There's no word yet this evening on whether the Long Beach City Council will move forward on the Los Cerritos Wetlands deal because their discussion has been delayed, I was just told.
Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais said the council's entire 3 p.m. closed session was taken up by discussion of the city's contract negotiations with several employee unions. They didn't get to the second matter agendized for the closed session, the controversial Los Cerritos Wetlands deal that would swap part of the southeast Long Beach property for the city's public service yard in western Long Beach.
Mais said the council hopes to hold that closed session at the end of what is expected to be a short meeting. If not, the council will have to reschedule it for another day, Mais said. The real information that is likely to come out of the closed session is whether the council directs city management to move forward on the deal. Once the actual deal and contracts are crafted, the matter will return to an open council session for a vote.
Several environmentalists and other residents who are concerned about whether the land swap is fair and proper spoke at 3 p.m. before the council went into closed session to reiterate their views. You can get a good sense of these issues from my colleague Joe Segura's article in today's Press-Telegram.
I'll update later this evening if the council does in fact return to a closed session on the wetlands deal.
Paul Eakins reports on Long Beach City Hall, and local and regional
politics. A newcomer to the Press-
Kris Hanson reports on the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles,
covering environmental issues, economic triumphs and
pitfalls and trade trends of America’s largest port.
He also writes a weekly column “On The Waterfront”,
appearing Tuesdays, and also produces an occassional video
and column titled “On The Job,” which follows the hard-working
men and women who keep Southern California’s economy humming.
Karen Robes Meeks came to work for the Press-
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