Friday Newsletter 6-04-09 FINAL
Friday Newsletter 6-04-09 FINAL
June 4, 2010
City of Long Beach Memorandum
Working Together to Serve
Legislative News
Long Beach secured a couple big legislative wins to protect local revenues this
past week. For starters, the City will be exempt from the current round of short-
term state borrowing of gas tax funds. This win is worth $6.4 million to the City,
as our public works operations and capital projects depend on these funds. The
City's bill to gain a permanent exemption from State borrowing in the last three
months of our fiscal year passed the Assembly and is moving forward.
Second, Long Beach and our Regional partners defeated an effort by groups in
the upper Los Angeles River to create a third funding source to fund upper L.A.
River projects, which could have been a detriment to the momentum we have
gained cleaning stormwater in the lower Los Angeles River.
Today was the official opening day for our Sea Festival Program. It started with
a 10K ocean swim in Marine Stadium. Several countries are represented as we
are attempting to use Marine Stadium as a qualifying international course for this
new Olympic event. There will be many other open water events occurring on
Saturday and Sunday followed by over 100 events throughout the summer. One
of the key goals of Sea Festival is to get as many youth as possible to visit our
coastline and beaches and participate in beach and aquatic related activities.
June 4, 2010
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Phil Hester
Everyone has read the articles about Phil announcing his retirement. We are
blessed that Phil will stay with us throughout the summer. I do want to take this
opportunity to highlight that Phil is truly one of the most respected Parks &
Recreation Directors throughout the United States. He has put the City of Long
Beach on the national stage in regards to both park developments and recreation
programs. He will be sorely missed.
Airport Award
We were having fun with Mario this week. The airport is being presented with a
significant award at the next Council meeting. The award is for “Best Asphalt.”
We are hoping Mario will bring us a sample of his best asphalt. That said, a
proper runway is obviously one of the most important things to create and protect
in an airport and we are lucky to have an airport director who cannot only get our
parking garages and terminals built, but also keep the tarmac maintained with
federal and grant dollars.
Vacation News
We sent up the following memos to the Mayor and City Council this week:
Attachment
Willmore City Heritage Association's Photos
7Th & Maine Beautification
BEFORE
AFTER