7,633 / 34.3% Yes votes ...... 14,626 / 65.7% No votes

See Also: Index of all Measures

• Councilmembers Salaries: Currently, the Charter sets the Council salary at 25% of the Mayor’s salary;
• Ethics: the Charter does not provide for an Ethics Commission, although the City adopted a Code of Ethics in February, 2003;
• Redistricting: Currently, at 5 year intervals, if the Planning Commission determines that Councilmanic Districts are not approximately equal, the City Council performs the redistricting.

• A Salary Commission (9 members) to set salary for Council members;
• An Ethics Commission (5 members) to advise on ethics regulations and to require the city to adopt and maintain a Code of Ethics;
• A Redistricting Commission (9 members) to review and recommend new City Council district boundaries every 10 years.

  Members of each Commission will be appointed by the Mayor, City Attorney, City Auditor and City Prosecutor

• Establishing independent citizen oversight of ethics reform, redistricting and Councilmember salaries will make city government more honest, effective and accountable to citizens.

  The measure will:

• take drawing boundaries away from politicians and empowers an independent group of citizens to make these decisions
• allow for restrictions on the power of lobbyists and tough reforms on contract bidders.
• establish a citizens Ethics Commission that will ensure oversight of City officials.
• mandate that the citizens establish the salaries of Council members

• The commissions add bureaucracy and cost to the city but do little to improve its effectiveness or accountability to the voters.
• The salary commission is too large for its detailed task and commission members are not required to have any qualifications.
• The Ethics Commission would have no authority to curb unethical practices.
• The redistricting commission cannot set boundaries but only recommend them and allows the Council to adopt or modify its recommendations.
• There is no provision for the expenses that would be incurred by any of these commissions.

Presently, the Long Beach City Charter provides that City Councilmembers shall receive a salary equal to twenty-five percent of the Mayor's salary, which is also set by the Charter. The proposed amendment would remove this requirement, and instead require that Councilmembers' salaries be determined by a new commission, to be known as the Independent Salary Commission. The Independent Salary Commission would consist of nine members, one from each Council district, and would be appointed by the Mayor, City Attorney, City Prosecutor and City Auditor. Beginning in 2008 and every other year thereafter, the Independent Salary Commission would set the salary of City Councilmembers, taking into account the nature of the duties of the office, and the salaries paid for other public offices having similar duties.

Presently, the Long Beach City Charter contains no provisions for either an Ethics Commission or a Code of Ethics. The proposed amendment would create an Ethics Commission which would make recommendations to the City Council relating to ethics issues, and would require that the City Council establish a Code of Ethics. The Ethics Commission would consist of five members, and would be appointed by the Mayor, City Attorney, City Prosecutor and City Auditor.

Presently, the Long Beach City Charter provides that City Council districts be redrawn every five years by the City Council if the districts have become unequal in population. The proposed amendment would extend this time period from five years to ten years and would create a new commission, to be known as the Redistricting Commission. The Redistricting Commission would consist of nine members, one from each Council district, and would be appointed by the Mayor, City Attorney, City Prosecutor and City Auditor. The Redistricting Commission would thereafter, where appropriate, recommend new City Council boundaries to the City Council.

City of Long Beach

City Profile

date: Saturday, April 21
time: 10 am - 12 noon
place: Los Altos Library, 5614 Britton Dr
plus: short presentation on the city Budget for fiscal 2008 by David Wodynski, Bureau Manager, Budget and Performance Management Bureau
more info: LWV Long Beach Area

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That is why a distinguished panel of judges and community members on the Ethics Review Task Force have recommended creating an Ethics Commission and Code of Ethics.

• A YES vote on Proposition B takes drawing of Council District boundaries away from politicians and empowers an independent group of citizens to make these decisions.
• A YES vote on Proposition B will establish a citizen Ethics Commission that will ensure oversight over City officials.
• A YES vote on Proposition B will allow for restrictions on the power of lobbyists and tough reforms on contract bidders.
• A YES vote on Proposition B will allow for strict ethics training for all City government employees, City Councilmembers and commissioners.
• A YES vote on Proposition B mandates that citizens will establish the salaries of City Councilmembers. Proposition B is the most effective way to make sure City government is more honest, effective and accountable to the voters.

Hon. Robert Parkin
Retired Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court and Chair of the Ethics Review Task Force

Elder Garon Harden
Pastor of the Greater Open Door Church and Ethics Review Task Force Member

• The redistricting commission does NOT make decisions on district boundaries. Read the proposed language carefully; the council continues to make the final decisions. Councilmembers are free to alter or significantly change recommended boundaries (read "gerrymander" them) to suit their own political needs without commission input + a fatal flaw!

• Long Beach needs a citizen commission, free of self-serving interests, to SET district boundaries, not just recommend them. A citizens group, which studied this need carefully, submitted a well-thought-out proposal for a truly independent redistricting commission. The council altered it to retain the power to shift boundaries to fit its own, rather than voters, agenda. It's politics as usual. They do not want to give up control.

• Similarly the ethics commission can do nothing but recommend action; it has no real power, and certainly no oversight as proponents claim. The council can ignore or change commission recommendations.

• There is no need for a salary commission. Councilmembers now receive an annual increase based on the consumer price index. Councilmembers knew the salary when they ran for office. You would be upset if, with no increase in responsibility, their salaries were doubled by a commission.

Robert Fronke, Former City Auditor

John Gooding, Citizens for a Better Long Beach

George Economides, Publisher, Long Beach Business Journal

At first glance these proposals appear to have some merit -- but the "devil is in the details." They all add more bureaucracy and cost to city government, while accomplishing little or nothing to improve its effectiveness or accountability to you the voter.

The nine salary commission members + one per district and too many for this detailed task + are not required to have any qualifications. In contrast, the California State compensation commission has only seven members, and they must have specified qualifications, including "a person with experience in compensation." Guess what! The state commission voted to raise legislators' salaries 14% in the last two years, even though they were already among the highest paid nationally.

Presently councilmembers receive 25 percent of the Mayor's salary, adjusted by increases in the consumer price index + usually 2 to 4 percent annually. Even if this needs changing, which we seriously question, this is not how it should be done. It should be rejected!

The redistricting commission is also seriously flawed. Long Beach needs an independent group to set district boundaries fairly and avoid the "gerrymandering" that often occurs to favor re-election of incumbents. But this is not it! It does not set boundaries; it only recommends. The proposal states that the council can "adopt or modify" recommended boundaries. Councilmembers can continue the practice of "gerrymandering" boundaries for their own political benefit. Does this new layer of bureaucracy add needed independence to the present system? Not one bit!

Finally the ethics commission is given NO authority to curb unethical practices + the council can continue to ignore its recommendations.

These proposals are all self-serving for councilmembers or add "window-dressing" to fool the voters. None make substantive improvement, while adding more bureaucracy and cost. Don't be fooled!

Vote "NO" on Proposition B.

Robert Fronke, Former City Auditor

John Gooding, Citizens for a Better Long Beach

George Economides, Publisher, Long Beach Business Journal