Long Beach : Nonprofit Group Formed to Keep Businesses in City

A group of residents and business leaders last week signed legal papers to form a nonprofit corporation that they say will work with the Long Beach City Council to guide the city into a more prosperous future.

The Long Beach Holding Co. will be led by volunteers and funded by private businesses, said its chairman, businessman George Murchison. The company has received a total of $550,000 from GTE, Southern California Edison and Arco, Murchison said. He said the holding company is in its earliest stages and has yet to define what its role will be, but one of its first priorities will be to help keep businesses in the city.

The 20-member board of directors includes City Manager James C. Hankla, Cal State Long Beach President Curtis McCray, Long Beach City College President Beverly O’Neill, Arco Transportation President William Rusnack, and League of United Latin American Citizens President Gladys Gutierrez. Most members of the company’s board of directors were leaders in the mayor’s Economic Advisory Task Force, an 82-member group that last month made recommendations to the City Council on how to bolster the city’s image, economic climate and quality of life. Murchison said the holding company’s chief goal will be to make sure that the task force recommendations are not simply shelved and forgotten.