School District Provides Update on Construction of New High School to Replace DeMille

The Long Beach Unified School District has provided an update about the completed demolition of DeMille on Parkcrest and the beginning of construction of the new high school.

Check this link for the latest announcement.

Please contact me as construction progresses if you have any problems in the neighborhood.

Message from City of Long Beach Health Officer Regarding Concerns About Radiation from Japan

I received the following message from the City's Health Officer in response to constituent inquires about precautions needed due to the radiation in Japan:

I was just on a statewide conference call, and the radiologic experts at the state continue to emphasize that the nuclear reactor problems in Japan are extremely unlikely to pose any health threat to the US due to the types of releases that have occurred so far, the weather conditions in Japan (rain and snow for last 3 days) and the distance between Japan and the US (5000 miles). As a precautionary measure, there are numerous radiation monitors throughout the state, which are very good at picking up changes in radiation levels, and no change has been detected to date. As a mother myself, I have absolutely no concern about this affecting the health of my child. If anything changes, we will certainly put out recommendations for what people should do to protect themselves.

Helene Calvet, M.D.

Health Officer and TB Controller

Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services

2525 Grand Ave., Long Beach, CA 90815

Phone (562) 570-4047, Fax (562) 570-4049

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer Sends Letter to Little Hoover Commission...and Councilman Gary De Long

In response to the Little Hoover Commission's report on public employee pensions and Councilman Gary De Long's current attempt to get the City of Long Beach to adopt the report, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer has written the following letter : (well, Lockyer actually only sent it to Hancock, but hopefully Councilman De Long will read it and Lockyer's additional remarks before attempting to push this on the City Council next Tuesday....)

Lockyer's Response to Little Hoover Commission

Statement regarding airplane crash today in Long Beach

I extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who died or were injured in today's tragic plane crash at the Long Beach Airport.

I also commend the Long Beach Fire Department and the Long Beach Airport staff for their quick response to the scene and for their continued professionalism in handling the news regarding this horrible event.

While the City of Long Beach is Being Attacked for Its Use of Tidelands Monies...

I don't hear any concern or discussion about the State of California's use of tidelands funds that are mostly generated in Long Beach.

Is everyone aware that the State can use Tidelands funds for purposes other than the improvement of harbors and other projects directly related to the tidelands areas? Is everyone aware that Tidelands funds were the primary source of funding for higher education in California but the monies were re-directed to water projects?

Click here and read an article on the topic that you might find very interesting.

Tidelands monies generated in Long Beach are being used to fix, repair and improve infrastructure in the Tidelands areas. The same cannot be said for the State of California's use of these funds.

Deja Vu -- Ideas That Might Have Worked...

Thought you all might enjoy some ideas that I brought to Council a couple of years ago....

Schipske Brings Package of Financial and Environmental Items
A spokesperson for Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske today disclosed that Schipske is placing several items on the January 22nd Council agenda aimed at dealing with some of the serious financial and environmental problems facing the City of Long Beach, including a proposal to increase the transfer of Port of Long Beach funds and allow use of a portion of the transferred funds for non-tidelands area programs and costs to cushion funds taken by the State of California.
 "Councilwoman Schipske is greatly concerned that the current financial and environmental problems facing the City of Long Beach need to be dealt with aggressively and creatively," stressed Josh Butler, who serves as Schipske’s Chief of Staff. "For this very reason, she is bringing five items forward to engage the City Council and the public in discussing new solutions to these problems."
The "package" of Council items includes a proposal that would limit the City Manager from increasing non-bargained salaries or giving bonuses to management employees beyond the current Consumer Price Index ("CPI") instead of the 7 percent recently approved by the City Council. "The Councilwoman feels she made a mistake in voting to allow the City Manager to give increases up to 7% without some type of provision that allows the Council to control the amount if the City’s finances warrant a smaller amount," says Butler. "No one should be receiving a 7% increase in this economy."
Schipske is also proposing that the voters be asked to approve an amendment to the City Charter that would increase the percentage of funds transferred to the City from the Port of Long Beach’s net income. The current percent is set at 10% and the funds must be used for programs and services within the "tidelands area." Schipske’s proposal would increase the transfer rate to 15% plus add 5% which would be available for use in the City’s "general funds."
"Long Beach needs financial relief from the State of California," Butler notes. "Not only has the State of California been transferring "tidelands funds" into the State’s "general funds" to help its own financial situation, but the State is also continuing to raid local property tax revenues thereby financially strapping cities such as Long Beach. This increased transfer would provide a needed cushion for our City." The increased transfer would have to be approved by the Long Beach voters and most likely require state legislation allowing the non-tidelands use.
Schipske believes that some of these transferred funds could be used to deal with the environmental impact the port is having on the area – both in terms of air pollution from trucks and cargo ships calling on the port and water pollution and trash from the re-routing of the Los Angeles River.
Butler says Schipske also feels that funds need to be transferred to help pay for the costs of the City equipping and staffing police, fire and public health departments which will be called into service should the port ever be attacked by terrorists. "The impact of this port go far beyond the ‘tidelands area’," reminds Butler.
Other proposals being placed on the Council agenda include allowing the City to use a portion of the "refuse collection fees" surplus to pay for weekly street sweeping expenses, thereby freeing up several hundreds of thousands in "general funds" that could be used for other purposes.
"She is also asking the City Council to request the City Attorney to provide a briefing on the potential loss of revenue to the City should pending litigation filed by Verizon and other telephone providers regarding the telephone utility use tax prevail," stated Butler, referring to a December workshop held by the League of California Cities at which cities were told of the problems being created by the lawsuits. The City of Los Angeles is attempting to pre-empt the massive loss of revenue by putting the issue before its voters before the court rules on the issue.
"Councilwoman Schipske wants to know if Long Beach will be impacted and what if anything can we do to mitigate our losses."
The fifth agenda item requests the City council to refer to its State Legislative Committee the issue of the current exemption from the State "Sales Use Tax" on bunker fuel. Bunker fuel is used by cargo ships and is the source of a great deal of the air pollution in the area. The State legislature exempted a portion of the fuel from being taxed at the urging of Assemblymember Betty Karnette and State Senator Alan Lowenthal.

Barcelona Uses Underground System to Handle Its Trash

 While you may not speak Spanish, watch the video anyway and get the idea of what Barcelona, Spain is doing to handle its trash. Bins are placed in every neighborhood and the trash is separated by type, etc., compressed and sent underground for processing into energy. No trash trucks -- just clean streets.

I will look into to see how much it cost to build and operate.

PS Thanks to Regina Walter, owner of Grounds, for sending me the video.

Long Beach Was Devastated in 1933

Building codes have certainly been improved since the 1933 earthquake hit Long Beach. But what is happening in Japan is showing us once again that we cannot be totally earthquake proof. Get yourself and family ready in case we get hit.

90% of Long Beach schools were damaged or destroyed in the 1933 earthquake. Students had to attend classes in tents or sitting under trees in local parks. It took two years for all the schools to be fixed or rebuilt.

 

Damage to the downtown Long Beach was also extensive.

Are you ready for the big earthquake here in Long Beach?

It happened in Japan and it is going to happen here in Long Beach. It is just a matter of time.

So please check out these links on information you need to get ready. Click here.

Also, please read the message from the Long Beach Fire Department on earthquake preparedness that I have posted to the left on this blog.

Pushing for Feds to Remove Cap on Local Hires

Last night , the Council supported an agenda item which I sponsored and which was co-sponsored by Councilman Patrick O'Donnell that will ask the federal government to waive a cap on how many local hires we can require on the construction of the Gerald Desmond bridge. Because federal funds are being used from the federal highway administration, the project is capped to requiring only 30% of the jobs go to local hires.

Long Beach has 14% unemployment -- one of the highest rates in the state. So it makes no sense that any projects that will hire workers would be capped at on 30% of those jobs going to Long Beach residents.

So Long Beach needs to asks the federal government to waive the cap and allow more than 30% of the jobs to go to Long Beach residents!

The agenda item now goes to the City Attorney who will work with the City Manager to craft language making this request of the federal government.

Councilman DeLong Needs to Get His Facts Straight -- and Truthful

So Councilman DeLong thinks that my objections to selling city assets and services to private entities is because I received so much money from the unions.

Don't know if he or his handlers wrote the response to my blog but whomever writes his responses needs to be truthful first. I have not received one penny from the unions that provide the services he is trying to sell -- street sweeping, towing, etc.  Both Mr. DeLong and I received $350 from the LB Police Officers Association. I received an in kind contribution of printing of campaign signs from the LB Firefighters Association. That's the sum of what the city unions contributed.

But I did not receive one penny from the unions whose services I believe should not be contracted out.

Now in comparison, I took no money from Tom Dean either. Mr. DeLong did. So are we to infer that is why he pushed the Dean land swap so vigorously? Since councilpersons are limited to receiving $350 from one source (union or non-union) it would seem silly to infer that any council person could be bought for $350. Don't you think so?

I also sent back a check a towing company sent me during the campaign because I had heard that after the election Mr. DeLong would be trying to get the city to contract out towing services and I felt the money was a conflict of interest.

So back to the facts about contracting out city services. Towing and street sweeping provide an incredible amount of revenue for the city. Revenue that pays for the salaries and benefits of the people who provide the services and then some. The "then some" provides for funding for other things in the city.

So why would we want to share revenue with an outside business? Does that make sense for the taxpayers? No.


So let's have a discussion on the merits and shortfalls of contracting out and what is best for the taxpayers and not the politicians.

Long Beach Assets and Services Are Not for Sale

Ah, can you smell the 2012 campaign season in the air?

I can. Straight out the playbook from the "bootcamps" and "workshops" and other rhetoric camps is coming the pushing to totally privatize city services. Step right up folks and you too can bid on providing services for the City of Long Beach such as towing, trash collection and street sweeping.

Now you won't finder bidders for the more mundane less lucrative services such as libraries and parks. Nah. There isn't a lot of money connected with them.

But as we near campaign season for the free for all that is going to happen with re-districting, watch the bouncing ball as it goes crazy following the numerous suggestions to contract out Long Beach city services to the lowest bidder.

Towing, street sweeping and trash collection bring the City of Long Beach the highest sources of revenue outside our oil production. So it is only logical that the city would want to keep these services in-house, right? No, now we are starting to hear that certain council persons wishing to posture for their political followers want to sell these city services to the lowest bidder.

Oh, great. Our city employees who perform great service and who bring a tremendous source of revenue to the city now are to be replaced by private contractors that undoubtedly will: a) contribute to political campaigns and b) take from the city the very profit we realize in these services.

Luckily the voters of Long Beach were wise enough to vote for a proposition L which requires that the City Manager make a finding that the services  being selected for outsourcing cannot be done cheaper by city employees. And every Prop L study has shown that they are.

So what is behind the move to privatize city towing services and street sweeping? It makes great campaign brochures but lousy public policy. If a certain councilperson keeps this up, some of us will ask the City Manager to do a Prop L finding as to whether or not his job could be contracted out to the private sector.

Schipske Proposes Cameras on Street Sweepers

Ever get a ticket on sweeping day when your car wasn't in the way of the street sweeper? Well, Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske may have a solution thanks to new state legislation.

"The State legislature recently passed a bill (AB 2567) to allow the placement of cameras on the street sweepers so that cities can verify that a vehicle was actually parked on the street at the time the street sweeper was there -- not before and not after. This provides a date and time stamp which may result in less street sweeping tickets being issued," notes Schipske who says that she receives complaints from constituents claiming they were ticketed before the street sweeper arrived.

The cameras include a license plate reader and the operator clicks a picture the ticket is automatically mailed to the vehicle owners. Because the street sweeper is already equipped with GPS locators, the time and location are included with the picture.

Schipske also points out that currently the tickets are issued by city staff which follow the street sweepers in a car.

"The use of cameras would eliminate using staff to follow the street sweeper, freeing parking enforcement to concentrate on other parking problems in the city. "

Schipske has been in discussions with the Public Works Department about using this technology. Her proposal will be on the Council agenda.

Response from City Manager on 72 properties claimed as suitable for MHA

Below is the memo just released by the City Manager in response to Neighborhoods First stating that an alternate site for the MHA project was available on Santa Fe Avenue in West Long Beach. As you will note below the site is not available for such use. Also attached is the City Manager's response to 70 other properties which were claimed to be sites for MHA. None of them were. Finally, MHA has retained the services of a reputable commercial real estate broker to try and find an alternate site. To date, no sites have become available.



MHA- Alt Site Memo

Getting the public involved in how the city spends money

I discussed at length during yesterday's City Council's study session on the growing deficit that we need to engage the public in the solutions to this problem. Despite the feeling by some that the council and mayor "know best" about what to do -- it ain't so. We need the public as a partner in deciding on what services, staff, etc., which be cut and which will be retained.

In a partnership, both sides need information to make decisions. So I am proposed that the city utilize software that illustrates our budget and then allows citizens to decide what should be cut and what should be retained by giving the full information on the impact of the decisions.

Last year, frustrated with the lack of public engagement and disclosure of information, I contacted
 the California Budget Challenge which has developed software that cities can use to fully engage their residents. Below is my email and the response I received from the non-profit. I am sharing this with the City Manager and my council colleagues and hope we get this up and running as soon as possible. I am also looking into software: uservoice.com and peakdemocracy.com that will allow on line comments from citizens (just as if they attended a council meeting) on the budget and any other issue the city considers.

Hi Gerrie,
Next 10 is a 501C3 nonprofit organization. We created the online California Budget Challenge in 2005 and shortly after creating the tool we had requests from different groups to license it, so we developed a deployable version of our California Budget Challenge that municipalities can license for their own use. The one-time license fee is $15k. The software has been used to create the following versions of the Challenge:

Los Angeles: http://labudgetchallenge.lacity.org/budgetchallenge/sim/budget_master.html

Oakland: http://www.oaklandbudgetchallenge.com/

Philadelphia: http://economyleague.org/budget_challenge/sim/budget_master.html

Federal: http://www.federalbudgetchallenge.org/budget_challenge/sim/budget_master.html

California: http://www.nextten.org/budgettool/site/thesim/flashcheck.html



We have received quite a bit of press over the years highlighting the California Budget Challenge. Here are a few of the more recent clippings:

TV: http://www.kcra.com/video/22948316/index.html

TV: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=6799808

PRINT: http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14846764?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

RADIO: http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/24920/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/24920/613/richmedia/LL_Budget_Challenge_on_Next_10.mp3?CCOMRRMID=27089839&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&a



Here is the San Francisco Chronicle article that was published when we first launched the online tool:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/25/BAGOBCEEMJ1.DTL&type=printable



Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is any additional information I can send you about the Challenge. We are really happy with how this has been used across California and it would be great to work with you to create the Long Beach Budget Challenge!



Many thanks,

Sarah

Job Training Available

Job Training

1937 Betty Boop Cartoon -- the Candid Candidate (see part about redevelopment)

This is a hysterical cartoon and so timely as California grapples with redevelopment.

The passing of a stateman: Congressman Steven Horn

Long Beach has lost a statesman, a gentleman and a scholar with the passing of Congressman Steven Horn. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and family.

Even though we were political opponents, I do appreciate his service to his Congressional district and to our nation.

On a personal note, I want to again acknowledge his professionalism and courtesy during the campaign we ran against each other in 2000. Our debates were civil and informative. Our campaign mailers were the same. He treated me with respect and so did his staff. Something you rarely see in these days of political rancor.

He was a moderate Republican but most importantly someone who truly understood the inter-workings of government, which allowed him to provide excellent service to his constituents.

Thank you, Congressman Steve Horn.

Redistricting Is Coming

Because of the census, the City is required to redraw its boundaries. The following is the presentation we received last night that starts the process. Please know that I will host several community meetings to discuss this issue. The law requires that each council district boundary be drawn to include the same amount of people in each district. Right now the 5th District needs 5,500 more residents.

Redistricting Process

Councilwoman Schipske Gets Council to Approve Paying Their Pension Costs

I want to thank my council colleagues who voted last night to support my motion on the floor that requires the Mayor and City Council to pay its full "employee share" of the pension costs. Up until recently, the City picked up the 8% of salary that was required for the employee portion as well as the employer portion.

I also asked that the other electeds -- City Attorney, City Prosecutor, and City Auditor -- pay their full share as well, but several council persons were reluctant to impose that on them without them in the council chambers (?) I find that interesting because we don't require the unions to be in the room. Oh well.

Hopefully, the other electeds who earn much more than the City Council does ($30,000 annually) will accept our invitation and pay up. Afterall, if we know all city employees must do this, then let's be leaders.