Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Long Beach City Council passed the 2011-12 budget by a vote of 3-2 along party lines last week, despite a motion by Democratic City Councilman Len Torres to postpone the adoption of the spending plan and requesting another hearing in the hope of including additional cost-saving measures that Torres proposed.
The $83.9 million budget was adopted by the council on May 24, the second of two budget hearings, at which council members raised concerns about issues such as police and Fire Department overtime, increasing fees and raises for a number of department heads.
City Manager Charles Theofan said that the budget — $4.7 million larger than the current spending plan — makes no reduction in personnel and would use $1 million of the city’s reserve fund to avert a tax levy increase, reducing the fund’s balance to $2.87 million.
By law, city officials said that the budget must be adopted by May 31. Torres and fellow Democratic Councilman Mike Fagen, however, tangled with the Republican-led coalition council members after Torres requested a special, additional public hearing to further discuss ways to reduce the budget and evaluate financial information that he requested.
Fagen criticized projected revenue and police overtime, saying that the city regularly runs over budget. “Isn’t it time that we do things a little differently?” he said. “Sending police officers to baseball games at time-and-a-half is not the best way to utilize our manpower.”
Theofan said that he is working with the Police Department to rein in overtime. “I wish that the overtime expenditures were less,” he said. “I am working with the Police Department to see if we can cut it. There have been decreases in the Fire Department — we hired two more firefighters … so that will have an effect.”
