By Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
Things are changing in Long Beach, and the goal of local government is to make the city more earth friendly and business friendly at the same time, according to City Manager Pat West. He explained city programs and policies to about 45 people who attended the monthly meeting of the Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance (WANA) at Jackie Robinson Academy last Thursday.
West has been employed by the city for about two-and-a-half years and was appointed city manager five months ago. “I’m having a lot of fun. It’s a great city. It’s a great team,” he said. “What I’ve been blessed with more than anything since I became city manager is the opportunity to appoint five or six department heads during my first few months on the job as city manager.”
One of the biggest changes undertaken by West was appointing former Planning Director Suzanne Frick as assistant city manager. Frick had been planning director In Santa Monica for about 11 years before coming to Long Beach several years ago. “She arguably is the creator of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica,” West said.
He noted that when city council hired him, they made it clear that they wanted the city to adopt a greener and more sustainable agenda, including the construction of more LEED buildings and more use of solar energy.
“I’m not an expert in that field. Suzanne Frick is,” he said, adding that Frick also spent many years working with various agencies to clean up Santa Monica Bay and her expertise in that arena will prove valuable in Long Beach’s effort to clean up the Long Beach Bay.
West described how he appointed former Public Works Director Christine Anderson as director of the Long Beach Airport and how he had merged city departments and eliminated some of its bureaus, thus eliminating several management and staff positions. He noted that the changes are designed to save the city money, and to make it more efficient.
Faced with a significant reduction in the city’s General Fund budget, West is pushing hard to streamline the organization of city hall, including in its upper echelons. Recently he eliminated one of the deputy city manager positions and instituted shortcuts in the way department heads communicate with the city manager’s office.
West added that one of his priorities is to improve the city’s main corridors like Pacific Avenue, Long Beach Boulevard, Atlantic Avenue, Cherry Avenue and Artesia Boulevard. He said the city had neglected needed corridor improvements in order to transform its downtown, but now time has come to develop the corridors too.
West added that another of his priorities is to make the city more ecologically friendly. He noted that the Port of Long Beach has made great strides toward that goal and the airport is also moving forward in green, sustainable policies. “We truly want to be the greenest airport in the United States,” he said.
Turning to the private sector, he noted that the city also has an oil refinery in its boundaries–the Edgington Oil Company at 2400 East Artesia Boulevard. “That was just purchased by an Israeli company called Alon International,” West said. “These guys truly want to make the Edgington refinery the cleanest refinery in California, and we are going to work with them to do that.”
West noted that he is telling all city employees that their mission is to do whatever it takes to make the city cleaner, greener, safer and more business friendly and to provide excellent customer service to the residents and businesses of Long Beach.
During the brief question-and-answer period after his presentation, WANA secretary Joan Greenwood asked what the city is doing about two 20-acre parcels close to the junction of the 405 and 710 freeways. The land is owned by a group of oil operators, and many residents in the vicinity would like the city to acquire it and convert it to park land accessible to the public.
West assured the audience that he would look into what the city could do. “Your biggest fan in that is Phil Hester, the director of the parks and recreation department,” West said. He noted that Hester has greatly increased the amount of open space in West and North Long Beach and acquiring those properties for parkland is one of Hester’s biggest priorities
“We do have five or six million dollars set aside for the oil properties and we’re trying to negotiate a price that we can afford,” he added. “And we’re continuing to work with the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy to make that a priority.”
