Candidates Debate at Martin Luther King Center

The eight Long Beach candidates running for political office this fall took their campaign platforms to the Martin Luther King Center, where the second of three forums was held Monday evening.

The forum — sandwiched between the League of Women Voters’ Candidates Forum held at the Long Beach Library on Oct. 20, and the West End Neighbors Civic Association’s forum scheduled for Tuesday at the West End Community Center — was focused on issues affecting the North Park neighborhood, the site of the MLK Center on Riverside Boulevard.

Myrnissa Stone, past director at the MLK Center, moderated the forum that began with the two candidates vying for a two-year term in the 4th Legislative District race, Republican incumbent Denise Ford, who is seeking a fifth term, and first-time challenger Darlene Tangney, a Democrat who is a trustee on the Long Beach Board of Education.

Running on a platform that vows not to raise property taxes and to streamline government, Ford said that she has worked to consolidate county departments and correct environmental issues such as polluted bays, and looks to control taxes.

“We feel taxes are getting out of control and we have to start changing that trend,” Ford said.

As for her work in Long Beach, Ford pointed to funding she helped secure for new clearly-marked crosswalks on city streets, and her collaboration with North Park residents to help raise money for programs at local churches and non-religious organizations. 

“I’m proud that I was able to bring in some extra funding for a lot of the organizations,” Ford said.

She also anticipated particular criticism from her opponent, which Tangney voiced at last week’s forum, about the 47 percent pay raise she once voted to give Majority Leader and Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt.

“We did give it to him but a week later it was taken back,” Ford said, adding that no legislator has received a pay raise since the governing body was formed 16 years ago.

When Tangney took the microphone, she still leveled that criticism and also charged Ford with voting to enact $16 million in country fees and neglecting decades-long flooding in North Park.

The challenger contended that North Park “doesn’t get its fair share of Community Development funds,” pointed to, as examples, the city’s deteriorated water tower in North Park and the “lack of funding given to the MLK Center," she said.

“When elected, I will work with the city government to get the necessary funds, no excuses,” Tangney vowed.

While Ford and Tangney were only granted a few minutes each to present their basic platforms and a one opportunity each for rebuttals, the six candidates running in the at-large Long Beach City Council race gave opening and closing statements and answered several questions in between.

They are Council President Thomas Sofield Jr., Vice President Mona Goodman and second-time candidate Marvin Weiss, who are running on the Republican-Coalition ticket; and three Democrats, City Councilman Len Torres, second-time candidate Fran Adelson and newcomer Scott Mandel, who all addressed various issues that North Park residents raised about their neighborhood and city government.

Among these were brown fields, a request to form a civilian complaint review board, street flooding, racial diversity on the police force, Civil Service Commission-related cases, government-generated educational and employment opportunities, FEMA funds, recent fire department hires, and City Council pay.

The candidates will face off again at the third and final forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the West End Community Center, adjacent to West School on Maryland Avenue.