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.

Yes, Councilmembers and other electeds should pay full share of pension

While this is the first year that any elected in Long Beach has paid toward the pension system, a reporter just asked if I thought we should pay the entire "employee share" instead of 1.8% that is being deducted.

"Of course we should," is my reply. And while we are at it, so should the City Attorney, City Prosecutor and City Auditor and the Mayor.

If this is the direction we are asking the employees to go, then we should be leading the march.

Transparency in Collective Bargaining

Readers: as you know I have proposed a charter amendment to require the City Council to let the public know in advance of the when bargaining with employee groups is taking place and to provide a copy of the proposed agreements before the City Council takes a vote on them.

Because we do not have that requirement right now, I am going ahead and posting the proposed agreements with several of our bargaining groups: Confidential and Management; and City Attorneys and Prosecutors. These contracts will be on the Council agenda for a vote by the full City Council.
Confidential and Management Employees
City Attorneys and Prosecutors Contracts

Government Documents Hot Off the Press

Check these latest government documents on issues impacting Long Beach and the 5th Council District:


What Long Beach did in 2010

Streets Repaired in 5th District

What Gov Brown's Budget Will Do to Long Beach

Environmental Report on Boeing

Community Briefing on Proposed Eastside Police Station at Schroeder Army Reserve Center

Come and hear the latest update on the proposed transfer of the Schroeder Army Reserve Center to the City of Long Beach for use as an Eastside Police Station. The site is located at the corner of Grand Avenue and Willow Street.

 

Wednesday

 February 16, 2011

6:30 pm

LB Water Treatment Plant

2950 Redondo Avenue (off Spring)

Speakers:

Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske

Chief of Police, Jim McDonnell

City Manager, Pat West

For more information:

Office of Councilwoman Schipske

562 570-6932

Schipske Launches Her Campaign

I am launching a campaign to request the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to correct their newly opened exhibit: Pioneers of Flight.

While in Washington, D.C. I just was given a tour of the exhibit which showcases the First Transcontinental Flight of Cal Rodgers. It is a wonderful display that also includes facts about the Douglas World Cruiser and Amelia Earhart. Unfortunately, it slights Long Beach on several levels.

First of all, the flight of the Vin Fiz -- the name Cal Rodgers had painted on his Wright EX plane as an advertisement for his sponsor -- a grape drink sold by Armour -- went from Sheepshead Bay, New York to Long Beach, California. The exhibit acknowledges the importance of the flight but only includes verbiage on the Sheepshead Bay to Pasadena leg of the trip -- then shows a photo of Cal Rodgers landing the "waters of the Pacific Ocean." Those waters were located off the Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach. More than 50,000 people gathered along the beach to watch Rodgers fly in because of the historic significance.

Rodgers was going to end his flight in Pasadena but because of the bright idea of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce they offered Rodgers $1000 to finish the transcontinental flight in Long Beach so that he could claim a "coast to coast" flight.

Millions of visitors will see the exhibit at the Smithsonian and it is important the fact that Long Beach, California was the final stop on this important flight be corrected -- especially since the 100th Anniversary will be held on December 10, 2011 right here in Long Beach.

Also it was disappointing not to find any mention in the Amelia Earhart area of the fact that she first came to Long Beach to see an Air Circus and received her first flight the next day from Poly High school graduate and pilot, Frank Hawks. The exhibit also fails to discuss the fact that Earhart flew in many Long Beach Air Circuses after Long Beach pilot John Montijo taught her aerobatic and how to solo fly.

Long Beach was the hub of aviation in the 1920 - 1940's and it is important that we not be left out of the history books or the historical museums.

So I have launched a campaign to request the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to add these facts.

California Medical Board Grapples with Budget Problems

Readers -- as you may recall, I was appointed by the Senate Rules Committee to the California Medical Board which licenses and disciplines physicians in the state. We also oversee Physician Assistants, Licensed Midwives, and Optical Dispensers.

We meet quarterly and for the past two days we have been in Burlingame near San Francisco. We work two full days because we are a regulatory board so I never get to see much of the city in which we meet.

The board is grappling with a state budget that continues to freeze hiring and fail to fund needed programs. The problem is that we derive our budget from the license fees paid by physicians -- not tax revenue. So for the life of me I cannot understand why our employees who are charged with keeping the public safe from bad doctors are put on furloughs or not given the funds needed to continue necessary safety programs such as Operation Safe Medicine. We have vacancies that need to be filled so the department can do its job. Life doesn't stop just because of a hiring freeze. Consumers expect when they file a complaint against a physician that the California Medical Board has the staff and resources to handle the complaint in a timely manner.

This does not make sense. Hopefully the new governor (who was the Attorney General and the prosecutor for the cases the Medical Board took to him) understands that regulatory agencies need access to the funds that have been paid by licensees so we can do our job.

Latest Crime Stats in Long Beach

Crime 001

Residents Don't Favor Ban on Plastic Bags

I wasn't polling when I sent out emails to residents inviting them to attend a Town Hall I am hosting on Sat Jan 29th at 10 am at the LB Water Treatment Plant (Spring and Redondo), but lordy, lordy have I received a full email inbox from residents (with a few exceptions) who are very angry that the City would be proposing a ban on plastic bags at grocery stores and that the City would allow the stores to charge 10 cents for a paper bag.

In essence, most are saying promote a recycling plan and don't force something on people unless the entire state is doing it. Otherwise they will go elsewhere to shop.

For my district -- the 5th -- this is a significant response. We are fortunate to have the most grocery stores in a council district than in other districts so this will really impact this area more than other parts of the city. We are about to lose Boeing. We don't need to lose a grocery store or two because people shop in Lakewood or Cerritos or they go to a Target or Walmart that sells groceries but aren't grocery stores.

The Town Hall will be very interesting this Saturday. I ask that everyone who attends be civil and courteous to both sides of the issue. We can disagree civily.

                                         

Should Long Beach Ban Plastic Bags at Grocery Stores?

Come and listen to both sides on this issue.
Plastic Bag Panel Discussion Flier

156 Area Schools to Receive Solar Car Kits From Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske

The early bird may catch the worm, but it will be  middle school and high school students from Long Beach schools who will be getting a solar car kit when they attend an orientation this Saturday morning on how to build a solar car sponsored by my office.

156 school teams have signed up to participate in the 2nd Annual Solar Grand Prix and as part of the event they must attend a mandatory orientation in order to find out the rules of the Solar Grand Prix and to receive a solar car kit which they will use to build their cars.

I started this event last year and we received 50 applications from student teams. This year the response tripled because students and teachers found the experience last year to be so exciting and word got out that this event provides an opportunity to learn the basics of this alternate form of energy. Also, the races are fun and the students enjoy being creative in their designs.

Students will receive a solar car kit at the end of the orientation and will have until race day -- Saturday, April 9th -- to build their car. Cars will be judged on creativity and design and will be entered into a series of races on tracks constructed by the local Carpenter's union. The event has expanded so much that it will be moved from Good Neighbor Park to the large area behind the Parks and Recreation Administration Building where soccer is played.

The Solar Grand Prix will also feature solar energy and electric vehicle displays. The event is open to the public.

Several of the winning teams from last year's Solar Grand Prix will be on hand during the orientation to share their experiences with the teams entering the races this year.

The Solar Grand Prix orientation will be held at 8 am this Saturday, January 22 at the LB Water Treatment Plant, on Redondo off Spring. Teams must be pre-registered to attend the orientation and to receive the solar car kit. Kits were donated by a number of sponsors.

Adults wishing to volunteer to help with judging the cars and monitoring the races on April 9th are welcome to contact my office at: 562 570-6932.

Status Report on $600,000 Loan to Worthington Ford

I requested an update from City Management concerning the $600,000 loan that was given to Worthington Ford last year. The following is the response:

worthington ford

Check out the improvements on the Queen Mary

City Council was given a presentation last week that I am sharing with you that shows the numerous improvements made by the current operator of the Queen Mary. You really need to go and see them for yourselves. They are impressive.

queen mary

Why you got a calendar from LB Gas and Oil Department

Councilwoman Schipske forwarded your email to me for a response regarding the 2011 Long Beach Gas and Oil (LBGO) calendar. I can understand why a member of the public might consider the calendar frivolous but I can assure you that there are valid reasons why the calendar is produced and sent.


The calendar fulfills a 2005 requirement from the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT), which regulates the natural gas industry, to increase consumer knowledge on how to safely use natural gas. Therefore, each of the past 5 years, LBGO has mailed out the calendar to all residents and businesses in Long Beach. Hopefully, you noticed on the inside of your calendar extensive information regarding natural gas safety precautions, carbon monoxide, Dig Alert phone numbers, etc. This focus on safety is especially relevant this year as in September 2010, there was a major explosion on a natural gas pipeline in Northern California that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes.

Some common questions asked are 1) why is taxpayers money used for this purpose?, 2) why not just include the safety information in a gas bill stuffer?, and 3) isn't producing the calendar very expensive?

1) NO taxpayer money is used to pay for the calendar. LBGO only utilizes its gas utility revenues for funding the cost of the calendar.

2) While natural gas safety information in the past had been provided via a utility bill stuffer, DOT has determined that that practice was insufficient because:

§ Few people take the time to read the stuffers

§ Few people retain the stuffers for future reference

§ Many natural gas users, such as apartment tenants, do not receive the utility bill


As a result, the industry has largely gone to utilizing calendars as a cost-effective means to convey important safety information, as people keep the calendars handy year-round.
3) All efforts are made to minimize the cost of producing the calendar. The beautiful Long Beach photos were provided free of charge from an amateur Long Beach photographer and the Long Beach Business Journal. All the design work was done internally by my Executive Assistant; therefore, no additional expense was incurred. The printing of the calendar was done by a Long Beach-based company at a cost of 29 cents per calendar. The cost for mailing the calendar using the least expensive option (bulk mail) is 18 cents per calendar. Therefore, the entire cost for each calendar is only 47 cents per calendar. If LBGO opted to purchase calendars from the American Public Gas Association, each calendar would have cost LBGO approximately $1.89, a significant price increase per calendar.

I can also understand you questioning as to why both LBGO and the Port of Long Beach sending out calendars this year. As I hopefully explained above why LBGO feels it necessary to utilize a calendar to convey its required safety message and, therefore, it was felt that LBGO needed to continue its practice of mailing out its calendar. Attempts were made to persuade the Port of Long Beach to utilize some other marketing means to celebrate its 100th anniversary. However, these attempts were obviously unsuccessful.
If you would like to discuss further, please feel free to call me at 562-570-2001.



Sincerely,



Chris Garner

Director - Long Beach Gas and Oil

State Controller Posts Financial Report on Long Beach Redevelopment

Okay so it is early in the morning and I should be in bed. However, Council just got notice that we are having a special meeting during City Council (aren't all of our meetings, special) regarding some fast action needed to save our redevelopment monies from the newly elected Governor who is proposing...gasp...to shut down redevelopment and return the tax dollars back to the city's general fund...or something like that.

Not quite sure why the City Council can do this since we are not the Redevelopment Agency for the city. Hmmm.

So, being curious about how much money we are talking about, I went on line to find the latest financial report sent by all redevelopment agencies to State Controller, John Chiang.

Okay for all of you who want to know what I know... here's the report. Pay special attention to pages 58 and 124 and 125. Shows that more than 18,000 acres of Long Beach is redevelopment. That the agencies take in millions of tax increment and spend millions.Also shows how much square footage was constructed or rehabed..and how many jobs were created by redevelopment money. The bad news is how much debt redevelopment has.

fy0809_redevelop

Should the City Council let you know what is being offered to public employees?

Psst! Do you want to know when the City Council offers public employees salary and pension increases before it's too late to have input?

Right now, the City Charter allows the Council to direct City Management to negotiate with public employees without telling the public what is being done before the contract is agreed to by both sides. And, nothing in the City Charter requires the City Manager to certify that the City has the funds to pay for what is being given in the contract so contracts can be agreed to without the public knowing "how are we going to pay for it?"

Funny thing is that all school districts are required under state law to sunshine bargaining proposals, to allow the public to comment on the offers and to make the CEO of school districts certify that the school district has the money to pay for the bargaining proposals. This hasn't "ruined" the bargaining process for either side.

So why is it cities are allowed to keep this process hidden from the public?

That isn't right and as a Charter City, Long Beach can amend its charter to require that this process gets opened to the public for scrutiny.

Will you help me change this and open up the process so that the public knows what is being offered and asked for by both sides BEFORE negotiations begin?

On Tuesday, January 18, during the City Council, we will be discussing my agenda item outlining how our Charter can be changed to require that the City Council open up the negotiating process so that the public knows ahead of time what is being offered to employees and what the employees are requesting in any new contract negotiations. Additionally, the City Manager would have to publicly certify that the City has the funds to pay for any increases given in a contract.

I am trying to get the City Council to put this "sunshine" requirement on the next ballot so you have an opportunity to vote for a fully open and transparent process.

There are many people who want to stop this proposal. You will hear their "argument" that we don't need to set this in law -- that "future city councils can follow our policy." Nonsense. If this requirement is not put into the charter by a vote of the residents, this council and future councils can continue refusing to open up this process.

By helping me get this on the ballot we can open up the process of bargaining so that the public can provide input at an early stage and the City Council is held accountable for that we agree to. This will make a giant step towards real pension reform. 

We can make all the noise we want about adjusting the formula for pensions (and they do need to be changed for new hires)-- but those formulas will not have an impact for at least 15 years because we are not hiring a lot of new employees.

Opening up the process right now will have immediate impact because the public will be brought into the process at the beginning instead of at the end when it is too late.

After you read this email, take a moment and email the Mayor every member of the City Council and tell them you support a Charter Amendment requiring that City contracts be "sun shined" so that the public can know at the beginning of the process what is offered and that the City Manager must certify before the contract is signed that the City has the money to pay for what is being given in the contract.

Please send your email to:
 Bob_Foster@longbeach.gov
district1@longbeach.gov
district2@longbeach.gov
district3@longbeach.gov
district4@longbeach.gov
district5@longbeach.gov
district6@longbeach.gov
district7@longbeach.gov
district8@longbeach.gov
district9@longbeach.gov

Long Beach City Manager's Weekly Report

Friday Newsletter 01-14-11a

Schipske Helps Save Historic Library Cornerstone

I am proud to say that I spearheaded the efforts to rescue a historic granite cornerstone that once was part of the City's first library building.

As you might recall, last year when the City was getting ready to "swap" the Public Service yard for acreage off Second Street, I asked for an inventory of the artifacts and other items stored over there.

During the photo presentation to Council, I noticed a photograph of a cornerstone that read:

Gift of Andrew Carnegie, A.D. 1908

Since the history of Long Beach is a passion of mine (having written two books on the topic and working on a third), I recognized immediately what the cornerstone, lying in the dirt and weeds represented for the City of Long Beach.

Our City was the beneficiary of a $30,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie, who had made his fortune in steel and set about giving away 95% of his wealth to create libraries across the U.S. The condition was a city needed to give the land for the library and promise to tax its residents for the upkeep. Which the City of Long Beach did at Pacific Park (now called Lincoln Park).

Only 1,681 cities qualified for Carnegie grants from 1889 - 1923. It helped that Long Beach had been operating a library in City Hall and that the City was committed to public schools and public libraries.

The cornerstone was laid on September 5, 1908 and on May 29, 190 the building was open to the public. The use of the Long Beach Public Library grew rapidly. In 1906, the library had 6,678 volumes and by 1910, it had 18,373.

Do we all feel better now that the unions are threatened?

I have been pushing to open up the collective bargaining process in Long Beach for several years but found little interest on the City Council. 

But I am offering it again because I do believe "sun shining" would have prevented some of the mess that we face. Why? Because if voters knew what we were negotiating and city management had to certify that we had the money to pay for what was agreed to, then you bet some prior decisions would never have been made.

Sorry folks, but I am not going to jump on the band wagon of threatening the public employee unions. First of all I do think such a threat constitutes an unfair labor practice charge and is bad faith bargaining at its worst form which violates state labor law.

Secondly it is disingenuous. Every one of the employee unions in Long Beach have indicated they  know that there has to be a change in the pension formulas and they are willing to change the formulas. The Mayor and the Council knows that. And we also know that the changes can only be made for FUTURE employees.

Thirdly, it is hypocritical to claim that public employees are acting as if they are entitled to the pensions and the salary increases. Isn't anyone in the news media ever going to point out that it was this Mayor and this Council (including me) who voted to give the employees salary increases a few years ago and that no one during those negotiations on the management side supported using some of the salary increases to pay for the pensions? (Something that the public would have known about if we had "sun shining.") How about reminding the public that because the Mayor and City Council recently negotiated these contracts that the employee contracts are NOT OPEN for changes?

How about also reporting that the public employee groups were presented with options during the budget process that if they accepted the negotiated salary increases that the Mayor and City Council gave them, then cuts would have to be made in their ranks? So they accepted the cuts and now we're pissed??

So are we saying now that we didn't really mean it? That because they didn't put the salary increases WE gave them towards their pensions but accepted the fact that there would be layoffs -- that we were kidding they had a choice?


Fourthly, the majority of the high salaries (over $100,000) and pensions that are constantly complained about in the press and by those handing out the pitchforks for the rallies -- are for management level employees -- not the rank and file employee who picks up our trash, cleans out the sewers, or does a thousand other services. So where is the plan to carefully weed out unnecessary management and to reduce management salaries? Where is the announcement that we will set the example at the top?


Fifthly, threatening that if things don't get better we have to contract out for basic city services is also unwarranted and illogical. Hello. The Los Angeles County Sheriffs and Fire Department are also public employees with similar salaries and pensions.


Do I think pensions need to be fixed? Yes. Do I think public employees should pay more of the share for the pensions? Yes. And when the contracts which THIS MAYOR and THIS COUNCIL agreed to a few short years ago expire, we need to make it the top issue on the bargaining table and we need to let the public know we are doing it.

But I also feel elected officials should be honest and open about the collective bargaining process and what part they had in creating the problems we face  -- something that right now is not happening.

How to deal with an active shooter. Or what I learned today in my monthly briefing from the Long Beach Police Department.

I wrote on Facebook that the shootings in Tucson over the weekend, hit too close to home for me as an elected official who has received ugly emails or confrontations in public. Whatever your political beliefs, it should be apparent to everyone that violence has no place in politics, let alone in our daily lives.

The seriousness of what happened hit home again today during my monthly briefing with the Long Beach Police Department when I was handed a copy of the the document below.  I pass it along because unfortunately it isn't just elected officials who are the targets of violence.

What a sad commentary on our society today.

Active 001

City Council Needs to Come Clean if We Are Truly Supporting Open Government

Last night, the Council approved two agenda items brought forth by Councilman Robert Garcia and me that would further open up City Hall to the public by requiring a full and transparent city website that is based upon the 10 points suggested by www.sunshinereview.org and by providing a means where by residents can make comments on line about pending agenda items.

These proposals will give residents full access to the important information as detailed later in this post. The good news is that the City of Long Beach already provides a great deal of this information. The most important element lacking, however, is the "Checkbook" register which details how we spend the money. This is not budget information -- which is prospective -- it is as we go along information so that the public can see if we are truly spending money in the most appropriate manner.

On the floor last night, I brought up the fact that if the Council really wants to support open government then those of us who use non-City of Long Beach email to communicate City business, should include a cc in our email messages to our City email account so that the email becomes a public record. Otherwise we are not being fully open and transparent.

I have been doing just that because many people use the contact form on this blog or send me an email to my personal email (yahoo, earthlink, gmail).

Open government "advocate" Peter Scheer says it best about danger in letting electeds conduct government business by private email:  

You don’t have to be a legal scholar to appreciate the size of the loophole that this practice creates. If all it takes to avoid the obligations of the Public Records Act, California’s freedom of information law, is to use a commercial email account for official communications, then all such communications–except the occasional anodyne and self-serving message actually intended for public consumption–will shift to that private channel. The Public Records Act, already porous with special interest loopholes, might as well be renamed the California Official Secrets Act.

 Scheer (see his full article  by clicking here) proposes the following remedies about making communications open and transparent:

1) Agencies and local governments should set up one email account with gobs of storage capacity. To keep it simple and inexpensive, a corporate account (offering extra security) with Google or Yahoo will suffice.
2) Agencies’ .gov email accounts, by default, should “bcc” all emails to the government database account.
3) All government employees should be instructed that, when using their own commercial email account for government matters, they must “bcc” their business messages to the database account (and forward incoming business email there too). Basically, any email that is not strictly personal should be copied to the online storage account.

So, short of putting this item back on the agenda and forcing a public vote, I am asking our electeds to really get on board about open government by only conducting city business in emails that can become public records.

Schipske and Garcia Propose More Openess at City Hall

For Immediate Release




Contacts:



Daniel Brezenoff, Office of Councilmember Garcia

(562) 570 5843



Tiffany Andrews, Office of Councilwoman Schipske

(562) 570 6854



Councilmembers Garcia and Schipske Cosponsor Open Government Initiatives

Council to consider posting contracts and budget information, other reforms



Long Beach, CA



December 30, 2010 – Long Beach Councilmembers Robert Garcia and Gerrie Schipske, of the First and Fifth Districts, respectively, have cosponsored a series of “Open Government Initiatives" to increase transparency and accountability in Long Beach government.

The two motions are on agenda for the Council meeting of January 4, 2011.

The initiative proposes multiple reforms, including the adoption of an open government policy statement for the City, posting completed contracts on line, a system for on line public comments during Council meetings, and a variety of changes to the City website, such as posting budgetary information, information about lobbyists, and access to government records and public documents.

“Openness in government is what makes democracy possible,” Garcia said. “Citizens have a right to a transparent and accessible government."


Councilwoman Schipske said, "Since coming to City Council I have tried to take the Thomas Jefferson approach to local government. He said quite clearly that 'Information is the currency of Democracy' and it should be our approach as well here in Long Beach."


Schipske noted that Long Beach doesn't have to look too far for a model of website transparency adding that the County of Los Angeles has received an A+ rating from sunshinereview.org for its website. "Long Beach is almost there but we need to add a few more features so that the public doesn't have to ask for information -- it will be already there on line."

Councilmembers Garcia and Schipske have a record of open government reforms. Both have long posted their calendars on line for the public to view, and they cosponsored the first and only lobbyist registration law in Long Beach.

Weather Alert -- December 29

Latest from City Manager:

Weather forecast indicates that another storm with wind advisory (20 -30 mph with gusts to 40 mph, noon till 9pm Wed)  is expected to arrive in the Long Beach area tonight and last until Wednesday evening.  Public Service crews have restocked sand bags and sand at required locations, checked storm drains and pump stations.  Two pump stations are down awaiting repairs:  Pump Station 18 in El Dorado Park and Pump Station 7, the pump at Willow and Terminal Island Freeway (both sites currently cleared of water).  As always, Public Service crews will monitor and stand by to respond as needed.  Tides are not expected to be an issue during this event.
With the storms last week and what we are facing in the coming days, it will impact our ability to fill potholes due to the wet conditions.  The storms also are taking a toll on much of our new construction (airport garage, Wardlow Street resurfacing, Long Beach Boulevard resurfacing, Rosa Parks Park, Seaside Park and others).  

Recycle Your Christmas Tree or Better Yet Have It Picked Up

Free Christmas Tree Pick-Up!
Saturday, January 8, 2011

If you have City refuse service, put your holiday tree out where your trash is normally collected by 7 a.m. on Saturday, January 8, and it will be recycled. 

All decorations and stands MUST be removed.  Trees over 12' tall should be cut in half.  Flocked trees will be accepted.

For more information on this call (562) 570-2876 or visit
www.longbeach-recycles.org

December 26, 2010 - January 7, 2011

Free Drop-Off Locations:

• Wardlow Park: Monlaco Road at Rutger Avenue
• Environmental Services Bureau, 2929 E. Willow Street
• El Dorado Park: 2760 N. Studebaker Road (South parking lot behind administration building)

Recycling your holiday tree is easy.  You can drop your tree off at one of these locations.

Notices Regarding Curb Number Painting Are Not Official

I came home the other day to see a yellow notice taped to my front doorknob. The notice was also visible up and down Studebaker. These are same notices I have seen in other parts of the 5th Council District as I walk the district.

Please note that these are NOT official notices from the City of Long Beach. They are being posted on resident's houses by a company that is illegally painting curb numbers on streets. City Code requires companies or non profit organizations wanting to do curb numbers to obtain permits from the Police Department -- so that the City can verify these are legitimate companies.

The California Vehicle Code specifies the size of the curb numbers and the background paint that can be used. Residents are not supposed to have anything painted on their curbs but house numbers -- no flags, surfing scenes or sunsets -- because fire and police need to be able to read the numbers so they can respond to the correct address. Some of these fly by night operations paint the wrong numbers on the curbs.

If you receive a notice like the one posted or are pressured by someone to paint curb numbers on your curb, call the police.

Update on Wardlow Street Construction

Many of you have asked why the City of Long Beach is fixing Wardlow (those of you who live on it know why). I asked Public Works to prepare a memo explaining the what and why of the project.