Beachcombing

Last week we attended a kick-off event for the Long Beach Reform Coalition, which is supporting two City Council candidates in the March 3, 2020 election: Robert Fox (running in Council District 2) and Juan Ovalle (running in Council District 8), Their goal is to clean up the corruption currently running rampant at City Hall as has been reported in the Beachcomber over the past few years.

Here is the coalition pledge text that both candidates signed last week:

If Elected to the Long Beach City Council my commitment will be to:

• Restore term limits to two terms (by accurately-worded initiative)
• Oppose using tax dollars for political advocacy
• Reform and limit the use of officeholder accounts
• Restore the right of the public to agendize city council items
• Support campaign finance reforms, including:
  * The 6-to-1 ‘super match’ for grassroots candidates
  * Regulation of political contributions by developer project teams and interests bidding on or negotiating city contracts while pending
  * Requiring that developers provide a political impact report (PIR) outlining their project teams’ prior political contributions
• Hold at least four open town hall meetings per year
• Insist on competitive bidding for all city projects & contracts
• Always defend the right of active public participation in governance
• Reinvigorate full transparency in city government, including compliance with the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act.

You can read about these elements in greater detail at http://lbreformcoalition.org/the-reform-pledge.

When we started this publishing gig 19 years ago the first thing that caught our attention was how the Long Beach Police Officers Association was “interviewing” council candidates in a manner that stated “If you want our endorsement you must promise on this tape recorded session that you will support all of our efforts to raid the city treasury of all available funds and provide pensions for us that will put the city on the brink of bankruptcy.”

We’ve watched with amazement how voters kept drinking the POA Kool-aid, thus allowing the tail to wag the dog. Hopefully the LB Reform Coalition will achieve its goal of a City Council that represents the voters and not the public safety unions.

Humor time, thanks to a lexophile friend:

• I changed my iPod’s name to Titanic. It’s syncing now.
• England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
• This girl today said she recognized me from the Vegetarian’s Club, but I’d swear I’ve never met herbivore.
• I know a guy who’s addicted to drinking brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
• A thief who stole a calendar got 12 months.
• When the smog lifts in Los Angeles U.C.L.A.
• I got some batteries that were given out free of charge.
• A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.
• A will is a dead giveaway.
• With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
• Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

publisher@beachcomber.news