By Doug Miller
In fact, the very reasoning behind the transfer was called into question when Republican Councilman Tom Sofield argued that the resolution would transfer funds the Democratic majority had insisted for two years did not exist.
The Democrats, led by Council President Leonard Remo and Vice President Rob Tepper, countered that the money was being transferred to cover holes created by the GOP's reckless and ill-considered devotion to austerity budgeting.
In between the insults were accusations of grandstanding plus veiled and not-so-veiled references to City Manager John Laffey's issue with the state Civil Service Commission.
In other words, it was another typical night with the Long Beach City Council.
Sofield, a registered Democrat who won his seat on the GOP line in 2003, asked how the resolution seeking a fund balance transfer of $1.8 million could possibly exist, since Remo had stated repeatedly during his successful re-election campaign last year that the GOP's claim to having turned a surplus was spurious.
Remo said that the surplus still had not been certified by the state auditor, but this was "the city manager's" resolution and he supported him.
Meanwhile Tepper went on the offensive, disassembling the transfer piece by piece, asking why, for instance, the city needed another $40,000 to pay seasonal workers from the previous summer.
Laffey said that a department head came to him a week after he began work on Jan. 3 and said he had 39 workers he wanted to dismiss because there hadn't been anything for them to do since the previous Labor Day. When Laffey asked why they had been kept on, the department head, whom he was reluctant to identify, told him an official from the previous administration had ordered him to keep them employed "until after the election."
Other line items in the transfer included $200,000 for police overtime, $95,000 for fire department overtime, $402,000 for tax certiorari claims and $100,000 for judgments and claims for insurance reserves.
Tepper asked Laffey why he suspected there were such gaps in the budget, to which Laffey responded, in effect, that he had inherited them from the Republican administration.
Republican Jim Hennessy interjected that these "gaps" had been put in the budget purposely in anticipation of the pending surpluses.
"It's called conservative budgeting," Hennessy said.
Among those surpluses is the money from the sale of a portion of Shore Road to the developers of the Superblock, Phillips International. In the original agreement, the portion of the road in question was appraised at about $3 million. But Sofield and Hennessy said that in former City Manager Charles Theofan's negotiations he had gotten Phillips to up the price to $4.5 million.
But the minority councilmen also insisted that the deal was being deliberately stalled by Laffey and Remo, and the $1.8 million surplus being divied up Tuesday could have been saved if they would just pull the trigger. It was a charge the Democrats called insulting.
"I'm here to get things done for the city," said Tepper. "I'm not here to change things I had nothing to do with."
The resolution finally passed 5-0.
In other council news, long-debated and anticipated hikes in the taxi rates will have to wait at least another two weeks, as a public hearing and vote on the new rates - as well as a 50-cent fuel surcharge - were adjourned until the March 7 meeting.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
