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Everything needs a little context
I was waiting for a dinner reservation Wednesday night when I unexpectedly received a text from my editor with a Twitter post (I refuse to call it X) from Mayor Rex Richardson.
The post promoted a charter amendment Richardson is backing that would reform the city’s hiring process, and it included a video showing a representative from the city’s largest labor union enthusiastically supporting the idea.
This sent a momentary pulse of panic through my body because hours earlier we had published a story where I wrote that the very same union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, was opposing Richardson’s proposal.
This is important because we strive not to be wrong at the Long Beach Post.
When I finally got time to step away and listen to the audio, I knew something was off because the person identified in the video as the union president told me in November that she had stepped down. I went to IAM’s website to verify she hadn’t come back. She hadn’t.
So I shot a text to Ashley Gunkel, a business representative with IAM who spoke out against the charter amendment last week in what was probably the hottest public meeting I’ve ever sat through.
She let me know two things: The video Richardson posted was from October and the person speaking in the video — a former secretary — is no longer an officer of the union and definitely not authorized to speak on its behalf.
“What she said [in the video] is not what’s being reflected in the proposal and it’s kind of throwing us for a loop,” Gunkel said.
In other words, I wasn’t wrong. I was just operating in a different timeline than our mayor, who decided Wednesday night was the right time to post a months-old video.
Labor has been split on the proposed charter amendment, which the mayor says is needed to speed up a frustratingly slow hiring process, but some union workers worry it would gut important employee protections.
As the conflict has heated up over the past few weeks, IAM and at least one other union have said they do not back the proposal. Those two unions alone represent over 58% of city workers.
I reached out to Richardson’s office to ask questions about the Twitter post.
Why did he use a video from last year to show support for a proposal that was made public in January? Does he think it’s deceiving to show a city employee union supporting the idea when that union is actively opposing the charter amendment that would implement it?
When I got Richardson on the phone Thursday, he told me he didn’t think it was misleading and noted that IAM hadn’t taken a vote on the issue yet and its stance could change.
When I asked him how comfortable he’d be moving forward with the issue if a majority of city employees opposed it, he said he couldn’t base a decision solely on employee groups’ feelings.
“I would say my job as mayor is to represent the people and they’re expecting the city to do better and the reality is we’re taking a year to hire,” Richardson said.
If you’ve been following our coverage of the issue, you’ll know that it’s complex, and I’d argue it will be impossible to capture the full effect of the charter amendment in the number of characters allowed for the summary, which is what voters will read before they check “Yes” or “No.”
We’ve covered how this can be problematic earlier this year.
Richardson and other officials say they need the change to speed up hiring and reduce the city’s 22% vacancy rate. To do that, it would take away hiring functions from the Civil Service and give them to Human Resources, something that would consolidate power under the City Manager’s office.
But Civil Service commissioners and staff have loudly argued that this could erode the checks and balances the department provides against cronyism and corruption.
Gunkel said IAM’s main concern is who gets to determine what jobs are classified and which ones aren’t. Only classified employees can appeal to the Civil Service Commission when they feel employee disciplinary decisions are unfair.
“Where are the checks and balances?” Gunkel said.
One thing everyone seems to agree on is that the portion of the measure that would provide new employment pathways for Long Beach residents and people who attended local colleges could be a good thing.
But how that will actually work out in practice is perhaps as big of a mystery as why Richardson decided to feature this video on Wednesday.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS WEEK:
Our new office provides us with a birds-eye view of the Billie Jean King Main Library and soon we could have a front-row seat to a new construction project that could limit access to the site. If you’re familiar with the Downtown library, you’re probably aware that unhoused people frequently line the perimeter of the building where they can escape the elements, often setting up camp for the night. But plans to use over $720,000 in city funds to build a new play area for children and a patio area for users of the library’s meeting rooms will at least partially block that from happening in the future. I spoke to the Library Services director this week and she said there isn’t a plan to “fence” the area off, but she said there will likely be some sort of barrier to separate the new spaces. The designs are not complete but this will likely mean those areas will only be accessible from inside the library.
PAY ATTENTION TO THIS NEXT WEEK:
It’s Election Day this Tuesday and I can’t implore you enough to vote. If not for civic duty, at least do it for all the paper that’s been wasted on campaign mailers and your ballot material. Heading into the weekend, Long Beach voter turnout is below 10%, which could put the city on course to have the lowest primary participation since 2018, when the city held its own elections and less than 20% of voters participating was the norm. That means four City Council members could win new terms with a few thousand votes. One district (District 6) has only 1,003 ballots returned as I type this. Thomas Jefferson was problematic for a variety of reasons and his reputation has changed over the years, but one of his most repeated quotes has stood the test of time: “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”