Spin Cycle

Make of this what you will in an election year for Long Beach Democrats.

Their Web site — lbdems.com - until recently had a home page with a slogan from Sun Tzu, (China, circa 500 b.c.): “Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the Attack.”

The new home page quotes Tip O’Neill (Boston, 1912-1994): “All politics is local.”

The Long Beach Democrats are formally expected to announce their candidates Wednesday for three City Council seats this fall: incumbent Robert Tepper and two others - Gina Guma, a member of the Lions Club and the Chamber of Commerce, and retired businessman Lawrence Benowitz.

Bill Murphy

Charges of a cynical ploy in the no-new-tax plan for Long Beach carry over into tonight's meeting.

Pay raises for public officials are one of those hot-button issues that politicians are afraid to touch.

Long Beach City Manager Edwin Eaton not only touched it Tuesday night, he heated it up by inflating his actual raise.

Long Beach civic activist Sarah Nicholas set Eaton off when she asked him at a City Council hearing on the proposed budget if he was getting a pay raise. “City manager is going from $89,000 to $150,000,” Eaton replied.

“I’m sorry. What?” Nicholas said.

“Eight-nine thousand dollars to $150,000,” Eaton said again.

“Eighty-nine to a hundred and fifty? I don’t understand,” Nicholas said.

“It’s quite clear — $89,000 to $150,000,” Eaton said once again. But there was more to it...

Bill Murphy

Long Beach City Manager Edwin Eaton waxes lyrical at times, and slipped a little Walt Whitman into his budget message to the City Council this year.

The entire second page was taken up with the Whitman quote:

“Where thrift is in its place,
and prudence is in its place,
...there a great city stands."

However, Long Beach resident Sarah Nicholas took to the podium at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting and read what was in the ellipsis, which Eaton omitted.

As read by Nicholas — and meant by Whitman — the passage from Leaves of Grass was in praise of the human spirit and human dignity, not city managers or bookkeepers. Click below.

Bill Murphy

The turnout Tuesday night at the Long Beach City Council must have been a blow to Republicans hoping to win control of City Hall this fall by capitalizing on the eye-popping 25 percent hike in property taxes imposed last May by the current Democratic administration.

Only four residents showed up to testify. Three are regulars at City Council meetings and one is a semi-regular.

The budget under discussion, for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, has no tax increase, and the Democratic administration is predicting no tax increases for another three years after that.

There were a couple of mitigating factors that might have affected turnout Tuesday night. It was the night of the school board vote, there was a concert at the Long Beach Middle School, and there were a couple of barbecues and other community events that might have kept turnout down.

If turnout is as poor at next Tuesday's second and final budget hearing, the Republican chances may dim even further.

Bill Murphy

Republican Councilman James Hennessy of Long Beach is chuckling about the city budget scheduled for release today by the Democratic leadership.

It calls for no property tax increases - not for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and not for the three years after that.

Hennessy was the leader of the City Council in 2004 and 2005 and passed two budgets with no tax increases.

The Democrats, in the minority at the time, protested that the Republicans had increased fees - a hidden tax.

So the Democrats circulated anti-Republican fliers reading: "Oh No! Another Zero Percent Tax."

Bill Murphy