The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration isn’t always a time to remember the civil rights pioneer. Sometimes it reflects the ambitions of the councilmember organizing it

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

This week, while you consider whether it was worth getting up at 4:30 to be the first through the doors at Mervyns, or if the iPhone will really outperform your ProStar PC, take a gateway-to-the-holiday-season trip down memory lane and see if you remember Long Beach Sixth District Councilwoman Laura Richardson. She’s a U.S. Congresswoman now. She was a California Assemblywoman in between; hard to believe all that has happened in a year.

But it’s true. At this time last year Richardson was hard at work doing some holiday party planning all her own. The holiday was the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, which the Sixth District has observed for 19 years with a celebration. But the party last year was mostly for Richardson, who folded the tribute to Dr. King into her own political sendoff to Sacramento.

Now you know why it was Long Beach’s most expensive Dr. King Celebration ever, a way-out bash from the get-go. According to Martin Blaes, general manager of Auntie Creative Consultants—providers of sound equipment for the bands at a half-dozen MLK celebrations—this was the costliest event of its kind. Now you know why Richardson was leading the parade into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Not that you could have missed her.

“She was doing her Second Line, the way they do in New Orleans, with the umbrella,” remembers longtime Long Beach resident Cedric McCullouch. “She had her Mardi Gras colors and she was very colorful, doing her Louisiana strut.”

Used to be, a group of local ministers would lead the march that always begins the day of remembrance for Dr. King—lending a benevolent, if reflective, mood to the proceedings. Dr. King was a minister too, and seeing a group of clergy clad in dark colors was conducive to deep thoughts, even if the men of God were smiling and waving. But fresh off her November victory in a race for state office, newly elected Assemblywoman Richardson saw no reason for soul-gazing. The ministers weren’t asked to head this procession; in fact, they hadn’t walked in it for several years.

This was Richardson’s last crack at what some people consider her district’s signature event—she’d already taken her oath of office in Sacramento—and she pulled out all the stops. That meant landing a genuine Top 40 blast from the past as a headliner—Kool & the Gang, one of Richardson’s favorites—for a concert in the park and doing lots of fundraising.

She needed that money, and to her credit, she managed to raise most of it. But according to city officials, the 19th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration still came in $4,995.65 in the red when all the bills were added up. By then, Richardson had moved on and been replaced by new Sixth District Councilman Dee Andrews—who isn’t thrilled at the prospect of having to pay her bills.

The city auditor’s office is weighing in now, too; it was asked last month to investigate the relationship between the Martin Luther King Jr. event and its financial receiver, the nonprofit group which accepted donations to the event. (More on that later.) The band was one of the most costly parts of the whole day.

Kool & the Gang has just four original members, but they don’t come cheaply. City documents obtained by The District show that the band cost $80,000—not counting $6,957.92 for hotel rooms and $1,775 in limousine bills. As those bills were passed along, the people who were actually writing the checks rang the alarm bells. Deep down, however, they knew that it couldn’t be stopped. They knew who this party was really all about—Richardson.

“She was doing it as a goodbye for her being elected to the Assembly. She’s an ambitious woman. So she put on this grand thing,” says Bea Antenore, the former secretary for Partners of Parks—the nonprofit foundation that takes donations for events like MLK, and Trees on the Bay, and then pays the bills the city doesn’t cover. “We weren’t very happy about it. That means they have to start from scratch [raising money for next year]. But how do you say ‘No’ to a council person and to a future Assembly person?”

You don’t; you say yes—and when the band encores with “Celebration” (it’s in their contract), you applaud wildly. Because regardless of Kool & the Gang’s fondness for expensive limousines, they turned this mother out.

“It was a celebration. A great, great show,” says McCullouch. “Matter of fact, they went 30 minutes over. I think Laura had something to do with that.”

Laura’s not here any more—and we’re not talking about the fact that, after a few months in the Assembly, last summer Richardson ran for and won the unexpired 37th Congressional District seat made vacant by the death of Juanita Millender-McDonald, and now represents only a small portion of Long Beach.

We’re talking about the fact that Richardson can’t get her hands on next year’s MLK Celebration. It’s being planned by Richardson’s replacement: Dee Andrews, the still fleet-footed track and football star of the ’60s, who celebrated his election to finish out Richardson’s term by chasing down a suspected flasher. Thanks to Andrews’ own feelings toward Dr. King, and about what Richardson left behind—icy feelings between the Sixth District council office and certain city branches, and a $4,995.65 deficit from this year’s parade—the MLK Celebration he is planning for Jan. 19, 2008, will look and behave quite differently than the last one Richardson planned.

“The councilman has a different view,” says Andrews’ chief of staff, John Edmond. “He wants to lift the consciousness of Long Beach and the community, about the past and things that Dr. King stood for, and about the work that needs to be done.”

Whether Edmond is referring to Dee Andrews’ work or to Dr. King’s work, the bottom line is that next year the ministers will once again lead the parade. A local band will serenade the gathering in King Park. And more than a dozen nonprofit foundations—and representatives from the Sixth District’s two hospitals, Memorial and St. Mary’s medical centers—will help the people who actually live in Long Beach care for themselves.

“It’s not just food and a parade,” Edmond says.

Among other freebies, the hospitals will be helping fight heart disease—a leading cause of death in the African-American community—with free blood pressure screenings.

And the bottom bottom line? It will all come in for around $10,000.

Andrews estimates that will cover the band, the booths, the tents and the kids’ moon bounce—all from donations by people like you. That is, once the money comes in.

Here’s where it gets tricky: if you want to make a donation to the MLK Celebration, who do you make the check out to? You used to make your check out to Partners of Parks, the nonprofit that acted as the financial receiver for these and other city events and took your money to the bank—then wrote checks from it to pay for everything except the stuff like police and public works and fire department services. The city covers those.

But when Andrews took office May 23, the heads of various city departments informed him that Partners didn’t want to be the financial receiver for next year’s MLK Celebration. Why this was remains uncertain—but according to assistant city auditor Alex Cherin, the auditor’s office is now considering Partners of Parks’ connection to the Martin Luther King event.

“We’ve been asked to look at the relationship between Partners of Parks and the Martin Luther King Day event,” Cherin said, adding that he wasn’t sure whether the city auditor’s office will in fact investigate—or if an investigation would lead to an audit of the event.

“I don’t know if this is going to amount to anything,” he added.

Regardless, it’s clear that some change was already afoot at City Hall in May. News that Partners of Parks didn’t want to accept MLK donations could have jeopardized next year’s event—all the fun stuff runs on your dollars, and there was no place to put your money.

“We couldn’t get any info,” Edmond says, adding that he tried for weeks to reach Partners of Parks officials. (This may have been partly because Partners of Parks was losing to retirement its secretary Bea Antenore, its longtime president Betty Davenport and its treasurer Robert Lamond, and the nonprofit was under new management.)

“I asked Phil Hester for a letter [saying that we couldn’t use Partners of Parks],” Edmond says. “People couldn’t get it. They were asking too many questions.” (Hester heads the Parks, Recreation & Marine department; Partners of Parks was originally created to help raise money for park events. Hester did not respond to repeated interview requests from The District.)

The people with money to give to the MLK Celebration didn’t get it—didn’t understand—because they didn’t know who to make the check out to. And that’s because up until Nov. 19, Dee Andrews’ office still didn’t know what to tell them.

“We just had a meeting,” Andrews said that night, adding sarcastically, “John will explain that to you, about our great Partners of Parks.”

“It was a show-stopper,” Edmond said of the Sixth District’s uncertainty about where to send MLK donations. “It took us two-and-a-half to three months to find a nonprofit we could trust and do business with.”

That nonprofit was California Families in Focus, a Long Beach-based 501c3 organization which offers services such as gang prevention, and youth and parent mentoring. That’s who you make your check out to for the Martin Luther King Celebration.

And when you do, you might want to give a little more this time. Even though Andrews didn’t spend the money, Partners of Parks is still sending Andrews’ office the last bill for Laura Richardson’s final MLK Celebration.

More accurately, it’s not just one bill—it’s $4,995.65 in many bills, expenses which weren’t covered once Richardson left office and stopped raising money.

“They said, ‘You have to pay back the money for this,’” Edmond said, recalling his meeting Nov. 19 with Parks, Recreation & Marine business operations manager J.C. Squires, and Chris Kozaites, the new president of the Partners of Parks executive board. “I said, ‘They had remedies at their disposal, and they’re choosing not to get back that money.’ I actually used the word ‘egregious.’

“Chris [Kozaites] said that the board doesn’t see a difference between Laura Richardson and Dee Andrews—they just see the Sixth District council office,” Edmond continues. “I said [that] somebody needs to educate them. They should have called us and we could have gone before the [Partners of Parks] board.”

“Yeah, they inherited it. Lucky them,” says Partners of Parks acting executive director Leslie Hunsaker. “My suggestion to [John Edmond] would be to call Laura Richardson’s staff and talk to them about it. It’s really out of Partners of Parks’ hands. We’re just a co-sponsor. It was not our event to book.”

It’s impossible to know how our new Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) feels about Dee Andrews’ office having to pay her $4,995.65 MLK tab—for that’s where they left it at the Nov. 19 meeting.

Andrews agreed to repay Partners of Parks, and Partners of Parks finally agreed to be the financial receiver for the event—even though Edmond has already been using California Families in Focus as a financial receiver.

Richardson did not return repeated telephone calls and messages left at her offices in Carson and Washington, D.C., requesting comment for this story.

“I apologize, but in a new office, things aren’t always the most efficient,” said the man who answered the telephone at her Washington, D.C., office a month after Richardson was elected.

He put me through to the answering machine for Richardson’s Washington press secretary, Kim Parker—and the voicemail message was still that of her predecessor, the assistant to the late Millender-McDonald.

It took only two calls to Richardson’s district office in Carson for press secretary Jasmyne Cannick to become quite vexed by questions about her boss’s unpaid bills for the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. “I just don’t understand—you’re calling about an event that happened in January and it’s September?” Cannick asked.

It was September by then—and Michelle Walling of Trophies, Inc., was still owed $300 for the plaques she made for the MLK Celebration grand marshal and others. That’s part of the $4,995.65.

A couple of weeks ago, Richardson came to Long Beach to be honored at a fashion show called “The Expose.” She spoke eloquently about her own contributions, and encouraged others to follow in her footsteps.

“We do need to remember that we’re all just one step away from greatness,” Richardson said that night.

“All we need is someone to step up and work with us.”

Of course, there are no guarantees, and Richardson added a sop to anyone in the audience who may have felt their life path didn’t have the trajectory of her own.

“You may have made a mistake,” Richardson said, “but it doesn’t mean that you are a mistake.”

She’s right, but why is Richardson letting someone else—namely Dee Andrews—pay for her mistake?

Tags: kool and the gang, laura richardson, Long Beach, martin luther king jr., News, partners of parks