Notice: This is not a City of Long Beach site.

Dear Readers: Please note that this is not a City of Long Beach website and is not paid for nor maintained by taxpayer funds.

If you contact Gerrie Schipske through this site on any matter pertaining to the City of Long Beach, a copy of your contact will be forwarded to her official city email as an official public record.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

DeLong Really Needs a Hug

 Several people in the community have sent me another funny email authored by Gary DeLong, titled “What was Gerrie Schipske Thinking?”

You ask, who is Gary DeLong and just what is his fixation with me?  

Well, Gary is that tall, dapper councilmember you see walking out of the council meeting many Tuesdays cause he just can’t bear to sit and listen to the people who come to talk to council. Sometimes he just leaves council meetings all together. Take the night we were deadlocked on the vote to ban plastic bags and to assess a fee on shoppers who want to use paper bags. Gary left thinking it was in the bag but was summoned back because the vote was about to go the “wrong way” for its supporters. Whew. It was nip and tuck there for a minute. Suddenly, Gary came back in time to be a deciding vote to pass the ban on plastic bags and assess a fee. What a sense of humor that Gary has. Long Beach is experiencing the worse economic downturn in years and there he was laughing about how he made it back in time from wherever he had been to vote for one of the most anti-business measures Long Beach has enacted.

Yes, Gary did send out an email with me as the focus because I called him out for one of his ego tantrums during City Council while I was trying to introduce guess speakers. How thoughtless of me to again point out Gary’s arrogance and rudeness,  especially since it is so obvious how hard he has worked these past five years to perfect his “I’m the man” routine. 

I have to admit that Gary isn’t just fixated on me. I often have to share his attention with Councilwoman Rae Gabelich.  Some of our council meetings are a riot with Gary practicing his latest insult or jab at Rae or me. He does it so cooly. Acting like he’s not listening at council while he is busy on his IPAD. Then wack! Rae or I will be asking questions about an agenda item and Gary presses the button on his microphone and delivers his personal attacks and then goes back to his IPAD or frantically tries to “call for the question” so he doesn’t have to hear us talk. Luck for Gary he doesn’t leave his microphone on because otherwise the public would hear the nasty side of Gary that I am sure he battles daily to hide.

It’s not that Rae and I haven’t tried to be friendly with Gary. Why just the other day we were having dinner in the Council lounge together and Rae asked him why in the world would he want to leave his council duties before he finishes his term, to run for the US Congress. Why would someone who disdains government so much risk his reputation and run for the most disdained level of government – Congress?

Gary, in his usual matter of fact style responded “because of economics. I have daughters that need to get through college and I need to make more money.” It was one of those rare moments when you want to reach out and give a hug and say “that’s okay big guy. It’s not your fault and you’re not alone. If your ‘successful’ small business isn’t making as much as a Congressman’s salary of $174,000, then go for it!”

So if you get a copy of Gary’s latest email, be kind and be gentle on how you respond to him. Forget that Gary uses the email to attack me again. The most important message in that email is his cry for attention and approval about his announcement that he is going to visit ‘100 businesses in 100 days.’ Give the big guy kudos. It only took him five years on the City Council to get the nerve to go out there and show some concern for local business. Besides it’s a wonderful campaign gimmick he can use to hit up business for campaign contributions -- just as he just did with the medical marijuana collections. He cleaned up with $6100 for that 'visit'. Got to admit he is a clever little devil.

Schipske Arranges with Rosie the Riveter Charter High School to Repaint House Numbers on Curbs


Schipske Arranges with Rosie the Riveter Charter High School To Repaint House Numbers on Curbs -- Says Project is a 'Good Public Safety and Jobs Skills Effort'
  
February 10, 2012 - When public safety personnel are responding to a call for service, every minute counts in finding the residence. But with house numbers missing or faded on city curbs and city funds to repaint the numbers not available, what's a city councilwoman to do to make sure these house numbers are repainted?

Well, if you are Fifth district Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, you contact a local charter high school and ask if the students would take on repainting of house numbers on curbs.

"The issue about missing and fading house numbers on curbs is a matter of public safety," says Schipske. "If fire and police have difficulty locating a residence because there are no house numbers on the curb or the numbers are so faded they are difficult to read, then we need to address that issue. The City does not have funds to repaint these house numbers on our curbs so I reached out to the

Rosie the Riveter Charter School and asked if their students would take this on as a project. They said 'yes' and we are set to go starting Monday, February 13."
Rosie the Riveter Charter high school is an effort of WINTER - Women In Non Traditional Employment Roles - a nonprofit organization started by a group of tradeswomen that wanted to extend opportunities to economically disadvantaged women. The school sits on part of the AES plant site on Studebaker.

Mary Mercado, Director of Youth Programs, has organized 20 students who will begin painting house numbers on curbs on Monday, February 13, 2012 between 9am and 3pm. The group will start the work in the El Dorado Park South Neighborhood and spend Mondays moving throughout the 5th Council District.

"Our students are excited about working in the community," says Mercado. "They take what they do very seriously because they know they are preparing themselves for the work world after their schooling. Projects such as this reinforce that preparation."

Schipske explains that the City Municipal Code regarding painting house numbers on curbs is very specific about the size of the numbers and the paint that can be used. Additionally, only non-profit organizations approved by the Police Department can do this work. "Rosie the Riveter Charter high school is currently the only organization permitted to paint house numbers on curbs. The Long Beach Department of Public Works supplied the paint and the stencils."

Students from the high school will distribute notices in the El Dorado Park South neighborhood on Saturday, February 11, alerting residents that house numbers will be painted on their curbs.  The service is free, however, residents are encouraged to make a tax-deductible contribution to the non-profit high school.

"This is a great opportunity for the community to acknowledge the work of these students and their high school while at the same time help in 'Shaping Up the 5th District,'" Schipske reminds.

Councilwoman Schipske launched other summer youth job programs in 2009 and 2010, addressing alleys and park maintenance in the 5th Council District.

Opened in September 2007, Rosie the Riveter Charter High School champions the spirit of progressive education; by providing a rigorous, standards-based secondary education and the opportunity to experience the world around us. www.winterwomen.org

Friday, February 10, 2012

Invited to Discussion with Obama Official

Anne Ferro talks with student ASB treasurer at Long Beach Rosie the Riveter Charter High School.
I was invited today to participate in a discussion with an official from the Obama Administration about implementing the President's goals as outlined in his State of the Union. Anne Ferro, Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration came to the Long Beach Rosie the Riveter Charter High School to discuss the importance of encouraging students to enter into vocational training.


Students from the Rosie the Riveter Charter High School participated in the discussion, stressing how important their experiences have been at the charter school. Several women in the WINTER program spoke about how more programs for women need to be offered so that women have the opportunity to earn decent wages in the trades.


Ms. Ferro and I talked about the new program I am launching with the students of Rosie the Riveter Charter High School -- repainting the house numbers on the curbs of our neighborhoods. The program helps the students and also improves the visibility of house numbers for our public safety responders.

Anne Ferro spoke eloquently about the commitment of the President to get people back to work rebuilding the infrastructure of our country. I was glad I was able to give her a copy of my "Rosie the Riveter in Long Beach" book and encouraged her to take a trip to the Rosie the Riveter Park and Interpretive Center in east Long Beach.

The White House, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
and Women In Non Traditional Employment Roles

Invite you to a
State of the Union 
Roundtable discussion with

Anne S. Ferro
Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

• February 9, 2012 • 11:45 AM
• Rosie the Riveter Charter High School
690 N Studebaker Road
Long Beach, CA. 90803

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Not Being Very Business Friendly

Last night in City Council, Councilman Gary DeLong displayed (again) the type of arrogance and ignorance that has sent the message to the business community that they need not to come to Long Beach.

A scheduled agenda item was brought forth to provide the Council a briefing from several marketing professionals on how robust the demographics are in Long Beach for attracting top retailers and how the City could leverage this advantage and seek corporate sponsors which would raise revenues.

Instead of welcoming (and thanking) these professionals and engaging with them about the information being presented, DeLong who has a very small business, interrupted and inquired why we were even taking this issue up.

It is not coincidence that the agenda item was one I brought forth. DeLong is contemptuous  of two of the three women on the Council and doesn't even try to hide it anymore. I responded that he could go to the council lounge (as he often does) if he didn't want to sit and listen to professionals who had taken time to provide important information for the City.

The presentation was excellent and helpful. Sadly, because of DeLong's rudeness, the presenters cut their talk short. How embarrassing for Long Beach.

Click here to read their presentation. The news is good.

Elderly Couple Attacked in Long Beach Home Invasion

Tell me why again, the City Council Public Safety Committee would not recommend funding a police academy so we can train new police? We are down more than 200 officers in Long Beach. But hey. The Council funded a new website.



Elderly Couple Attacked in Long Beach Home Invasion

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Schipske's Statement Concerning Prop 8 Ruling

Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, Fifth Council District
Contact: 562 570-6932


Statement on 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling Regarding Unconstitutionality of Prop 8

2/7/12 – Long Beach, CA -- Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, Long Beach’s first open lesbian elected to serve on the Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees and the Long Beach City Council, today issued the following statement in response to the announcement that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional:

“The federal court of appeals clearly explained in its ruling that the people may not use the initiative process to strip any group of a right as important as the right to marry and that Proposition 8 served no purpose other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians by reclassifying our relationships and our families as being inferior to those of opposite sex couples.

As someone who has been in a committed, loving relationship with a same sex partner for over 31 years, this ruling iterates something those of us in the gay and lesbian community already knew – that taking the constitutional rights of one group takes from all of us as Americans.

This decision is a triumph for all Americans by affirming the importance of freedom and human dignity as our constitutional rights.

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