In response to Downey Mayor Mario Guerra stating that Tesla Motors is close to a deal that may locate an electric car plant in his city, Long Beach City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske issued a statement.
The Boeing 717's site is also under consideration as a site for Tesla and Schipske, who represents the Eastside's 5th District, has lobbied to bring the carmaker to Long Beach. In her statement she raises questions about why Downey is close to a deal and Long Beach is not.
Schipske's statement appears in full below:
Gerrie Schipske, councilwoman for Long Beach's fifth district, has been outspoken in her desire to keep alive the possibility of Tesla Motors locating its plant in Long Beach.
She personally contacted Elon Musk, President of Tesla to ask him what the City of Long Beach was doing to encourage his company to locate there. She also mounted a letter writing campaign called "Long Beach -- We Can Do Better Than Downey."
She used her blog to prod Long Beach officials to actively market the City to get Tesla here. So today upon learning that Tesla has signed a letter of intent with Downey to locate a plant which will manufacture 20,000 electric vehicles and produce 1,000 jobs she issued the following statement:
"The taxpayers of Long Beach deserve a full explanation about who or what killed the deal to bring Tesla to Long Beach. How did we lose this revenue producing opportunity to Downey? Long Beach has so much more to offer to a business than most southern California locations -- we have manufacturing space at the Boeing site, nearness to freeways, an airport, a port, railroad, convention center, training programs at our local community college and most importantly a workforce ready and willing to work. We also have an enterprise zone that provides tax credits for employers. And just recently the City announced it won the 'Most Business Friendly City Award' in Los Angeles County.
So what went wrong?
Anyone who has worked in corporate America knows how important it is to develop positive relationships in order to do business, which is exactly what the City of Downey did and the City of Long Beach did not do.
Unlike the City of Downey, which marshaled its Mayor and Council to actively court Tesla through calls, letters, ads and personal outreach, Long Beach apparently treated Tesla as a 'second-class citizen' according to comments made to me and to the press by Tesla President, Elon Musk. (It would be interesting to examine how much time and effort was really expended by Long Beach officials and staff in recruiting Tesla.)
I read the memo Long Beach produced as 'evidence' that it had been on top of courting TESLA --so did the President of Tesla, Elon Musk. He was 'insulted' to use his words. The memo contained disparaging remarks about him -- comparing him to the failed car designer Delorean and pointing out that there was a pending lawsuit against Tesla (as if the City of Long Beach doesn't have numerous suits against it) which was shortly after dismissed. Additionally, the memo had an attachment -- the one and only letter sent to Tesla from the City of Long Beach -- and it was to invite Tesla to exhibit their car at a proposed electric vehicle mall in Long Beach. As Mr. Musk said to me over the phone regarding that letter: 'there wasn't an invitation to build cars there.'
Not one to cry over split milk, I would like to congratulate the City of Downey for getting Tesla, and thank them for helping to keep these important types of jobs in the region."
Stupid Long Beach. LB is a far better location to build cars, but of course they screw up the opportunity and Downey gets the deal. I live right across the river in Norwalk, but i still think LB should have worked their asses off to get the deal. Idiots.
Once again the city of Long Beach shows how it cares about small or large business, in our city.Bob Foster and the city Council are second class!!