Taking a last bow: Long Beach City Clerk Herrera-Cabrera retires

CJ Dablo
Staff Writer

Larry Herrera-Cabrera is the kind of city clerk who would offer a big smile while he’s offloading a stack of public documents into the hands of an unwitting Signal Tribune journalist just before a Long Beach Council meeting. He’s the kind of man who would say “Thank you for covering campaign finances,” and he’d say it without any hint of irony or guile even though municipal elections still draw a low voter turnout.
One of the primary players in the management of the City’s public records and electoral process, Herrera-Cabrera has served Long Beach for 12 and a half years as its city clerk. He is completing his career in public service, which spans more than four decades since his start in 1972. In 2002, he was appointed to the office by a Council led by then-Mayor Beverly O’Neill.
In those years, he was usually sitting towards the left side of the dais in the council chamber, ready with the others in his department to report on the meetings and wade through the massive number of motions, substitute motions and substitute-substitute motions offered by councilmembers in meetings that often last well past bedtime.
When asked about his favorite achievements in office, he pointed to his support of legislation from the State Assembly that allowed city clerks throughout California to perform marriages. The bill known as AB-1525 was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last year. Herrera-Cabrera said that he performed ceremonies at various locations in the civic center, including the council chamber, the plaza and the mayor’s conference room. He said he has officiated 12 weddings this year, including four same-sex ceremonies.

“For all these marriages, it’s one of the most touching things that somebody who works in local government can do,” Herrera-Cabrera said. He acknowledged that some people thought it was a little funny to hear that city clerks can solemnize marriages too.
“I see the humor in that, but when you are actually performing the ceremony for two people who care about each other, who may have their grandmother there or their grandchildren, yeah, it’s just amazing,” he said. “It brings families together.”
Herrera-Cabrera noted other milestones during his career, including Long Beach’s investment in a modernized voting system that is owned and operated by the City. He said that the system’s ballots require voters to place a check or mark a square, and when the machines don’t read one of those marks, they flag the staff to check for voter intent. He explained that the new system is helpful for those voters who may be disabled and can’t mark the ballot very well or others who may have had “hesitation marks” on their ballots, adding that the new system offers greater accuracy and can be audited.
The outgoing city clerk has seen many technological changes in his department throughout the years. He is responsible for the “digital minutes” system that links video of meetings— including the Council meetings— to the minutes on the City’s website. Users who click on the minutes can view the actual video of the meeting and see for themselves what has been said on a particular agenda item. Herrera-Cabrera said that Long Beach was one of the first cities to use the program, which offers greater transparency of civic meetings.
Although Herrera-Cabrera lives in Orange County, he says he considers himself a Long Beach person. He has childhood memories of growing up in Los Angeles and biking over to the city’s beaches. Through the Latino Managers and Professionals Organization, he raised $60,000 to $75,000 for scholarships for economically disadvantaged youth. Those scholarships weren’t only for Latino children, he said, explaining that youth from other ethnic groups received assistance. Once retired, he said he wouldn’t mind volunteering to organize another fundraiser for scholarship assistance.
At the April 21 Council meeting, Mayor Robert Garcia commended Herrera-Cabrera’s commitment to diversity, particularly praising his leadership over his department.
“You’ve made a deliberate decision to ensure that the people that serve the community— through its elections, records management [and] all the work that happened there— also reflect!the beauty and diversity of the entire city of Long Beach,” Garcia told Herrera-Cabrera, acknowledging the difficulty of this accomplishment. “You should be very proud, I think, that you’re leaving the City with a great team of managers and employees that love Long Beach and love the work that you all do.”
Although on that same night Herrera-Cabrera was also honored by representatives of Congressmember Alan Lowenthal, Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell and Sen. Ricardo Lara, City Clerk Analyst Daisy Gomez delivered one of the more emotional speeches of the evening. Her voiced cracked at one point as she honored her mentor. Gomez said that she felt that the outgoing City clerk was a part of her family.
“Larry has been such a big impact in all of our lives,” Gomez said, “but he has inspired me to deliver my best!It will be difficult to fill the void created by your absence.”
Along with the councilmembers, Garcia had high praise for the ethics and honesty of the soft-spoken city clerk, but he also offered apologies for difficult conversations they’ve had during the election season. The mayor acknowledged he has been “emotional” at times over the phone on election nights, and he complimented Herrera for his readiness to provide straightforward answers and his ability to listen to concerns and address them.
“[During elections], knowing that there was someone that was competent and incredibly organized on the other side, I think, gave a lot of us peace of mind because that is a very, very difficult process to go through,” he told Herrera-Cabrera. “And you always did it well.”
Herrera-Cabrera’s last day in office was April 30.