A LOOK AHEAD * A firebrand won a City Council seat and could spark change. But the one certainty evident in Tuesday’s balloting is that . . .O’Neill Carries Mandate Into New Term as Long Beach Mayor

Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill’s big win in last Tuesday’s election was a clear tribute to her political skills, and although one of City Hall’s biggest critics won a seat on the council, it appears the city’s direction may not change.

Even so, Councilman-elect Ray Grabinski, at the center of some of the city’s most controversial fights when he served on the council from 1986 to 1994, is expected to make the kind of waves that haven’t been seen in City Hall for several years.

Jeff Adler, a political consultant who managed Grabinski’s opponent, predicted that dissatisfied neighborhood and business groups “will coalesce” around Grabinski.

“He will give voice to the people who don’t like the direction the city is going,” said Adler.

But with O’Neill’s victory and wins by two other incumbent council members whom she backed, some observers believe Grabinski will be little more than a highly vocal minority on the nine-member council.

O’Neill, in taking 79% of the vote against a weak field of four other candidates, won decisively in part because she was able to turn consensus building into some solid achievements, like the development of the downtown shoreline that is underway.

Among the issues going in her favor was a 17.5% drop in serious crime in 1997. Construction of the Aquarium of the Pacific also is on schedule for a June opening. The Queen Mary, after decades of deficits, is operating in the black. And an agreement was reached that could end bitterly contested litigation over the Port of Long Beach’s plans to develop the abandoned naval base. Two major shopping malls were overhauled, sparking a surge in retail sales.

There are also negatives. A city-sponsored survey found that while two-thirds of the residents believe Long Beach is generally “headed in the right direction,” 75% of those polled felt citizens were not involved enough in City Hall decision making.

A constant complaint by grass-roots activists is that city decision makers, in their desire to fuel economic development, cut back-room deals and ignore neighborhoods. Examples of the discontent were active opposition to commercial development at El Dorado Regional Park, and lawsuits filed by residents over the reuse of the naval base as a shipping terminal and downtown redevelopment.

Despite the unhappiness in some neighborhoods, O’Neill presided over a mostly unified City Council that moved the city agenda along on an almost monotonous succession of 9-0 votes. The election sent a message, O’Neill feels.

“I feel it’s an affirmation of the direction the city is taking,” she said. “People feel we are moving in the right direction and wanted to continue it.”

Part of her popularity stems from her ability to raise the profile of the city in Washington and Sacramento, a task made all the more difficult because of the long shadow cast by Los Angeles.

“Long Beach is always going to be in the shadow of Los Angeles, but it is doing better than it was, compared to five years ago,” said urban planner Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at the Pepperdine Institute of Public Policy. “They are doing a lot of things they have to do.”

Overall, voting in the city was decidedly light, with only 19.7% of Long Beach’s 184,000 voters turning out.

Turnout was even lower in some parts of the city. City Councilwoman Jenny Oropeza won a second term in her lower west side district with just 1,076 votes--good enough to capture 61% of the vote.

Oropeza was endorsed by O’Neill, as were Councilman Jerry Shultz, who also won, and Mike Donelon, who lost to Grabinski.

Oropeza said the mayor and most council members “are mutually supportive.”

“In this city, it’s critical that we do have a common vision, that we work together,” Oropeza said.

Along with Grabinski, two other candidates who lined up opposite O’Neill when she won her first term in 1994, including the wife of the mayor she helped defeat, were leading vote-getters in Tuesday’s election.

They are Belmont Shore Realtor Frank Colonna, who ran first but faces a runoff against businessman Henry J. Meyer; and Jackie Kell, the wife of former Mayor Ernie Kell, who is in a runoff against union official Brian J. Young.

Both Colonna and Meyer appear to be in agreement with the general direction the city is taking. Colonna, after he lost to O’Neill in the 1994 primary, endorsed her.

The second council runoff is in the east side council district that sparked the “Save the Park” campaign that forced the City Council to reverse a decision to develop a “pay-for-play” softball complex in El Dorado Regional Park.

Kell, who teaches government honors programs at Millikan High School, said O’Neill “shines” in her efforts to raise the profile of Long Beach in Washington and bring federal money to the city. But Kell said the City Council “could listen better” to residents.

Young, a lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, is a leader of neighborhood opposition that has slowed down development of a Super K-Mart at the site of a former drive-in theater. Although Young said he supports O’Neill and respects consensus building, he declared, “Ray Grabinski and I will get along very well” if he wins.

Grabinski served two terms in an era when there were knockdown, drag-out fights over airline traffic at the city’s airport and a plan to eliminate the city’s Police Department and contract with the Sheriff’s Department for police services.

Grabinski, well aware of his reputation as a firebrand, has been trying to tone down his message since the election.

“It’s not like a new team is coming in to turn everything upside down,” Grabinski said.

But he said some city officials have lost touch, particularly on redevelopment.

A group representing hundreds of small manufacturers is suing the city, contending that the redevelopment agency is creating blight and eroding the value of their businesses. Grabinski calls redevelopment a “wet, gray blanket” that is stifling business.

“When you have 300 to 400 businesses taking you to court, something is wrong,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what is wrong, what matters is something is wrong.”