The Dec. 9, 2019 contribution by the LBPOA PAC to the "Mayor Garcia Committee to Protect Police & Fire and Repair Infrastructure in Long Beach" may be the largest single contribution ever to a City Hall-sought ballot measure in Long Beach history. [We believe LBPOA has given similar total sums previously but over several contributions.]

It's the same committee that Garcia has periodically renamed to collect campaign contributions to fund campaigns for City Hall-sought ballot measures.

In 2018, he used his committee twice: first in June to fund a six figure campaign for the Measure M utility revenue transfer (that a court has now held unconstitutional and in November (with City Auditor Laura Doud letting her name) for Charter Amendments that included Measure BBB that now enables Garcia and all Council incumbents to seek third terms without facing a write-in requirement.

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On Jan. 21, 2020 a mailer landed in ELB mailboxes showing firefighters and urging a "yes" vote on Measure A. The flier states that it was paid for by the Garcia committee with "major funding from Long Beach Police Officers Association and Long Beach Firefighters Association Local 372." It includes a message from the LB Firefighters Ass'n president, Rex Pritchard, telling recipients that Measure A "will maintain Long Beach public safety positions, including firefighters and paramedics, help upgrade and improve our neighborhood fire stations, maintain ambulance companies that were recently added, and reduce 911 medical emergency response times."

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Measure A doesn't specify or guarantee its use for any particular spending items; it's a General Fund tax that the Council can spend for any General Fund purposes. LB voters approved Measure A in June 2016 after a six-figure campaign, funded in large part by LB's police and firefighter unions, run by the Garcia committee. The original Measure A stated that it was temporary, but in July 2019, the Council voted (without dissent) to put a measure on the March 2020 ballot, also called Measure A, that now seeks to extend the Measure A sales tax indefinitely.

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City Hall has received roughly $60 million more annually under Measure A, but to date the Council has restored only roughly 22 budgeted officers out of 208 officers (including LBPD's field anti-gang unit) erased in budgets during the 2009-2015 economic downturn. The LB Police Officers Association didn't publicly oppose the reductions that left LB taxpayers with the largest loss of police officers in the more than 100+ year history of the City of LB.

In his January 14, 2020 "State of the City" message, despite a local economy he says is "booming," Mayor Garcia didn't ask the Council to restore any further police officers for taxpayers.

To date, Mayor Garcia and the City Council have allocated Measure A sums mainly to infrastructure items and public safety (sworn and civilian) staffing but Measure A's $60 million annual cash infusion has also freed up other General Fund sums that City Hall has tapped to help fund raises for LB's police and firefighter unions.

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In its political activities, the LB Police Officers Association PAC joined Mayor Garcia (using his 2026 Lt. Governor committee) and state Senator Lena Gonzalez (using leftover 2019 campaign funds) in bypassing LB limits on campaign contributions to candidate-run campaign committees to give $10,000 each (a total of $30,000) to the LB Firefighters Association PAC which then ran an "independent expenditure campaign" to support the election of 1st dist. Council candidate Mary Zendejas in a November 2019 no-runoff special election.

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