Unions a Key in Long Beach Vote

Police and fire unions appeared to play a significant role in the Long Beach City Council election, backing two incumbents and one challenger who prevailed in an election marked by a low turnout.

Long Beach was among 12 cities in Los Angeles County that went to the polls Tuesday to decide who will guide their civic affairs in an economic climate strained by losses caused or expected from California’s budget quagmire.

Lancaster in the Antelope Valley and Avalon on Catalina Island reelected their mayors and picked city councils. Avalon voters also approved two ballot measures aimed at replacing anticipated state funding losses. One of the measures raises the hotel bed tax from 9% to 12% on an island dependent on visitors.

Voters in Los Angeles County’s second-largest city reelected two incumbents: Dan Baker, who was endorsed in the District 2 race by the Long Beach Police Officers Assn., and Laura Richardson, who was endorsed in District 6 by the Long Beach Firefighters Assn.

Long Beach City Clerk Larry Herrera said turnout in those two districts were the first and second lowest, respectively, of nine council districts in this city of 461,000, the state’s fifth largest.

The Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce had endorsed all four council incumbents facing reelection, but the Long Beach Press-Telegram called for their defeat in light of a $105-million budget shortfall.

Incumbent Dennis Carroll was handily beaten in District 4 by challenger Patrick O’Donnell, a middle school teacher endorsed by the police union. The 900-member union sent 120 officers to the 4th District on several Saturdays to rally for votes, POA President Stephen James said.

Incumbent Rob Webb, who was endorsed by the firefighters’ union, received 40% of the vote but not a majority, so he will face a June 8 runoff with second-place winner and airport activist Rae M. Gabelich.

Carroll and Webb’s council districts share the Long Beach Airport, where flight numbers and proposed development around the airfield have prompted opposition from citizens’ groups.

Gabelich was endorsed by a watchdog website, LBReport .com, which on Wednesday posted a characteristically tart editorial:

“The public’s anger at the 4th district’s arrogant incumbent Dennis Carroll means Mayor [Beverly] O’Neill and Vice Mayor Frank Colonna will not have a reliable political butler in the Council chamber for the next two years,” it stated, in part.

“Other incumbents ... cannot afford to do what Carroll and Webb did and expect to win citywide office in two years,” the editorial stated.

The POA’s James said the group’s political action committee endorsed Baker but opposed Carroll for many reasons, a key one being that Carroll chaired the council’s public safety committee, to which the council referred many matters. Carroll failed to convene a single meeting of the committee, James said. “That pretty much speaks for itself,” he added.

The election results will be certified April 27, clearing the way for the June runoff. The four council winners will take office in July.