Results tagged “Dee Andrews” from Press Corps

Former Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill has endorsed candidate Pauline Gonzalez Stenberg for the 3rd District school board seat in the Long Beach Unified School District, Gonzalez Stenberg's campaign announced Friday.

The coveted endorsement by one of Long Beach's most popular politicians makes Gonzalez Stenberg a strong contender in the field of five candidates seeking to replace former board member Michael Shane Ellis, who resigned in September. The special school board election is scheduled for Dec. 29.

Gonzalez Stenberg has also been endorsed by three of the district's four current school board members -- Mary Stanton, Jon Meyer and Felton Williams. Other endorsements include 6th District City Councilman Dee Andrews and former 7th District Councilman Mike Donelon. Gonzalez Stenberg's greatest opponent may be Richard Lewis, who has been endorsed by several council members and the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

Gonzalez Stenberg, 66, recently retired from her family's sheet metal fabrication business. She is a 42-year Long Beach resident and a past PTA president of Newcomb Academy and Millikan High School.

The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, City Councilman Dee Andrews and about 200 Poly High School students and administrators will celebrate the improvements of a once blight intersection and launch neighborhood clean-up efforts on National Make A Difference Day.

The event will be at 8 a.m. on Saturday Oct. 24 at the southeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway.

According to the city press release:

The RDA removed a blighted commercial property to clear land for open space to serve as a gateway for Poly High School. The space incorporates sustainable principles such as the use of native landscaping and recycled concrete, and new trees. A right turn lane was created to alleviate traffic congestion at this busy intersection, and a staff parking lot was improved.  Additionally, fence fabric was installed across the street as part of the RDA's Screening Project.

Complaints about proposed budget cuts have been many, but solutions often few at Long Beach City Council meetings. But 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews has a proposal (and my apologies on the delay for putting this online) to prevent Fire Department cuts that would reduce the total number of firefighters on duty from 137 to 130 and reduce the number of fire crews, including the part-time closure of Fire Station 18 in East Long Beach. Andrews' solution? Cut infrastructure funding (the city happens to be getting some extra funding anyway this year, he notes) and implement some other cost-cutting measures that have been suggested by the Long Beach Firefighters Association.

Here is Andrews' detailed press release explaining his plan:

BACKGROUND & FACTS

The funding from Federal, State, and County grants has restrictions on what it can be used for. With that in mind, when you review infrastructure repairs on a macro level the investment we are receiving from these agencies are 8 times more than our general fund contribution of $2,200,000 citywide.

• Long Beach is one of a handful of cities in the state that received both payments of Prop 1B money, totaling 15 million in FY 08, and 09 paving 8 to 10 miles of residential streets.
• In addition, Long Beach is scheduled to receive 15 million from the American Investment and Recovery Act in FY 10 to repair 10 to 12 miles of residential streets.
• From Measure R funding, from Los Angeles County sales tax, Long Beach will receive 2.5 million for FY10 and 4.3 million for FY11.

In addition, the Long Beach Fire Association has come forward with additional revenue estimated between four to six hundred thousand dollars ($400,000-$600,000), as discussed in the BOC meeting.

Additionally, our Long Beach Fire Firefighters gave back the equivalent of 2% in salary reductions, resulting in an additional $732,000 in savings in FY 09. 

DISCUSSION

I believe most individuals would agree that eliminating 21 Sworn Fire Department employee positions, who are emergency responders, is totally unacceptable. There are many cuts in this budget that will be difficult to live with. The impact will be felt in the four corners of the City of Long Beach. We cannot allow for 21 Sworn Firefighters to be cut. Their positions are critical to saving lives.

The current proposed budget is asking for:

Elimination of 12.0 sworn positions by having one engine during the day at one station and relocate the engine during the night at another location.

$1,669,000

Elimination of 9.0 sworn positions by creating a "Light Force" fire engine

$1,205,696

CONCLUSION

If we reallocate $2,200,000 in General Fund Infrastructure Repairs from the FY10 Budget and if the City Council adopts the Fire Association Sponsored BOC recommendations of $400,000-$600,000 revenue, we will be closer to the needed $2,874,696 to keep the 21 Sworn Fire Department employee positions.

I hope you support my position that this is the most important restoration of funding we can do as a Council and I would like to hear any further recommendations.

After pulling his proposal from this week's City Council agenda, 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews will return it to the council the first week of October, his chief of staff, John Edmond, told me. The item had been removed from the agenda because of expected time constraints as the council took on budget issues this week.

The parking plan would allow the city to designate certain parking lots as places where the homeless could park and live in their cars. The lots would provide security and social services to help people get back on their feet and into real housing. Andrews' proposal, which he announced to help "economic refugees" who are down on their luck during the recession and aren't the traditional homeless.

Of course, the idea has stirred up some opposition and concern from residents about having these parking lots in their neighborhoods, which will surely lead to a contentious council meeting. The council's first meeting next month is scheduled for Oct. 6.

It wasn't heated debate, fiery dialogue or hot tempers that stoked the fires of Monday evening's Budget Oversight Committee meeting and City Council budget workshop. It was the air conditioning system, or lack thereof.

Apparently, the AC wasn't turned on for the meetings that began at 5 p.m. and ended close to 8:30 p.m. True, it is unusual for a meeting to take place in the council chambers on a Monday night. The chambers are tall and spacious, and the crowd was small, both of which probably helped the situation. But by night's end, the room was hot, humid and uncomfortable on a day when the high temperature reached 91 degrees in Long Beach. I know I was sweating, and I wasn't one of the city staffers sitting in the hot seat (no pun intended, really) as council members asked them rapid-fire questions about the budget.

Maybe that's why council members Gary DeLong and Patrick O'Donnell disappeared midway through the 6 p.m. workshop (both are part of the Budget Oversight Committee and had been there since 5 p.m.). Councilman Dee Andrews disappeared later as well, as did Mayor Bob Foster, ironically just shortly after he responded to Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, who had been complaining about the members being absent during an important budget meeting. He told there was nothing he could do to make people stay, and apparently that included himself.

Let's just hope the AC is on tonight, when budget discussions very well could go on for hours. My guess is the meeting could approach midnight. So, a plea to whoever is in charge of that "on" switch at City Hall: Sitting through hours of city budget meetings can seem like hell, but please don't make the room temperature feel like it.

Sixth District Long Beach City Councilman Dee Andrews has pulled his agenda item for Tuesday night that would have asked the city attorney to craft an ordinance allowing the city to designate parking lots where the homeless could live in their cars. Andrews said in a press release this afternoon that he plans to revisit the issue after the council completes its budget process. The council must approve a budget by Sept. 15. Andrews' item had been scheduled for Tuesday night in a meeting that was wedged between budget meetings and scheduled to last only an hour.

 

From Andrews' statement:

 

"This issue requires much consideration from our City Councilmembers and due to the time needed for the Budget, this will not allow Council the proper amount of time to deliberate on this important issue", said Councilman Andrews. "I will be bringing this item back to Council after the 2010 Budget is passed", continued Councilman Andrews.

 

 

I'm still catching my breath after covering last week's news about Police Chief Tony Batts leaving for Oakland, so here is something that the City Council approved last week -- their committee appointments.

Snoozing already? Sure, committees aren't the sexiest things in the world, but they do serve a purpose, as gatekeepers to much of the legislation that ends up before the council. Mayor Bob Foster made the committee appointments, and most members are on three or four committees, not including the Charter Amendment Committee that is headed by the mayor and on which every council member sits. However, Councilwoman Rae Gabelich sits on five committees.

Councilman Gary DeLong will continue as chairman of the Budget Oversight Committee, supported by council members Patrick O'Donnell and Suja Lowenthal, which could be considered one of the most important ones right now during Long Beach's budget crisis.

Many of the committee appointments seem quite appropriate. Who better to head the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee than man-of-the-people Councilman Dee Andrews? And of course, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd district council members are on the Tidelands and Harbor Committee, since they're the only ones whose districts include a shoreline or port areas. Unlike the other council members, who each leads one or two committees, newcomer Councilman Robert Garcia doesn't have such a role, but he is a member of the Federal Legislation Committee, the State Legislation Commitee and the Tidelands and Harbor Committee.

Click the following link and see the entire committee list for yourself:

Council committees.pdf

The Long Beach City Council voted 7-0 in closed session tonight to have city negotiators move forward on a controversial proposed land deal that would exchange part of Los Cerritos Wetlands for the city's public service yard, according to City Attorney Bob Shannon. Council members Tonia Reyes Uranga and Dee Andrews were absent.

The council met in closed session because the matter was a real estate transaction, which is standard policy. Shannon said the council will meet at least one more time in closed session to discuss the deal, but once a final contract is drawn up, it will be made public and the council will vote on it in open session.

Environmentalists and critics say Long Beach isn't getting a fair deal in the trade, which previously was to exchange 33.7 acres of the 189-acre Bixby Ranch portion of the wetlands in southeastern Long Beach for the 12.1-acre public service yard in western Long Beach. Now, city officials say the deal may be expanded to include another 10 acres of the wetlands.

Hundreds of Long Beach youths turned out last Thursday for Councilman Dee Andrews' 6th District Youth Job Fair at the Ernest S. McBride Sr. Park Community Center, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.

Participants could meet with various employers and apply for the 2009 Summer Youth Employment Training Program, which includes 200 hours of paid work experience, work readiness training, and job coaching for youth ages 14 to 24.

Here are a couple photos of the event, courtesy of Andrews' chief of staff, John Edmond: 

 

 

Among the many items that went before the Long Beach City Council in a busy and long-running meeting Tuesday was a resolution in support of the state propositions that will be on the ballot next week.

The council voted 4-3 to support the resolutions. Council members Suja Lowenthal, Patrick O'Donnell, Dee Andrews and Tonia Reyes Uranga voted in favor, while council members Robert Garcia, Gerrie Schipske and Rae Gabelich dissented. Vice Mayor Val Lerch abstained, as he usually does on resolutions about ballot measures or similar issues. Lerch has said a non-partisan governmental body like the council shouldn't take a position on issues going before voters, just as it shouldn't back political candidates. Councilman Gary DeLong was absent from the vote.

Will the council's vote make a difference? Polls show voters are likely to reject the propositions May 19. Only Garcia articulated Tuesday why he couldn't support the legislation -- he said he can't support Prop. 1D, which would shift First 5 Children's Commission funding to general health and human services programs for children, and he called the Prop. 1E mental health measure "draconian."

Read up on all of the propositions at the California League of Women Voters voter guide site. It's an objective site that shows the arguments on both sides of each proposition.

Some in the neighborhood do. The blighted property at 1827 Pacific Ave. had been the site of 2,665 calls for police service from January 2004 to mid-2008, including rape, assault, car-jacking, drugs and other crimes, according to the city.

Now it's owned by the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, which plans to merge the land with other nearby properties for parking and retail.

Today, 6th District City Councilman Dee Andrews and the RDA will erase the remnants of blight with a ceremonial demolition. 

It's always interesting watching a newcomer step into the role of council member. When Robert Garcia was sworn in Tuesday to represent the 1st District, several questions crossed my mind.

Will he tend to vote with the council majority? Or will he join agitators such as council members Gerrie Schipske and Tonia Reyes Uranga in what is often a quite vocal minority? Will he target a barrage of questions and comments at city staff, like the aforementioned agitators, or will he be the silent type, like Councilman Dee Andrews? Maybe he'll be an activist on his specific issues, the way Councilwoman Rae Gabelich is, or he may become that unknown x-factor whose vote could go either way, like Vice Mayor Val Lerch's sometimes is.

His first day on the job, Garcia had a lot of big decisions to make, and the public saw a councilman who was willing to go with the majority or the minority.

In closed session, and for the first vote of his career, Garcia voted with the minority -- Schipske and Uranga -- to release confidential documents about the controversial Los Cerritos Wetlands land exchange. But in open session, Garcia joined the majority in voting to implement employee furloughs, while Schipske and Uranga voted against them because they wanted to postpone the vote.

We've also got to give Garcia credit for sticking around through all of the major and contentious votes Tuesday. Typically, newly inaugurated council members take off immediately for a celebration, but Garcia stayed until almost 9 p.m. despite his planned 7 p.m. party.

So, what do you think Garcia's political future and role on the council will hold?

Sixth District City Councilman Dee Andrews is hosting his monthly town hall meeting Tuesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at Ernest S. McBride Park, 1550 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. Free parking is available and refreshments will be served.

The city's budget -- and more significantly, impending budget cuts -- will be the topic of discussion. While Andrews has his town hall meetings every month, this month's gathering is one of several community meetings planned around Long Beach over the coming weeks to discuss the city's budget.

Long Beach officials have estimated the city will have a $54.8 million general budget deficit in the next two fiscal years, beginning in October. That's more than 13 percent of the current $404 million general fund, which pays for basic services such as police, firefighters, libraries, parks and street repairs.

So, now's the time to hit some of these community meetings, make your voice heard and weigh in on what programs should be saved or cut.

Sitting through often lengthy Long Beach City Council meetings most Tuesday nights, I've come to notice certain trends. Combine that with occasional moments of boredom
-- and some long stretches of boredom -- as I await the next big item to be debated, and here's what we get: The Long Beach City Council Drinking Game.

Though I wouldn't recommend playing the game at the council meetings (unless you want to find yourself playing a different kind of game, one you probably won't win, with the police officers on duty there) this could be a fun way to pass the time at home while waiting for your council item to come up for discussion.

Disclaimer: This game shouldn't be played by anyone under age 21, nor should you drink yourself to the point of any health risk. If you find yourself rolling on the floor laughing at all of the council members' jokes, or you decide that this is the greatest reality TV show you've ever seen, you should probably stop drinking. And I would recommend this game be played with beer, not shots of hard liquor. Remember, council meetings have been known to go until midnight.

Following are the drinking rules. Please add your own drinking rule ideas in the comments section. And if you try the game, I'd love to hear how it goes.

Take a drink when:

• The pet being put up for adoption is a dog. If it's a cat, give away the drink to your friend.
• Gadfly Harvey Cochran speaks to the council.
• Cochran says "ring around the rosey" or a similar phrase.
• Mayor Bob Foster has to cut Cochran off, ask him to summarize or gets visibly annoyed with the loquacious gadfly.
• Councilwomen Gerrie Schipske, Tonia Reyes Uranga or Rae Gabelich cast a dissenting vote (one drink for each vote).
• City Attorney Robert Shannon gets upset with council members for not asking for or heeding his legal advice.
• Councilman Patrick O'Donnell says "a tired kid is a good kid."
• The phrase "Mayor and members of the City Council," or some variation, is uttered.
• Gadfly Larry Goodhue mentions the fence at Marine Stadium, government corruption, the Alamitos Bay farmers market or calls for City Manager Pat West to be fired.
• The council votes unanimously.
• The phrase "core services" is mentioned during budget discussions.
• A council member actually appears to be listening during public comment (one drink for each council member who is listening).

Down your entire glass when:

• The council doesn't have a quorum and council members have to be called back to their seats.
• Cochran doesn't speak during an entire meeting (it actually happened last week, the first time in two years).
• Councilman Dee Andrews speaks (other than during comunity announcements at the end of the meeting).
• Foster and Schipske spontaneously give each other a great, big, loving bear hug.

Down the whole damn six pack when:

• The mayor announces he is resigning from office to pursue his acting career. Look out Hollywood!

Long Beach City Councilman Dee Andrews has endorsed candidate Robert Garcia for the council's 1st District seat, Garcia's campaign announced today.

The endorsement brings to three the number of council members who are backing Garcia in the April 7th special election to replace Bonnie Lowenthal, who is now a member of the state Assembly.

Here's what Andrews, whose 6th District neighbors the 1st District, said in a statement:

I am proud and excited to endorse Robert for the Long Beach City Council.  He represents the change we need at City Hall. I look forward to having a grassroots partner who will stand up for neighborhoods and those most affected by crime and gangs. It's rare to find someone with his energy and innovation and I look forward to working with him.

Garcia also has been endorsed by council members Val Lerch and Suja Lowenthal, state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, Assemblyman Warren Furutani, former Mayor Beverly O'Neill, and the city's police and firefighters unions.

Seven candidates are running for the 1st District seat.

A couple days late, but here are some photos from Tuesday's council inauguration ceremony, courtesy of Councilman Dee Andrews' office. Four council members -- Suja Lowenthal, 2nd District; Patrick O'Donnell, 4th District; Andrews, 6th District; and Rae Gabelich, 8th District -- were sworn in to 4-year terms.

Later, the council members had a joint celebration on the Queen Mary, organized by Andrews, who also had over 100 seniors and 6th District residents bused to the celebration.

Here's Andrews taking the oath:

And O'Donnell:

And Lowenthal:

And Gabelich:

At the party later that night:

More than 200 people attended 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews' job fair June 28 at Ernest McBride Park. At least 10 unions representing building trades, craftsmen and other industries vetted potential workers.

Here are some shots of the event, courtesy of John Edmond, Andrews' chief of staff.

 

   

   

Sixth District Long Beach City Councilman Dee Andrews overcame a series of negative ads against him in April to get re-elected to the council for his first full term, tromping the competition with 75 percent of the vote. Now Andrews gets to enjoy the fruits of all his time spent beating the street.

On Thursday, a diverse mix of Long Beach business groups are hosting a free community dinner in Andrews' honor at New Paradise Restaurant, 1350 E. Anaheim Street, at 6 p.m. Anyone wanting to attend should RSVP to 562-590-7302. Valet parking will be available.

The dinner sponsors are the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Cambodian American Chamber of Commerce, Cambodia Town Inc., the Long Beach African American Chamber of Commerce, the Long Beach Black Chamber of Commerce, BNSF Railway, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and Watson Land Company.

No word yet on whether the other three council members who will be sworn in with Andrews for a new four-year term July 15 -- Suja Lowenthal (2nd District), Patrick O'Donnell (4th District) and Rae Gabelich (8th District) -- are planning similar events. Of course, those three went unchallenged in the election and were guaranteed new terms, so they may retake the reins next month as quietly as they as they retook their seats in April.