Important Information -- June 11

I am posting a number of documents that readers will find of interest:

• City Manager's newsletter - June 11
• Updates on airport imrovements
• Boundary adjustments planned between Los Alamitos-Long Beach- Seal Beach
• Adopted revenue sources for 2010

Just look to the right column and the documents are available for reading or downloading.

Crime Stats and Police Staffing Levels

Dear readers,

To the right of the post are two documents that are a must read: The quarterly crime stats for the City of Long Beach which I requested in the Public Safety Committee. While the stats show downward trends in adult crimes -- god help the women and kids in our community who are being abused in higher numbers. Those figures are up.

The second document is a memo from the new Chief of Police about staffing levels for police and his assessment about a police academy. Once again, in polite terms, the council is told to pound sand about having a recruitment academy this budget year -- even though the council directed management to find out how to fund it. (I think we directed management three times on this one.)

The City cut Park Rangers despite having an enormous amount of park area. Something has to be done about increasing police presence -- especially in the parks.

You're Invited to Help Us With Ideas to Reduce the City Deficit

The City of Long Beach takes pride in the open and transparent manner in which the City's budget is presented and discussed during the annual budget adoption process. A critical element of this process is the active inclusion of the community in discussion about the City's challenges, priorities and opportunities to become a more fiscally sustainable city.


At the request of Councilmember Gerrie Schipske, and as part of the community engagement effort for the Fiscal Year 2011 (FY 11) budget development, the Department of Financial Management is inviting you and the public to join a live webconference hosted by ICMA and the City of Evanston, IL, in the Long Beach City Council Chambers on June 10, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Webconferences are opportunities for communities throughout the United States to come together to learn about best practices ask questions and share information with each other regarding their budget challenges via the Internet.

The webconference is entitled "Engaging Citizens to Cut Budgets: How One City Cut $9.5 Million from the Budget in Just Two Months." The public is invited to join City staff for this 90-minute interactive webconference in which they will hear how the City of Evanston, IL, implemented a process to set priorities and eliminate their nearly $10 million budget deficit. Expert presenters will share how the citizen engagement process helped maintain civility, created a continuing dialogue, and limited the amount of special interest lobbying at the final City Council budget meetings. Topics covered will also include:

 

 Benefits of engaging citizens in the budget process;

• Strategies and tips to create a successful citizen engagement experience;
• How to make the experience authentic for citizens; and  
• Tools and activities to support and encourage this process.

Those in attendance will then have an opportunity to ask the speakers questions directly during the Question/Answer session in the last 30 minutes.

 

Lakewood Village Is Getting Gas Lines Fixed

Residents of Lakewood Village are noticing that several streets are being worked on and steel plates left for a while. That's because the Long Beach Gas and Oil Department is currently replacing old gas lines below the street.

If you look to the right of this posting you can read the schedule for Lakewood Village.