Good morning and welcome to Monday Morning Coffee! Grab your cup and let’s get to your weekly briefing of what’s on the agenda for local government and business leaders. Get this in your inbox every Monday by signing up at lbpost.com/newsletters.

City meetings

The Long Beach City Council is off this Tuesday, as well as through the month of July, but as the fiscal year 2026 budget season arrives in the coming weeks, the dais will turn its attention to approving its spending plans for the next year. Keep an eye on this page for opportunities to give feedback once a draft budget is released this summer.

Elsewhere, some committee and commission action is still happening. 

The Commission for Women and Girls on Wednesday will be provided with a presentation by ORALE, a local immigration rights group, on the impacts of the recent immigration raids on Long Beach’s women and girls. 

Commissioners also plan to file a letter to Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson and the Long Beach City Council concerning the lack of bathrooms, showers and changing rooms for female recruits at the Long Beach Fire Training Facility. 

According to the letter, female recruits are often forced to change in the front office or storage rooms, and asked to use cleaning wipes to remove carcinogens after controlled burns due to a lack of shower space. 

On Thursday, the Climate Resilient and Sustainable City Commission will hear a presentation on its Drought and Climate Action Plan, as well as updates to Long Beach’s Open Space and Recreation Element. 

Earlier that day, the Long Beach Utilities Commission, one week after approving its 2026 budget, will approve salaries for some of its employees and authorize the signing of a non-disclosure agreement with Southern California Edison in its creation of a Zonal Electrification Pilot. Commissioners will also review the terms for ending a groundwater storage program with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will host a public hearing on the county’s budget on Monday. Issues of price gouging for rented housing, including hotels and motels, as well as rising sewer rates for residents, will be discussed at their meeting on Tuesday.

Business events and information

  • For businesses anxious over the back-and-forth news on tariffs, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce is hosting an online three-member panel Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. that, hopefully, will mollify your worries. Titled “Navigating the Changing Tariff Landscape,” the panel will feature Mark Dodson, Senior Vice President and Market Executive with Bank of America; Rodney Moreh, founder and CEO of Source M; and Paul Snell, the CEO of British American Shipping. The three will discuss how companies that buy and sell international products can best tread through these uncertain times and what policy changes they should pay attention to. To register for this event, visit here. 
  • Three business-centric mixers are coming this Wednesday. In the first, the Downtown Long Beach Alliance is hosting its next neighborhood mixer on Wednesday, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Parkers’ Lighthouse. For more information, visit here. The Long Beach Young Professionals will have its annual summer mixer at Beachwood Brewing (6430 E. Pacific Coast Hwy, Suite 140), also on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for members; $35 for non-members. For more information, click here. And finally, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce is having its connection mixer on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The event, meant to bring together nonprofit and corporate professionals, will include some healthy networking on the sectors and people “eager to give back and take on leadership roles.” For $25, you get two tickets. The event is held at the Grand Annex (434 W. 6th Street, San Pedro). For more information, visit here.
  • It’s that time again. The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce on Thursday will host its 134th Annual Gala at 5:30 p.m. at the Westin Hotel (333 E. Ocean Blvd.). During the ceremony, members will recognize past and future chairs of the board, celebrate business achievements in the past year and acknowledge the “Destination Tomorrow” award honoree. Tickets start at $150, with sponsored tables ranging from $1,500 for a nonprofit to $10,000 for Diamond status. For more information, visit here.
  • Grant writing is hard. Let The Nonprofit Partnership make it easy. TNP is hosting its second session in a three-part certification program on grant writing. For more details on the program, visit here. 

ICYMI — California and national news

  • We went looking for a Japanese cola named ‘Los Angeles’ — and found a story about home (LAist)
  • Thousands of grocery workers may strike if a deal isn’t reached this week. (Long Beach Post)
  • Long Beach is testing out its new idea: public drinking in downtown. (Long Beach Post)
  • At Home closing eight California locations as it declares bankruptcy (LA Times)