Bits 'n' Pieces

LBCC Oversight Committee Seeks New Member

The Long Beach Community College District (LBCCD) Citizens’ Oversight Committee (COC), which oversees district bond projects, is seeking a new member to represent the local business community. Applications are being accepted and are due by Friday, May 29.

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and reside within the LBCCD boundary, which includes the cities of Avalon, Lakewood, Long Beach and Signal Hill. Applicants also need to be current members of a local business community. This requirement includes that the applicant is a business owner or is currently a member of a chamber of commerce or business improvement district that is active within the district boundaries.

The LBCCD Board of Trustees will be asked to approve the new member at its June 24 meeting. The term of service for the new appointee will be July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022. The COC has two mandatory meetings each year and may schedule others as needed. Future meeting dates for the COC are August 17, 2020 and February 1, 2021.

The COC oversees both Measure E, a $440-million bond measure approved by the voters in 2008 and Measure LB, an $850-million bond measure approved by the voters in 2016. Funds are used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation or replacement of LBCCD facilities, or the acquisition or lease of real property for use by the district.

Complete information about the bond measures, the COC and the application form can be found online at https://www.lbcc.edu/citizens-oversight-committee. Community members can call (562) 938-4540 with questions.

Hospital Recognized for Asthma Excellence

MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach was recognized for the third consecutive time for excellence in pediatric asthma care. Miller Children’s & Women’s remains the only free-standing children’s hospital in California and only one of 13 hospitals in the nation, to receive the Disease Specific Certification in Pediatric Asthma from The Joint Commission.

The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization offering unbiased assessment of quality achievement in patient care and safety. This re-certification denotes the highest honor for quality in patient care for children with asthma.

Since the last site review, the care team has focused on two key initiatives. The first is a study designed to track and improve how patients are managing asthma after hospitalization. Improvements were seen through increased education and implementation of a standard asthma control test.

This test, previously used across Miller Children’s & Women’s inpatient units, was implemented in the outpatient setting and during home visits through the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma. The Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma, part of Miller Children’s & Women’s, works with families in their home and school to manage a child’s asthma.

The second initiative was the formalization of a Severe Asthma Clinic and the use of biologics to treat patients identified as having severe asthma.

Recently, several new medications, known as “biologics,” have been approved for the treatment of moderate to severe asthma in children as young as 6-years-old. Biologics are unique in that they target a specific antibody, molecule, or cell involved in asthma. Because of this, they are known as “precision” or “personalized” therapy.

$34.2K in Grants for ICT

International City Theatre’s arts education programming is the recipient of $34,200 in grant monies from the California Arts Council, with an $18,000 Artists in School award earmarked for ICT’s Performing Arts Classroom Teaching program (PACT) and $16,200 in Youth Arts Action funds designated for the company’s Summer Youth Conservatory.

ICT’s PACT program sends artist-educators into Long Beach elementary schools to provide performing arts education and foster an early appreciation for the arts. In this 3-week program, ICT provides study guides and technical knowledge in combination with hands-on learning and theater exercises to enhance creativity and increase literacy and language skills. Students have the opportunity to act, write a play and perform with their classmates, boosting confidence and self-esteem. On average, ICT makes 480 classroom visits to third grade annually.

ICT’s annual Summer Youth Conservatory is a great way for kids aged 7–15 to learn more about theater. The 4-week-long program features instruction in acting, music, dance and playwriting taught by industry professionals, culminating in a special presentation for parents and friends.

Grocery Gift Cards for Seniors Announced

Long Beach Gray Panthers and Partners of Parks announce the establishment of the Donna Helsley Food Fund to provide grocery gift cards to older adults who need assistance with food at the end of the month.

Made possible by a grant from the Long Beach Community Foundation Coronavirus Relief Fund and a matching gift of $5,000 from Partners of Parks, the funds will be distributed through affordable Senior Buildings and the City of Long Beach Senior Centers.

“Too many Seniors are not able to purchase groceries while they wait for their Social Security deposits at the end of the month.” said Myron Wollin, president of the Long Beach Gray Panthers. “Fortunately, the Long Beach Community Foundation and Partners of Parks agreed with us. We have also started to receive gifts from the community who want to ensure our Seniors have enough to eat. The establishment of this fund will provide food resources for those Seniors most in need in our community.”

If you would like to donate to the fund, checks may be mailed to either the Long Beach Gray Panthers or Partners of Parks at 1150 East 4th Street, Long Beach, CA 90802.

Online donations may be made through Partners of Parks website at www.partnersofparks.org, clicking on the partners tab and then selecting the Gray Panthers on the drop down menu.

General meetings of the Long Beach Gray Panthers are the first Saturday of the month at 10:30 a.m. on Zoom during the pandemic. Meetings include lively discussions and information on issues impacting older adults in the community. To receive an invitation to the meeting, send an email to longbeachgraypanthers@gmail.com.

For additional information, call (562) 353-7015 or email Longbeachgraypanthers@gmail.com.

Coalition Gets $20K Grant for Measure A Recount

The Long Beach Reform Coalition (LBRC) announced that it is the recipient of a $20,000 grant for upcoming litigation against Los Angeles County. LBRC recently took the lead on the recount of Long Beach Measure A, which was certified as having passed with a 16-vote margin out of approximately 100,000 votes cast. “Unfortunately, that recount became a charade as LA Co. Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan used the flaws in his new VSAP voting system to obstruct the process and terminate it before completion,” said Ian Patton, LBRC executive director.

“Unbelievably, the design for the $300 million VSAP system, custom-developed for LA County and ten years in the making, apparently did not account for recounts, what ought to be one of the most basic functions of an election system. By taking millions of ballots, which used to be pre-sorted by jurisdiction according to polling place and instead mixing them all together, VSAP has rendered a manual recount – in other words a human, paper trail audit – of the original machine count an extreme logistical challenge,” Patton said in a news release.

“By attempting to charge the recount requestor for the cost of this multi-week ‘ballot retrieval’ process, County Clerk Logan has effectively implemented a poll tax (in other words, created a high discriminatory economic bar) for anyone but the wealthiest of campaigns or individuals to access their right to a recount under California state law. Such a policy effectively serves as a cover up for the counting flaws inherent in the VSAP system, as a full recount would (and the partial recount process had already begun to) reveal inaccuracies in the original machine count.

“It is for these reasons that LBRC will soon be filing suit. We are thrilled that HJTA similarly understands the significance of this effort, not just for Long Beach, not even just for LA County, but indeed for the entire State of California,” Patton claimed.

HJTA has provided the following statement from its president, Jon Coupal, concerning the litigation: “The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has fought for the right to vote on taxes. Essential to the exercise of that right is the need to have confidence that every vote was counted and counted accurately.”

“Thanks to the support of HJTA, locally to the LBRC-affiliate Citizens About Responsible Planning (CARP), and to over 300 individual donors, specifically contributing toward our recount efforts in recent weeks, LBRC will be soon be announcing the filing of and details concerning a lawsuit against Los Angeles County,” Patton said.