Friday Newsletter Friday

The State Helps Itself

The City Loses $30 Million in RDA Funds

May 7, 2010
 City of Long Beach Memorandum
Working Together to Serve

Date: May 7, 2010

To: Mayor and Members of the City Council

Patrick West, City Manager
From: Suzanne Frick, Assistant City Manager
Subject: Friday Newsletter

California Redevelopment Association (CRA) Lawsuit

As you may have read about, the CRA lawsuit against the State of California was
decided in the state’s favor. This means that over the next two years, our
Redevelopment Agency will be losing over $36 million dollars. This sets a very
bad precedent. The CRA was able to place a measure on the November ballot
that will provide Redevelopment Agency dollars the same protection that City
dollars received from Proposition 1A several years ago. Obviously, this puts a
dent in our ability to do the many wonderful projects we have been doing over the
past several years. That said, we were expecting this and it is reflected in our
budget.

KROC Center

This has truly been a bad week, when you combine the loss of our $36 million
Redevelopment dollars, as well as the Army’s rejection of the KROC Center
project.

We had an “all hands” meeting this morning to determine what our next steps will
be in going forward to see if it’s possible to get this project back online. We will
be doing everything in our power to make this happen. Again, this truly did take
us by surprise. In fact, we had a very good meeting with our entire team and the
Salvation Army representatives only two weeks ago, attended by the Mayor and
myself and none of these issues came up. Attached is a related and very
interesting article from the New York Times on the KROC Center.

Bike Fest

This weekend features our Second Annual Bike Fest. It starts tonight with the
“Fixed Gear” event at East Village, which will feature tricycle races with any
Councilmembers that are present. Tomorrow’s event starts at 8:00 a.m., with the
newly added bicycle tour designed by Tony Cruz. Criterium bicycle racing will be
taking place throughout the day in the downtown, as well as many, many other
special events related to cycling. There will also be numerous bands playing
throughout the day. The event will be capped off on Sunday at Retro Row
between noon and 4 p.m., with roller derby events, other eclectic bike-related
activities and some screening of some exciting bike movies at the Art Theater.
May 7, 2010
Page 2

Belmont Pier Work

Those of you who have seen the huge crane sitting off Belmont Pier may have
wondered what’s up, as I did. It turns out we are finally installing the Aqualink
“bus stop” for the Belmont Pier that was approved earlier in the year. This should
be a very exciting addition to our mobility efforts on the water, as well as on our
streets.

LBGO Customers

The "average" residential gas customer of Long Beach Gas and Oil (LBGO) has
now experienced 12 consecutive months of gas bills LOWER than similarly-sized
residential consumers anywhere else in Southern California, roughly 5% lower.
The reason for the lower costs for LBGO customers is primarily due to LBGO
successfully purchasing its gas commodity at a lower overall cost in the open
competitive marketplace and passing through these lower costs directly to its
customers.

Kudos to Theresa Marino

Theresa Marino, Manager of the Community Health Bureau, will be recognized

by the Long Beach NAACP as one of their “Women of the Year” honorees. The
reception will be Sunday, May 16th, 4:00 p.m., at McBride Park Community
Center (formerly Cal Recreation Center on MLK and 15th Street). The reception
is open to the community and there is no cost. Friends and family are invited to
the event.

Good Bye Larry Brugger

We learned earlier this week that our Superintendent of Building & Safety, Larry
Brugger will be retiring next week. Larry has been with the city for 7 years.
Before that he worked for the City of Los Angeles for 23 years. Larry has truly
been a wonderful asset in our Development Services Department, and is very
well thought of by the building and development community. This happened a
little bit sudden, so we will probably bring Larry back on as a temporary
employee while we decide what to do to fill his position.

Good Bye Commander Morrison

For those of you that don’t know, Commander Gary Morrison, who heads up our
Field Support Division, has been chosen by the City of Carlsbad to be their new
Chief of Police. Commander Morrison has been in the hunt quite some time for
this position. Over the past few years, six members of our LBPD team are
leading other cities! (Carlsbad, Newport Beach, Oceanside, Riverside, Oakland
and Santa Monica).
May 7, 2010
Page 3

Early Childhood Education Committee Highlighted for Civic Engagement

Efforts

The California Community Foundation has highlighted the Long Beach Early
Childhood Education Committee, a subcommittee of the Long Beach Board of
Health and Human Services, in their “Guide to Top Performing Nonprofits” under
the category of Civic Engagement. The Long Beach Early Childhood Education
Committee works to increase the quality of, and access to, affordable early
childhood education services.

No memos to the Mayor and City Council this week.

PHW:mb