Richardson says he will no longer take money from police groups until there is comprehensive police reform in the city. Additionally, as a symbolic gesture he has contributed an amount greater than his past contributions from the Long Beach Police Officers' Association to the End Predatory and Unfair Money Bail PAC, which is supporting the California Replace Cash Bail with Risk Assessments Referendum on the November 2020 ballot.

Richardson made the contribution from his Lift Up Long Beach Families -- Rex Richardson Ballot Measure Committee which he explained is having to reevaluate its immediate purpose of increasing spending on affordable housing given the Covid-19 fiscal landscape. Richardson formed the committee in 2019 to promote affordable housing in Long Beach and has raised over $200,000 including $5,000 from the LBPOA. ( previous LBREPORT.com coverage here.)

The End Predatory and Unfair Money Bail PAC supports the California Replace Cash Bail with Risk Assessments Referendum which seeks to uphold Senate Bill 10. If passed in November the referendum would end cash bail by replacing it with risk assessments for detained suspects awaiting trials.

[Scroll down for further.]

Supporters of the referendum include the Service Employees International Union California State Council (which represents 700,000 Californian service industry workers including workers from the court system, private security officers, and other public and private sector employees), former presidential candidate Tom Steyer’s NextGen California, and Action Now Initiate (a Texas-based non-profit funded by billionaires John and Laura Arnold that contributes to ballot initiates nationwide).

Opposed to the initiative are the Orange County Board of Supervisors, the California Bail Agents Association, and the American Bail Coalition (formerly the National Association of Bail Insurance Companies). There is also some liberal opposition to the referendum. Human Rights Watch opposed SB 10 as replacing one harmful system with another. In a letter to the California State Assembly HRW argues risk-based assessments still allows prosecutors to use pretrial detention as a coercive tool to force plea bargains. HRW predicts risk-assessment systems will still be plagued by age, race, and class-based biases and may actually increase the rate of pretrial detention. Another flaw noted by HRW is that SB-10’s risk-based assessment system lacks oversight and community involvement in making individual release decisions.

Sponsor

Sponsor

Any serious discussion of police reform must address the issue of police union influence on local government and Councilmember Richardson's June 7th A Framework for Reconciliation online forum was certainly a serious discussion that did not shy away from that issue. The framework discussion was hosted by Richardson and included State Senator (and former councilmember) Lena Gonzalez, Councilmember Jeannine Pearce, LBUSD Boardmember Juan Benitez, and LBCC Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk.

The discussion started with Richardson drawing on the wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois and reflecting on the murder of George Floyd. Richardson recounted some experiences being profiled and stopped by police as a young black man and emphasized the need for reform as well as his commitment to routing out institutional racism. Richardson sees Long Beach as having a special role in the police reform debate because as a city we are small enough to be nimble and move quickly on the issue, yet large enough for our actions to shape statewide and nationwide conversations.

Sponsor

Sponsor

About halfway through the discussion began Richardson raised an issue he said he was seeing in the chatroom of the online forum. He gave voice to comments asking "how can we trust government if politicians accept money from a police union? How do you do that if we are going to head into this fight of reforming the police department? Have we compromised ourselves?"

He first addresses the questions to State Senator Gonzalez who says she is "being very transparent, honest and very vulnerable on the issue because there is no perfect answer" in this unpredicted time. Gonzalez says she "is 1 of 2 senators out of 40 in the state" to vow to give back donations from police unions. She says she is actively doing this now and "vows to give back the donations that [she] has received in [her] senate campaign, which amounts to $10,000, to the black community." She ends her remarks on the topic by echoing Richardson's opening comments that due to its size Long Beach is an ideal city to lead on this issue and serve as an example the county and state.

Sponsor

For his part, Councilmember Richardson started with an explanation of how campaign finance rules in Long Beach keep any individual, corporation, or group from exercising too much influence over city council candidates or elected officials by limiting contributions to $400 for city council election campaigns, $750 for officeholder accounts, $800 for mayoral campaigns, and $1,000 mayoral officeholder accounts. He also pointed out that Long Beach has lower contributions limits than similarly sized cities that make it so no one can buy a local election in his opinion, though he notes this leaves candidates exposed to being outspent by outside groups who have no limits on their spending since Citizens United was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Addressing the issue of past contributions directly Richardson detailed two actions he is taking on the issue. He pledged that "until we have achieved comprehensive police reform in the city" he will no longer accept contributions related to policing. His second action was a symbolic gesture to offset past contributions from the LBPOA. Richardson estimated he had received about $3,000 in police contributions over the last 5 1/2 to 6 years and he "recognizes folks want him to give it back" but since past campaign committees are closed that can not be done. However, he notes there are gestures he can make and says he has made a $5,000 contribution to statewide bail reform and criminal justice reform which is "larger than the $3,000, because he wants people to know [he] is investing in part of being the change" and because he doesn't want this to be a source of people questioning his sincerity on the issue.

Sponsor

Sponsor

Reached for follow-up after the Council approved (9-0) his Framework for Reconciliation, Richardson confirmed that the contributions went to the End Predatory and Unfair Money Bail PAC and came from his Lift Up Long Beach Families -- Rex Richardson Ballot Measure Committee formed in 2019 to promote increased spending on affordable housing. Richardson explained that the Lift Up Long Beach Families Committee is having to reevaluate its immediate purpose of increasing spending on affordable housing given the Covid-19 fiscal landscape. He added that his contributions to the bail reform group now total $10,000 to reflect additional donations received from the LBPOA by the Lift Up Long Beach Families Committee.

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.