The agenda for Tuesday’s Long Beach City Council meeting contains the usual mix of multi-million-dollar decisions that will steer Long Beach’s future — real estate sales, converting the city’s fleet of shared bikes to electric, an emergency proclamation for El Niño and renovation of a park.
Also on the docket: a vote to decide when and how you are able to agree, disagree or simply throw in your opinion in on each of them.
Public discourse itself is up for discourse on Tuesday, with the City Council to vote on whether to consolidate most of it at the start of the meeting, right after ceremonies and presentations.
It’s a controversial idea. A local government watchdog and neighborhood groups, a former City Council member and a host of residents and activists have come out against it.
“I find this ordinance to be the most egregious act suggested by any city council I have watched for over 40 years,” said former councilmember Rae Gabelich. “The idea of further removing the public from giving testimony on issues that will come before them, before staff reports, or in discussions that happen hours later is a slap in the face to everyone trying to make a difference in their communities. It’s an insult and a threat to democracy as we have known it.”
The proposal has, in the months since it was first brought up, drawn so much public backlash that three council members have now come out in opposition.
Councilmember Cindy Allen called the idea “the greatest setback that I’ve ever seen” for public participation and transparency in Long Beach. She urged people to show up and speak against it. Councilmember Kristina Duggan has also objected, and Councilmember Megan Kerr has reversed her past support for the proposal and announced she’ll vote against it.
Currently, public comment is spread throughout the meeting, giving people a chance to praise or blister the city’s plans item by item. Residents can speak on anything they like after the roll call, ceremonies and presentations, again during the consent agenda, regular agenda and public hearings, and once more near the end of the night.
Under the proposal, nearly all of that would fold into a single period capped at 90 minutes, which the presiding officer — Mayor Rex Richardson, unless he’s absent — could extend in 30-minute increments if people are still waiting.
Anyone wanting to address a staff report, contract, resolution or appointment would have to speak then, before the council hears the item. Each person could speak only once and, at most meetings, they’d only get 60 seconds to speak, unless 20 or fewer people sign up or the mayor grants everyone more time.
Public hearings — which cover zoning and land use — ordinances, certain budget or tax items and appeals, would keep their own comment periods.
Proponents, including the mayor, say the changes would save about $150,000 a year in overtime currently being paid to City Clerk staff who must man the call-in public comment system throughout the meeting. That cost is relatively new, tied to SB 707, the state law that required larger cities like Long Beach to implement a phone-in system this summer. Officials say this has led to overtime costs rising sharply, as workers stay late to staff a call center.
That argument doesn’t seem to be landing with the City Council’s constituents.
In a petition page that, as of Sunday, earned more than 400 signatures, organizers say that speaking hours before a vote strips comments of their weight and context, unable to be offered as a counterweight to long and winding city staff reports. They also warn that cramming so many speakers and topics into one block will pit people and their interests against one another over the limited time.
“What this truly seems to be about is finding ways to make your city council meetings shorter, not longer,” one resident wrote in an email to the council.
“If you don’t listen to your constituents,” another wrote, “you cannot represent them.”
If you’d like to voice your opinion on this or any other city business, you can show up to Tuesday’s City Council meeting, email a public comment or call in. There are instructions on how to do that here.
Quick sips of the latest news
- Layoffs averted: Long Beach announced Thursday that it managed to avoid hundreds of potential layoffs by moving 208 of the 225 at-risk employees into other vacant positions. This comes as the city budget, which took effect Thursday, cut nearly 400 positions to help close a $58.2 million deficit. All affected civil service employees and about 87% of affected unclassified employees, such as managers and temporary or grant-funded workers, kept their jobs, leaving 17 unclassified employees facing layoffs.
- No playground under the jetway: Long Beach officials are advising against a Teamsters-sponsored playground on a 4-acre city parcel next to the airport, saying the site is too dangerous and ill-suited for this use. The parcel sits inside the airport’s runway protection zone for commercial and corporate jets, meant for aircraft overruns, undershoots and other accidents. Federal, state and county airport land use rules, they say, bar public gathering places such as parks and playgrounds there. Officials say they will look for other potential locations and will continue to meet with Teamsters.
- More expensive parking: Downtown Long Beach on-street parking meters rose to $3 an hour Thursday as part of a package of rate changes and equipment upgrades the City Council approved with its 2027 budget. The new rate replaces a patchwork of $1 and $1.50 hourly rates in the downtown area and now matches the rate already charged in Belmont Shore. By the end of the year, officials want to install 136 new pay stations covering 1,632 newly charged spaces in both downtown and along the shoreline. Beginning in the Spring, the city will also replace aging single-space meters in those areas with multi-space pay stations that accept tap-to-pay. Drivers will pay by license plate rather than space number, and the city will launch a web-based payment portal that requires no app.
ICYMI — California and national news
- We just launched a guide to help you prepare for a potentially historic El Niño rainy season. What else should we include? Hit reply and let me know.
- The agenda for the Long Beach City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 29, can be found here. To view the schedule of upcoming meetings, follow this link.
- The Community Development Department is hosting a free virtual workshop on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. to help Long Beach businesses and property owners learn fast, low-cost ways to improve building accessibility. Register here for the Zoom link. Business owners who attend a workshop will fulfill one of the requirements for the upcoming Access Inspection Grant Program. It will provide reimbursements up to $1,500 for property inspections conducted by a Certified Accessibility Specialist.