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“Funny Dreams” mixed media by Dawn Quinones See page 10
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SERVING BIXBY KNOLLS, CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS, LOS CERRITOS, WRIGLEY AND THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
Vol. 35 No. 38
February 21, 2014
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
Third Long Beach Community Studies Conference to explore research on ‘Neighborhoods Past & Present’
Sean Belk Staff Writer
CJ Dablo/Signal Tribune
Municipal workers attended the Council Chamber on Feb. 18 to voice opposition to a plan that would allow private contractor Athens Services to take over street sweeping for the City of Long Beach. The plan acknowledges that 19 full-time employees may be displaced from their jobs but does offer alternatives for the city workers affected by the change. The Council removed the item from Tuesday’s agenda and plans to discuss the matter during a meeting in March.
City workers criticize proposal to privatize street-sweeping services
CJ Dablo Staff Writer
Discussion of a proposal to hire a private contractor to take over Long Beach’s street-sweeping services will be delayed until March now that city leaders decided to remove the item from the Feb. 18 City Council agenda. However, that didn’t stop a number of city workers from turning up in the Council Chamber Tuesday night to voice their concerns about the possibility of losing their municipal jobs. In a cost-saving effort, Long Beach officials are reviewing several municipal services for potential contracting, according to a staff report from the city-manager and the financial-management offices. As part of the bidding process, city staff last year issued a request for proposal (RFP) to find qualified contractors who could offer street-sweeping services. Officials eventually selected Athens Services as their preferred vendor. Athens offers significant savings to the City, according to the staff report. One analysis calculated that Long Beach’s annual cost to sweep the streets totals more than $5.39 million. It also determined that contracting the service would only cost more than $4.52 million. The report stated that the switch to an outside vendor could save $1.3 million annually to the General Fund. Athens also committed to buy the existing fleet of vehicle equipment. According to the report, this purchase would save the City an additional amount of more than $1.77 million in its General/Fleet Fund. The report acknowledged that although the proposal would displace 19 full-
Long Beach is recognized today as one the most ethnically diverse large cities in America, but that wasn’t always the case, says Julian DelGaudio, Ph.D., history professor at Long Beach City College (LBCC). Historical census data shows that, starting in the 1940s, Long Beach was once considered “one of the whitest urban areas in the country,” with a racial makeup of more than 90 percent Caucasian, he said. At the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War era, new jobs in war industries drew a flood of people into the area, spurring mass construction of housing in east Long Beach and Lakewood, DelGaudio said. Defense contractors created a new population of workers that drove the need for new suburban homes, but Courtesy HSLB private real-estate developers An issue of the Long Beach Press-Telegram from the Historical Society of had certain protocols of just Long Beach’s archive collection shows an advertisement promoting Lakewho could live there, often wood in 1940. implementing “restrictive covenants” to prevent certain ethnicities, in those days considered minorities, from buying property, he said. “If you were trying to buy on the east side and you were a minority, you basically weren’t allowed,” said DelGaudio, who further explained that, up until about the 1970s, the area of east Long Beach and Lakewood could be considered an “extraordinary model of racial purity.” The subject is the basis for his latest research paper titled “War and Race in the Making of East Long Beach,” which DelGaudio plans to present during the third Long Beach Community Studies Conference scheduled for Saturday, April 26 at LBCC’s Liberal Arts Campus, building T-1200 at 4901 E. Carson St. The Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB) and LBCC’s community studies program, which DelGaudio helped to create, is organizing the conference that will feature a panel of presenters, covering an array of research about the area’s history. The deadline for submissions was Feb. 15. This year’s conference, which has a theme titled “The City’s Courtesy LBCC
LBCC history professor Julian DelGaudio, Ph.D.
Signal Hill Council votes unanimously to oppose ‘Right to Know and Vote’ initiative
Sean Belk Staff Writer
During an emotionally charged and highly contentious meeting, the Signal Hill City Council voted unanimously (5-0) on Tuesday, Feb. 18 to pass a resolution in opposition to the controversial “Taxpayers’ Right to Know and Vote” that will be on the June 3 election ballot. If passed by voters, the initiative would “fundamentally alter the management of the city’s municipal finances and budget planning,” said City Manager Ken Farfsing, who signed a staff report supporting the opposition to the initiative.
Citing a report from an independent consultant that was presented to the Council last November, Farfsing said the initiative would shift power for managing city finances from city staff and the elected Council to voters, adding that, over time, the law would “impact the City’s ability to recover costs for services and potentially erode public safety.” “The expert found that voters would be responsible for making many complicated, technical and interrelated fiscal decisions,” Farfsing said. “If it were to pass, the initiative would reduce the ability of the elected City Council and
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city staff to manage the city’s budget and fiscal affairs.” Carol Churchill, a lawyer, former councilmember and member of Signal Hill Community First, who drafted the initiative, denied claims made by the consultant and city staff, stating that the City is running a “fear campaign” in an attempt to “mislead the public.” During public comment, Mayor Michael Noll imposed a three-minute time limit for speakers, however Churchill said the limit was an attempt to stifle the opposing side. “Is there a reason why you have a three-
Weekly Weather Forecast Friday
77°
Saturday
Mostly sunny, very warm Lo 54°
73°
Sunday
75°
Mostly sunny
Clouds breaking for sun
Lo 53°
Lo 50°
February 21 through February 25, 2014
Monday
Tuesday
69° Partly sunny Lo 51°
68° Partly sunny Lo 49°
This week’s Weekly Weather Forecast sponsored by:
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minute [time limit] other than to shut me up?” she asked the mayor. “You just want to go home early?” Sponsored by the watchdog group Signal Hill Community First, the initiative proposes to amend the City Charter to require a two-thirds majority vote for all city fees, taxes and assessments. In addition, all taxes and fees would sunset every 10 years, and all assessments would sunset every 20 years, requiring another twothirds vote for re-authorization, according to the staff report.
see COUNCIL page 9
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