They sit side-by-side behind the rail at meetings of the City Council, their districts abut one another in the political geography of Long Beach, they have voted together on some of the most-important issues facing the city, and today Eighth District Councilmember Rae Gabelich has officially endorsed the write-in re-election of Tonia Reyes Uranga to [...]

But as Long Beach’s history of influence-peddling illustrates, you gotta have a lobbying ordinance to monitor public officials’ contacts with their buddies

After a couple of rings, Rae Gabelich answered my phone call, which I was kind of dreading—although I figured she would. That’s one of the things I like about Long Beach’s 8th District city [...]

THEY FLEW ON KEVIN KALKHOVEN’S PRIVATE JET—AND MET PAUL NEWMAN!
*(This story updated to clarify that Gabelich did not know Kalkhoven before the trip)
City councilmembers Tonia Reyes Uranga and Rae Gabelich have acknowledged to The District Weekly that in 2004 they accepted a free flight on the private jet of Kevin Kalkhoven to a dinner party [...]

(EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS STORY BY LOCAL FREELANCE WRITER GREGGORY MOORE LINKS TO ITS PLACE OF ORIGIN, LBREPORT.COM)
I’ve just had a look at the City of Long Beach’s proposed ordinance concerning medpot collectives. I’d like to note just three of the requirements therein:
 1) From 5.87.030(A): “The Medical Marijuana Collective shall provide [to the City] [t]he name, address, [...]

Never again will somebody like Sean Hitchcock be able to illegally ravage Long Beach’s delicate wetlands areas without facing punitive remedies from the city. Thanks to regulations recently approved by the City Council, the next time somebody like Hitchcock disregards law, animal and plant habitat and human life, he could face a fine of $1,000 [...]

The stage was set Tuesday for major confrontation among factions of Long Beach public officials carrying attachés filled with secret plans and presumably conflicting agendas … and speaking of agendas—the official playbills for city council meetings, published by the city clerk—those seemed to have been manipulated, too.
So how did nearly nine hours of committee hearings [...]

Concerned that the calendar and behind-the-scenes political maneuvering may deprive the city council—and citizens—of meaningful input into Long Beach’s crunched budget, three council members have issued a press release calling for two or three public budget meetings a week at city hall.
Councilmembers Gerrie Schipske (5th district), Tonya Reyes Uranga (7th district) and Rae Gabelich (8th [...]

City clerk Larry Herrera just phoned to correct the information his office provided this morning when the District Weekly called to ask about Long Beach’s procedure for recalling city councilmembers and the mayor.
We asked the question for bloggers on TheDistrictWeekly.com, who were rumbling about recalls in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s city council vote to approve an economically lopsided property [...]

(EDITOR’S NOTE: JIM MCCABE IS A RETIRED DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY FOR THE CITY OF LONG BEACH)
 Thomas Marchese didn’t get everything he asked for a couple of months ago when he filed a Public Records Act request for all City Hall documents related to a land swap between the City of Long Beach and developer Tom [...]

As Bixby Knolls awaits redevelopment, residents long for a retail district that is open past 5 p.m.

PHOTO by BLAIR COHN
Bixby Knolls. Fifty years ago, referencing this tightly knit community a couple miles north of downtown Long Beach usually brought to mind a day of some high-end shopping. First stop: Robert’s Department Store, maybe for a [...]