LBREPORT.com cites ten (and welcomes your inclusions) in their list of 'City Hall Outrages of 2013.'
'We offer ours constructively, noting that virtually all of them can be corrected in 2014 by elected officials or by the public who elects them.'
#1 -- Outrage of the Year: No Bids/Request for Proposals To Economically Retrofit City Hall Before Pursuing Multi Million Dollar "Taj Mahal" Civic Center -- Since at least 2006 and perhaps before, the City of Long Beach has been aware of seismic issues at Long Beach City Hall. From that time to the present, those running L.A. County's second largest city failed to request bids or issue a Request for Proposals to learn -- from firms that would actually do the work -- what they would charge to do an economical seismic retrofit of LB City Hall... [Importance]
2. Raises In New Contracts Portrayed as "Pension Reform": Suppose you're walking down the street and Mayor Foster and several Councilmembers greet you by grabbing your wallet and taking $150. When you object, Foster says they'll only spend $90 now and send $60 elsewhere for spending later, calling the $150 taken from you "pension reform"... [Significance]
3. Seven Silent Councilmembers Block Transparency/Council Openness, Campaign Reforms (contender for Outrage of the Year): On April 16, 2013, seven Long Beach City Council members sat silently (another was absent) and blocked an effort by Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske to discuss in Committee her proposal to ban campaign contributions by contractors and others with business before the Council and to require disclosure of Councilmembers' emails that currently evade Public Record disclosure when officeholders use a non-City Hall website, email domain or social network... [Moment]
4. Council Evades Up or Down Vote On Proposed WLB Railyard, Mayor Proposes Mitigation. Not Relocation: In 2013, the Long Beach City Council continued to evade an up-or-down vote on whether or not to oppose BNSF's proposed SCIG railyard where the RR wants it: next to a WLB neighborhood. Two major neighborhood groups directly impacted by the proposal -- the West LB Association and the Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance -- say railyards belong in the Ports, not in neighborhoods. Mayor Foster then undercut the grassroots' groups position, by urging "mitigation" that would keep the railyard where BNSF wants it... [Meaningfulness]
5. Lack of Transparency: Second Paved Beach Path: In 2013, the "fit hit the shan" (Larry Elder expression) over a city staff plan to construct a second eleven-foot-wide beach paved path paralleling the current paved path between Alamitos Ave. and 54th Place: as proposed, one would be for pedestrians, another for bicyclists, separated by about 10 feet of sand. City staff quietly embedded the project among a laundry list of capital improvement projects (listed in the budget in text form without illustrations, graphics or other details) and after the Council approved the overall budget, staffers appeared at public meetings to tell the public what they'd get (whether they like it or not)... [Concreteness]
6. Bridge to Nowhere Potentially Invites Costly FEMA Issues: We liked, and said we found intriguing, the mid-2013 proposal by Vice Mayor Robert Garcia to use part of the soon-to-be former Shoemaker Bridge (connecting downtown Long Beach with the 710 freeway) for a park. Garcia cited as examples High Line Park in NYC and adaptive reuses elsewhere but we pointed out that the other re-used bridges Garcia cited are over streets, while the Shoemaker Bridge is over the L.A. River...which is a key artery in the Corps of Engineers Los Angeles County Drainage Area flood control system. That's a big issue that needs to be addressed... [Import]
7. Lack of Transparency: Vice Mayor Garcia's Coastal Commission Appointment. Vice Mayor Robert Garcia was among several L.A. County elected officials who in December 2012 nominated themselves (submitted their names, proper procedure) to fill the roughly six month term of a Commission member (Santa Monica Mayor/Councilmember) who'd been elected to the state Assembly. As LBREPORT.com reported at the time, the state Senate Rules Committee proceedings to fill the interim vacancy weren't publicly agendized. No public hearings were held....and the public and the press were barred from attending the Committee proceedings on the matter. The state Senate Rules Committee's current chair (who controls the proceedings) is state Senate President Pro Tem. Darrell Steinberg (D., Sac'to) although we're told previous Committee chairs followed a similar closed-door practice on Coastal Commission appointments (which the Committee can make without a full Senate vote)... [Matter]
8. Pacific Ave./Los Cerritos "Roundabouts," Bicycle Madness: Entering 2014, a number of Los Cerritos neighborhood homeowners remain up in arms over City Hall plans to install two "roundabouts" as "traffic calming" devices in and around the Pacific Ave. north of Wardlow Rd. The residents also object to putting a traffic light at Wardlow Rd. and Pacific Ave. that they say will further jam traffic (and City Hall claims is a safety measure.) The neighborhood residents spoke out against the roundabouts and the traffic light. They wrote letters. They testified. They sent emails. They conveyed their objections to their Councilman, James Johnson and to the full City Council. They got nowhere...and they encountered opposition from some bicycle advocates, who like the traffic slowing roundabouts... [Essence]
9. Reefer Madness: If Congress changed federal law to make medical marijuana accessible through regular commercial pharmacies like other doctor prescribed medications, it would effectively put storefront medical marijuana collectives out of business. The City of Long Beach's policy on federal legislation, added on a clear-headed motion by Councilman James Johnson in early 2012, states as follows... [Pith]
10. "Great Wall of Mulch": On August 6, 2013, the City of Long Beach staged a photo op with Mayor Bob Foster and Councilman James Johnson alongside [quotations from actual press release] "the 600-foot-long Great Wall of Mulch." "Today, an injustice has ended," Councilmember Johnson said. "The people of West Long Beach finally have an innovative 'Green Wall' along Hudson Park that will block the noise from the freeway, eliminate the visual blight, and improve air quality with trees and other plantings. I look forward to further improvements along the freeway as we protect the students, veterans, and residents who have lived next to this free without protection for far too long." This is surely flapdoodle... [Burden]
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Add to these the Zerby case and attend:
It isn't necessary to completely suppress the news; it is sufficient to delay the news until it no longer matters. -Napoleon