsuit brought by ELB taxpayers Diana Lejins and Anegla Kimball.) LB voters approved Measure M by roughly 53.8% after LB Mayor Garcia and multiple incumbents told LB voters it wasn't a tax and ran a six figure campaign via a committee controlled by Mayor Garcia. When Measure M passed, taxpayers Lejins and Kimball sued again, and in January 2020, a Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that Measure M was indeed a tax and violated CA's Prop 218 constitutional provisions governing imposition of new taxes. (City Hall is appealing the ruling and continues to impose the Measure M transfer in the interim.) On June 12, 2018 (a few days after voter passage of Measure M) Mr. Stout spoke in opposition to a Mayor/Auditor proposed Charter Amendent that would let the Mayor and Council incumbents seek third terms without a write-in requirement. During his testimony (delivererd without notes), Mr. Stout raised the money issue in Long Beach politics. He received a smug response from Mayor Garcia [edited version below, full transript here.]:
Carlos Ovalle has posted a full transcript of Mr. Stout's Council testimony on the Long Beach Politics Facebook page. To jump to it, click here. [Scroll down for further.] |
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Ten years earlier, Mr. Stout was among grassroots advocates opposed to a Nov. 2008 property parcel tax advocated by then-Mayor Foster. It required 2/3 (66.6%) voter approval after then-Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske refused to assent to unanimous Council approval to put it on the ballot. Despite a roughly $700,000 campaign run by Foster to enact the measure, it fell short of passage by a 52.8% to 47,.14% margin. (LB Taxpayers Association co-founder Kathy Ryan since exited LB for OC.) Mr. Stout wasn't all politics. He was a frequent presence at the annual Belmont Shore car show and showed up in support of multiple other car shows that popped up locally. A resident of LB's 7th Council district, Mr. Stout didn't flinch in criticizing City Hall spending items he considered wasteful, stupid or both, and frequently noted he was speaking as a resident of "the hood."
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