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Carlos Ovalle, Reform Coalition Co-Founder, Enters Council District 7 Race To Unseat Two Term Incumbent Roberto Uranga

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(July 17, 2021, 10:20 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that Carlos Ovalle, a co-founder of LB's Reform Coalition has filed paperwork to enter the CD 7 election to unseat two-term incumbent Councilman Roberto Uranga.

Mr. Ovalle is the first Reform Ticket-backed candidate to publicly surface in the 2022 election cycle in which voters could unseat or re-elect incumbents in CD 1 (Zendejas), CD 3 (Price), CD 5 (Mungo, who hasn't filed re-election paperwork at this point) and CD 9 (Richardson).

Mr. Ovalle's record of advocacy includes opposing Measure BBB, a Charter Amendment put on the 2018 ballot by Council incumbents, including Uranga, that on voter approval has now enabled themselves to seek third terms without a write-in requirement.

Mr. Ovalle is among supporters of the grassroots Riverpark Coalition's call for long promised but long denied westside greenspace (instead of developer-sought commercial and residential projects). (Amid that advocacy, on April 14, Councilman Uranga voted against entitling an RV parking/commercial storage facility at 3701 Pacific Pl (CD 8) along the LA River.)

Mr. Ovalle has also called for more transparency in implementing improvements to the Wrigley greenbelt.

Mr. Ovalle also founded and heads People of Long Beach, a citywide policy advocacy group that seeks changes in City Hall practices on taxpayer and neighborhood impacting issues.

The Reform Coalition, with Mr. Ovalle's support, is pursuing a lawsuit seeking an affordable recount of the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's certification of a 16-vote approval margin for the 2020 extension of the Measure A ("blank check") sales tax increase. Councilman Uranga supported the 2016 "temporary" version of Measure A and its 2020 permanent imposition.

Despite an increased number of shootings, Councilman Uranga has declined to support restoring funding for LBPD's former field anti-gang unit. In Sept. 2020, Councilman Uranga joined his Council colleagues in voting defund 48 sworn officers the City's FY21 budget (on top of roughly 20% of LB's police level erased by a previous Council 2009-2014.) (The FY 21 Council vote defunding the 48 officers allocated the sums to other City Hall spending for community sought items and new City Hall staff and administrators.)

Councilman Uranga and his fellow Council incumbents have also declined to agendize restoring the public's right (erased in a stealthful mid-1990's Council action) to agendize City Council items for voted action, a key portion of the Reform Coalition's 2020 candidate election pledge.

In the 2020 election cycle, Reform Coalition candidate Juan Ovalle (Carlos Ovalle's brother) challenged CD 8 Councilman Al Austin and nearly made it into a runoff against the incumbent. In CD 2, veteran neighborhood advocate Robert Fox challenged Mayor-backed candidate Cindy Allen and was outspent in a runoff. Campaign contributions against the 2020 Reform Coalition candidates came mainly from current area electeds, LB's police and firefighter unions and various development interests.

Two other CD 7 candidates have filed initial paperwork: Connie R. White and Harold Gene M. Dela Cruz.

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Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.


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