These Nine Bad Bills are rushing through the legislature with no Sacramento media left to WARN the public.
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(August 1, 2020, 7:30 a.m.) -- Recently filed campaign reports show that the political committee operated by Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, that most recently ran the March 2020 campaign for Measure A (to extend a 2016 sales tax increase that LB voters were told would be temporary) and to increase LB's hotel room tax (that LB Councilmembers say will be used for arts-related purposes) shows the following:
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Tied with the LB police offices' union for the largest single contribution ($25,000) was MWN Community Hospital, LLC , the City's lessee/operator for the still shuttered facility (awaiting state licensure). An April 8 city release described MWN as "a partnership between Pacific6 Enterprises, co-founded by former Molina Healthcare CEO John Molina; AHMC Healthcare, a privately held hospital corporation founded by Jonathan Wu; and Network Medical Management, which provides administrative support to medical groups and physicians."
On April 14, 2020, the City Council (motion by Councilman Daryl Supernaw) voted without dissent to advance $250,000 to pay for certain Community Hospital (elevator related) repairs described at the time as related to provide COVID-19 patient capacity. An accompanying Council agendizing memo acknowledged that MWN was technically supposed to pay for repairs of this type under the terms of its lease with the City. The agendizing memo also acknowledged that the $250,000 sum advanced by the City Council action didn't include a legal requirement of reimbursement of the sum for the City's taxpayers.
In a July 17, 2020 update, the City's Director of Economic Development, John Keisler, told LBREPORT.com that as stated in the April 2020 agendizing memo "The City would be making these repairs effectively as an advance to MWN with the understanding that MWN and the City will work together to secure reimbursement to the City for these costs from the State or other sources. However, there is no assurance of reimbursement." In its 45-year agreement with MWN, the City has agreed to share up to $50 million in construction costs related to the seismic retrofit of the facility. The City may request reimbursement or credit for the elevators as part of this agreement or other sources." Mr. Keisler also indicated that it's the City's understanding that the anticipated surge in hospital visits related to COVID-19 didn't materialize and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) no longer required the use of Community Hospital for patient transfers.
The third largest contributor to the Garcia-run political committee was Councilman Rex Richardson's-run political committee, a ballot measure committee that between early April, 2019 and late June 2019 collected a whopping $200,000+ for some type of then-publicly unspecified ballot measure On Jan 7, 2020, Richardson and his Council allies suffered a stinging political setback when the Council -- by the slimmest majority -- declined to advance to City Attorney drafting stage a Richardson-proposed $298 million debt-bond/property tax increase Nov. 2020 ballot measure. Instead, on a 5-4 vote on a substitute motion by Councilwoman Suzie Price, the Council approved a second half of Richardson's agenda item, to request a report from city staff with details on available state and fed'l funding sources. (Voting "yes" on the Price substitute were Councilmembers Price, Supernaw, Mungo, Andrews and Austin. Voting "no" were Councilmembers Zendejas, Pearce, Uranga and Richardson.) During the more than four hour agenda item, Mayor Garcia didn't publicly state his position on the item, pro or con.
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