West Division Leadership Forum: 06/22/2016

Please join Commander Robert Smith and his staff for this informative meeting on Wednesday June 22, 2016 at 6:00pm. at 205 E. Anaheim We will be having presentations on different programs available to Juveniles.

For further information please contact, Neighborhood Services Specialist Jose Vazquez, at 562-570-3461 or via email LBPDwest@longbeach.gov

****Spanish translation will be available****

Vengan acompañar al Comandante Robert Smith a una reunión comunitaria El Miercoles, 22 de Junio a las 6:00 de la tarde en el 205 E. Anaheim Tendremos varias presentaciones sobre diferentes programas disponibles para Juveniles

Para obtener más información favor de llamar a Jose Vazquez, al 562-570-3461 o mande correo electronico a

LBPDwest@longbeach.gov

*****Tendremos traducción en español disponible*****

District Six Primary: Josephine Villasenor: 04/12/2016

The Wrigley Association: Candidate Forum

Tonight the Wrigley Association hosted a forum between all six District Six City Council Candidates. Unlike the last write up, here I'm simply going share what each said about themselves that stood out in a brief paragraph. The forum was attended by about thirty to forty people. Questions were chosen by the association and by the audience for specific candidates. 

Josephine A Villaseñor hails from Whittier. She became involved in the community after forming the Wrigley Community Watch. Villaseñor who has her BA in business management with an emphasis in Early Childhood Development. She is also a member of the Community Emergency Response Team, a Red Cross Volunteer and a fund raising event coordinator chief for the VIDC at the Veteran's Hospital. When asked how to bring life back into the sixth district, Viillaseñor said her top three goals would be addressing homelessness, public safety and lessening restrictive business environment. For instance, in Signal Hill where license fees are $55 instead of the $400 they are in Long Beach. She also stated if we expected businesses to support our community, our community needs to shop locally and support out businesses. When asked how she'd get along with other members on City Council, Villaseñor replied when I patrol, I patrol Districts 1,2 ,3, 4, 7 and six. I don't see borders, I just see a community.

Erik Miller who asserted the sixth district had not changed since he grew up at 14th and Walnut across from Anioch Church. Miller, who left the neighborhood to get his degree in architecture, would later return to the Wrigley Community. There he became involved in the Gang Reduction Intervention Task Force and Operation Jump Start. He also helped fund the PEACE Basket Ball League. When asked which of Dee Andrew's votes he disagreed with, Erik cited the cutting of funding to Long Beach Police. In order to restore funding, Miller supports the Mayor's one percent sales tax increase. At the forum, if he won the April 12th Primary would first sell that sales tax increase to the public.

Robert Harmon. grew up in Seal Beach. He didn't go to college, he went to war. He's a veteran of Desert Storm who started the MacArthur Park Neighborhood Association. Harmon, who credits himself with driving the gangs out of MacArthur Park, said that to raise funds for police, safety and infrastructure we would need to take a hard look at the city's financial choices. In he end, he called the one percent a bitter pill. Harmon cites deferred maintenance in the district as the reason sand stated we would either pay for it now or pay a lot more later. Harmon, who attended every meeting of the Anaheim Corridor Re-Visioning, had submitted his own Cambodia Town Beatification Project, to several neighborhood stakeholders and stated it could be applied to every Long Beach corridor.

Dee Andrews is a 69 year resident of Central Long Beach. He is the incumbent City Council member in District Six. He has termed out, however the City Charter allows him to seek a third term as a write in candidate. Much of the time Andrews was responding to criticism. Several challengers cited a lack of change in his district during Andrew's tenure. Andrews called this a weak argument that "Ray Charles could see through." When asked why he should be re-elected Andrews stated he had just gotten the ball rolling and would like to be there when  his plans and projects come to fruition. According to Andrews one of the reasons for the budget short fall in past years was an over reliance on income from oil companies. And because of this, some hard choices had to be made.  Without cutting 200 jobs in public safety we might have had to cut 700 jobs that were tied back to the infrastructure.

The Primary Election will be held on April 12th, 2016. You can register to vote withe the City Clerk's office. You can also vote early by mail or in person at the City Clerk's Office. We're still going to cover the race for the LBUD board and the board of college trustees. And there will be a Go Long Beach Run soon. But spoiler alert: Jessica Alvarez, gets our support for LBUSD School Board due to her involvement with bringing Safe Passage to the Westside. We'd like to see it expanded to Franklin and Washington Middle Schools ASAP. That would have a huge impact on safety here in Long Beach, and it would do so very quickly.

Looking At the 2016 City Council Candidates

There was a Candidate's Forum on 03/02/2016 at the Long Beach Public Library. Among the district's Long Beach will be voting for are the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th District City Council races. Last night's forum featured all ten City Council Candidates.

The vote on April 12th will be for for the Long Beach City College Trustees, LBUSD Board Members and four City Council races. 

This write up will focus on the City Council Candidates only. We will cover the Board of Trustees and LBUSD Board races at a later date. During the debate each candidate was asked three questions prepared by the Neighborhood Leadership Program, which put on the forum. Each candidate was also asked one question from the audience and given a chance to provide a closing statement.

These are paraphrases of the candidates' answers, not direct quotes. We're not being subtle, the candidates we're endorsing have a star next to them.

District Two:

Erik Gray

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Vision. I believe the 2nd District is a District in transition. From 7th to Pine to the Promenade the city should elect someone with a vision to bring the District to a better place.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax? I support putting the sale's tax on the ballot. There are different ways to get funds as we're developing and we need to make sure our initiatives are business friendly.


What is the most important issue facing your district? Chose several issues but added parking. Altimos Beach residents may get home from work and need to drive  45 minutes to find a place to park.

Why we picked Erik Gray. Aside from being endorsed by everyone, Gray comes off as very down to earth, sincere and has already been very involved in the community before running for council. Of all the second district candidates Gray seems to be the best balance of the how to support business and the community as Downtown Long Beach grows.

Jeannine Pearce

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Integrity. Council members, wherever you reside must allow a seat at the table for everyone.


Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax? Supports the tax. Our number one priority needs to be supporting police and fire as our density increases.


What is the most important issue facing your district? Homelessness. We need a value base budget process. 

Joan Garnica

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Integrity. Somebody with integrity will embody all the 14 qualities a leader would be expected to have.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax?  Was less supportive of the idea. I am concerned that we need long term funding. We need to put ourselves in a place to succeed.

What is the most important issue facing your district? Parking, I am the only candidate who has imporved parking in the Second District. I would also say public safety and making sure we have a connected community.

District Six:

 
Josephine A Villaseñor

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Courage. It takes courage to stand up to the gangs, it takes courage to stand up to the violence, it takes courage do what's right for the community.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax? I support the sales tax. I'm a part of the Community Emergency Response team and we need to put our police, fire and first responders first.


What is the most important issue facing your district? The most important issue is the gangs. We need to stop them from recruiting from our elementary schools. That's why I started the Wrigley Community Watch which has grown from one person to 35 patroling not just District Six, but District's 1,2,5,6 and 7.

Why we picked Josephine Villaseñor: Every candidate running for sixth District listed public safety as the District's number one concern, Josephine is already very active within the community having been a part of CERT, the American Red Cross and forming a large community watch group in Wrigley that has dealt with everything from drug dealing to human trafficking.

Erik Miller:

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Accountability. 

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax?  There's no question that there's a lot of violence in the Sixth District. You know when you've entered District Six and you know when you leave it.

What is the most important issue facing your district?  Violence in the 6th District.


Dee Andrews:

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Service. Service has been lacking in my community. Often times, they get to you when they get to you.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax?   Any dollar is a good dollar. Crime is up but, crime is up everywhere. A clean city is a good city.

What is the most important issue facing your district?  Our number one issue is public safety. But I don't think a lot of people know what it was like in the 90s.

Robert Harmon

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Integrity. Integrity is more than just a word, it defines a person. You have to do what is right all the time.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax?  It's a bitter pill we have to take. We have to do the right thing. We have infrastructure that needs to be maintained; it’s been deferred, we pay now or we pay later

What is the most important issue facing your district?  Why do people graduate without any financial literacy skills. Let's extend a ladder for people to move up and become home owners.




District Eight:

Al Austin II:

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Courage. It takes a lot of courage to run. Every word is scrutinized by the public and the press especially in a district like the 8th.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax?  I voted in support of this. This is about infrastructure and public safety. What do we put a value on. Long Beach is on the verge of becoming a world class or a third world city.


What is the most important issue facing your district?  What is the most important depends on where in the district you live. We already spend 70% of our budget on public safety. For those close to the airport the most important issue is airport noise.

Why we chose Al Austin. It's a close call between Austin and Turnbow. In the end, Turnbow's comment about negotiating hard with the unions, seems to imply more police at the expense of lower pay for police and fire. And we think that's a lot to ask of anyone who builds a career out of risking their life for their community. We also don't find it realistic.

Wesley Turnbow

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Accountability.   I want to bring Town Hall meetings where we connect citizens with City Council.

Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax? You must address crime, cities and sidewalks but you don't do it with short shortsightedness. We need to do things that are business friendly or businesses won't come up our city.

What is the most important issue facing your district?  Public safety. We have to negotiate hard with the unions to prevent cuts to police and fire during trying economic times.


Laurie C. Angel

What is the most important quality a leader should have? Respect. You have to respect the process, the neighborhoods, citizens, each other and the public.
 
Do you support the mayor's one cent sale's tax? The sales tax was not vetted in the businesses. We'll have the highest sales tax in the city and there is no guarantee it will be spent on public safety.

What is the most important issue facing your district? Safety. It's a long term and a long range issue. This starts with the youth by giving them constructive things to do and growing up understanding right from wrong.

About Early Voting

There are two options for voters who can't find time off for the April 12th primary vote. The first of those options is mail. Long Beach resident's can also vote early by going to the County Clerk's office and voting in person. 

Both options will be open starting on 03/14/2016. Both of these options are meant to fight off the disappointing turn out Long Beach saw in 2014 when only 14.2 percent of registered voters turned out for the primary vote.

The only candidate that did not sit at the table and get questions from the moderator was Daryl Supernaw, who is running unopposed. Instead Supernaw gave a three minute statement in between the candidate's answering these questions and the Q and A with prospective members of the LBUSD School Board.