Council Round-Up: Dee Andrews Elected to Vice Mayor, City’s Five Charter Amendments Move Forward

The second public hearing for five mayor-proposed city charter amendments took place at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, preceding the city council meeting. You can read about the specifics of each of the amendments here. The council meeting began at about 4:20 p.m. and lasted 36 minutes. Find our coverage of both meetings below, beginning with the hearing.

   Ethics Commission   

No changes were made between public hearings to the amendment that would create an Ethics Commission. If established, the commission would play mostly an advisory role to the council and other city departments in matters of campaign finance, conflicts of interest, and governmental ethics.

Despite calls from the public last month to make the commission more independent, the amendment still allows the mayor to unilaterally choose its members subject to council confirmation.

Richard Dines, who ran unsuccessfully for the Fifth District council seat earlier this year, gave testimony during the council meeting, saying that the Ethics Commission amendment needed more work.

“I hope we do move to a model similar to other large cities in California,” said Richard Dines in an interview with FORTHE Media at Tuesday’s meeting. “You’re asking an Ethics Commission to have oversight over the mayor and city council yet they would be able to appoint and fire them, so I can’t support that.”

During the first hearing, Mayor Robert Garcia said he was open to making the Ethics Commission more independent, but did not say anything to that extent Tuesday.

Other commenters indicated that the amendment does not currently give the Ethics Commission power to enforce governmental ethics laws.

Gary Hytrek, a Social Geography professor at Cal State Long Beach, presented a letter to the council detailing concerns about the current proposal and has done research work on ethics commissions in California cities.

Hytrek is part of an ad hoc group of residents concerned with the amendment and includes members of Long Beach Forward, Long Beach Residents Empowered, and Khmer Girls in Action.

“We have some questions about the lack of detail in the existing proposal,” he said.

They have three core areas of concern: staffing and financial support, commission make-up, and scope and transparency.

“In a commission like this (charged with overseeing adherence to the rules and regulations) there’s gonna be some necessary investigation work involved and that’s going to require staffing and there’s nothing in the existing proposal that really looks at that,” said Hytrek.

He also said that the amendment in its present form is not fleshed out enough and doesn’t even address how grievances are submitted to the commission.

“There’s nothing beyond [appointment by the mayor and confirmation by the council] in terms of details,” said Hytrek. “The number of commissioners for instance is not even in the existing proposal. We’re really concerned about that nomination process and who ultimately is going to be a part of that.”

Hytrek says that ethics commissions can be formed to be either largely symbolic or they can be charged with real regulatory authority and provide needed oversight.

“We want [an ethics commission mandate] that’s fairly broad in scope and that’s going to be transparent.”

For comparison, the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission has its own budget and a mandate to investigate suspected violations of governmental ethics laws, issue subpoenas, and punish violators. Whether Long Beach will follow a similar model is yet to be seen.

   Citizens Redistricting Commission   

The charter amendment that would create a Citizens Redistricting Commission did see various changes since the first public hearing last month.

The most consequential change is that commissioners, instead of being mayor-appointed and council-confirmed, will be chosen through a ministerial process in an attempt to make the commission independent from political influence.

As the language stands now, the city clerk will be tasked with sending commissioner applications to all registered voters citywide who meet certain qualifications. Applicants will then be pared down to a pool of 20 to 30 people by a screening committee—comprised of the Ethics Commission, should that amendment pass—during a public meeting.

During that same meeting, the chair of the screening committee will randomly choose nine commissioners from the pool. Those nine will in turn choose the commission’s four remaining members from the same pool they were picked from, forming a commission of 13.

Language was also added that places restrictions on commissioners (as well as their immediate family) running for office or participating in political activities during and after their tenure. There is also a requirement that the applicant pool equally represent each city council district.

The amendment requires that all commissioners be chosen before Dec. 1, 2020.

“[The current draft is] consistent with the strongest proposal we’ve seen across the country,” said Dan Vicuña, the National Redistricting Manager for Common Cause. “It provides a wall of separation between map makers and the elected.”

The good government organization was part of a coalition that helped craft this charter amendment, as well as the 2010 ballot initiative that created the state’s redistricting commission, which the mayor said should be used as a model.

“It has strong transparency requirements. Very good criteria [for commission members] that’s nonpartisan [and] that makes sure mapmakers are prohibited from favoring an incumbent [or] party. It’s a really great proposal,” Vicuña said.

Several members of the Cambodian community expressed approval of the amendment during public comment. Cambodia Town is currently split between Districts 1, 2, 4, and 6 and residents there have been working with city officials to find a way to consolidate the voting power of that community through redistricting.

Laura Som is Director of The MAYE Center, a self-healing space whose members include elders from the Cambodian community. Many of these individuals are refugees who escaped the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime and eventually settled here in Long Beach.

While the center offers holistic healing that includes yoga and urban farming, they realized that political engagement could be also potent means of self-healing.

Tomisin Oluwole
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In August of 2017, they began a class on civics, organizing, and government. Som says that much of the trauma experienced by these refugees is related to their “inability to integrate themselves into the [larger] community.”

“We thought, ‘Let’s teach about human rights, local policies, and how we can be active.’”

These classes fostered demands from the Cambodian community for more political representation to occur organically. One community member began asking questions. What is the Cambodian community’s role in the political makeup of the city? Why don’t Cambodians have more representation in city government? Why is it that Cambodia Town is broken into four districts, there by diluting its pull in city council races?

Som believes the city’s current criteria for redistricting is being violated, resulting in the under-representation of the Cambodian community in Long Beach’s government. The official criteria, adopted in 2011, states that “splits in neighborhoods, ethnic communities, and other groups having a clear identity are to be avoided.”

“In the 40 years since we’ve settled here after the genocide, we’ve never had a Cambodian [councilmember],” said Som.

The MAYE Center, along with other organizations, have been organizing behind a petition to redistrict Cambodia Town, consolidating it into one district in time for the 2020 election. It was during this process that Mayor Garcia announced a proposed charter amendment that would establish a redistricting commission.

They were disappointed with the initial draft that allowed the mayor to appoint members to the commission who would only play an advisory role.

The civics class, backed by 14 other organizations, soon became the group Cambodians for Equity. Laura Som co-chairs the group along with Charles Song. Along with Common Cause, a nonpartisan good government group which lobbies for citizen redistricting, Cambodians for Equity worked directly with the city to ensure a more democratic member selection process and more authority in drawing district maps.

“The city opened the door for citizens to participate in creating policies for Long Beach,” said Som.

But all is not settled yet. The amendment still needs to go before a third public hearing next month before it can be placed on the November ballot, and some still have reservations.

One aspect of the current draft that has drawn criticism is the appointment of commissioners by the Ethics Commission—the members of which would be handpicked by the mayor if the language of that amendment remains unchanged. Some argue that this would result in the de facto appointment of the redistricting commission by the mayor.

There are currently two alternative options for bodies that would select members of the redistricting commission if the amendment to create an Ethics Commission is voted down.

The first option, supported by Cambodians for Equity, is to form a panel that includes a judge; a professor who is currently teaching either government, law, or public policy; and a senior member of a nonpartisan, nonprofit good government group such as Common Cause. If this panel cannot be staffed, the last resort is a 3-person panel consisting of the city auditor, city attorney, and city clerk.

“Even if the Ethics Commission is ultimately appointed by the mayor, those appointees are fairly restricted on the applications they’re allowed to [approve],” said Vicuña.

   Term Limits   

Another of the mayor-proposed city charter amendments would increase the term limits for the mayoral and council positions from two to three terms. The amendment would also close the “loophole” that currently allows anyone to exceed the term limit by successfully running as a write-in candidate.

As with the previous public hearing on this amendment, a few members of the public voiced opposition to extending term limits. Of the amendments currently under consideration, this one has received the most public push-back.

   Dee Andrews Voted Vice Mayor   

Despite an unusual show of dissent by some on the council, Councilmember Dee Andrews (CD-6) received the majority vote needed to become vice mayor, replacing Councilmember Rex Richardson (CD-9), whose two-year term came to an end.

Andrews was nominated by Councilmember Suzie Price (CD-3) and received a 5-3 vote, with Councilmembers Lena Gonzalez (CD-1), Jeannine Pearce (CD-2), and Roberto Uranga (CD-7) voting nay.

“Councilman Andrews… has done tremendous service for this community. He has served as an incredible source of inspiration for the men and women in his community, having served as an educator, having served as a community advocate,” Price said.

Councilmembers Stacy Mungo (CD-3) and Uranga were also nominated but were not voted on after Andrews, who was the first nominee, received the necessary votes to assume the vice mayor position.

Andrews, the oldest councilmember, will now be responsible for running council meetings whenever the mayor is absent and would temporarily assume the mayorship should the position become vacant for any reason over the next two years.

“I know you come with a lot of history, a lot of love of Long Beach, a lot of love of Poly. And you’ll represent us with a lot of distinction and dignity,” Mayor Robert Garcia said.

Andrews, who represents the Poly High neighborhood and parts of Wrigley and Cambodia Town, won his third term as a write-in candidate in 2016.

“I’d like to thank my colleagues for electing me to this position but I also want to thank the other individuals that were running because I know they could do just as well or even better than what I am planning on doing,” he said.

Gonzalez, Pearce, and Uranga did not give a reason for their vote.

Richardson, who beat out Andrews for the position two years ago said: “These vice mayor races are sometimes very difficult and it’s hard to vote against a colleague no matter who they are than to vote in support of a colleague. A lot of the times it just comes down to the order [of the vote].”

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