Third District Long Beach Councilmember Suzie Price is the focus of a sworn complaint by four residents who allege that she and other elected individuals violated the Political Reform Act by using taxpayer money to distribute messages that were persuasive rather than merely informational, in order to get voters to approve Measure M. A July 24 letter from the Fair Political Practices Commission to the complainants and the city officials indicates that all those named in the complaint have been dismissed from impending investigation, except for Price.
The letter– addressed to the four Long Beach residents who launched a sworn complaint against the City and to those officials named in the complaint– indicates that the FPPC’s Enforcement Division found insufficient evidence of violations by Mayor Robert Garcia, 6th District Councilmember and now Vice Mayor Dee Andrews and 9th District Councilmember Rex Richardson. However, 3rd District Councilmember Suzie Price is still a “named respondent” in the investigation.
As previously reported in the Signal Tribune, four Long Beach taxpayer advocates– Diana Lejins, Gerrie Schipske, Tom Stout and Joe Weinstein– filed a complaint with the FPPC alleging the City misused public funds to campaign for the passage of Measure M, an amendment that, according to city officials, explicitly authorizes and affirms the transfer of surplus city utility revenues to the city’s general fund to support services such as police, fire and 9-1-1 paramedic and other general government services, with a cap of 12 percent of each utility’s annual gross revenue.
In June, Measure M passed with 35,651 votes (53.76 percent of voters) approving it and 30,659 (46.24 percent) voting against it.
Leading up to the June 5 election, city officials put noticeable effort into persuading residents that the measure would not be a tax increase. After the measure was approved, however, Lejins, Schipske– who is a former 5th District councilmember– Stout and Weinstein submitted their complaint to the commission, on July 11. In it, they allege that the four officials violated the Political Reform Act by using government resources– and, in effect, taxpayer money– to distribute several direct-mail pieces that were clearly not “informational” but rather campaign materials.
The complainants also claimed the mayor and councilmembers used city-paid cellphones and computers to send misleading messages to constituents urging them to vote for Measure M.
A July 24 letter from the Fair Political Practices Commission indicates that all those named in four Long Beach residents’ recent sworn complaint have been dismissed from impending investigation, except for 3rd District Councilmember Suzie Price.
One example the complainants provided to the Signal Tribune was an email blast from Price– sent from the email address suzie@suzieaprice.com and with a subject line of “Reminder to Support Measure M on June 5th.” Although the email from Price does not feature her official city letterhead and was not sent from her government email address, it does identify her as 3rd District Councilwoman Suzie Price.
Attempts to reach Price for comment were unsuccessful by press time Thursday afternoon.
The residents who filed the complaint issued another press release this week announcing that the FPPC is continuing its investigation into the matter.
“We are pleased to announce that today the chief of the Enforcement Division of the Fair Political Practices Commission [Galen West] informed us that an investigation will go forward on our complaint that the City of Long Beach illegally used public money to campaign for the passage of Measure M,” the statement reads. “Measure M is a tax allowing the transfer of up to 12 percent of the gross revenues of the water, sewer and gas utilities to the City general fund and further allows the city council to raise utility rates to pay for the transfers.”
Regardless of whether or not the FPPC finds sufficient evidence of any misdoing by Price, the four complainants say they want city officials to heed a message.
“We hope that, because the FPPC is moving forward, the City of Long Beach gets the message for the upcoming election,” the statement reads, “that the Political Reform Act is clear: government cannot use public resources to campaign– for a tax measure or for a charter change.”
