“I am a Long Beach girl, through and through,” Cindy Allen said at a recent candidate forum.

She was raised by a single mother and grew up on the Westside, graduated from Poly High School, and studied criminal justice at Long Beach City College. She became a police officer in 1989. During her decade-spanning tenure with the Long Beach Police Department—which coincided with the height of the War on Drugs—she was promoted to detective and became the first woman on the department’s gang detail.

A 2009 profile described her work as an officer as “mainly downtown and Westside, going undercover as a prostitute or a partyer trolling for drugs to draw out suspected johns and dealers.”

The 52-year-old mother of two is married to a retired LBPD Commander. She retired from police work with more than 40 commendations after suffering an on-duty back injury in 1998. She went on to earn a graduate degree in public administration from Cal State Long Beach and in 2005, founded a marketing and advertising firm that has worked with companies local and national, ranging from Signal Hill Petroleum to UPS.

Her business dealings since then have been tightly entwined with the city’s political class.

In 2013, she became the owner and publisher of the Long Beach Post, taking over for then-councilmember and current Mayor Robert Garcia, who co-founded the website in 2007.

Allen’s firm, ETA Advertising, was awarded a contract with several city departments in 2015, netting the firm $1.1 million over the course of four years. The company has also done work for Long Beach Transit. Adam Carillo, spouse of former councilmember and current State Senator Lena Gonzalez, joined the company as Executive Vice President of Strategy in 2018 and sits on Long Beach Transit’s Board of Directors.

Half of the clients listed on the firm’s website are government entities.

The Post was sold in 2018 to a subsidiary of investment group Pacific6, whose member John Molina, is close with the mayor, and is involved in various development projects in the city. Allen says she sold ETA Advertising to Blume Media in 2019, though the legitimacy of the sale has been called into question.

Allen, the clear establishment pick in this highly contested race, has the endorsements of Garcia, Gonzalez, and Councilmembers Rex Richardson, Mary Zendejas, Suzie Price, Dee Andrews, and Stacy Mungo. She is also one of two candidates endorsed by Councilmember Robert Uranga.

She is also being backed by the Long Beach Police Officers and Firefighters associations.

The Los Angeles County Democratic Party also endorsed Allen, yet, according to Beachcomber columnist Stephen Downing, in 1994 Allen registered as a Republican in Fountain Valley, where she owns a five-bedroom home. It wasn’t until 2017 that she registered to vote in Long Beach as a Democrat, nearly a year after the last presidential election, though she did canvas for Hillary Clinton in February 2016.

Allen is pledging to increase the affordable housing stock and expand the availability of city services to people experiencing homelessness beyond just business hours. Her platform also mentions reducing air pollution, exploring the construction of underground parking structures, and producing a new study of the Broadway road diet.

Questions

What will be your biggest public safety priorities if elected? Do you support increasing police presence? Are there other programs or policies that are not law enforcement-based that you believe can decrease crime? 

My biggest public safety priorities are keeping our public spaces safe from gun violence, preventing theft from our homes, and keeping our streets off-limits to human trafficking. As a former police officer, the safety of our community will always be a priority of mine. My personal experience has given me the knowledge to understand how to work with the community to improve public safety. Instead of merely increasing the numbers of police, my goal is to improve our strategy. We must strengthen the relationship between the Long Beach Police Department and our district by improving transparency and enhancing the community policing model. We must also thoroughly train our officers to protect and serve our diverse communities and improve the quality of life for all our residents.

I will also use non-law enforcement strategies to help with reducing crime. This includes investing in afterschool programs and expanding current youth services. In addition, improving public safety means we must also combat homelessness, and so I will increase resources to our public services and promote more mental health services.

Do you believe money in local elections plays an undue influence? Would you be in favor of reforming officeholder accounts or even abolishing them?

I believe that contributions have their part within any election, especially where people feel they can invest their trust in a candidate or ballot measure. Giving money to someone to help with their campaign is a sign that someone has invested into them on a personal level. I would not be in favor of abolishing officeholder accounts.

The mayor indicated in January that the city is committed to preserving the Queen Mary despite needing what is estimated to be over $200 million in repair work. A $23 million city bond for repair work has already been spent. Do you believe the city should continue to invest in the ship and how?

The Queen Mary is an integral part of our city’s culture and history. I strongly believe that we should continue to fund its restoration, but with full fiscal transparency and accountability. Our residents have a right to know if city funds are being used appropriately and wisely, and especially on this key project. I also support the use of private-public partnerships to help speed the restoration process and assist with funding. 

Projected city budgets for fiscal-years 2021 through 2023 show shortfalls of up to $22 million primarily due to ballooning labor, pension and insurance costs. Would you vote for cutting city services in order to alleviate this deficit? If not, how would you deal with it?

I will not cut city services because I am committed to putting people first, and I will not remove a service that many residents rely on for a positive quality of life. The best strategy for adding funding is to propose municipal bonds in the next elections. These bonds will be for specific city programs, such as expanded services, new programs, or rental assistance. I want to give the people the vote in determining the allocation of important funding. I also believe we should continually search for alternative types of city income and find where the internal operations of the government can save money. 

LiBRE: Despite the passage of AB 1482, we are working with multiple residents in District 2 facing a 60-day notice right now. There is no proper enforcement of the law and since it’s new there’s no cases tested in court yet. There is also a loophole that allows landlords to evict a tenant if they want to “substantially” remodel the property. We would like to know what you would do to protect tenants from unjust evictions? Note: The City Council passed an ordinance to close this loophole on Feb. 18. 

I support AB 1482 because of the need to help Long Beach renters afford housing. The rise of local homelessness and the difficulties in finding affordable housing make this law a necessity. Tenants should not be evicted without a clear and serious reason from landlords. There needs to be a clarification of reasons for evicting a tenant, which are fairer to the tenant and more straightforward for landlords. This includes removing the loophole that allows landlords to evict tenants under the reason of substantially remodeling the property. I also continue to support stricter forms of local rent control because many families are unable to cope with sudden rent increases. Rent increases should go no higher than a set rate that is reflective of the local average income.

Everyone In (Long Beach): Homelessness has been identified as an issue of top importance by Long Beach residents. How will you, as the District Two Councilmember, step up to help end homelessness in your community and in Long Beach as a city?

As someone who has family members experiencing homelessness, I know firsthand how important it is to solve this problem. Due to the state’s housing crisis, homelessness has become one of the most pressing issues facing our district. We need a comprehensive plan with a mix of solutions, including increasing affordable housing, housing-first centers, mental health treatment, and community officers trained to work with this vulnerable population. Homelessness is not a 9-to-5 problem, it’s a 24/7 problem, and services like the Multi-Service Center and the Health Department need to remain open 24 hours, 7 days a week. 

Surfrider Foundation, Long Beach Chapter: Given the certainty of increasing sea level rise how does the candidate feel about the City’s efforts to build new structures on the beach, such as the Jr. Lifeguard tower, the Belmont Pool, and the expanded Alfredo’s concession stands?

The threat of global warming is a constant crisis, not just internationally, but on the local level. On the City Council, I will always make decisions while taking into consideration their effects on the environment. Growing up on the Westside of Long Beach, an area disproportionately affected by pollution, I know the importance of protecting our environment. I still support our city’s efforts to build new structures on the beach, but with the understanding that it is my responsibility to do my part in helping to reduce global warming. 

I will work with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and tap green technologies to reduce the pollution that impacts the Second District, due to our proximity to the 710 Freeway, the Long Beach Port, the refineries, and idling ships, trucks, and cars. We will improve our air quality while reducing our carbon footprint and creating environmental justice for our lower-income neighbors. We must also do more to clean our beaches, which currently have unacceptable ratings, to preserve and restore these precious resources for the next generation.

Long Beach Transportation And Parking Solutions: What are you willing to do to fight for a comprehensive Parking Plan that uses modern parking planning, data, and professional evaluation to balance the needs of drivers with other modes of transportation?

I strongly disagree with the decision to remove important parking information in specific evaluations in the recent parking study. Our residents have a right to see this information, and leaders need to know these facts in order to make important policy decisions regarding parking. The parking situation in our district is out of control, and with the city’s tallest building under construction, it’s about to get even worse. I am determined to solve the problem once and for all with a new comprehensive parking plan.

We’ll implement new strategies, like underground parking structures, after-hours parking at local businesses, and improved mass transit and cycling options. We will explore solutions like resident-only permits for residential streets, ZipCars, and new “intelligent parking” technologies that help drivers find spots more efficiently. I will also create new private-public partnerships to address the parking situation. And I am committed to finding solutions to this issue and will execute a plan on day one when I’m elected.