Rae Gabelich
AL AUSTIN: A CARPETBAGGER COMES HOME A WINNER
After losing a race in another district, then the support of Long Beach's power elite, Al Austin's 8th district neighbors elected him their councilmember.
LISTEN AS ALMOST-A-COUNCILMAN AL AUSTIN ANSWERS EVERYTHING
Days before he joins the Long Beach City Council, Al Austin answers every question thrown at him by GreaterLongBeach.com publisher Dave Wielenga during a July 5 appearance on Greater Long Beach Radio. Listen!
THE SNAKE, MONGOOSE AND LIONS: BIXBY KNOLLS GIVES THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Forty years after Don "The Snake" Prudomme and Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen closed Lions Drag Strip forever, they will be at the Bixby Knolls Dragster Expo and Car Show on Saturday to share the memories of a lost-forever era.
MEDPOT OUTLETS ON THE SCALES: COURT STRIKES DOWN COUNTY BLANKET BAN, COUNCIL TO WEIGH IN ON LB DISPENSARIES
A three-judge panel of the 2nd district Court of Appeal — whose rulings are controling authority in Los Angeles County — has struck down L.A. County’s blanket ban in non-incorporated parts of the County on medical marijuana outlets, reasoning that it conflicts with and is preempted by the Compassionate Use Act (Prop 215, enacted by [...]
MAYOR FOSTER ENDORSES KAWASAKI OVER HIS EX-ENDORSEE AUSTIN FOR 8TH DISTRICT CITY COUNCIL SEAT
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster has endorsed Lillian Kawasaki in her race against Al Austin to represent the 8th District on the Long Beach City Council, according to a media advisory released just before 1 p.m. today by the Kawasaki campaign. Five years ago, it was Austin who received Foster’s endorsement for City Council—”I am [...]
HAS AUSTIN’S FALL FROM THE MAYOR’S GRACE MADE HIM A CANDIDATE OF THE PEOPLE?
Al Austin’s candidacy for the 8th district seat on the Long Beach City Council continues to gather grass-roots support that tends to run counter to the endorsements of prominent elected officials in the area. The roughly 3-to-1 margin by which Austin was endorsed over Lillian Kawasaki at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Los Angeles County [...]
GABELICH ENDORSES AL AUSTIN TO SUCCEED HER AS 8TH DISTRICT COUNCIL REP
Eighth District City Council candidate Al Austin, shown with his wife, Daysha, in a December 2011 photo, described his endorsement Tuesday by outgoing Councilmember Rae Gabelich as "an honor," but said this is a "pivotal time" for the 8th district and Long Beach as a whole.
GABELICH CALLS PRESS CONFERENCE—WILL SHE RUN FOR 3RD COUNCIL TERM?
Rae Gabelich, who is winding up her second term as the 8th district’s representative to the Long Beach City Council, has called a press conference for this morning at 11 a.m. amid speculation that she will seek a third term as a write-in candidate. Until last summer, Gabelich laughed off any talk of a third [...]
SHOULD NAPLES RESIDENTS PAY FOR SEAWALLS THAT SUPPORT THEIR LIFESTYLE?
The Naples seawalls keep private mansions and their manicured gardens from tumbling onto adjacent boat docks---with mooring fees that the city deeply discounts for residents---then crashing into the canals. Is fair---or even legal---to repair them by using Tidelands Funds intended for the widest public benefit?
PORKY’S REVENGE? COUNCIL’S SPENDING WISH-LIST WOULD BLOCK PROPOSED BUDGET ALTERNATIVE
LBReport.com has learned that a list of Councilmember-desired spending items is quietly circulating on City Hall’s 14th floor—a list that would deplete surplus upland oil revenue and effectively prevent its use to avert the police, fire, parks and library cuts proposed by Mayor Bob Foster and City Manager Pat. Councilmembers Rae Gabelich, Steve Neal and [...]
DID TELEPHONIC TOWN HALL ON BUDGET OUTDRAW IN-PERSON MEETINGS?
LONG BEACH (Via LBReport.com)—Participants in the Telephone Town Hall held Thursday evening on the alternative Long Beach budget plan proposed by three city council members appear to have outnumbered in-person attendees visible at budget meetings held in some council districts. The office of 9th district representative Steve Neal, who along with Rae Gabelich (8th) and [...]
ONE QUESTION … FOR SNIPPED-FROM-HIS DISTRICT CANDIDATE MIKE KOWAL
The back story: Back in April, Mike Kowal became the first candidate in the 2012 campaign for the Long Beach City Council. Kowal filed to run in the 8th District, where Rae Gabelich faces the term-limit ordinance after serving eight years. Kowal has lived in the 8th district—in the same home—for nearly 30 years while [...]
FOSTER’S FIRST-TERM ACTIONS CREATED MILLIONS OF LB’S CURRENT DEFICIT
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster's push for new, longer and richer contracts for the city's firefighters and police officers created an economic situation he now calls unsustainable---and for which he now seeks to cut funding to police, firefighting and library services.
REDESIGNING THE 710: EVERY (HIDDEN) PICTURE TELLS A STORY, DON’T IT?
Taxpayers are funding a massive expansion of the 710 Freeway, but the consultants and public employees who are designing it (their salaries also paid by taxpayers) have announced that the public (that is, taxpayers) will not be allowed to see illustrations of the project until 2012.
PLASTIC OH-NO BAND: COUNCIL QUINTET’S ENVIRO-ODE TO BE HEARD IN COURT
In the first fallout from the Long Beach City Council’s just-approved ordinance that beginning Aug. 1 will prohibit most of the city’s grocery stores from from offering free plastic bags to customers—instead charging 10 cents each—the “Save the Plastic Bag Coalition” has informed City Hall that it will file a legal challenge to the ban. San [...]
PRESS-TELEGRAM, GAZETTE READERS ARE IN THE DARK ABOUT WHAT GABELICH DID
Councilwoman Rae Gabelich did it during a public hearing into Panama Joe’s controversial request for City Council approval of an expanded entertainment permit, and it only took her a minute, which was pretty impressive. But the Press-Telegram and Gazette (and, in fact, GreaterLongBeach.com) never mentioned it.
A STAND AGAINST SILLINESS: O’DONNELL ONLY DISSENTER IN CITY COUNCIL VOTE FOR ‘LB HEALTHY FOOD POLICY’
Fourth District representative Patrick O’Donnell cast the only vote against a “Long Beach healthy food policy”—an item on Tuesday night’s Long Beach City Council agenda that was spotlighted by LBReport.com in the first installment of its new series on City Council silliness. Proposed by Councilmembers Steve Neal, Robert Garcia, Dee Andrews and Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, the “Long [...]
WHAT ARE YOUR DEEPEST DESIRES FOR THE NEW LIBRARY IN NORTH LONG BEACH?
What do you like in a neighborhood public library? For me, it’s books, but I know a dude who goes just to get shhhushed by a secondarily degreed professional trained in information and library science. Anybody with other ideas and passions for libraries is welcome to suggest and confess them Saturday in North Long Beach [...]
IN CASE YOU’VE FORGOTTEN, FOSTER & COUNCIL APPROVED EMPLOYEE PENSIONS
It's as if Mayor Bob Foster and the Long Beach City Council don't remember how they went out of their way in 2007 and 2008 to approve the pensions that Foster is now demanding---under threat of a public referendum---that they voluntarily give back.
COUNCIL WRESTLES BEFORE ADDING RESTRICTIONS TO MEDPOT ORDINANCE
In a lengthy item marked by multiple motions and divided (and in one case reconsidered) votes, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday night voted 6-3 (Andrews, Johnson, Gabelich dissenting) to approve amendments to its medical marijuana ordinance. If approved on a second council vote, the amendments will expand allowed hours of operation, require surveillance [...]
FOSTER’S BUDGET VETO KILLS DEAL WITH FIREFIGHTERS TO FORFEIT RAISES AND PREVENT STATION CLOSURES
Long Beach Firefighters Association president Rich Brandt and members of the group’s leadership on Tuesday night told the Long Beach City Council that Mayor Bob Foster’s veto of roughly $330,000 in Fire Department spending killed a deal in which firefighters had narrowly voted to give up roughly $2.4 million in raises to prevent rotating fire [...]
FOUR LB COUNCIL MEMBERS WANT TO TALK ABOUT MAYOR FOSTER’S SURPRISE VETO OF HIS OWN BUDGET
Four members of the Long Beach City Council — Patrick O’Donnell, Gerrie Schipske, Rae Gabelich and Steve Neal — have placed an item on the September 28 meeting agenda to “consider and discuss” and potentially attempt to override Mayor Bob Foster’s veto of one percent of the general fund spending in the city manager’s proposed [...]
DEAN WANTS A TRUCK TRANSFER STATION ON TERMINAL ISLAND FREEWAY PROPERTY
LBReport.com has learned that Wilmington Lomita, LLC, a Tom Dean-related entity, has applied for a Conditional Use Permit “to allow construction and operation of a 50 space truck transfer station on a vacant 3.4 acre site adjacent to the Terminal Island Freeway in the IL (Light Industrial) zone.” The item is scheduled to come to [...]
NEW COUNCIL CAN’T AGREE BETWEEN LOWENTHAL, O’DONNELL FOR VICE-MAYOR
In a tense, polarized atmosphere accompanying what has previously been a mainly placid ceremonial act, a newly sworn City Council first failed in a 4-4 tie to delay its choice of a new Vice Mayor until Aug. 3, then failed on another 4-4 tie (on a reversed vote) to name Patrick O’Donnell as Vice Mayor. [...]
