July 2009 Archives

Yesterday at the city's press conference for the proposed 2010 fiscal year budget, it was revealed that Long Beach Museum of Art officials had sent City Manager Pat West a letter saying that they don't owe the city a $3 million bond payment that must be made by Sept. 1.

In response, Mayor Bob Foster said the city can't afford to pay the $569,000 that it was expected to for the museum's operating expenses. The museum may get a cool breeze from its beachfront location, but things are definitely heating up. Click the link below to read the full text of the museum letter.

LBMA letter.pdf

Check out www.presstelegram.com later today for more in-depth coverage of the issue.

The North Pine Neighborhood Alliance's next meeting on Aug 3  will focus on the Downtown Community Plan.

The more than 90-page document outlining standards for zoning, development and design for areas bordering Golden Avenue, Alamitos Avenue, 10th Street and Ocean Boulevard.

The plan will need approvals from the Planning Commission, the Redevelopment Agency and the City Council, which expects to formally hear the plan in Jan. or Feb.

The NPNA meeting will be at 7 p.m. at Wokcano, 199 The Promenade.

The city of Long Beach's long-awaited, much-dreaded and likely to be much controversial proposed budget for the 2010 fiscal year will be unveiled Thursday during a press conference at City Hall.

City Manager Pat West and Mayor Bob Foster will present the budget to members of the media. What is known is that the budget includes $20.3 million in cuts averaging 6 percent per department to help eliminate a $43.3 million general fund deficit. The remaining $23 million will be cut either through employee unions agreeing to forgo pay raises, or 26 days of furloughs or more possible layoffs, West has said.

That doesn't even count the additional millions of dollars that are expected to be lost from state take-aways. How that will be accounted for also remains to be seen.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday, so watch www.presstelegram.com for all of the budget news as soon as the conference is over.

The proposed equal benefits ordinance is the subject of discussion at Beer & Politics tonight. The ordinance would require that contractors that do business with the city of Long Beach provide the same spousal benefits to domestic partners (including gay couples) as they do to married couples.

It's a controversial and fascinating issue. Will this cost businesses more? Should the city dictate how businesses are run? Does it really matter when you're talking about a basic civil right and equality? The free forum will feature guests Councilman Robert Garcia, who proposed the law, and John Greet, "Our Liberty" columnist for LBPost.com.

The discussion begins at 7 p.m. at Smooth's Sports Grille, 144 Pine Ave. If you can't attend, then watch it live online here. You can even submit questions for the guests online.

 Finally, after months of debate, reshaping and controversy, the Los Cerritos Wetlands deal is going before the Long Beach City Council next week.

The land exchange is listed on the Tuesday meeting agenda as a deal to swap 13.4 acres of city land for 37.77 acres of the wetlands. This is an increase on both ends from the previous proposal to swap the city's 12.1-acre public service yard for 33.7 acres of the 175-acre Bixby Ranch portion of the wetlands.

What exactly those extra acres constitute remains to be seen. The agenda contains no staff reports or other documents. That's not unheard of for council agendas. Presumably, later this week they will add the full report and a copy of the actual wetlands exchange contract, which will be available online through the city's Legistar program. Click here for a list of items from the agenda through which you can link to supporting documentation, reports and legislative history.

We'll be keeping an eye out for the full wetlands documentation and will let our readers know when it is available.

How should Long Beach become an environmentally sustainable, green city? The Sustainable City Commission has its answer in the Draft Sustainable City Action Plan, and the commission wants your input. The action plan addresses everything from energy to transportation to water quality. You can read the action plan online and then take a survey to give feedback to the commission.

Click here to see the plan.

I posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I'm bringing it back to the top of the blog to remind anyone who might be interested.

Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske wants to let you know how to run for public office. Her monthly Wake Up Long Beach event will feature City Clerk Larry Herrera and two political consultants who will explain what steps are necessary to run for office.

You've got to give Schipske credit for hosting such an event. She is, after all, up for re-election in April 2010 in her East Long Beach district. So too are council members in the other four odd-numbered districts, as are Mayor Bob Foster, City Attorney Bob Shannon, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves and City Auditor Laura Doud.

Wake Up Long Beach will take place at 8 a.m. Wednesday at El Dorado Golf Restaurant, 2400 Studebaker Road. There is a $10 cost for breakfast. RSVP to 562-570-6932 or district5@longbeach.gov.

The Long Beach City Council is in the middle of a presentation on a study of reconfiguring the breakwater to improve water quality and waves on the city's beaches. Watch it online at http://www.longbeach.gov/cityclerk/council_online.asp. Click "live video." Check www.presstelegram.com tonight or read Tuesday's Press-Telegram to read about the breakwater presentation and the discussion between council members and the public about the issue.

Seventh District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga announced this afternoon that she will ask the council next week to approve having city staff create standards and criteria for the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries in Long Beach. Uranga notes in a press release that while the state and county regulate such businesses, there is no local jurisdiction over them. She also raises concerns about how much the dispensaries may cost Long Beach in the form of services, and she is asking for a report on the businesses' fiscal impact on the city. Read the full press release from Uranga's office below:

Title 5 of the City of Long Beach Municipal Code requires all businesses operating in the City of Long Beach to pay a business license tax and to comply with the City Zoning Ordinance which includes regulations concerning where and under what conditions a business may operate in the City. The purpose of Title 5 (Sec 5.02.010) is to identify those businesses, trades and professions conducted and carried on in the city of Long Beach that require local regulation in order to promote and protect the public health, safety and welfare of Long Beach and its citizens.

Since the passage of Proposition 215, known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, the City of Long Beach has experienced the unregulated proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the city.  The voter approved initiative contained language to encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana. In 2003, Senate Bill (SB) 420, which was passed as an extension and clarification of Proposition 215, established the Medical Marijuana Program (MMP) under the California Department of Public Health.  The MMP, administered through a patient's county of residence, provides a voluntary medical marijuana identification card issuance and registry program for qualified patients.

While regulations exists at the State and County levels to administer the provisions of Prop 215, local authorities have not enacted oversight of the medical marijuana dispensaries conducting business within their jurisdiction.  While these businesses do not pay any local fees for permits or licensees, there may be costs to the city for services associated with their operations.  I am seeking the City Council's support to direct City Staff to propose specific standards and criteria under which medical marijuana dispensaries and related businesses, trades and professions shall be conducted and regulated within the city and to direct City Staff to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine the fiscal impact for city services.

We will have more in-depth coverage of this topic later in the week.

International and military dignitaries today celebrated the Boeing Co. C-17 Globemaster III at Pápa Air Base, Hungary, where it officially joined the Heavy Airlift Wing and officially activated the new airlift capability for 10 NATO and two Partnership for Peace nations.

The nations participating in the Strategic Airlift Capability -- NATO nations Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, United States and Partnership for Peace members Sweden and Finland -- will share acquisition and operating costs for the C-17s over the nearly 30-year course of the agreement.

The advanced airlifter, known as SAC 01, is the first of three C-17s that will be assigned to the HAW in western Hungary this year and will soon start flying missions in support of the International Security Assistance Force operations in Afghanistan. Boeing will deliver SAC's two remaining C-17s in September and October.

Sound bites from the folks at Boeing, who went out to Hungary for the celebration:

"I want to extend my thanks to all of the nations that chose to participate in SAC," said Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, NATO deputy secretary general. "Because of your commitment, today we are well-positioned to provide aid anywhere, at any time, and on any mission -- humanitarian, disaster relief, or peacekeeping."

"Visions are only realized when unrelenting dedication to achievement is applied in full measure," said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Richard Johnston, chairman of the SAC Steering Board. "When applied twelvefold, success becomes destiny. Today, 12 nations witness the activation of their Heavy Airlift Wing."

"For nearly a year now, personnel from 12 nations have worked as a team here in Pápa, blending their varied skills, military experiences and cultures into a new form of multinational military unit," said HAW's first wing commander, U.S. Air Force Col. John Zazworsky. "The team has consistently focused on being able to conduct strategic airlift missions as soon as the first aircraft is delivered. Now that we have reached that milestone, we have the strong sense that we are creating a model for future cooperative military efforts."

"Boeing is proud that the C-17 is a part of this historic day," said Jean Chamberlin, Boeing vice president, Global Mobility Systems. "It's the only aircraft capable of performing all of SAC's airlift missions -- strategic and tactical, military and humanitarian, brigade airdrop and aeromedical evacuation -- and it can do all of that using standard runways or short, austere airfields."

The Downtown Community Plan Public Meeting is being held at 6 p.m. tonight in Patterson Hall at First Congregational Church, 241 Cedar Ave.

The city has been seeking community input on the plan, a more than 90-page document outlining standards for zoning, development and design for areas bordering Golden Avenue, Alamitos Avenue, 10th Street and Ocean Boulevard.

The plan will need the approvals of the Planning Commission, the Redevelopment Agency and the City Council, which expects to formally hear the plan in Jan. or Feb.

Check out the Planning Commission's response here.

Tonight the Long Beach City Council will consider declaring a fiscal emergency, which sounds important, but really means little, City Attorney Bob Shannon told me today.

"The simple purpose of it is to call attention to the fact that we are in dire straits here," Shannon said.

While Los Angeles has declared a fiscal emergency to allow it to enact furloughs and layoffs without working with employee unions, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has used fiscal emergencies to force the legislature to take action, Long Beach's resolution doesn't have the same effects, Shannon said.

The city enacted furloughs earlier this year, but did so after meeting and conferring with employee unions, Shannon said.

However, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents 3,800 nonmanagement and non-public safety city workers, filed a complaint in May with the state's Public Employment Relations Board protesting the furloughs.

Christa Indriolo, spokeswoman with the IAM, said she is concerned city officials will feel they have free rein because of the fiscal emergency declaration.

"We're fearful it will be used in a negative manner to furlough without negotiating," Indriolo said. "They imposed (furloughs) before, so why would we believe that they're not going to use this as a mechanism to impose concessions on our members?"

Shannon conceded that declaring a fiscal emergency could "strengthen our position" in handling appeals of furloughs, but said that wasn't the reason for the resolution.

"That is not the purpose here," Shannon said. "We tend to keep the employee organizations, no matter what happens, fully aware of what we tend to do and to talk to them and to tell them what we intend."

More furloughs are quite possibly on the way. City Manager Pat West is trying to get Long Beach's unions to forgo contractual pay raises. If a deal can't be reached, West has said all city employees, including police and firefighters, will have to take 26 days of unpaid furloughs.

The council meets tonight at 5 p.m. Watch it live at www.longbeach.gov.

After last year's controversy when city officials proposed closing the downtown Main Library because of structural problems and a leaky roof, officials are now planning to fix the problem and keep the library open.

Close to $1 million is expected to be spent on removing 10.4 million pounds of dirt -- that's right, you heard me -- from the rooftop park, which has been closed to the public for years. Doing so will reduce the roof weight by 28 percent, improving the building's seismic stability (i.e., the roof will be less likely to collapse on all the kiddies inside the library in the event of an earthquake.) The city also will close up the irrigation system drains and put a sealant on the roof, which officials say should stop the leaking.

On top of that, officials say the Main Library and all of the city's branch libraries should avoid being closed among Long Beach's drastic budget cuts that are being planned, albeit with reduced services.

Read the full story Saturday night online and in Sunday's print edition of the Press-Telegram.

The news is pretty much all bad when it comes to budgets these days, including Long Beach's. On Tuesday the City Council heard an update on the deficit and budget challenges they are facing for the next fiscal year.

How is the city spending its money? What are the fiscal challenges? What's the plan to fix the budget? Check out the entire budget presentation here for the answers.

City Attorney Bob Shannon reported tonight (July 16) that after a 2 1/2-hour closed session meeting, the Long Beach City Council moved forward on a land exchange to preserve Los Cerritos Wetlands. The council gave the go-ahead for city management to continue negotiating the deal that would exchange at least 33.7 acres of the 175-acre Bixby Ranch portion of the wetlands in southeast Long Beach for the city's 12.1-acre public service yard next to the Los Angeles River.

"In all likelihood" the wetlands deal will go before the council in open session for an official vote in August, Shannon said.

The lengthy closed session wasn't all because of the wetlands. The council also has been in practically non-stop, and by all accounts contentious, discussions over negotiations between the city and the Police Officers Association to get officers to forgo their pay raises to help balance the budget. Shannon said there was no reportable action on that matter, but eventually whatever agreement is reached also will eventually go before the council for an open-session vote.

Bits and pieces of news have been trickling in about the Long Beach City Council's special closed session meeting that is progress as I write. City and union officials are negotiating a deal to have officers forgo a contractual pay raise to put police at the median pay level of 10 comparable cities on Sept. 30.

Today, Steve James, president of the Long Beach Police Officers Association, said the union made an offer to space out the pay hike, which according to James the council supported earlier this week but now may have decided to reject during today's closed council meeting. City officials have refused to address the specifics of the closed contract negotiations, and James wouldn't divulge why he believes the council could change course.

Earlier today, Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga told me that Mayor Bob Foster is trying to take the negotiations in his own direction and is "blackmailing" the council with the threat of a veto. Uranga wouldn't divulge the deal that is on the table nor what plan Foster supports.

She said she's frustrated with getting "mixed messages" from city management and that only the mayor, not the council, has seen City Manager Pat West's proposed budget for the 2010 fiscal year.

"We as the council have not been getting the same information that the mayor's been getting, so he has us at a disadvantage," Uranga said.

The mayor's chief of staff, Becki Ames, didn't respond to a request this afternoon for a response to Uranga's comments.

James said he too would like to know what the real budget deficit is at this point -- the $43.3 million number has stood for months now -- and that the police proposal is a good way to reduce it.

The police offer "would get (police pay) to the level, but under the model we had out there, it would take approximately three years to get to the median, and then we would have a bump in the fourth year," James said.

The deal would save the city $10 million over two years, he said, but because police union members must approve it, the deal is "about as low as we can go."

The Long Beach Planning Commission meets at 5 p.m. today at City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd. Among other things, the commission will have two study sessions: One on Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway development, and another on the Draft Downtown Community Plan.

Check out the full agenda here.

 

 

Coast Guard Capt. Roger Laferriere is now in charge of a vast 320-mile expanse of coastline stretching from from the San Diego County line to Morro Bay and including the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Laferriere takes over for Capt. Paul Wiedenhoeft, who has been in charge of Coast Guard duties during several years of the post 9/11-era protecting the ports and patrolling the busy Santa Barbara Channel.

Laferriere will be headquartered out of the Coasties' Terminal Island base overseeing more than 100 personnel responsible for federal security and environmental protection of waterways. Established in 1790, the Coast Guard is the nation's oldest national naval force and America's smallest armed service.

While most members patrol U.S. waters and seas off Southern America, units have served in most major foreign conflicts. A recent unit served in Kuwait in support of the Iraq War.

To keep up with the latest Coast Guard happenings in LA-LB, visit the Coastie blog.

The Long Beach City Council will continue its ongoing discussions of two major issues in which millions of dollars in budget costs or property hang in the balance. The City Clerk's Office announced today that the council will have a special closed session meeting Thursday (July 16) at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.

On the table is a discussion about contracts with the city's employee unions, which city officials have asked to forgo contractual pay raises in order to help eliminate a $43.3 million budget deficit. If all of the five unions that have pay raises coming agree to the concessions, the city will be able to cut $23 million and avoid 26 days of furloughs for all workers, including police and firefighters.

Also, the council will discuss in its closed meeting the controversial deal designed preserve and restore Los Cerritos Wetlands. At least 33.7 acres of the 175-acre Bixby Ranch portion of the wetlands in southeast Long Beach would be exchanged for the city's 12.1-acre public service yard by the Los Angeles River. Critics have questioned whether the city is getting its money's worth in the deal and whether now is the right time to be swapping valuable city land.

The wetlands discussion had been on the agenda for a closed session at Tuesday's council meeting, but it was removed because of time constraints, city officials said. The council did however discuss the pay raise issue in a closed meeting that strangely excluded virtually every other city official, including City Manager Pat West. Only eight of the nine council members, Mayor Bob Foster and City Attorney Bob Shannon were present.

In Thursday's meeting, O'Donnell, who was absent Tuesday because he's out of town, will participate via teleconference from Monte Rio, according to City Clerk Larry Herrera.

Tune in tomorrow to hear if any votes are made on either of these issues. At the very least, the wetlands deal could get a vote to move the matter forward or to kill the deal, though the contract would still have to return to the council for a vote in open session. Any changes to the employee contracts also would have to be voted on in open session.

Vice Mayor Val Lerch, who is running as a write-in candidate to serve a third term in the 9th District City Council seat, has announced his kickoff campaign and a fundraiser will take place Aug. 3 at El Ranchito Restaurant, 5345 Long Beach Blvd., from 6 to 8 p.m.

The election takes place April 13, 2010, and Lerch faces a mix of advantages and challenges. As an incumbent, he has an edge over the competition, but as a write-in candidate he has a serious disadvantage. Few write-in campaigns have been pulled off in Long Beach politics. The most notable and recent one was when then-Mayor Beverly O'Neill one a third term with a write-in campaign in 2002.

Lerch faces three announced opponents so far: Steve Neal, a social worker who came close to defeated Lerch in 2006; Dan Pressburg, a financial consultant who previously worked on Lerch's campaign and council staff; and Brad Shore, a therapist, airline employee and union activist.

Learn more about Lerch and his opponents on their Web sites (I don't believe Pressburg has one yet): www.writeinvallerch.com, www.steveneal.org, www.bradshore.org.

The Long Beach City Council has been in its closed session since 4 p.m. this afternoon to talk about the city's negotiations to get pay raise concessions from the Police Officers Association and other employee unions. The city needs employees to forgo scheduled pay raises to cut $23 million from a $43.3 million budget deficit.

That's not unusual. The council's been having these closed sessions regularly for months. What is unusual is that everyone from City Manager Pat West to finance director Lori Ann Farrell to Mayor Bob Foster's chief of staff Becki Ames is sitting outside of the council lounge in the regular council chambers with all of us plebes.

West and Ames confirmed that only Foster, City Attorney Robert Shannon and the nine council members -- perhaps minus Patrick O'Donnell, who was absent at the budget meeting earlier -- are in that closed session meeting. West said this is unusual, noting that he is usually in on every closed session.

So what's being said in there? Is the city going to reach a deal with its unions? Can the council come to agreement? Or will negotiations break down?

Oh, to be a fly on that wall.

The Long Beach City Council just went into closed session to discuss negotiations with employee unions, but a planned discussion of the proposed Los Cerritos Wetlands property exchange was dropped from the agenda. Becki Ames, chief of staff for Mayor Bob Foster, told me that it was a matter of not having sufficient time. The council just finished a special budget meeting, has a 4:30 p.m. Long Beach Housing Authority meeting and a 5 p.m. regular meeting.

The wetlands deal would swap at least 33.7 acres of the wetlands in southeast Long Beach for the city's 12.1-acre public service yard next to the Los Angeles River. The issue has created controversy since it was introduced at the end of last year, with critics questioning whether the city is getting a fair deal and how much of the wetlands are truly natural areas worth preserving. Eventually, the council is expected to have their closed session on the matter and vote to have city management either move forward on the deal or kill it. If it moves forward, the council will later vote on the final terms of the land exchange in an open meeting.

The Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has shifted its position on the equal benefits ordinance proposed by First District City Councilman Robert Garcia. The ordinance would require that businesses that provide spousal benefits also must provide benefits for domestic partners in order to get a city contract.

The council was to consider approving creation of the ordinance tonight, but facing some criticism, Garcia has changed his recommendation to have it sent to the council's Economic Development Committee for review. The Chamber first declared itself neutral on the ordinance, but now is supporting Garcia's new recommendation.

From the Chamber's press release:

Today, after many conversations with our business community, elected
officials and Councilmember Garcia, the Chamber is in full support of the
Councilmember's decision to seek further review of this issue by introducing
it in the Economic Development Committee of the Long Beach City Council.
This process allows the Chamber and other interested stakeholders more time
to be a part of the process of the EBO's development.

The Chamber reserves its right to take a position on the final draft of the
EBO once it is brought back to City Council for consideration.

The council meets at 5 p.m. today in City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.

Fifth District Long Beach City Councilman Gerrie Schipske posted over the weekend on her blog -- www.gerrieschipske.com -- that a proposed equal benefits ordinance should be sent to committee before the council votes on it. The ordinance would require that companies that contract with the city of Long Beach and provide spousal benefits also must provide benefits for domestic partners. The idea was proposed by 1st District Councilman Robert Garcia to ensure that gay couples have the same benefits as others, at least among businesses the city is paying for services. Other cities and the state have similar equal benefits ordinances in place. Garcia and Schipske are the two openly gay members of the council, but Schipske had some concerns. Here's an excerpt from her blog:

As far as I can see, every city that has adopted this ordinance did so after several public hearings and with input from the business and gay and lesbian communities before the ordinance was crafted.

In fairness to everyone, we need to do the same: refer it to a council committee and the Human Relations Commission for public hearings and in-put. That way we can work out the details in public -- such as the dollar threshold for the requirement to kick in.

As I wrote about in today's paper, former 7th District Councilman Mike Donelon also has voiced concerns. He wrote a letter to the editor that ran in the Press-Telegram as well about the issue. Tuesday's council meeting (5 p.m. at City Hall) should be a lively and engaging one, and I'm sure members of the public and council members will have interesting perspectives on the matter.

Find out today when several other local journalists and I join the North Long Beach Community Action Group to discuss how we cover North Long Beach news and what we could be doing differently in this part of the city that sometimes gets overlooked. The format involves questions from the audience as well. Along with the Press-Telegram, representatives from The District Weekly, the Downtown Gazette, LBReport and the Signal Hill Tribune will be there.

The event takes place during the group's monthly meeting, which runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at the North Police Substation located at the corner of Del Amo and Atlantic avenues. Join us there!

Boeing Co. has announced it will deliver on Tuesday the first of three C-17s to the consortium of 10 NATO nations and two Partnership for Peace nations.

Recognizing a need for strategic airlift among NATO nations more than three years ago, Partnership for Peace nations Sweden and Finland and NATO members Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States agreed to participate in the Strategic Airlift Capability program.

The program allows these nations to share in the purchase and operating costs of three C-17s over the nearly 30-year course of the agreement.

This C-17 will be delivered to Papa Air Base in Hungary and used to support national, European Union and NATO military, peacekeeping, humanitarian and disaster relief missions. 

First District Councilman Robert Garcia, who represents parts of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, will be speaking at two upcoming community forums, starting with one tonight (Thursday, July 9).

This evening's event will take place during the West End Community Association at 7 p.m. in Cesar Chavez Park's community room, 4th Street and Golden Avenue. Next Wednesday, Garcia will be the guest speaker at the Willmore City Heritage Association's meeting at 7 p.m. in the Willmore Community Police Center, 9th Street and Daisy Avenue.

Topics will include Public Safety, Parking, Pacific Avenue Renovation, the Drake Park expansion, historic preservation and business renovations in Willmore, and the West Gateway. Garcia will also take questions and comments from the audience, and his staff will take down any neighborhood concerns or suggestions.

 

 Long Beach firefighters in HazMat spaceman suits helped clean up a toxic mess leaked from a 55-gallon drum that apparently jarred loose being hauled into the ICTF railyard.

Firefighters were called to 2401 Sepulveda Blvd. about 10 a.m. to check on reports of a strange odor eminating from a shipping container carrying 80 drums of diethanolamine, also known as DEA - a skin irritant and possible carcinogen.

The leaked DEA didn't hit the railyard's drainage system or waterways and was reportedly mopped up within a few hours. No injuries reported.

In a city that prides itself for its "green" efforts, it's no surprise that a proposal by council members Robert Garcia and Patrick O'Donnell to have City Manager Pat West examine how Long Beach can reduce its permitting fees for residential solar panels was met with enthusiastic support.

The council on Tuesday night unanimously approved the recommendation, which stemmed from a Sierra Club study of how much California cities charge for solar panel permits. Long Beach charges $599, which is far below the $750 amount that the Sierra Club said was an exhorbitant charge and that some cities even exceed. Still, it wasn't at the $324 level that the Sierra Club says is all it should cost for cities to recover their expenses.

Read an article about that Sierra Club study here.

No reportable action (read: no vote) was taken during the Long Beach City Council's closed session today (Tuesday, July 7), City Attorney Bob Shannon reported. That session was for the council to discuss contract negotiations with the city's nine employee unions, five of which have scheduled pay raises that city management wants workers to forgo. This is a key piece of City Manager Pat West's plan to eliminate a $43.3 million general fund budget deficit in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. West has said that to eliminate $20.3 $23 million of the deficit, all five unions must forgo their scheduled pay raises. The other $23 $20.3 million is being eliminated through 6 percent cuts across all departments.

But whether employee unions are willing to back off contractual raises remains to be seen. Already, there will be layoffs, officials say, and if the raises are given, even more layoffs could be expected. Once the council gives approval to an agreement, likely with some form of concessions, the agreement must be approved by the unions and then by the council in open session.

Chief among the pay increases that are on the table is one for the Police Officers Association. Under a four-year contract approved in 2005, police officers are scheduled to receive a raise Sept. 30 to put them at the median pay level of California's 10 largest cities. To reach the median pay level, Long Beach officials have estimated that a salary boost ranging from 5 percent to 14 percent at a cost of $5 million to $15 million would be required.

The current police contract that ends Sept. 30 gave officers a 19 percent raise over four years, along with a guaranteed 2 percent raise or the median pay level raise, whichever was greater. The Police Department makes up 48 percent of the current general fund, and the Fire Department budget is 18 percent of the general fund. Across all general fund departments, personnel costs total 84 percent of the budget.

CNN reports online that several area airports had a huge bump in flight bookings, according to travel Web site Expedia, after the date of today's funeral for pop star Michael Jackson at the Staples Center was announced. Los Angeles International Airport and Long Beach Airport both had a 20 percent increase in bookings, the CNN article says.

Read the full article here.

Long Beach, keep those faucets closed tight, those showers short and those lawns, well, alive but not turned into swampland. Your water-conservation efforts are paying off.

Last week the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners announced that the city has set another 10-year record low for water consumption in June, marking the 14th consecutive month the city has achieved a new 10-year record low.

From the press release (and really, these are some pretty amazing numbers):

For the fiscal year, which began October 1, 2008, Long Beach water use is 16.6 percent below the historical 10-year average water use. June 2009 water consumption was 18.4 percent below the historical 10-year average water use. Per capita water use in the city of Long Beach is currently 105 gallons per person, per day, which is the lowest it's been since 1945.  The per capita number includes both residential and commercial water use in the City of Long Beach.

Not bad. The Water Department's conservation campaign must be paying off. Or maybe it's just that in this recession, people can't even afford water anymore ...

The monthly Chat with Pat, hosted by 4th District Councilman Patrick O'Donnell, will take place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. today at Los Altos Library, 5614 Britton. Mario Rodriguez, the new Long Beach Airport director, will be the guest speaker.

The event is free and open to the public. It's a great chance to meet the 4th District council member and to find out the latest on the planned airport improvements.

Heading a city with just a little over 16,000 residents and a meager budget, Artesia City Manager Maria Dadian is used to doing more with less.

Dadian, who's been at the helm for nine years, chats with PublicCEO.com reporter Debbie Sklar about how her city isn't different from larger cities.

"Large cities operate with the impression that smaller populated cities that may contract services (police, fire, etc.) are not subject to the same fiscal challenges to serve their communities," Dadian said. "Smaller communities have a difficult time rallying to achieve all what is necessary to ensure that the public (residents and business) in the jurisdiction is served.  Funding and advocacy is lost or limited to small jurisdictions because it is the numbers (population) that gets the attention."

Dadian also said Artesia relies primarily on its investments and conservative budgeting and not on funding from the state.

"We have always struggled to make it financially as a city. We budget and operate conservatively," she explains. "We have never relied on the funds of the State, we have scrimped and saved. Then, through the State's irresponsible manner of managing money we become their 'loan institution?' As the front line to our residents how do we serve them?"

She adds that it's challenging to "simply hold on to the dollars that we have generated through investments in improving our infrastructure and working with those who select to do business and reside in our city."

Read more about the interview here.