SIGNAL T
Vol. 36 No. 27
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“Beast Mode,” acrylic on canvas by David Torrez See page 15
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December 5, 2014
SERVING BIXBY KNOLLS, CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS, LOS CERRITOS, WRIGLEY AND THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
LB mayor’s senior advisor to oversee 4th District office
Sean Belk Staff Writer
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia announced on Wednesday, Dec. 3 that Sharon Weissman, his senior advisor and former chief of staff, will oversee the currently unrepresented 4th District Council office until a new councilmember is elected. Former 4th District Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell left the Council seat vacant after being elected as the new 70th District Assemblymember, replacing termed-out Bonnie Lowenthal. O’Donnell, a Democrat and a Long Beach high school teacher, won the Assembly seat in the Nov. 4 election with 63 percent of the vote over John Goya, a Republican and a medical-related business executive, who received 37 percent. Assistant City Clerk Poonam Davis said in a phone interview with the Signal Tribune that O’Donnell resigned effective Nov. 30 and the Council seat will remain vacant until a new councilmember is elected. She said the 4th District will not have a voting representative on agenda items until a new councilmember takes office. The Council is expected to declare a vacancy at its Dec. 16 meeting, Davis said, adding that the Council has 120 days from that time to conduct a special election to fill the rest of O’Donnell’s term in accordance with the City Charter. see 4TH DISTRICT page 14
Courtesy City of LB
Sharon Weissman
Signal Hill Council grants oil company short-term extension on permit to drill
Sean Belk Staff Writer
The Signal Hill City Council this week granted Signal Hill Petroleum (SHP) permission to drill for oil at seven sites in the city for the next two and a half years, in which time the City plans to complete an extensive update to its oil code. The Council voted unanimously (5-0) to extend the oil company’s conditional-use permit (CUP), which covers all seven of its drill sites, locations where the City has allowed the company to drill new oil wells. The permit had been scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, according to city staff. City officials note that a majority (80 percent) of SHP’s 347 oil wells are located outside of the seven drill sites and were tapped prior to the City adopting an oil code in 1990, around the time when SHP acquired most oil production in the city from Arco, Shell and Texaco. Provisions of the oil code include prohibiting drill sites in residential zones and requiring that the drill sites have landscaping and be enclosed with a chain-link fence or solid wall, among other requirements. The drill sites, which now have a total of 69 oil wells, were consolidated under one CUP in 1998, and only six new oil wells have been added since the City first adopted the oil code, according to city staff. Though SHP has sought a longterm extension of its CUP that would allow drilling for multiple years, the Council has only granted short-term
Sean Belk/Signal Tribune
An oil rig pumps oil at one of Signal Hill Petroleum’s seven drill sites seen during a public tour of the oil company’s operations conducted by the City in June 2013.
extensions for the past two years as staff continues to work on completing a comprehensive update to the City’s oil code. By permitting new oil wells only within drill sites, it was anticipated that oil wells outside of drill sites would become “obsolete and abandoned over time,” eventually freeing up land for development. However,
Sean Belk
rape, murder or child molestation, considered “super strike” convictions. With the proposition’s passage, thousands of cases that would normally be handled by county district attorney (DA) offices as felonies have been reclassified as misdemeanors, subject to shorter jail sentences regardless of a person’s criminal background, excluding sex offenders and individuals with super-strike convictions. Previously, DA offices considered a defendant’s background and the circumstances of the crime before determining whether a drug case or theft case should be pursued as a felony or misdemeanor, considered a “wobbler.” Now, however, DAs, including the Los Angeles DA’s office, have no discretion for the vast majority of drug and theft crimes, and they can only be pursued as misdemeanors, according to local officials.
Staff Writer
Under a controversial state ballot measure passed by voters in the November election, police officers now have more to consider before putting someone in jail for certain low-level nonviolent crimes, such as simple drug possession or petty theft, and prosecutors have less discretion on how long to keep someone there. Intended to further reduce California’s overcrowded prison population, Proposition 47 went into effect the day after it passed in the Nov. 4 statewide election with 59.6 percent of the vote in favor. The measure reduces penalties for non-serious and non-violent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors except for registered sex offenders and persons previously convicted of Friday
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staff said. When it was discovered that there might be more life left in the oil field than originally anticipated, the City embarked on an extensive update to its oil code. City staff has since worked with SHP to collect and analyze data while preparing comprehensive reports on see COUNCIL page 12
Los Angeles County, Long Beach dealing with major reforms to certain criminal prosecutions under controversial Prop 47
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city staff notes that has not been the case. In 2012, SHP conducted a stateof-the-art geophysical survey to image and map subsurface geology in the field. Given advances in the technology, SHP reported that the life of the oil field was likely “longer than originally estimated,” which back in 1990 was only 25 years, city
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The measure forces cities that handle their own prosecutions to now take on additional misdemeanor cases, many of which may involve criminals with long rap sheets. However, county jails will likely become even more crowded with the additional effects of AB 109, legislation passed in 2011 known as publicsafety realignment that moved responsibility for monitoring, tracking and jailing offenders of certain crimes from the State to counties. As a result, some individuals convicted of misdemeanors may have their sentence reduced further or won’t have to serve time at all. In addition, since the measure is retroactive, reducing previous felony cases to misdemeanor cases will likely result in the early release of thousands more prisoners. see PROPOSITION page 11