2011 Long Beach Post Person of the Year, Mayor Bob Foster

1:00pm | By Brian Ulaszewski | Photos by Samuel Lippke |

Preface: Shaun had asked me to write the Long Beach Post Person of the Year 2011 piece. The topics were not in my wheelhouse, but he told me, “You’ll do great,” and insisted that it was the right call. We spoke throughout the week and were going to touch base after the weekend to check in on the progress.  

Upon hearing of his passing, I sat in shock, staring at a blank computer screen for hours hoping to write instead about Shaun Lumachi.  The Post staff discussed it but knew that Shaun would want us to stay the course.  I wanted another encouraging word from Shaun to break my block but it never came.  I had to move forward and as I wrote the piece, the wisdom of the selection became more apparent and writing it became easier.  It turns out that moving forward is perhaps one of the greatest messages from this past year.

 

****

He has held the reins of the City of Long Beach during a tumultuous period of economic upheaval and a government in crisis, arguably making us fiscally stronger in the long run.  He continues to lead the city to a brighter, healthier future through policy initiatives and leadership by example.  And he does this while doing his best to not leave citizens behind.

No single person has shaped Long Beach more this past year, guiding a city of a half-million people with varying and oftentimes conflicting interests through treacherous waters.  He has done so with diplomacy, arm-twisting, and sheer determination for finding solutions — traits he likely developed while president of the primary electricity provider in Southern California.  

For enacting pension reforms for Long Beach’s most powerful labor unions; for taking the long view for a municipal budget relying less on one-time revenue for annual expenses; for enacting environmental policies that have in part led to reductions of nearly three-quarters of diesel particulate matter from the port; for lending a hand to help those citizens needing help, whether its driving a nail or giving a supporting word — and doing so while looking equally fashionable in a three-piece suit or colorful lycra — Mayor Bob Foster is the 2011 Long Beach Post Person of the Year.

As the economic struggles of the world continued to be felt by Long Beach throughout this past year, other cities (and nations) feeling the pressure were falling into insolvency. Long Beach’s economic woes were worse than most with its high rates of unemployment and home foreclosure. Yet the mayor’s focus on solutions and not lip service led to sometimes unpopular positions — especially in the eyes of some of the most powerful political forces in the city — but positions that have so far guided the city through these tough times.

****

Shortly after Mayor Foster took office in 2006, the global economy collapsed due to the real estate bubble’s bursting and the banking practices that had inflated it.  With the end of the real estate boom, much of the forward momentum revitalizing various portions of Long Beach came to grinding halt.  Instead of attending ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings, the Mayor’s public calendar was instead filled with blight-removing demolition parties. 

 

Soon after, the implications for the municipal budget became readily apparent. Reduced consumer spending meant that sales tax took a huge hit; the formerly rising property taxes started trailing off and then dipping.  Mayor Foster, not willing to kick the can down the street, set about closing the gap between municipal revenue and expenditures. Efforts to raise revenue for long-deferred maintenance of city infrastructure through a bond measure failed to meet voter approval in 2008. The more painful decisions of cutting city expenditures became the next order of business.  Mayor Foster shared about moving on, “I knew we were going to have to make some unpopular choices but not making them wasn’t going to make situation go away.”

 

A primary campaign promise of his to add 100 police officers took a back seat as the city budget, now more difficult to balance, left even less room for the promised reinforcements of men and women in blue. Instead, Mayor Foster and the majority of the City Council took unpopular decisions to let police academy classes go unfilled, even as the force ranks thinned due to retirements and lateral moves to other cities.  

Despite this, crime has dropped in Long Beach to its lowest level in decades. Similar reductions in fire protection have been made, and residents across the city cried foul when fire trucks were removed from their neighborhood station, leading to greater reliance on nearby stations. Few would take comfort in the national trends showing fewer structure fires due to improvements in building technologies.

These emergency services would have been slashed even further without the pension reforms Mayor Foster negotiated with the Firefighter Association (FFA) and Police Officer Association (POA) in just the past few months. The agreement with the FFA is projected to save the City $40 million dollars over the next decade, while the POA agreement will save $100 million during the same period, providing more options than the city was otherwise left with.

When the one-time resource from $18.4 in excess revenue from the Upland Oil Fund became available to plug holes in the budget, some on the City Council sought to backfill the cuts in staffing emergency services. Mayor Foster led a majority of the council to use the unexpected funding to address a growing list of deferred maintenance and necessary capital improvements, including everything from sidewalk repairs to constructing a new prison transfer tunnel between the Police Headquarters and the new County Courthouse, itself currently under construction across the street.  

Along with setting a course for the city toward fiscal solvency, Mayor Foster is leading Long Beach to a cleaner, healthier future. Having a head start as CEO of Southern California Edison when it developed the largest renewable energy portfolio in the United States, he crafted environmentally sustainable strategies as a matter of standard practice.  Sharing his thoughts of eco-economics the Mayor said, “Whether in business or government, there is a practicality to environmental sustainability. It’s not just bunnies and butterflies, there are economic and health benefits to creating a livable community.”

Mayor Foster has led the way for defining a future for the Port of Long Beach that is cleaner and less impacting on its neighbors. His guidance led to the Clean Truck Program for the Port of Long Beach which bans all pre-1993 truck engines and most before 2004 from the port. By 2012, all trucks operating in the Port of Long Beach will be required to meet 2007 emission standards. Though not without its controversies, this program has made significant reductions in diesel particulates produced by trucks in the port complex.  

The Mayor’s focus on the environment goes beyond air quality and the port to include the condition of Long Beach’s waterfront and waterways. Under Foster’s administration, Long Beach has forged partnerships with Heal the Bay and Friends of the Los Angeles River to improve water quality of the Los Angeles River through extensive retrofitting of city storm drains with trash catches (those blue grates). For his efforts, Mayor Foster has earned environmental stewardship awards from numerous organizations including the Southern California Air Quality Management District and most recently the League of Conservation Voters.  

Mayor Foster (right), seen here with Long Beach Post publisher Shaun Lumachi.

 

You can occasionally see Mayor Foster in more colorful, less formal clothes on his ten-speed as he physically leads the city to become the most “Bike Friendly City in the Nation.”  While it is a tall order for car-friendly southern California, Long Beach has moved in a very short period of time from bicycle obscurity to being a Mecca for bike enthusiasts. It now has a dense network of innovative infrastructure built across the city, that contributes to a vibrant bike culture.

Mayor Foster has been the spokesman for many bike events, from presiding over the ribbon cutting of the protected bike lanes in the downtown to being an active participant in the Tour of Long Beach bicycle race. For Foster, it’s not just a show: he is an avid bicyclist both recreationally as well as for commuting, and is more than willing to challenge any other city’s mayor to a race to prove it.  

Martin Howard, board member of the non-profit organization Bikeable Communities, regularly sees the Mayor in action. “Bob is a great advocate for making Long Beach more livable for all its citizens, prioritizing safe bike infrastructure and for bike education starting in school. He doesn’t just speak it; he lives it, bicycling for exercise and recreation, which translates through to his enthusiasm. Long Beach is already one of the most bike friendly cities in the nation in part because of him,” says Howard.

Not afraid to break a sweat whether sprinting down the beach path on his bike or playing handy man, Bob “Villa” Foster is willing to lend his name and muscle for a good cause.  In 2011, the Mayor and his team of weekend warriors participated in the Mayor’s Build for Habitat for Humanity in Central Long Beach.  The program builds affordable homes for families using material and money donations, and sweat equity from volunteers and the future homeowners. He and a team of two dozen students from the Architecture Construction and Engineering (ACE) Academy and 30 volunteers from Southern California Edison built one of three LEED Certified homes.

Mayor Foster contributes his time, energy and personal experiences to many causes across Long Beach. Recently, he shared with YouTube audiences a personal tale for Long Beach’s “It Gets Better video.  The international grassroots campaign, started by syndicated columnist Dan Savage, provides support for LGBT youth experiencing harassment by having people share personal stories of their struggle coming out, only to have it get better.  

Councilmember Robert Garcia, who helped organize the local production, felt the Mayor’s participation was a cornerstone of promoting equality in Long Beach, “I’m proud that Long Beach came together to produce the video for this campaign. Our city is a place where everyone is accepted and where we support equal treatment for our community. Mayor Foster’s ‘so-what?’ response to someone coming out as gay speaks volumes to our values of personal worth.”

Bob Foster puts more faith in what people can do, what their real values are, recognizing that their diverse perspective and experiences matter, but in the end focusing on the practicalities of getting things done and moving everyone forward. He has taken tough, sometimes unpopular decisions; he has also demonstrated a vision for a healthier, cleaner Long Beach; and he has led by example in his commitment to a better future despite the challenges of the present. For steering the city through treacherous, seemingly unnavigable waters this past year, Mayor Bob Foster is the 2011 Long Beach Post Person of the Year.

 ****
 Previous honorees:

2010: Scott Jones

2009: Melody Ross

2008: Misty May-Treanor

2007: Justin Rudd

CORRECTION: Article originally stated that Mr. Foster was CEO of SCE; he was president.