Long Beach : Mayor Appoints Planner

Anthony Dean Tortorice, 35, a Los Angeles County data processing specialist, has been appointed to the Long Beach Planning Commission, replacing ailing businessman Jack Jacobs, who resigned recently.

Tortorice was appointed by Mayor Ernie Kell to one of the city’s most prestigious boards after living here only four years, but following a string of other volunteer appointments. Tortorice has served on the YMCA and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra Assn. boards, and was on special committees to save the symphony and to draft long-range economic development strategies. He chaired the mayor’s Task Force on Earthquake Preparedness.

“This was one of the reasons I moved to Long Beach. It was the right-sized place to do something substantive,” Tortorice said in an interview.

Professionally, Tortorice helps county government agencies develop information and data processing systems. Academically, he has completed doctorate course work in public administration at USC and expects to have a Ph.D by summer, he said. He is a graduate of Brown University, a former stockbroker and was a Navy enlisted man for five years. He lives in the Carroll Park area.

Like Kell, Tortorice is a Democrat and calls himself a liberal. “I want to help people who are less able to help themselves,” Tortorice said. “It’s very important that as we have economic development, we don’t let this city become an elite community.”