April 2010 Archives

The Long Beach Police and Fire departments will pay tribute Tuesday to members who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

The community is invited to attend the Police and Fire Memorial ceremony, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at the foot of Chestnut Avenue, south of Broadway.

The memorial service will include the Pledge of Allegiance, a posting of the colors presentation by an honor guard, an invocation, individual recognition of fallen officers and firefighters, a bagpiper, a 21-gun salute, a bugler, as well as remarjs by Police Chief Jim McDonnell and Fire Deputy Chief Jeff Reeb.

 

The Long Beach Planning Commission approved the certificate of appropriateness for the Long Beach Airport's terminal modernization. Plans still have to go to the City Council, which is expected in the summer, before the project can move forward.

Check out images of what the new terminal will look like here and see an animated graphic of the future project here.

Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal is hosting a lunch for 2nd District residents today. Commanders from the Police Department's East and South divisions will attend to discuss residents' concerns. Police Chief Jim McDonnell had been expected to attend, but won't be able to because he'll be at the funeral of former Los Angeles Police Department Chief Darryl Gates.

The lunch is from noon to 1 p.m. today at Paradise Cafe, 1800 E. Broadway. The event is free, but a prearranged menu including tax will be available for $10, and beverages will be available for additional charge. All 2nd District residents are invited.

Two weeks after losing his 9th District seat to Steve Neal, 9th District City Councilman Val Lerch announced today that he is endorsing James Johnson in the 7th District race. Johnson is in a June 8 runoff with Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga. It is the only local race from the April 13 primary election to go to a runoff election.

Lerch told me Monday night that he is endorsing Johnson because he wants to maintain balance on the council and prevent it becoming too union-friendly. Neal is a longtime union member and leader who was endorsed by most of the major unions in the area -- the unions spent their own money and sent out an "army," as Lerch put it, of volunteers to campaign for him. Lerch was further stymied by having to run a write-in campaign to win a third term.

Uranga too ran a write-in campaign for a third term, but she was able to get enough votes to get second place, and Johnson fell about 5 percent short of the 50 percent he needed for an all-out win. Like Neal, Uranga is extremely pro-union -- likely the most pro-union member of the council. She too received strong union backing in the election, although Johnson shared some of the union endorsements as well.

"The exact reason why I'm not in a runoff is why Tonia is in a runoff -- the same people who came after me and defeated me are the ones backing her for her runoff," Lerch said.

Johnson also announced Monday that former 7th District Councilman Ray Grabinski is endorsing him as well.

With City Council meetings often dragging on for hours, and many council agenda items being a bit dry and technical, city officials have to find humor where they can.

On Tuesday, City Clerk Larry Herrera elicited some of the most riotous laughs I've heard in the council chamber for quite some time.

Reading an agenda item transferring an Alcoholic Beverage Control license to La Creperie Cafe's new location on Pine Avenue, Herrera sorely mispronounced the French word, which came out, "La Creepy Cafe."

Mayor Bob Foster couldn't contain his laughter and could barely speak for several minutes. The whole room joined in the raucousness.

"That's a real appetizing name there," Foster guffawed. "You might want to brush up on your French."

Once Foster got his breath back, he asked Herrera: "Why don't you try that again?"

"No thank you," the embarrassed Herrera replied.

The council voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve a 120-day moratorium on new wireless communications facilities, such as telecommunications antennas, to give the city time to update its antenna law.

Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, supported by council members Gary DeLong and Rae Gabelich, had proposed the moratorium. The idea for the moratorium came up April 7 as the council considered allowing a microwave antenna at the top of the Gaytonia Apartments, 212 Quincy Ave. Residents there were concerned about the potential health effects. Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais made clear at the time that if an antenna meets Federal Communications Commission regulations, the city can only deny it if there is an aesthetic issue.

Schipske said Tuesday the council should still study what options it has to address the placement of antennas in residential areas.

"It's not just about Gaytonia," Schipske said. "We've had a proliferation of requests to do this."
Councilman Val Lerch cast the only dissenting vote.

Apparently, government bailouts aren't just done at the federal level.

The council voted Tuesday to decrease the rent the city receives from the Alamitos Bay Marina Center because the Seal Beach Yacht Club has had a drastic drop in membership during the recession.

BANCAP Marina Center, Inc., has had a lease to run the city-owned center since 1994 and pays Long Beach $37,803 per month. The Yacht Club, which is one of seven tenants at the Marina Center, pays BANCAP $7,905 per month.

What city management had asked for, and what the council approved 7-1, was to decrease the Yacht Club's, and consequently BANCAP's, monthly rent by $3,000 for two years, with a retroactive start date of Jan. 1 this year.

Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga cast the dissenting vote, and Councilman Robert Garcia was absent.

"I just wanted to be real clear," Uranga said before the vote. "The reason we're helping them out is because of a 40 percent loss in membership dues in a social club?"

Victor Grgas, manager of the city's Property Services Bureau, said that if the Yacht Club were to default on its lease and leave Marina Center, the city would lose $110,000 in revenue and BANCAP would lose $53,000 because of the economic climate.

Furthermore, the lease amendment requires BANCAP to pay 30 percent of its rent income or $900 each month, whichever is less, in compensation to the city.

The City Clerk's Department has released its updated ballot count from Tuesday's city election. You can see the number of ballots by district or citywide in the chart below. Another 900 provisional ballots still need to be counted and are expected to be tallied by Thursday. So far, the new ballots haven't changed the outcome of the election, and it's doubtful the provisional ballots will either. However, the vote-by-mail ballots have increased voter turnout to 15.08 percent, which is still dismally low, but better than the 14.7 percent initially reported.

See the new election results here.

The unofficial results from last Tuesday's city election were ready by early Wednesday morning, but they didn't include several thousand vote-by-mail ballots that had arrived Monday and Tuesday to the City Clerk's Office or were turned in at the polls. Another 900 provisional ballots -- those turned in by voters who didn't go to their designated polling place -- remain to be counted as well and are expected to be finished by Thursday. Below is a chart released today by the City Clerk that shows how many vote-by-mail ballots there were and in which races.

As I see it, there are only two races that have the slightest chance of changing the outcome from Wednesday's results, not counting whatever the provisional ballots may contain. Based on the vote-by-mail ballots remaining, in the 7th District James Johnson could go above 50 percent of the votes and avoid a runoff with Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga only if he were to get almost all of the votes from those ballots. That's a tall order. In the 9th District, if the remaining ballots come close to reflecting the initial election results, Councilman-elect Steve Neal should be fine. Only if almost none of the remaining votes went to Neal, would his percentage get pushed below 50 percent, which would then force a runoff election likely between he and Councilman Val Lerch.

Now that the city election is over (whew!), I want to catch up on a few burning issues -- no pun intended. One is the medical marijuana law, and one is the lobbyist registration ordinance.

Mayor Bob Foster signed the medical marijuana ordinance April 1, and it goes into effect May 2, although existing medical marijuana collectives have seven months in which to comply in order to give them time to grow the marijuana that their patients need. The lobbyist ordinance went into effect Sunday, and the first date for lobbyists to report their activities at City Hall is July 15.

Check out the lobbyist registration and filing requirements here. Read the full lobbyist law here.

To learn more about the medical marijuana ordinance, which med pot advocates say is way too restrictive, read the full ordinance:
Medical Marijuana Ordinance.PDF

Another video for your amusement, in case you missed it earlier this year -- Councilwoman Suja Lownethal's State of the 2nd District address.

I came across these videos from February when City Council members Robert Garcia and Gary DeLong went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for everything from C-17 funding to support for reconfiguring the Long Beach Breakwater. Check it out.

The "405-605 Tea Party Patriots" have scheduled a meeting Wednesday at St. Isidore's in Los Alamitos.

The meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the church's hall, 10961 Regan St., will feature two speakers -- both candidates for office in the upcoming primary: Bill Hunt, who is running for Orange County sheriff, and John Eastman, a candidate for state attorney general.

For more details, visit the group's website: www.teaparty405-605.org or at our listing on: www.teapartypatriots.org

Make sure you count ... with the U.S. Census.

That's the plea issued Monday by 37th Congressional District Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach.

"By mailing your Census form back by (Friday), you will help make the count as accurate as possible and you will save taxpayer dollars -- that would otherwise be used to send a Census worker to your home -- for projects like improving schools and building hospitals," said Richardson.

The information taken in the Census is confidential and is not shared with any other government agencies. Regardless of personal legal issues, tax issues, credit problems, family matters or any other confidential situation that might cause concern, there is nothing to lose by filling out and mailing back a Census form, according to the congresswoman.

"In 2000, the Census missed 3 million people," Richardson added. "Most of the people not counted were Hispanic or African American, which resulted in communities like ours missing out on millions of dollars, since each person missed by the Census means our community will lose up to $1,500.

"The Census determines how more than $400 billion will be spent each year for the next decade and it will be used to decide where new schools are built and which roads will be built and improved," the congresswoman said. "It also provides a snapshot of what our neighborhoods look like and where services for groups like veterans and senior citizens should be located. Everyone has a stake in the success of Census 2010. It is time for you and your family to stand up and be counted."

If you haven't filled out your census form yet, the city of Long Beach wants to remind you with the following public service announcement:

A top convention and tourism official abruptly resigned from the Downtown Long Beach Associates' board of directors this week.

Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau chief Steve Goodling said today that he resigned from his advisory position of nine years on the DLBA Board of Directors Monday because of concerns with "internal issues" at the nonprofit organization, which operates on behalf of more than 1,700 business and commercial property owners downtown.

DLBA President and CEO Kraig Kojian said tonight that he met with and "personally apologized to" Steve, adding that he assumes "full responsibility regarding any communication that comes out of this office."

Goodling resigned three days after an e-mail delivered to him last Friday referred to responsibilities that the Retail Vision Steering Committee "felt the CVB needed to personally accept," including support for a downtown visitors study, new lighting, public safety efforts, the Shop Local, marketing and branding campaigns. The lbpost.com writes that Goodling's resignation is one of several issues that business owners are having with the DLBA.

Kojian and Goodling would not go into the specific issues that led to the resignation, but vowed to move forward from the experience.

"We discussed the issues at hand and, recognizing the internal nature of these matters, our organization will address them accordingly," Kojian said. "On a move-forward basis, Steve and I have agreed to continue working together on programs and services that are mutually appropriate for our organizations  for the benefit of the community, including the upcoming Long Beach Bicycle Festival, the expansion of the existing storefront activation program and ongoing capital improvement projects in the Downtown."

Goodling said the CVB will continue to bring conventions to Long Beach and market the city to tourists.

"We will continue to work with our membership, which are over 400 businesses in the city, a lot of them downtown," he said. "We are very much invested here. I mean, the lighting project was a project that we took on, along the Redevelopment Agency, the DLBA and others, which is reaping us benefits with additional conventions."

"Going forward, we'll be working with the DLBA on projects as and when the need arises," Goodling said. "But there are other issues and concerns that are within the DLBA and the DLBA will need to address that."