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Dysfunctional City Council's New Term
by Les Robbins
I did something that I rarely do last week and watched the City Council meeting. During the past several years I have found it very difficult to watch any of their meetings because — as someone who has been there and done that — it is tough to sit and watch very dysfunctional people do their thing.
This week’s meeting was of interest to me though because it was the swearing-in for all of the recently elected and re-elected city officials and I was hoping to see and hear something that was encouraging.
The swearing in started with the mayor and progressed through the city attorney, auditor, prosecutor and then on to the council-members from the odd districts, with the exception of the councilman from the 3rd District, who was on vacation in the Bahamas. Taking a vacation during this critical meeting is still a little puzzling to me, personally.
Mayor Foster talked about the challenges ahead and made no bones about the fact that the next four years could be a rough ride. Both the city attorney and newly elected city prosecutor talked briefly and Prosecutor Haubert thanked everyone profusely who had assisted him in his campaign.
City Auditor Laura Doud did likewise and promised to continue her work in auditing budgets, operations, and other city activities with the hopes of finding less expensive ways of doing things and I am sure with the additional hope of finding some “new money” hidden in the bowels of City Hall.
The newly elected first time council members thanked their supporters and talked about making the city a better place to live and work. There is always a certain degree of naiveté with newly elected council members and neither of the two seemed short on this trait. But they both sounded committed to doing the right thing.
The other council-members, all of whom were re-elected to new 4 year terms spoke about the hard work ahead and how they were committed to addressing the important issues facing this city.
Once all of the pomp and circumstance were completed and after a 15-minute recess and break they got into taking up the only real piece of business before them after the public comment section of the agenda was completed. The public comment section was, by the way, very confrontational and contentious and personally I thought that the mayor handled it less than gracefully. It was, pure and simple, UGLY!
Then came the vote for vice mayor, which according to the City Charter, shall take place at the first meeting. Due to the fact that there were only eight members in attendance the potential for a tie was ever present.
Furthermore, if you were reading what was coming out in the media the previous week, or had talked to anyone from City Hall, you would have known that there was a lot of talk and maneuvering going on behind the scenes to see which of the two council members who had thrown their hats in the ring – O’Donnell and Lowenthal — would get the nod.
The tie-breaking vote in this was on vacation, so guess what? It was a tie and as of today we have a vacant position in our city government. Furthermore, judging by the various announced vacation schedules of the City Council, it appears that this tie may not be broken for at least three or four more weeks.
How quickly I was brought back to earth after hearing all of the politically correct comments made by the newly sworn in council members. It is very clear that there is a fierce battle for vice mayor going on and this council, once again is very divided. My biggest criticism of our City Council has been the inability of the individual members to work together to solve the problems facing this city.
Dysfunctional would not adequately describe how this group works together. With term limits and individual political ambition added in we have created a system where no one trusts anyone else because they view their fellow council members not as colleagues but as potential opponents as they maneuver their way up the political food chain.
While this council seems to thrive on quid pro quos as they do their decision making, even they are impacted by the ever present possibility that the person you are working with today may be the same person whom you are attacking tomorrow.
This is no way to govern, but it seems to be business as usual in Long Beach!
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