Otto wins District 4 LBUSD board seat, Uranga and Miller to face-off in District 2 runoff race

Early Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) election results showed Tonia Reyes Uranga in the lead for District 2 and Doug Otto in the lead for District 4.

Candidates must earn at least 50% of the vote, if not, the race will be determined in a runoff election between the two candidates with the highest number of votes in Nov. 3, 2020.

Otto, winning 52.66%, will most likely not have to campaign for a run-off election. Uranga, who won 43.88% of the vote, will likely go against Erik Miller, who won 34.74% of the vote as of press time.

District 2
District 2 consists of the westside of Long Beach–– from Anaheim Street to Wardlow Road–– and includes central Long Beach, including the neighborhoods of Wrigley and Washington.

Whoever wins this race will be replacing longtime LBUSD board member Felton Williams, who represented District 2 for four terms.

Tonia Reyes Uranga is a 50-year resident of Long Beach and former Long Beach City councilmember who represented District 7 from 2002 to 2010. Her husband, Roberto Uranga, is the current 7th District councilmember since 2014. She’s the owner of Tonia Reyes Uranga Consulting, also known as TRUConsult, which serves non-profits, public agencies and specializes in workforce and municipal policy issues. She presently serves on multiple boards and committees including, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the Coalition for Good Jobs and Healthy Communities and Goals for Life, a non- profit mentoring program that couples retired NFL players with school-age youth.

Uranga also serves as executive board member for the California Democratic Party representing the 70th Assembly District and has over 30 years working in workforce and employment issues in Southern California.

If she wins, Uranga will be the first Latina to serve on the LBUSD board in 26 years since Jenny Oropeza in 1994.

Erik Miller, a product of the LBUSD system, was born and raised in Long Beach. He is currently the executive director of PVJOBS, a countywide initiative that provides employment opportunities for at-risk and disadvantaged youth, adults and veterans in career-track employment. He also currently serves as a mentor with Operation Jump Start, an organization that provides academic support and mentoring to first-generation, college-­bound youth from low-income households in Long Beach.

Miller was the chairman of the Long Beach GRIP (Gang Reduction Intervention and Prevention) Taskforce from 2012 to 2014. Prior to working in the non-profit sector, Miller worked as an architect. He formerly ran for the 6th Council District seat in which he came in second against incumbent Dee Andrews.

District 4

Doug Otto, a life-long Long Beach resident and lawyer who has served on the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees for 16 years, has won the board seat for District 4 which covers southeast Long Beach schools to the 605 freeway covering Belmont Shore, Los Altos and Alamitos neighborhoods and includes Signal Hill and Avalon schools.

Otto will be replacing longtime LBUSD board member Tom Meyer, who represented District 4 for four terms and had also endorsed Otto.

Otto has decades of experience of being involved in multiple community boards in both civic and non-profit organizations including LBCC, the Aquarium of the Pacific and St. Mary Medical Center. He also served in the City of Long Beach Planning Commission and the Long Beach Heritage, Long Beach City Manager’s Downtown Business and Development Advisory Committee.

Winners of the board seats will serve four year terms.