Councilmen Gary DeLong and Patrick O'Donnell continue to brush aside environmentalists and critics.
Both have encountered considerable criticism for their strong advocacy of the controversial land-swap deal that wetlands owner Tom Dean wanted.
The 5-4 vote apparently was not the end of their wetlands agenda.
On Tuesday, they sought - and got - the council's support to recommend that O'Donnell be given voting power on Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority.
According to a memo DeLong drafted for the council, the LCWA is a joint-powers agency created to administer the acquisition and preservation and maintenance of the wetlands.
The panel is governed by a four-member board qppointed by the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC), Long Beach, Seal Beach, the State Coastal Conservancy (SCC). However, LCWA voting members cannot be an elected official.
Last year, DeLong and O'Donnell sat on the four-member LCWA, but O'Donnell was removed, after someone learned of the ban.
Tuesday, DeLong pushed for a change, so that O'Donnell could become eligible for appointment to the RMC.
The Conservancy will vote next month on the issue, an the RMC will take the O'Donnell appointment shortly after the Conservancy vote.
Environmentalists opposed DeLong's push, seeking a selection among thier ranks.
Tom Marchese, a commuinity activist and board member of Los Cerritos Land Trust, asked that veteran environmentalists -- such as former state Coastal Commision chairman Mel Nutter -- be considered as representatives.
O'Donnell seemed receptive to the idea.
However, O'Donnell and DeLong were not supportive of the effort by Councilwomen Gerrie Schipske and Tonia Reyes Uranga --- two strong critics of the land-swap deal Dean wanted --- asked for a week's delay in the vote, so they could take a closer look at DeLong's proposal. Why the rush, they wondered pointedly.
"We have nothing to back this up" Uranga said.
They failed to get a week's delay to obtain the material, but City Manager Patrick West --- pressed by Uranga --- agreed to provide it -- later.
Joe Segura, a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, has covered Gotham City, er Long Beach, for 34 years. During his very, very long -- endless -- tenure, he's covered almost every beat, and he was the main writer for BeachWeek, which focused on life and lifestyles of the shoreline communities from downtown Long Beach to the Huntington Beach pier.
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