During a forum sponsored by the Los Cerritos Neighborhood Association Wednesday night, the two 7th-district run-off candidates– Jared Milrad, a film-production company owner and animal-rights advocate, and Roberto Uranga, the incumbent who is completing his first term as councilmember– answered questions on topics such as rent control, the airport noise ordinance, city resources, homelessness, Measure M and recreational marijuana.
Compared to the relatively mild tone of a March 5 7th-district forum the Wrigley Association had hosted– and which also included candidates Oscar Delacruz, Chris Sereno and Kevin Shin– Wednesday’s event at the Long Beach Petroleum Club was characterized by more direct accusations and criticisms between Milrad and Uranga, with the former criticizing the incumbent for missing 260 votes during his first term on the city council and the latter accusing Milrad of inventing facts to support his “narrative.”
What seemed to fuel the heated temperament of the evening were the fact that residents sitting in the front of the audience heckled Milrad during his alloted time to speak. Several times, he stopped to say, “Excuse me” to the disruptive individuals, prompting the moderator, LCNA President Bob Gill, to ask those in attendance to respect the candidates’ time frames for responding to questions by not yelling out. Judging by the nature of the shouted remarks, those disruptions appeared to be incited by anger at email blasts from the Milrad for City Council 2018 campaign in recent weeks criticizing Uranga’s voting record.
The first question Gill posed to the two run-off candidates was, “What do you think are the two most important issues facing the 7th District right now, what makes you think that and what do you plan on doing to address them?”
Milrad answered first by saying what is needed is “engagement.”
“So, that means a councilmember who is involved, he’s engaged, he shows up to vote, but also is present in our community,” he said. “So, one thing I want to do, and we have done it in our campaign, is knocking on thousands of doors and listening to thousands of neighbors, but, on the city council, make sure we have a councilmember who we don’t always have to go to, who will come to you and show up at your door and listen to you.”
He added that infrastructure is one of the “top-tier” issues in the district and cited unpaved roads, broken sidewalks, fallen trees and park restrooms with no doors as some of the problems. Milrad said it is important for the 7th-district councilmember to ensure that the taxes that their district’s constituents pay are applied to the issues in their own neighborhoods.
“Number two is our environment,” he said. “And our environment has been neglected, and we do live in one of the most polluted regions in the country. It’s disappointing that my opponent’s taken more than $10,000 from oil companies– 10 different big oil companies’ executives– that’s a fact. What I will do is make sure that, No. 1, we haven’t taken a dime from those companies, and we’re actually investing in our community.”
Milrad added that, instead of widening the 710 Freeway, he would fight for zero-emissions trucks, a dedicated truck lane and a raised barrier on that freeway.
Uranga said the two main issues constituents contact his office about are homelessness and increasing crime rates. He said the two problems are linked to each other because, as those experiencing homelessness are moved out of areas, such as encampments along the 710, those individuals move into nearby neighborhoods, which leads to an uptick in crimes in those areas.
“So, one of the things that we have to do is try and resolve and try and reduce homelessness,” he said. “I’ve been working with our mayor, and I’ve been working with stakeholders about creating more job opportunities, more training programs, providing more services for homeless, providing more opportunities for them to take care of themselves.”
He added that violent crimes are down, but he has been working with the police department to address the minor crimes still occurring in 7th-district neighborhoods.
Milrad then used one of his one-minute rebuttals to respond to Uranga’s response, saying the district needs a councilmember who can be trusted and what Uranga had just stated was not true. He cited statistics from the City from last year that indicated that homelessness in the 7th, 8th and 9th districts has increased.
“What we need is permanent supportive housing,” Milrad said. “And that’s something I’ve been consistently fighting for, and that is leadership I will bring.”
The next question Gill presented to the candidates concerned city resources: Do you think the 7th District– or the west side in general– is receiving its fair share of resource spending by the City, and what positive changes have you made or will you make?
It was Uranga’s turn to answer first, and he mentioned several improvements he has made to the 7th District during his four years in office, including trees that have been trimmed, streets repaired, sidewalks fixed, potholes filled and several improvements to parks.
“And I assure you that the 7th District gets its fair share of all those allocations to make sure that we are on track to improve the 7th District to be where it should be,” he said.
Milrad was quick to question those improvements.
“I really wonder where these improvements are happening, and so do many folks in our district,” he said, eliciting yells from audience members. “We have been all across this district. We have listened to thousands of neighbors, and, if you go to the west side, for example, there are streets that are so cracked, it’s evident. There are sidewalks that are cracked, that are dangerous. There are curbs that are cracked, that are missing.”
He added that, although Long Beach residents pay a 10.25-percent sales tax, 7th-district residents have no representation on the five-member Citizens Advisory Commission.
“On the city council, something I’ll fight for is that we get representation on that commission,” Milrad said, “that we actually have a council member who is engaged, who is involved, who’s going to fight for our fair share of resources, and we are currently not getting it.”
The Signal Tribune will publish part 2 of this story in next week’s issue.
