One more push to get Tesla to come to Long Beach

Haven't heard officially what decision Tesla Motors has made about where it will locate its plant that will produce the Model S and create 1,200 jobs. Also have not heard a peep out of our city officials about what is being done to recruit this job maker.

So I am doing one more push of letter writing and a 30 second video on You Tube showing why Long Beach should be selected over Downey. The mayor of Downey was a nice guy to take a gift basket to Tesla, but Long Beach has a great site at the Boeing property and we can give a tax credit in the enterprise zone for every job created...better than a gift basket wouldn't you say.

Residents Deserve An "Autopsy" To Find Out The "Cause of Death of Tesla Deal"

November 23, 2009-- Gerrie Schipske, councilwoman for Long Beach’s fifth district, has been outspoken in her desire to keep alive the possibility of Tesla Motors locating its plant in Long Beach.

She personally contacted Elon Musk, President of Tesla to ask him what the City of Long Beach was doing to encourage his company to locate there. She also mounted a letter writing campaign called "Long Beach -- We Can Do Better Than Downey."

She used her blog to prod Long Beach officials to actively market the City to get Tesla here. So today upon learning that Tesla has signed a letter of intent with Downey to locate a plant which will manufacture 20,000 electric vehicles and produce 1,000 jobs she issued the following statement:

"The taxpayers of Long Beach deserve a full explanation about who or what killed the deal to bring Tesla to Long Beach. How did we lose this revenue producing opportunity to Downey? Long Beach has so much more to offer to a business than most southern California locations -- we have manufacturing space at the Boeing site, nearness to freeways, an airport, a port, railroad, convention center, training programs at our local community college and most importantly a workforce ready and willing to work. We also have an enterprise zone that provides tax credits for employers. And just recently the City announced it won the 'Most Business Friendly City Award' in Los Angeles County.

So what went wrong?

Anyone who has worked in corporate America knows how important it is to develop positive relationships in order to do business, which is exactly what the City of Downey did and the City of Long Beach did not do.

Unlike the City of Downey, which marshaled its Mayor and Council to actively court Tesla through calls, letters, ads and personal outreach, Long Beach apparently treated Tesla as a 'second-class citizen' according to comments made to me and to the press by Tesla President, Elon Musk. (It would be interesting to examine how much time and effort was really expended by Long Beach officials and staff in recruiting Tesla.)

I would like to congratulate the City of Downey for getting Tesla, and thank them for helping to keep these important types of jobs in the region."

We've Got Trouble, Right Here in Long Beach City, Starts With T and Rhymes with P and its stands for PCBs

Ya got trouble,
Right here in Long Beach city!
With a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for PCBs.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in Long Beach City!


With apologies to Professor Harold Hill of Music Man fame, we apparently do have trouble right here in Long Beach City.

Seems like the US Environmental Protection Agency got tipped off by the O.C. District Attorney back in 2008 that there might be some hazardous things called PCBs a lurking over on the 33 acres owned by LCW Oil Operations -- yes, that same bundle of joy being adopted by the City of Long Beach in a land swap labeled "wetlands."

Remember that infamous day when city staff told the City Council, you need to hurry up and do this deal or the owner will walk away? Now or never was the battle cry from the council dais.

Well it is now many months later and we just find out that the owners of that parcel knew way back in February 2009 that the EPA wanted the land checked out for these hazardous substances and that EPA suspects several areas of the land have contamination.

So I am putting an item on the Council agenda (again) asking for full disclosure of what EPA found on the property, why it wasn't disclosed to the Council during negotiations and how the City can protect itself from winding up with property that is going to cost a bundle to clean up.

If you'd like to learn more...please go on line directly to EPA website's and feast your eyes on all the reports and letters about the problems on this property.