April 8, 2025 • 17 mins
Is Long Beach’s city council trying to illegally raise your taxes? A new lawsuit is challenging a sales tax increase that many claim was not voter-approved and violates the ordinance’s timeline. We break down the confusing legal language and what this means for YOU as a Long Beach resident.
💬 Are you for or against this tax increase? Let us know in the comments!
LISTEN ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLAYER:
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-in-long-beach/id1791687079
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-all-in-long-beach-259795666/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7LzHcURP5N0OuI9XbQgsaY?si=FdmE-ZcLR7qra3tNOH1rLw
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: facebook.com/allinlongbeach
Instagram: instagram.com/allinlongbeach
X/Twitter: x.com/allinlongbeach
BECOME A MEMBER
Patreon: www.patreon.com/allinlongbeach
Wine and Wisdom Membership with Marina Wine and Craft Beer Bar:
https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLHX5G4WAPQ6F/checkout/FL3RNJBFUA6QS2SUME3AZQUP
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Duggan 3rd District (00:00):
I want to understand.
(00:02):
How this is legal when there is aspecific sunset date in the ordinance?
All in Long Beach, we're breaking itdown News and events from all around
town Business, politics, lifestyletoo Food and fun, we bring it to you
Stuart - All In Long Beach (00:25):
Well, hey friends and neighbors, welcome
to the all in Long Beach podcast.
This segment is called on theagenda and it deals with everything
that's happening in city hall andthe city of Long Beach politics.
And today we're going to be talkingabout this biggest controversy that's
happening right now before our veryeyes, this potential illegal sales
tax increase that's being pushedthrough the council right now.
(00:47):
And it's something that if you aren'tfamiliar with, Uh, you're going to
be hearing about it a lot because theLong Beach Reform Commission coalition
just filed a lawsuit against the citybecause they're claiming that the city
of Long Beach is implementing a salestax increase illegally two years early.
(01:09):
Early.
Now, this is a complicated thing.
I had to sit down and really kind ofgo through all of this to find out
what it is that they're talking about.
What is this sales tax?
Because sales tax is regulated.
You know, there's rules andlaws against what you can do.
The state has a cap on sales tax at 10.
25%.
You can't go above that.
So I'm trying to figureout what's happening here.
(01:32):
Now, let me give you a brief breakdownof to the best of my knowledge and my
understanding about how this is workingbecause you got to follow me here.
Because it's kind of complicated.
We have two Measure A's thatwe're going to talk about.
And we're going to have a MeasureH that we're talking about.
One of the Measure A's is L.
A.
County.
And one of the Measure A's and theMeasure H is City of Long Beach.
(01:55):
So you got to remember to keepthose things separate, okay?
No, I'm sorry.
Measure H is L.
A.
County and one of the L.
A.
things is Measure A.
So Measure A, Measure H, L.
A.
County, the other MeasureA, city of Long Beach.
Sorry about that.
Here we go.
Here we go, kind oflike , live radio here.
No edits, live media.
So the other thing that's happening hereis Measure H has a sunset clause in it.
(02:22):
But when the voters of Measure A, L.
A.
County, voted to approve this lastNovember, it ended Measure H early.
Now the Long Beach Measure A saidthat when Measure H sunsets, which is
supposed to have been in 2027, that thesales tax increase will go up for the
(02:42):
city of Long Beach, keep us at that 10.
25 percent so no money islost during this transition.
The question becomes the verbiage.
In the Long Beach Measure A, itsays That this increase will happen
when Measure H sunsets in 2027.
(03:05):
The question that everybody is askingand the question that this lawsuit
is hoping to figure out is in thislawsuit, or I'm sorry, in this
measure, it says that This tax willgo into effect when Measure H sunsets.
Well now, the Measure H willsunset this year, in April 2025.
(03:31):
Two years early, before theOctober 2027 deadline that it
was initially scheduled to go.
Now what we're looking at though, iswhich of these two meanings, which
of these two definitions, Is actuallylegitimate because one says when
measure H sunsets comma in October 2027.
So which one is it?
(03:53):
Which one is it?
Does this kick in when measure H sunsets?
Because that's going to beApril 2025 or in October 2027.
There's people that are saying thatwe know what the intent of the law is.
The intent was for this tokick in so we don't lose money.
I think some of the estimates City Councilwas talking about was about 60 million.
That's a lot of money.
60 million.
(04:13):
It's a lot of money.
But there's a clause in this law, inthis measure that was approved by the
voters that also said in October 2027.
Now this is confusing.
This was a poorly written bill.
Councilwoman Christina Duggan from the3rd District actually talks about that.
Listen to this.
Duggan 3rd District (04:30):
Do agree, uh, Council Member Rex Oddie that the
technical, uh, the technicalityof this, we get the intent.
I think in the future, we hope tolook at this so this can never be
a gray area in future measures.
This is not clear.
(04:51):
An intent is not clear.
Black and white on the otherhand, I do understand the
voters had the intent of this.
Stuart - All In Long Beach: Now this is what's weird. (05:00):
undefined
She says she gets the intentbut the intent is not clear.
So the city of Long Beach is reallyin a tough spot here and they know it.
They knew it.
Christina Dugan knew it.
Earlier in the meeting she said thisabout this particular situation.
Duggan 3rd District (05:17):
So, I asked if the ballot measure itself had an end date.
The technical language does havea sunset date of measure H, so
technically it's black and white.
Isn't a date black and white
Stuart - All In Long Beach (05:34):
So now she's asking the city attorney, can
you help me clarify this language?
Because I don't think we cando this is what she's saying.
And she's trying to getclarification from the city attorney.
Duggan 3rd District (05:44):
my question is, I want to understand.
How this is legal when there is aspecific sunset date in the ordinance?
City Attorney (05:56):
Okay, so the ordinance says that Measure H
is sunsetting on the, in 2027.
It, so it says the 1 percenttax for the city is in effect.
Through 22 and then the city's threequarter cent tax is in effect through 27
(06:19):
and then it goes back to the 1 percenttax upon the sunset of measure H.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (06:26):
Upon the sunset of measure H in October, 2027.
That's what it says in October,2027, she left that part out.
City Attorney (06:34):
So where people may get confused is that it says through 27 and
then says that the 1 percent bouncesback in upon the sunset of measure H.
And so it's very clear in the documentsthat the intention was always for
it to go back to 1 percent upon thesunset of Measure H, but it was not
necessarily envisioned that Measure Hcould sunset early, so that language
(06:59):
wasn't included if it sunsets early.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (07:02):
I think everyone can agree that the intent
was that this tax would kick in afterthe sunset in Measure H in 2027.
But it says October 2027.
There's a date on it.
So despite what the intent may havebeen, that's not what the measure says.
And that's kind of what's, what'sgoing on here, and that's why the
(07:24):
Long Beach Reform coalation is saying.
There's a specific datein this measure, 2027.
That's when the sales taxis supposed to come in.
We are already one of the mosthighly taxed areas in the country.
And any sort of reprieve that wecan get, especially since there's a
ton of businesses out there that arestill trying to recover from COVID.
There's a lot of people thatare still paycheck to paycheck
(07:46):
that are still hurting a lot.
We are way overtaxed to begin with.
And this 1%, it may not sound like a lot.
, but to the average family, thiscould really, really, really add up.
When you take a, a look at thebigger picture from all the way
around now, where are we gonna,are we gonna lose some money?
Yes, absolutely.
Some money's gonna come down, uh,in some budget tightening from the
(08:07):
civil, but you know what the thing is?
They always go back to the, the, thestatement of, if we don't, if we don't
do this, we're gonna lose all this money.
And it's going to cut budgets fromfire and police and all these other
things that are all these other kindof buzzwords, but it didn't have to.
I think what we're seeing right nowin the federal government, we're
(08:29):
seeing tons of cuts and excess wastein just general government spending.
There are a lot of areas where wecan still continue to do some belt
tightening without having to cutessential services like schools,
education, police, fire, all this.
Let's keep listening to this, uh,special session from December 12th.
City Attorney (08:50):
because you don't necessarily put language into legal
documents that have no need to be there.
But it does say that it will go backup upon the sunset of measure H.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (08:59):
And listen to this from Christina Dugan,
third counsel, cause she nailed it.
She nailed it with this next question.
Duggan 3rd District (09:06):
So you don't have a concern that we are going
to have legal issues with this?
Stuart - All In Long Beach (09:13):
I knew that what this was was really sketchy,
and that it didn't make any sense,and that this might not be okay.
But the city attorney and allthe words kind of puts it into
perspective, just about the biggerpicture of how government works.
Duggan 3rd District (09:29):
So you don't have a concern that we are going
to have legal issues with this?
City Attorney (09:36):
Council Member, I can never say that.
There could always be legal issueswith anything this council does.
Anybody can sue on anything in the world.
Um, so all we can do is sit hereand tell you why we believe that
this is expressing the will and theintent of the voters, which we do.
That's what we think it is doing,or we wouldn't be here today.
And so in order to effectuate what webelieve is the will and intent of the
(10:00):
voters, this measure has to be taken.
Because there was some, uh, lack ofunderstanding about the 110 day deadline,
or else this would have been on aregularly noticed meeting, but because
that information was found out on Friday,we had to bring it to you today to make
sure that the city's not losing millionsof dollars in revenue from that measure.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (10:20):
So what we're talking about here in this
110 day notice is any time thatthere's a sales tax increase from
any government, from any city, youhave to inform the state 110 days in
advance of the tax going into effect.
So what this is, is saying to the state,hey, we have this ballot measure, it
(10:43):
was voted upon, but because Measure Hsent it early, we're going to institute
this tax now instead of when the voterssaid it was going to happen in 2027.
But that's the kicker right there.
It's a new tax . They have toget approval from the state when
they're going to institute a new tax
.Now, because this was a special meeting and it was called on December 12th,
(11:04):
right in the middle of the holidays andit was on a Thursday in the middle of
the day, not a lot of people came outin public support or opposition about
this when it came to public comment,but Ian Patton, the executive director
of the Long Beach Reform Coalition, didhave an opportunity to get up and speak.
This is what he said.
Ian Patton (11:21):
This is not a technical change.
This is a tax increase that was notvoted on by the people of this city.
And you are all going to be tagged withjacking up the sales tax of the people
of this city without their approval in astealth meeting in the December holidays
that nobody in the community knew about.
(11:43):
Stop and think about what you're doing.
It's both wrong and it's illegal.
This ordinance Was passed by the peopleof this city by a 16 vote margin out
of a hundred thousand But it's legal.
It was passed by the people and whatthe city attorney said to you is
false All you have to do is read it.
I sent it to all ofyou Read the ordinance.
(12:06):
There is a schedule for the tax ratein the ordinance There is no language
that it automatically goes up.
The financial manager says oh, it justautomatically goes up That's made up.
It doesn't exist.
It's not in the ordinancepassed by the people.
The schedule is very clear that it isa three quarter percent tax starting
(12:28):
on, and she didn't even know the year,it's January 1, 2023 until October 2027.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (12:36):
of amazing on how the citizens of Long Beach, the people
who actually care about this city, knowmore about the law than the city attorney
and some of the people on council.
Doesn't that just kind ofblow your mind sometimes?
So now, as a result of this actionthat was taken, that was passed
unanimously by the way, six, uh,all six members that ultimately
(12:59):
made it to this special meeting.
Um, it started out with five,someone showed up late, and
then, uh, three were absent.
Of the six council people thatwere there, they all voted yes.
Even Christina Dugan voted yes.
Because they're trying to express the willof the people, the will of the voters, But
there were some scare tactics on behalfof the city manager and people saying like
(13:22):
this is money that we need if we don'tdo this we're gonna have to cut and cut
and cut and we're already looking at a30 million dollar shortfall next year.
This is Tom Modica.
City Manager (13:32):
And then I will say internally, next year we are going
to have to make some very toughdecisions about how, uh, if we
either have Measure A or don't haveMeasure A, what we're going to do.
Uh, we are facing a 30 milliondeficit next year, um, uh, that
Measure A plus some of the otherswould have part of our strategy.
Um, that would mean some prettysignificant public safety cuts,
for example, at that level.
Uh, you're also going to have to makesome decisions on, um, if Measure A
(13:55):
is successful and, or if, if this, ifthis happens and we go forward, um,
how much of that do we want to spendon infrastructure versus public safety?
Stuart - All In Long Beach (14:02):
Starting with that, that fear mongering, I'm
doing that in air quotes, saying like,if you don't say yes to this, then you
guys, city council are going to haveto make some tough decisions about
how you're going to explain to yourconstituents, why you're cutting funding
in education and in fire and in police.
So if you say no to this, you're goingto have to explain that to your people.
(14:26):
That's what they're phrasing thequestion to be, as opposed to
phrasing it as is the actual text.
Legal.
Like, did someone mess up here?
That's, that's kind of the thing.
And Christina Dugan mentioned it earlier.
When she goes, we need to be very clear.
This is too great.
We need to be very clearin measures moving forward.
So I think there willbe some learning here.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, we have a lawsuit that's been filed.
(14:49):
So we're going to have to figure out ifthis judge is going to put an injunction,
if they're not going to allow us to dothis tax, if it's going to be on hold,
if it's going to be this whole reading,what are we going to do in the meantime?
Who's going to be paying for all this?
And this is, again, see,I'm a small business owner.
My time is valuable, right?
I got a lot of projects going on.
I don't have time todo the same job twice.
That's why you want to make sureyou do it right the first time.
(15:11):
Take a little bit of extra time.
Make sure you do it right the first time.
But But what's going on in the cityright now is they rushed this vote, they
were uninformed, they were going off ofwhat they think they can get away with,
and now they're being called out on it.
So now the city is going to have tospend time, they're going to have to
(15:32):
spend money going back and redoingall of this, which is going to prevent
the city from doing other things thatcan actually push this city, this
project, push everything else forward.
Because they're all too busy livingin the past because of this decision.
So that's where we're at right now.
And you're going to be hearing alot of this as we move forward.
(15:54):
And maybe we'll get Ian on the,on the pro, on the podcast later
on, so he can kind of give us anupdate on what's happening in this
case and where things are going.
But you'll be hearing about it throughthe city and you're going to be hearing
about it through the news and you'regoing to be hearing it here on the
All in Long Beach podcast in thissegment that we call On the Agenda.
That's it for today though.
Thanks for listening.
Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe.
(16:16):
Let me know your commentson whatever podcast you're
listening to on our social media.
You What do you think about this?
Until next time, Long Beach, thanksneighbors, thanks friends for listening,
and we will catch you in the next episode.
I want to understand.
(00:02):
How this is legal when there is aspecific sunset date in the ordinance?
All in Long Beach, we're breaking itdown News and events from all around
town Business, politics, lifestyletoo Food and fun, we bring it to you
Stuart - All In Long Beach (00:25):
Well, hey friends and neighbors, welcome
to the all in Long Beach podcast.
This segment is called on theagenda and it deals with everything
that's happening in city hall andthe city of Long Beach politics.
And today we're going to be talkingabout this biggest controversy that's
happening right now before our veryeyes, this potential illegal sales
tax increase that's being pushedthrough the council right now.
(00:47):
And it's something that if you aren'tfamiliar with, Uh, you're going to
be hearing about it a lot because theLong Beach Reform Commission coalition
just filed a lawsuit against the citybecause they're claiming that the city
of Long Beach is implementing a salestax increase illegally two years early.
(01:09):
Early.
Now, this is a complicated thing.
I had to sit down and really kind ofgo through all of this to find out
what it is that they're talking about.
What is this sales tax?
Because sales tax is regulated.
You know, there's rules andlaws against what you can do.
The state has a cap on sales tax at 10.
25%.
You can't go above that.
So I'm trying to figureout what's happening here.
(01:32):
Now, let me give you a brief breakdownof to the best of my knowledge and my
understanding about how this is workingbecause you got to follow me here.
Because it's kind of complicated.
We have two Measure A's thatwe're going to talk about.
And we're going to have a MeasureH that we're talking about.
One of the Measure A's is L.
A.
County.
And one of the Measure A's and theMeasure H is City of Long Beach.
(01:55):
So you got to remember to keepthose things separate, okay?
No, I'm sorry.
Measure H is L.
A.
County and one of the L.
A.
things is Measure A.
So Measure A, Measure H, L.
A.
County, the other MeasureA, city of Long Beach.
Sorry about that.
Here we go.
Here we go, kind oflike , live radio here.
No edits, live media.
So the other thing that's happening hereis Measure H has a sunset clause in it.
(02:22):
But when the voters of Measure A, L.
A.
County, voted to approve this lastNovember, it ended Measure H early.
Now the Long Beach Measure A saidthat when Measure H sunsets, which is
supposed to have been in 2027, that thesales tax increase will go up for the
(02:42):
city of Long Beach, keep us at that 10.
25 percent so no money islost during this transition.
The question becomes the verbiage.
In the Long Beach Measure A, itsays That this increase will happen
when Measure H sunsets in 2027.
(03:05):
The question that everybody is askingand the question that this lawsuit
is hoping to figure out is in thislawsuit, or I'm sorry, in this
measure, it says that This tax willgo into effect when Measure H sunsets.
Well now, the Measure H willsunset this year, in April 2025.
(03:31):
Two years early, before theOctober 2027 deadline that it
was initially scheduled to go.
Now what we're looking at though, iswhich of these two meanings, which
of these two definitions, Is actuallylegitimate because one says when
measure H sunsets comma in October 2027.
So which one is it?
(03:53):
Which one is it?
Does this kick in when measure H sunsets?
Because that's going to beApril 2025 or in October 2027.
There's people that are saying thatwe know what the intent of the law is.
The intent was for this tokick in so we don't lose money.
I think some of the estimates City Councilwas talking about was about 60 million.
That's a lot of money.
60 million.
(04:13):
It's a lot of money.
But there's a clause in this law, inthis measure that was approved by the
voters that also said in October 2027.
Now this is confusing.
This was a poorly written bill.
Councilwoman Christina Duggan from the3rd District actually talks about that.
Listen to this.
Duggan 3rd District (04:30):
Do agree, uh, Council Member Rex Oddie that the
technical, uh, the technicalityof this, we get the intent.
I think in the future, we hope tolook at this so this can never be
a gray area in future measures.
This is not clear.
(04:51):
An intent is not clear.
Black and white on the otherhand, I do understand the
voters had the intent of this.
Stuart - All In Long Beach: Now this is what's weird. (05:00):
undefined
She says she gets the intentbut the intent is not clear.
So the city of Long Beach is reallyin a tough spot here and they know it.
They knew it.
Christina Dugan knew it.
Earlier in the meeting she said thisabout this particular situation.
Duggan 3rd District (05:17):
So, I asked if the ballot measure itself had an end date.
The technical language does havea sunset date of measure H, so
technically it's black and white.
Isn't a date black and white
Stuart - All In Long Beach (05:34):
So now she's asking the city attorney, can
you help me clarify this language?
Because I don't think we cando this is what she's saying.
And she's trying to getclarification from the city attorney.
Duggan 3rd District (05:44):
my question is, I want to understand.
How this is legal when there is aspecific sunset date in the ordinance?
City Attorney (05:56):
Okay, so the ordinance says that Measure H
is sunsetting on the, in 2027.
It, so it says the 1 percenttax for the city is in effect.
Through 22 and then the city's threequarter cent tax is in effect through 27
(06:19):
and then it goes back to the 1 percenttax upon the sunset of measure H.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (06:26):
Upon the sunset of measure H in October, 2027.
That's what it says in October,2027, she left that part out.
City Attorney (06:34):
So where people may get confused is that it says through 27 and
then says that the 1 percent bouncesback in upon the sunset of measure H.
And so it's very clear in the documentsthat the intention was always for
it to go back to 1 percent upon thesunset of Measure H, but it was not
necessarily envisioned that Measure Hcould sunset early, so that language
(06:59):
wasn't included if it sunsets early.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (07:02):
I think everyone can agree that the intent
was that this tax would kick in afterthe sunset in Measure H in 2027.
But it says October 2027.
There's a date on it.
So despite what the intent may havebeen, that's not what the measure says.
And that's kind of what's, what'sgoing on here, and that's why the
(07:24):
Long Beach Reform coalation is saying.
There's a specific datein this measure, 2027.
That's when the sales taxis supposed to come in.
We are already one of the mosthighly taxed areas in the country.
And any sort of reprieve that wecan get, especially since there's a
ton of businesses out there that arestill trying to recover from COVID.
There's a lot of people thatare still paycheck to paycheck
(07:46):
that are still hurting a lot.
We are way overtaxed to begin with.
And this 1%, it may not sound like a lot.
, but to the average family, thiscould really, really, really add up.
When you take a, a look at thebigger picture from all the way
around now, where are we gonna,are we gonna lose some money?
Yes, absolutely.
Some money's gonna come down, uh,in some budget tightening from the
(08:07):
civil, but you know what the thing is?
They always go back to the, the, thestatement of, if we don't, if we don't
do this, we're gonna lose all this money.
And it's going to cut budgets fromfire and police and all these other
things that are all these other kindof buzzwords, but it didn't have to.
I think what we're seeing right nowin the federal government, we're
(08:29):
seeing tons of cuts and excess wastein just general government spending.
There are a lot of areas where wecan still continue to do some belt
tightening without having to cutessential services like schools,
education, police, fire, all this.
Let's keep listening to this, uh,special session from December 12th.
City Attorney (08:50):
because you don't necessarily put language into legal
documents that have no need to be there.
But it does say that it will go backup upon the sunset of measure H.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (08:59):
And listen to this from Christina Dugan,
third counsel, cause she nailed it.
She nailed it with this next question.
Duggan 3rd District (09:06):
So you don't have a concern that we are going
to have legal issues with this?
Stuart - All In Long Beach (09:13):
I knew that what this was was really sketchy,
and that it didn't make any sense,and that this might not be okay.
But the city attorney and allthe words kind of puts it into
perspective, just about the biggerpicture of how government works.
Duggan 3rd District (09:29):
So you don't have a concern that we are going
to have legal issues with this?
City Attorney (09:36):
Council Member, I can never say that.
There could always be legal issueswith anything this council does.
Anybody can sue on anything in the world.
Um, so all we can do is sit hereand tell you why we believe that
this is expressing the will and theintent of the voters, which we do.
That's what we think it is doing,or we wouldn't be here today.
And so in order to effectuate what webelieve is the will and intent of the
(10:00):
voters, this measure has to be taken.
Because there was some, uh, lack ofunderstanding about the 110 day deadline,
or else this would have been on aregularly noticed meeting, but because
that information was found out on Friday,we had to bring it to you today to make
sure that the city's not losing millionsof dollars in revenue from that measure.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (10:20):
So what we're talking about here in this
110 day notice is any time thatthere's a sales tax increase from
any government, from any city, youhave to inform the state 110 days in
advance of the tax going into effect.
So what this is, is saying to the state,hey, we have this ballot measure, it
(10:43):
was voted upon, but because Measure Hsent it early, we're going to institute
this tax now instead of when the voterssaid it was going to happen in 2027.
But that's the kicker right there.
It's a new tax . They have toget approval from the state when
they're going to institute a new tax
.Now, because this was a special meeting and it was called on December 12th,
(11:04):
right in the middle of the holidays andit was on a Thursday in the middle of
the day, not a lot of people came outin public support or opposition about
this when it came to public comment,but Ian Patton, the executive director
of the Long Beach Reform Coalition, didhave an opportunity to get up and speak.
This is what he said.
Ian Patton (11:21):
This is not a technical change.
This is a tax increase that was notvoted on by the people of this city.
And you are all going to be tagged withjacking up the sales tax of the people
of this city without their approval in astealth meeting in the December holidays
that nobody in the community knew about.
(11:43):
Stop and think about what you're doing.
It's both wrong and it's illegal.
This ordinance Was passed by the peopleof this city by a 16 vote margin out
of a hundred thousand But it's legal.
It was passed by the people and whatthe city attorney said to you is
false All you have to do is read it.
I sent it to all ofyou Read the ordinance.
(12:06):
There is a schedule for the tax ratein the ordinance There is no language
that it automatically goes up.
The financial manager says oh, it justautomatically goes up That's made up.
It doesn't exist.
It's not in the ordinancepassed by the people.
The schedule is very clear that it isa three quarter percent tax starting
(12:28):
on, and she didn't even know the year,it's January 1, 2023 until October 2027.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (12:36):
of amazing on how the citizens of Long Beach, the people
who actually care about this city, knowmore about the law than the city attorney
and some of the people on council.
Doesn't that just kind ofblow your mind sometimes?
So now, as a result of this actionthat was taken, that was passed
unanimously by the way, six, uh,all six members that ultimately
(12:59):
made it to this special meeting.
Um, it started out with five,someone showed up late, and
then, uh, three were absent.
Of the six council people thatwere there, they all voted yes.
Even Christina Dugan voted yes.
Because they're trying to express the willof the people, the will of the voters, But
there were some scare tactics on behalfof the city manager and people saying like
(13:22):
this is money that we need if we don'tdo this we're gonna have to cut and cut
and cut and we're already looking at a30 million dollar shortfall next year.
This is Tom Modica.
City Manager (13:32):
And then I will say internally, next year we are going
to have to make some very toughdecisions about how, uh, if we
either have Measure A or don't haveMeasure A, what we're going to do.
Uh, we are facing a 30 milliondeficit next year, um, uh, that
Measure A plus some of the otherswould have part of our strategy.
Um, that would mean some prettysignificant public safety cuts,
for example, at that level.
Uh, you're also going to have to makesome decisions on, um, if Measure A
(13:55):
is successful and, or if, if this, ifthis happens and we go forward, um,
how much of that do we want to spendon infrastructure versus public safety?
Stuart - All In Long Beach (14:02):
Starting with that, that fear mongering, I'm
doing that in air quotes, saying like,if you don't say yes to this, then you
guys, city council are going to haveto make some tough decisions about
how you're going to explain to yourconstituents, why you're cutting funding
in education and in fire and in police.
So if you say no to this, you're goingto have to explain that to your people.
(14:26):
That's what they're phrasing thequestion to be, as opposed to
phrasing it as is the actual text.
Legal.
Like, did someone mess up here?
That's, that's kind of the thing.
And Christina Dugan mentioned it earlier.
When she goes, we need to be very clear.
This is too great.
We need to be very clearin measures moving forward.
So I think there willbe some learning here.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, we have a lawsuit that's been filed.
(14:49):
So we're going to have to figure out ifthis judge is going to put an injunction,
if they're not going to allow us to dothis tax, if it's going to be on hold,
if it's going to be this whole reading,what are we going to do in the meantime?
Who's going to be paying for all this?
And this is, again, see,I'm a small business owner.
My time is valuable, right?
I got a lot of projects going on.
I don't have time todo the same job twice.
That's why you want to make sureyou do it right the first time.
(15:11):
Take a little bit of extra time.
Make sure you do it right the first time.
But But what's going on in the cityright now is they rushed this vote, they
were uninformed, they were going off ofwhat they think they can get away with,
and now they're being called out on it.
So now the city is going to have tospend time, they're going to have to
(15:32):
spend money going back and redoingall of this, which is going to prevent
the city from doing other things thatcan actually push this city, this
project, push everything else forward.
Because they're all too busy livingin the past because of this decision.
So that's where we're at right now.
And you're going to be hearing alot of this as we move forward.
(15:54):
And maybe we'll get Ian on the,on the pro, on the podcast later
on, so he can kind of give us anupdate on what's happening in this
case and where things are going.
But you'll be hearing about it throughthe city and you're going to be hearing
about it through the news and you'regoing to be hearing it here on the
All in Long Beach podcast in thissegment that we call On the Agenda.
That's it for today though.
Thanks for listening.
Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe.
(16:16):
Let me know your commentson whatever podcast you're
listening to on our social media.
You What do you think about this?
Until next time, Long Beach, thanksneighbors, thanks friends for listening,
and we will catch you in the next episode.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com