A city hall insider leaves two high profile gigs and lots of questions

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Chris Pook was yukking it up pretty good in the foyer of city council chambers on April 15. Inside, city auditor Laura Doud had just told the council that Pook had stiffed the city for $37,000 while operating the Long [...]

WHO’S BEHIND THE PLAN TO BUILD A HOME DEPOT ON THE WETLANDS?
Just to underscore a point that might go otherwise unnoticed, here’s the last line in Dave Wielenga’s fast-break story on the Home Depot project:
“Chris Pook has been retained by Home Depot to promote the project.”
Thanks to Dave, longtime District Weekly readers are already [...]

TENTATIVE RULING SHOOTS DOWN CITY COUNCIL’S CONTROVERSIAL APPROVAL IN 2006
A Superior Court judge on Tuesday invalidated the controversial Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that the Long Beach City Council had approved for a Home Depot and retail project on the edge of the Los Cerritos Wetlands. The tentative ruling ordered that all work on the proposed [...]

A lawsuit against the City of Long Beach over its approval of a Home Depot and retail complex on the edge of the Los Cerritos Wetlands is being heard today in Norwalk Superior Court.
The suit was filed jointly by the University Park Estates Homeowners Association and the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust. It charges that the [...]

Although money wasn’t mentioned in the report the Sea Festival Association just submitted to the city, a top official of the organization acknowledged to The District today that it will pay the City of Long Beach at least $30,000 for the rights to hold last summer’s events along the local waterfront.
“I have good news, for a change,” said Drew Satariano, president of the Sea Festival Association Board of Governors, [...]

The Press-Telegram yesterday and the New York Times today report on the federal indictment of Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona. We tell you this not to indulge in a vestigial passion for our old beat, but to congratulate our former colleagues at OC Weekly, where investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley broke the story of sheriffial [...]

Is calling LB America’s ‘Aquatic Capital’ good for Long Beach’s image or just Chris Pook’s wallet?

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Chris Pook’s name is buried deep in a committee that’s asking Long Beach to declare itself the Aquatic Capital of America, but circumstances suggest that the city’s hungriest political insider may be scheming for control of [...]

Sea Festival’s Chris Pook still won’t tell us how he’s spending the public’s money. Maybe he’ll talk to you
By Dave Wielenga

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Chris Pook still doesn’t want to talk about how he’s spending the public’s money—not to The District, anyway, not until we write something nice about the way he’s running the Long Beach [...]

SAT, MAY 12: HAPPY VALENTINE DAY
Tues | May 8 True story. Pulled into a gas station to get some gas at a mere $3.45 per gallon, lowest in the neighborhood. I inserted the nozzle—aw, yeeeah—and began pumping. I haven’t filled my tank since prices reached escrow-like regions. Instead, I arrive at an amount that I’m [...]

Local businesses claim they felt pressured by Chris Pook’s fund-raising tactics
By Dave Wielenga

Chris Pook’s deployment of high-ranking Long Beach city officials to local businesses when pursuing financial support for Sea Festival sometimes creates the impression that a company’s response to the pitch could affect its chances of securing a city contract or permit, according to [...]