In The Grand’s beige-colored ballroom downtown, six of the seven candidates competing for the mayoral position sat down and answered a series of questions on the evening of May 14. They covered the looming budget deficit, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the 2028 Olympics and more, swapping microphones — and talking points, at times — back and forth over the course of one hour.
In order of seating, the six candidates included: April Ronay, Chris Sweeney, Joshua Rodriguez, Lee Goldin, Oscar Cancio and Terri Rivers.
Noted in his absence, Mayor Rex Richardson was not in attendance due to “scheduling conflicts,” organizers said. According to his staff, Richardson was in Washington D.C. for a mayor’s conference.
The evening was organized by the League of Women Voters’ Long Beach chapter, in partnership with the St. Anthony’s Neighborhood Association. Local reporter and DJ Bill Lovelace moderated the forum, asking candidates questions and reminding them of the rules when necessary (like refraining from talking about anyone not present).
While the conversation topics were limited to specific issues facing Long Beach, candidates gave a clear picture of themselves, from a self-proclaimed radical leftist to a public-safety, pro-police devotee.
We’re going to go through all six candidates who were at the forum, in the order they were sitting, and give some highlights of their stances on issues and direct quotes.
If you want to watch the full video of the forum, you can watch it here.
April Ronay
Right off the bat, Ronay admitted she is “not a career politician,” and said she is honored to be a write-in candidate. She has been an educator for 24 years and a substitute teacher within the Long Beach Unified School District for five years. Ronay is also an author of two books, both published this year: “Where Love Takes Root” and “The Hidden Garden.”
Ronay has lived in Long Beach for 30 years, and said she felt moved to get involved with politics after her son was “denied access to medically necessary treatment,” and she found herself navigating a complex healthcare system. Through this experience, she met other families dealing with the same problems and they began fighting together, she says, for expanded healthcare coverage and educational support.
It is unsurprising then, that Ronay said the most important issue facing Long Beach is a lack of healthcare access. On her website, she lists safe schools, accessible healthcare and a thriving local economy as priorities. Much like Ronay’s website, her stated goals during the forum included keywords such as “support,” “open up a dialogue” and “eliminate waste,” but she didn’t seem to have specific actions to back up her plans.
The write-in candidate said she has experienced firsthand the fear ICE has brought into schools, both in parents and children, and believes ICE needs to be abolished. She also wants to have an open dialogue in the community to make sure residents feel heard. Her website lists a plan to hold community listening sessions in each district in the first 100 days in office.
For the budget deficit, she said the City needs to perform an audit, specifically into contracts with nonprofits, to eliminate waste. She also said whatever work the City is doing to prepare for the Olympics needs to carry on afterwards.
Learn more about Ronay’s campaign here: aprilronay4mayor.com/
Chris Sweeney
Sweeney is another Long Beach transplant, who moved to the city when he enrolled at Cal State Long Beach 20 years ago. He grew up in Orange County and was raised by an immigrant mother from Costa Rica. He’s now a business owner and founded the eatery and meal prep service Right Mealz in 2015. Sweeney said he wants to be in Long Beach for another 20 years.
“I want to make Long Beach better than what it is today, tomorrow,” he said.
He had clear ideas on every issue discussed, from the budget deficit to the Olympics. The only issue that he seemed wary to stake a clear claim on was ICE’s presence in Long Beach.
The biggest issue facing Long Beach in Sweeney’s eye is the growing budget deficit, which he said he would address by working with the City Auditor to find where cuts can be made and where money is being wasted. He also believes millions of dollars are being left on the table due to bad contracts and the city’s refusal to penalize bad actors in those contracts. He suggested the City is also not charging developers impact fees consistently enough and making it too difficult for people to open a business.
Sweeney said he doesn’t agree with “indiscriminate stops” by ICE and would want to expand on the Long Beach Values Act so that everyone is aware of their rights when dealing with federal immigration agents. He said for the Olympics, Long Beach companies should have people work from home “back to COVID hours” to cut down on traffic, and the City should offer free transportation.
Learn more about Sweeney’s campaign here: sweeneyforlb.com/
Joshua Rodriguez
Some readers may recognize Rodriguez from his 2022 mayoral campaign. He is a police officer and Marine Corps veteran who is running on public safety as the number one priority. Rodriguez brought up public safety and the need to hire more police officers in nearly every question of the evening. He also brought up homelessness, saying he would declare a state of emergency and ask the State to step in to help.
“The city’s lovely, but our government sucks,” Rodriguez said. “They fail under the basics of what they’re supposed to provide.”
His primary concern is hiring more police, stating this would help people feel safer and would drive the local economy since “people don’t want to set up shop here.”
On the issue of ICE, Rodriguez said we “have to work with federal law enforcement” and said if someone is in jail in Long Beach and is undocumented, the City should turn them over to ICE. Rodriguez was visibly scoffing and shaking his head at the other candidate’s proposals to arrest ICE agents and abolish ICE.
For the budget, he said he would fire bureaucrats and middle managers. He also said he’s concerned about the Olympics, saying, “It’s going to be embarrassing because we don’t have enough officers.”
Learn more about Rodriguez’s campaign here: josh4lbcmayor.com/
Lee Goldin
Goldin immediately identified himself as a “radical leftist,” and his answers backed that statement up throughout the night.
On some issues like the Olympics and increasing voter turnout, he did not have specific examples of things he would like to do; he joked about how if he’s elected, he’d put Sweeney in charge of the Olympic committee and often restated his previous stance that the City needs to deliver on its promises. He also called out Richardson for not being at the forum, and said he “stays silent” while “our neighbors’ rights are getting trampled on by ICE.”
“I would use my voice to stand up for small business owners, to stand up for immigrants, to stand up for our creatures in the ocean, to stand up for our waters,” Goldin said. “I’d use it to stand up against the corporate interests using our town for their own good. And I would use it to take up against the AI war profiteers and systems that are turning our town into a digital gun-running operation.”
Goldin’s strongest stances are that the City of Long Beach should not be giving “sweetheart deals” to major corporations, welcoming AI and war contractors into the city and that the police should be arresting ICE agents and using helicopters to spot and alert the community when they enter the city. He said taking care of the city’s “most vulnerable” is his biggest priority.
He also said the budget deficit can be addressed by taxing the Port of Long Beach and major corporations wanting to set up shop in the city.
Learn more about Goldin’s campaign here: goldinformayor.com/
Oscar Cancio
Cancio has lived in Long Beach for a little over a decade and works in the education sector as a School Relations Manager. He was consistently pointing out things he believes the City is currently doing wrong, from handling ICE to the Olympics. On those two issues, he did not mention his own solutions, nor did he propose solutions for decreasing street fatalities and building trust with voters. He did, however, have specific ideas for handling the budget deficit.
His campaign is also built on public safety, though he emphasized community policing and having officers walk around their neighborhoods. Cancio did not mention the need to hire more officers or increase the police budget.
“You have to build trust in the community, in order to help enforce laws,” Cancio said.
Within public safety, he mentioned the staggering amount of pedestrian and driver fatalities in the city, stating that the city needs to implement practical solutions that residents are asking for the most.
To address the budget deficit, Cancio said they need to start by reviewing the salaries of City workers. He said that ICE needs to be abolished and “we need to unfortunately work with federal agents to do that.”
“I agree with Joshua, yes, we do need to get rid of the criminals and the criminals are the ICE agents, they’re terrorizing their community,” Cancio said. He said as the son of immigrants, the issue is personal to him, and called out the City for putting up banners that say “ICE Out of Long Beach” and then “signing contracts with corporations that are supporting ICE.”
Cancio denounced the City for the multiple project delays, such as the Colorado Lagoon tidal channel extension and fixing roads, saying this administration is not prepared to host the Olympics.
Learn more about Cancio’s campaign here: cancio4lbmayor.com/
Terri Rivers
Rivers is the only mayoral candidate born and raised in Long Beach. She has been a childcare provider for the past 21 years and founded her own nonprofit, the National Association of Childcare Providers.
Rather than fake her expertise, Rivers has turned her lack of political experience into a positive attribute, largely focused on learning from the community and leaning on those with experience. She said she is still learning more about her city every day that she campaigns.
She believes the biggest issue facing Long Beach is a lack of transparency. She said for homelessness, pedestrian fatalities, crime, the budget and additional issues, she would propose building an online dashboard so residents can see how money is being spent and the immediate results.
She would also take a collaborative approach with ICE, mentioning that she’d be working with organizations to “help people get their citizenship.” She also said the City should be alerting its residents when ICE is in the city.
Rivers said she believes the budget deficit is due to “a mismanagement of funds,” and she would have each department account for its spending with an audit. She also encouraged the implementation of free public transit during the Olympics.
Learn more about Rivers’ campaign here: terririvers.com/
Samantha Diaz
Managing Editor
Samantha is an award-winning journalist, sports fanatic and mother. She’s worked for the Signal Tribune for over three years and is passionate about covering environmental news, small businesses, mutual aid efforts and resources.
