My council office today received a public records request from a constituent for any and all documents, letters, records, notes (including emails) from or to 5th District Councilperson Gerrie Schipske and/or her Chief of Staff, Josh Butler, discussing or related to the Schroeder Hall US Army Reserve Center Base Reuse. Specifically the request includes, but […]

Readers: I want to share with you a memorandum just given to the Mayor and City Council today. This document is not confidential.
“Today, the Chapter 11 Trustee of Queen’s Seaport Development Inc.’s, Howard Ehrenberg, filed a complaint to recover preferential and fraudulent transfers from former QSDI CEO Joseph Prevratil, Prevratil’s management company Leisure Horizons, inc., and […]

Over the 7 years I taught at CSULB, I always stressed to my students — “check your facts before you go off on somebody and tell them they are wrong.” That’s usually a good rule in life and especially if you practice law.
That’s why I was shocked at the treatment I received at City Council […]

I promise not to go on about the outrage that has been visited upon me by one of the local press outlets because I dared bring to a open City Council meeting the idea that the Council owed it to our residents to discuss the possibility of transferring a higher percentage of profits from the Harbor […]

Following the underwhelming support I received last Tuesday night to refer to the Council Committee on Economic Development for “discussion” the issue of increasing the amount of profits transferred from the Harbor Department…a department of the City… I went home and watched my favorite (actually second favorite) surreal Tuesday night show — “Boston Legal” and […]

I am placing several items on the January 22nd Council agenda aimed at dealing with some of the serious financial and environmental problems facing the City of Long Beach, including a proposal to increase the transfer of Port of Long Beach funds and allow use of a portion of the transferred funds for non-tidelands area […]

Last night I met with a group of Lakewood Village residents and our City’s Traffic Engineer to review the “Negative Declaration” issued by the City of Lakewood concerning the proposed Costco store and Costco gas station to be built where the Macy’s now stands.
A “negative declaration” is a “written statement briefly describing the reasons that a […]

The Brown Act allows legislative bodies to deliberate in closed session under specific circumstances and then to report out publicly the results if action is taken in closed session.
Since being on the City Council, it has been my unpleasant experience on several occasions to pick up the local newspaper or read a webzine and only […]

A continued complaint from some residents is the problem of businesses leaving handbills and other literature on porches.
I inquired of the City Attorney of what we can do about this and was given a memo dated May 2, 2005 that outlined why it is unconstitutional for the City to try and enforce the regulation of the […]

Say it isn’t so!! I have just received a report from a resident in Lakewood Village that a young woman (with a child) came to her house and asked that she sign a petition to “help the workers at the hotels.”
When she told the woman that she would not sign the petition, the young woman […]