(Sept. 15, 2021, 9:45.a.m.) -- With no Councilmembers acknowledging months of pleas by neighborhood groups to agendize an item to oppose SB 9 (requires cities except in state specified historic districts to allow four units on single family lots target="_blank") and SB 10 (allowing Council majority to allow up to ten units on single family lots -- with no CEQA public input required on neighborhood impacts and no add'l parking required within half mile of transit, the Long Beach City Council voted 4-5 on Sept. 14 not to urge Governor Gavin Newsom to veto the bills.

Councilmembers Price and Supernaw (without Council comments by either of them) joined Mungo and Austin in voting "yes" on the belated Council item urging the governor's veto. Council incumbents Zendejas, Allen, Saro, Uranga and Richardson voted "no."

In Council discussion, CD 5 Councilwoman Stacy Mungo pointedly refused to mention months of requests by her own constituents in The Eastside Voice, Lakewood Village Homeowners Association, El Dorado Park Neighborhood Association, and citywide groups including Citizens About Responsible Planning urging Councilmembers to agendize the bills for public discussion and opposition. Any Councilmember could have done so "on any Tuesday." None did.

When the bills (pending since Dec. 2020) passed the state legislature in August 2021 without City opposition, Eastside Voice president Corliss Lee publicly called on voters in CDs 1 (Zendejas), 3 (Price), 5 (Mungo), 7 (Uranga) and 9 (Richardson) to replace incumbents in 2022 with reform minded Councilmembers more responsive to the public.

In CD 7, Carlos Ovalle (a co-founder of LB's Reform Coalition and an opponent of SB 9 and 10) has announced a 2022 challenge to incumbent Roberto Uranga. In CD 5, former Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, who has opposed both bills, is challenging incumbent Mungo.

SB9 and 10 are now on Governor Newsom's desk where (after brushing back an attempted recall) he can now sign the bills into law, let them become law without his signature or veto them.

During the Council'a Sept. 13 discussion, CD 9 incumbent Vice Mayor Rex Richardson disclosed that he'd spoken with Gov. Newsom in the past few weeks, and Newsom indicated to Richardson that he will sign the bills. Richardson didn't mention this while the recall was pending. During the recall Republican recall candidate Larry Elder declined to say if he would sign or veto the bills.

Richardson said the belated Austin-Mungo-Price Council item seeking the Governor's veto was effectively futile and argued for its defeat.

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