Mayor Bob Foster, Councilmembers Steve Neal, Rae Gabelich, and Gerrie Schipske
5:00am | The City Council in a 6 to 3 vote last night ended a proposal by Councilmembers Rae Gabelich, Gerrie Schipske, and Steve Neal which outlined how the $18–20 million in excess oil revenues should be utilized to “restore some of the most severe cuts to our budget with funds that the city already has in hand.”
The trio’s proposal included, among other items, using the excess funds to provide for an increase in the number of patrol officers and more funding for the Fire Department to maintain four-person staffing on all fire engines, restoring the fire engine to Station 18, and restoring Rescue 12.
Mayor Bob Foster openly opposed the trio’s proposal pointing to the volatile nature of oil prices impacting the revenue generated to pay for their proposal. He called the proposal “irresponsible.” Instead the Mayor and a majority of the council prefer to use the funding for one-time capital improvement projects instead of staffing expenditures.
In response, the three councilmembers released a joint statement late last night stating, “As a result of that vote, one-half of the City’s fire engines will only have 3 fire fighters, instead of the standard 4 that every other major metropolitan city provides. Other reductions in fire services will also take place at Stations 14, 18 and 19. This means that the City of Long Beach will have the lowest number of on duty firefighters in the last 40 years.”
After an attempt by Councilmember Gabelich to delay a vote on the city budget, the council voted 6-3 (Gabelich, Schipske, Neal dissenting) to approve the FY 2012 Mayor and City Manager city budget.