By KEITH GRANT
So said Mona Goodman as she and her two running mates began the transition from candidates to council members-elect this past week. Long Beach voters have apparently thrown out the ruling Democrats after decades of their dominance of city politics.
Long Beach Democrats still outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin, but voters clearly decided that party identification was no longer the determining factor at the polls. "I think it's exciting for the city," said Councilman-elect Tom Sofield. "I envision a brand new renaissance for Long Beach."
Sofield said last Tuesday's victory had been in the works for two years. Voters, he said, sent a message to local leaders when the Republicans' "Coalition" ticket gave the ruling Democrats a run for their money in the 2001 election.
"Two years ago, voters sent a strong message that they were frustrated," Sofield said. "The Democrats refused to heed it. They just continued with their policies."
Goodman, Sofield and Jim Hennessy, in their second run for City Council, made a clean sweep of all three seats up for grabs last week. Hennessy and Sofield won four-year terms as the top two vote-getters. Goodman holds a lead over incumbents Joel Crystal and Scott Nigro by about 200 votes for the third seat, a two-year term, but uncounted absentee ballots may yet play a role in the final outcome. Likewise, the apparent Denise Ford victory over Democrat Michael Zapson for county legislator will not be official until absentee votes are counted, which is expected to happen by week's end.
However, that hasn't stemmed the excitement of the victorious ticket, even with the hard work they foresee ahead of them.
"It's going to be a lot of hard work," Hennessy said, "but I'm excited. We can't wait to get going."
How'd it happen?
Some observers say a confluence of events led to the stunning upset victory by the outnumbered GOP. According to former Long Beach Democratic leader Larry Elovich, the issue of overdevelopment rang true for many voters, especially in the West End, while the timing of the unexpectedly high school tax bills angered many residents, even though the City Council has nothing to do with school taxes or the county reassessment that resulted in unusually high bills this year.
"I thought the Republicans blamed the incumbents for the reassessment," Elovich said. "The council had nothing to do with the reassessment, or the classification of various entities that led to the major increases faced by condo and co-op owners. [But] the Democrats were never able to make the public aware that they weren't responsible. The Republicans brilliantly made them appear to be."
If tax bills hadn't gone out until after the election, Elovich believes, the result would have been different. But he also believes the GOP ran an excellent campaign that was not matched by the Democrats. The Coalition ticket's literature arrived in mail boxes more frequently and looked more professional than the Democrats' campaign mailings, he said.
Defeated Democratic Councilwoman Gina Guma also felt that the school tax bills hurt the incumbents. "I think there were a lot of misunderstandings," she said. "When people saw their [school] tax bills, they blamed the city."
Fellow defeated incumbent Scott Nigro agreed. "I think basically it came down to the tax issues," he said. "From what I'm hearing, that was the focal point of voters' anger. People in the co-ops and condos made a decision that somehow the city was responsible for the school tax."
Guma wished the new council members well and had no regrets about giving up a school board seat last spring for a vacant one on the City Council, however short-lived her tenure was. Likewise, Nigro said he enjoyed his time on the council. "I think we did an excellent job for the city. This will just give me more time to devote to my family and my [law] practice."
Changes brewing
For the victorious Coalition, the results just confirmed their beliefs that the public wanted change at City Hall. Just how much change comes is the fear of many top-level city workers.
"I believe there will be dramatic changes in City Hall," Elovich said. "The incoming council will want to put in many of their own supporters."
However, the council members-elect say that their only plans for the moment are to make a thorough review of how the city has been operating and determine what areas they may be able to implement cuts or changes to run the city better.
"I've heard all the rumors," Hennessy said. "Everybody has to put the rumors and hearsay aside. We're not going to replace one machine with another."
Sofield added, "We're not looking to come in and fire everybody. We're looking to run the government more efficiently."
One of the top administrators Democrats expect to see on the chopping block is Director of Operations Steve Polcer, the No. 2 man in the government behind the city manager. The GOP candidates have said they believe the city can do away with the director of operations position. As Polcer also happens to be the No. 2 man in the Democratic Party, many believe he'll be looking for new work soon, but the new council members say no one should rush to such judgments.
"I know [Polcer] personally, and like him personally," Sofield said. "I don't know that we need a director of operations position. But that doesn't mean we don't need him in the administration."
Another rumored target is Police Commissioner John Laffey. Some GOP supporters believed Laffey's transfer of Lt. Tom Sofield from the detective division, which he ran for a decade, to the patrol division, when Laffey took office following the 2001 election, was a retaliatory act against the Sofield family ordered by higher-ups. Lt. Sofield has a $20 million civil rights lawsuit pending against the city. The younger Sofield's law partner is handling the suit, though the councilman-elect himself insists he will take no part in any action involving the suit that may place him in a conflict of interest.
Furthermore, he and his running mates insist that each department will simply undergo an objective evaluation, not a bloodletting, and will let the facts of how each department is being run speak for themselves.
For his part, Councilman Denis Kelly, who defected from the Democrats to the Coalition a week before the election, says he stands fast behind the police commissioner. "He's one of the best things we have going," Kelly said. The new council members are certainly entitled to do a review, and he fully supports one, he said, but Laffey "has done an exceptional job," Kelly said. "The facts will speak for themselves."
As for the rest of the rumored firings, Kelly urged people to "take a step back, take a deep breath, and have a little faith in the system and in the people just elected." The Coalition, he said, doesn't want to be accused of the same political retribution they say they and their supporters suffered from two years ago. And besides, "Good people are very difficult to find," he added.
