June 2011 Archives

As I wrote about last week, the City Council isn't exactly impressed by the lobbyist registration law it passed last year, and it could do away with it altogether.

This first-quarter lobbyist report for 2011 and past reports are available online here. See who the lobbyists at City Hall are, who they work for and who they have met with.

 Councilman Robert Garcia has introduced legislation to create a citywide Yellow Pages opt-out system.

The online system would allow residents to opt-out of receiving Yellow Pages and directories at their homes. The legislation is on the City Council's next week agenda

Commercial Yellow Pages are currently delivered to the home of anyone with a landline. These books in many cases have been replaced with online directories.

Many of the books remain unused.

"Unused Yellow Page directories create enormous waste, and a burden on our refuse department," Garcia said in a prepared statement. "This new system would give residents the choice to receive them, or not."

The proposed opt-out system would continue to provide phone book companies and their advertisers the ability to promote their businesses. For those who currently receive the yellow pages, they would continue to receive it until they chose to opt-out, the councilman added.

Other cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, have created similar opt-out programs.

Seal Beach City Manager Jill Ingram has appointed Sean Crumby as the acting assistant city manager.

Crumby has served as the city's director of Public Works ince April of 2010, but he has 16 years of related experience, with six years in the private sector, and the past 10 years with three California cities. He previously worked for Seal Beach from 2005 through 2007 as the assistant city engineer.

 During the next six months, Crumby will continue as Public Works director, while also assisting Ingram with day-to-day operations, City Council support and special projects.

"The pleasures and challenges of working for a small beach community like Seal Beach create a stimulating and diverse working environment which I thoroughly enjoy," Crumby said in a prepared statement.

During the California budget debate Wednesday before Democratic lawmakers approved a budget that then was vetoed today by Gov. Jerry Brown, Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Lakewood, got into a scuffle with Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine. The confrontation resulted from another member taking offense to Wagner's "Sopranos" reference. Check it out below.

After state Democratic lawmakers passed a budget Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it today. Below is a video in which he explains why.

As I reported last week, a split Long Beach City Council gave its initial nod of approval for new district lines. The council went over four options that had been presented by city staff before decided on a single map that had one clear point of contention -- a proposed shift of a large area of Bixby Knolls east of Atlantic Avenue from the 8th District to the 7th District.

Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich was irate about the proposal by 7th District Councilman James Johnson, but the proposal passed 5-4. The council isn't expected to make a final decision until August, so in the meantime the city is asking for public input. You can give your opinion here. Check out more redistricting information at www.longbeach.gov/redistricting.

Below is the proposed map.

The mayors of California's 10 largest cities, including Long Beach, have issued a scathing statement criticizing the budget approved Wednesday by state lawmakers. The statement, word-for-word, is below.

Leaders in Sacramento yesterday took a backhand to the residents of California by failing to craft a legal and sustainable budget. Instead of seeking to protect our communities and the hard-working people of this state, legislators relied on gimmicks in order to protect their own paychecks.

Their so-called remedy for the State's deficit is an illegal and indefensible shakedown of our cities.  Over the past several months, we have pro-actively worked with State leaders to create sound alternatives that keep redevelopment alive and solve the state's budget problems.  But rather than create sensible, long-term solutions for California's dismal financial problems, they sought to recklessly raid local tax dollars and kill redevelopment--our strongest, local tool to revitalize the economy and create jobs now.

As Mayors of the 10 largest cities in the State, we condemn these short sighted actions.  Despite Sacramento's failure, we will continue to fight to save quality job training, urban revitalization, job opportunities, and affordable housing for residents across California.

BOB FOSTER, Mayor - Long Beach

KEVIN JOHNSON, Mayor - Sacramento

EDWIN LEE, Mayor - San Francisco

MIGUEL PULIDO, Mayor - Santa Ana

JEAN QUAN, Mayor - Oakland

CHUCK REED, Mayor - San Jose

JERRY SANDERS, Mayor - San Diego

ASHLEY SWEARENGIN, Mayor - Fresno

TOM TAIT, Mayor - Anaheim

ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, Mayor - Los Angeles

In case you missed my story, here it is highlighting items before the Long Beach City Council tonight.

One big issue is the redrawing of council districts. Read about some of the issues surrounding redistricting here.

Go to www.longbeach.gov or the full council meeting agenda.

As my previous blog entry mentioned, Long Beach is trying to become bicycle friendly -- actually, it wants to be "the most bicycle-friendly city in America." So, the city is asking residents to take a survey about how often you ride a bike and what kind of safety issues you encounter either as a bicyclist or as a motorist who must share the road with bikes.

The survey just takes a few minutes. Check it out here.

No doubt about it, Long Beach's efforts to become more bicycle friendly with bike lanes and other infrastructure has been a painful process for many motorists. While many bicyclists support it, we sure hear a lot here at the newspaper from people who think it's an absurd idea.

For those naysayers, however, check out this article from grist.org that says bike tourism is a great way to boost the local economy. From the article:

Bicycle touring has long had an honored place in the tourism economy and culture. This doesn't go unrecognized: In Wisconsin, bike tourism is estimated to contribute $1.5 billion to the state's economy every year.

As I wrote about today, state Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill to restrict polystyrene, or Styrofoam, use by restaurants -- called a "job killer" by the California Chamber of Commerce -- passed the Senate Thursday and will move on to the Assembly for approval. On Tuesday, the bill got a vote of support from the Long Beach City Council's State Legislation Committee, which forwarded its recommendation for support to the full council.

"This tackles probably the premier environmental issue in Long Beach, and that is the quality of our beaches," 4th District Councilman Patrick O'Donnell said at the committee meeting.

She's run for a state Assembly seat and a state Senate seat, and now Republican Martha Flores Gibson, a former Long Beach Unified School District social worker, is running for another Senate seat in a different district.

Flores Gibson has announced that she is running for the 27th state Senate district, whose current representative, Sen. Alan Lowenthal, will be termed out next year. While this is the first time she has run for the seat, she will face an old foe -- 54th District Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, who defeated Gibson in 2010. The other declared candidate in the race is another Democrat, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza.

Flores Gibson hasn't held any elected office, and so far hasn't come close to winning a seat. Last year she lost to Lowenthal 56 percent to 44 percent. In February, she was one of eight candidates who ran in a special election for the 28th Senate District seat formerly held by the late Sen. Jenny Oropeza. Flores Gibson came in a distant third with 6.7 percent of the vote.

Of course, Flores Gibson could find herself out of the game earlier than she did in 2010, when she won the Republican primary and moved on to face Lowenthal in the general election. Next year's primary election will use California's new "top two" election system that was created by a voter initiative last year. Under the new system, the top two vote-getters of any party will advance to the general election, which means Flores Gibson could find herself pushed aside by political heavyweights Lowenthal and Mendoza.

Flores Gibson's campaign website is here. Lowenthal's is here. Mendoza doesn't appear to have one, but his Assembly website is here.