Councilwoman/State Senate Candidate Lena Gonzalez Won't Be In Long Beach For <nobr>Jan 8</nobr> City Council Meeting; She'll Be In Sacramento Using Teleconference To City Hall; Why Is She There And Not Here, And Who'll Pay For Her Food/Lodging/Travel?

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Councilwoman/State Senate Candidate Lena Gonzalez Won't Be In Long Beach For Jan 8 City Council Meeting; She'll Be In Sacramento Using Teleconference To City Hall; Why Is She There And Not Here, And Who'll Pay For Her Food/Lodging/Travel?

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(Jan. 8, 2019, 7:55 a.m., updated at 10:10 a.m.) -- Long Beach City Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, currently running to fill a LB-Huntington Park state Senate seat vacated by now-Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, won't be present in Long Beach for tonight's Jan. 8 City Council meeting. She'll be in Sacramento using a teleconference to participate in the Council meeting from the office of Arc Strategies, a firm that provides Sacramento legislative advocacy services to the City of Long Beach. The Arc Strategies website at this link describes the services it provides and lists the City of LB among its clients.

[UPDATE: 10:10 a.m., Jan. 8] LBREPORT.com has learned that Councilman Al Austin, who is also running for the same state Senate seat, used the same teleconference facility to participate in a Council meeting when he was in Sacramento on December 4, 2018.

So is Councilwoman Gonzalez in Sac'to on Jan. 8 on City-related business [for which she might seek LB taxpayer reimbursement for travel, food and lodging]? Was she in Sac'to on Jan. 7 to attend ceremonies surrounding the inauguration of Governor Gavin Newsom and other state oficials and does she plan to treat that as City-related business? LBREPORT.com has received no response to an email sent yesterday (Jan. 7) to the Councilwoman Gonzalez's Chief of Staff, Tyler Curley, inquiring about these matters.

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LBREPORT.com believes Councilman Al Austin, who is also running for the same state Senate seat, was in Sacramento on Jan. 7 apparently to attend Governor Newsom's ceremonies. We don't know if if Austin plans to treat his this as taxpayer-reimbursable City-related business but we believe he'll be in Long Beach for the Jan. 8 City Council meeting.

We wouldn't be surprised if Mayor Garcia was in Sac'to on Jan. 7 for the Newsom ceremonies, and we don't know if he plans to treat this as City-related business, but we presume he'll be in Long Beach on Jan. 8.

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Jan. 8: An earlier version of this story erroneously stated that the Mayor's State of the City message is scheduled after the Jan. 8 Council meeting. It is scheduled for Jan. 15.

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