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
In 2019, the city of Long Beach banned travel by local officials to Georgia and Alabama, following those states’ passage of restrictive abortion laws. A similar city ban on accepting bids for contracted goods and work followed shortly after.
Now, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday will consider adding exceptions to the rule, to allow the city manager and all hiring authorities to travel to abortion-banning states on “critical” business, which may be necessary to accept grants, attend a training session or other “emergency functions.” Another condition states that not accepting the lowest or most competitive bid, even if it originates from a sanctioned state, is a violation of Long Beach’s purchasing laws and must be allowed.
The decision will come before the council at its regular 5 p.m. meeting Tuesday, inside the Civic Chambers.
At the same meeting, council members will also consider approving an audit of Long Beach’s Tidelands Fund Group, hear a presentation on the city’s preparation for the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, and approve a 10-year financing plan for the purchase and delivery of refuse and recycling containers to carry out the city’s new waste-collection system.
Also on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to study possible changes to the county’s anti-human trafficking apparatus. Supervisors are also expected to approve two allocations totaling up to $19.2 million for pump station rehabilitation in the Long Beach neighborhoods of Los Cerritos and Naples.


Business events and information
- The Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Department is offering a bouquet of springtime classes from March through May. More than 700 classes are available and vary depending on your age, including preschool cooking to a pizza-making course for teenagers and plenty more for adults, young and old.
Registration for courses starts on Feb. 3; one can register for a class online, or deliver a completed form by mail or in-person with payment to the city’s department. (2760 Studebaker Rd., Long Beach, CA 90815.) If paying by check, please include on it your address, phone number and class numbers. For more information, visit here or call 562-570-3111.
- Hankering for a foreign flick, manga or obscure overseas album? Chances are, Long Beach’s public libraries might have it in stock now. The city announced last week a 150,000 title expansion of non-English materials — books, comics, music and more — through a third-party digital database. The expansion more than doubles the library’s accessible archive of non-English works, spanning 120 world languages.
Patrons can sign up for a free account by using their Long Beach Public Library card through the LBPL Digital Library or through the Hoopla mobile app, available for iOS or Android. For more information, please visit lbpl.org or call 562-570-7500.
ICYMI — California and national news
- A world away from the Palisades and Altadena, landlords try to sell fire victims on living downtown (L.A. Times)
- Long Beach is considering a major hike in waste collection fees. Expect a higher trash bill. (Long Beach Post)
- Costco, Teamsters reach tentative contract agreement, avoiding a strike (Associated Press)