WHO DO YOU THINK WON THE NIGHT?

A row of men in very fine suits — representatives of the Port of Long Beach, including executive director Richard D. Steinke and Harbor Commissioners Mario Cordero, Dr. Mike Walter and Nick Sramek — sat shoulder-to-shoulder in the third row of the Long Beach City Council chambers last night.

They sat there for hours, staring stone-faced at the nine-member council, while Fifth District representative Gerrie Schipske asked her colleagues to consider increasing the Port’s annual payment to the city’s stressed-to-buckling budget.

Late into the evening, just before the council voted, retired assistant city attorney Jim McCabe came to the podium as a private citizen and quietly made this eloquent plea for good government:

“For approximately 10 years, I handled Tidelands matters for the City Attorney’s office. Basically, I only want to speak on the question of increasing the percentage amount from 10 percent to 20 percent, and my message is a kind of populist one, in a way.

“We all know — we live in Long Beach — that influential people with perfectly understandable self-interests are associated with the Port and the shipping industry. They are big industries in the city of Long Beach, and they’d just as soon the percentage was zero, not 10 percent.

“Councilwoman Schipske proposed raising the percentage payable to the Tidelands to 15 percent. She also proposed asking Sacramento to let Long Beach transfer an additional five percent to the City’s General Fund for use citywide.

“The current 10 percent limit has been in the City’s Charter forever. It is, for all practical purposes, an accident of ancient history. So the question is not whether 10 percent is written in stone somewhere and can’t be changed. The question is what the right percentage is. And typically, the Tidelands for beaches and recreation and marinas is desperately in need of development and funding, and there’s no tangible reason that I see that it shouldn’t go from 10 to 20 percent.

“With the utmost respect, I suggest to the Council that it should prove once and for all that the Port is a department of the City of Long Beach, as Mr. [current City Attorney Bob] Shannon would tell you, and that the city is not run by these influential people, no matter how understandable their motitivations for self-interest.

“Those people give, as I say, give lots of money to political campaigns. And I know that’s enticing and intoxicating stuff, but we as a city need to do what’s right for — I hate to use the word “crown jewel” — our beaches and marinas and beachfront recreational facilities.

“I think it’s a shame that some people who have originally run on a platform of progressive actions now seem to be the darlings of the Chamber of Commerce and the shipping industry.

“But do the right thing. Pick the right number, and don’t be afraid of offending the powers that be. Thank you very much.”

Moments later, the council voted, 6-3 — dissenting were Tonia Reyes Uranga, Rae Gabelich and Schipske — to reject sending the proposal to a committee for further examination and discussion.

Discussion? No one in the majority — Bonnie Lowenthal, Suja Lowenthal, Gary DeLong, Patrick O’Donnell, Dee Andrews, Val Lerch — said a word during Schipske’s entire presentation. They didn’t ask a question. The didn’t offer a comment.

They sat, staring straight ahead, as stone-faced and silent as … as … as the five men in the very fine suits sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, watching them from the third row.

When the vote was over, the five men rose — satisfied — and left the council chamber. The six council members who had satisfied them stayed in their seats to continue running the city.

Tags: bob shannon, bonnie lowenthal, Dave Wielenga, Dee Andrews, gary delong, Gerrie Schipske, Jim McCabe, Long Beach City Council, Long Beach Harbor Commission, patrick o'donnell, rae gabelich, suja lowenthal, The District Weekly, Tonia Reyes Uranga, val lerch