2026 Long Beach Mayoral Candidate Forum

Añadido: 2026-05-18

[00:01:59]Mhm.

[00:03:41]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.

[00:05:53]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.

[00:09:47]>> I ain't doing my friend.

[00:09:48]See you later.

[00:09:49]All right, see you again. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

[00:09:54]Hi.

[00:09:55]Hi, nice to meet you.

[00:10:39]I don't think this station is going to hold me today.

[00:10:41]>> [clears throat] >> They always make you sit next to me. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's it's It's fine.

[00:10:48]It'll be okay. They're going to put the police officer in the back and left us together and just start some drama, right? No, we're okay.

[00:10:54]We got no beef. Exactly. Rex is not here. That's right. That's the real beef, right?

[00:11:00]You brought us here.

[00:11:01]You made us You made me run.

[00:11:24]Or smell anything.

[00:11:33]I can't pack them.

[00:11:36]I'm going to put these.

[00:11:39]Don't worry, it's not acid.

[00:11:42]It might as well be.

[00:11:47]Okay, welcome everybody.

[00:11:50]In the interest of time, because we have a few candidates up here, we're going to go ahead and get started.

[00:11:57]Um hopefully our last candidate shows up. Hopefully she's not stuck in traffic. So, our candidates tonight are Ms. April Ronae. She is a write-in candidate.

[00:12:12]>> [applause] >> Mr. Chris Neeley.

[00:12:17]>> [applause] >> Mr. Joshua Rodriguez.

[00:12:23]Mr. Lee Golden.

[00:12:26]>> [applause] >> Mr. Oscar Cancio.

[00:12:30]>> [applause] >> And hopefully Terry Ms. Terry Rivers does make it through the traffic.

[00:12:38]So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm Diane Milkie of the League of Women Voters.

[00:12:43]Um we want to welcome all of you um to this forum.

[00:12:49]On behalf of the League of Women Voters Long Beach and the historic St. Anthony's Neighborhood Association, we want to thank you for taking the time to join us tonight and support civic engagement in our community by attending this forum.

[00:13:05]Your participation reflects the strong commitment Long Beach residents have to be an informed and engaged electorate.

[00:13:14]So, we really thank you for coming and taking the time out of your very busy [clears throat] lives.

[00:13:19]We also want to extend our sincere appreciation to the many generous donors and supporters from across the Long Beach community whose contributions help make this event possible.

[00:13:33]A very special thank you goes to the Grand Event Center for making this beautiful ballroom available for tonight's forum.

[00:13:40]>> [applause] >> And then we want to thank Level Up who's providing the audio services.

[00:13:49]>> [applause] >> We're grateful for our partnership with the Historic Saint Anthony Neighborhood Association and for the many volunteers who are helping host this community-sponsored event.

[00:14:03]The Saint Anth- The Saint Anthony neighborhood, which began forming around the church that was established in 1902, remains an important and an historic part of downtown Long Beach and continues to foster strong community relations today.

[00:14:21]We would also like to recognize the outstanding Saint Anthony High School Presidential Ambassadors, who are the students that you guys see here, who are assisting us this evening.

[00:14:34]>> [applause] >> So, the school, founded in 1920, has a strong tradition of preparing students for higher education and leadership roles throughout Long Beach and beyond.

[00:14:52]The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to encouraging informed and active participation in government.

[00:15:04]We do not support or oppose any political parties or candidates. Our mission is to empower voters and strengthen democracy through voter education, advocacy, and community community engagement.

[00:15:22]So, again, let's uh give our volunteers, partners, students, and supporters a well-deserved round of applause.

[00:15:30]>> [applause] >> So, tonight, we're going to hear the plans, ideas, and priorities for each mayoral candidate.

[00:15:43]If you If you have not done so yet, oh, hi.

[00:15:49]>> [applause] >> So, if you have not done so, we encourage you to write your questions for the candidates on the three 3x5 cards and hand it to one of our volunteers. We will collect all the cards and organize them to ensure that we are discussing a broad range of topics in the time we have available.

[00:16:14]The screeners will organize the questions into categories and avoid uh to avoid repetition. So, your question may be asked slightly different if there's multiple questions that are similar.

[00:16:27]Our screeners are Maggie Drazel, who is the president of the League of Women Voters Long Beach, and then >> [applause] >> Lillian Bayon, who has been Well, she's coming in right now.

[00:16:41]Um so, our moderator for this evening is Mr. Bill Lovelace. So, he's sitting right here.

[00:16:48]>> [applause] >> He was born and raised in Long Beach, and he's been a corporate DJ for over 40 years. So, you may recognize him from some of the parties that you've been to.

[00:17:01]He now is a reporter for the Long Beach Local News, and he will be moderating this event.

[00:17:08]So, just to let you know, we are using the League of Women Voters format. So, we ask you to hold your applause until the form is finished. So, once we start asking the questions, instead of clapping every time someone answers, we hope want you to hold it until the end.

[00:17:25]The candidates will have 2 minutes for an opening statement and a closing statement. And sitting in front here will be people who are timing you and you will see them hold up a paddle like that that may say 1 minute, 30 seconds. So, when it says stop, you have to stop. So, um So, the candidates are seated alphabetically by first name.

[00:17:53]Um and then when we start asking questions, we will alternate the candidates as to who answers first to make it fair for everybody.

[00:18:02]All candidates were asked to participate. The mayor was unable to attend due to a conflict with his schedule. So, we have the other six candidates here. So, thank you very much and so, without further ado, or further, we will get started. Um Bill will start the um um announce the candidates who's going to go first for their opening statements and then he'll start the questions. So, thank you so much.

[00:18:31]>> [applause] >> Oh, so I just wanted to let you know our timers are Deborah Hart Clark and one of our students, Nico Bayan.

[00:18:43]>> [applause] >> Thank you, Daniel.

[00:18:48]>> [clears throat] >> We have opening statements and I think you said 2 minutes. 2 minutes. 2 minutes just to let you know you have 2 minutes.

[00:18:59]Or they have a hook somebody in the >> [laughter] >> So, we're going to start with April.

[00:19:07]April, 2 minutes.

[00:19:10]>> [clears throat] >> Tell us about yourself, excuse me.

[00:19:13]Hello everyone. Thank you for being here tonight. My name is April Ramey.

[00:19:18]Um I'm honored to be a write-in candidate for mayor of Long Beach.

[00:19:22]So, take your little sticky ball on your way out. That's my name. That's how you spell it.

[00:19:26]Um I'm not a career politician. I spent 24 years in education.

[00:19:31]Um I was a teacher in ABC Unified School District. I was also a substitute teacher for 5 years here in um Long Beach before I got my own classroom. So, I guess 30 years total in education. I'm also a mother. I have two children. My son Christian is here tonight. He's 17. He's a student at Wilson High School, a junior. And I have a 20-year-old son who is at home um tonight. Uh I'm also an author. I've written two books. My first book is called The Hidden Garden and my second book is called Long Beach, Where Love Takes Root. I started my own company. It is a small imprint called Rose Women and Children Press.

[00:20:12]And I moved to Long Beach about 30 years ago to become a um to go to college.

[00:20:18]Um so, this campaign has been built through people, volunteers, families, conversations, community support, word of mouth. The same grassroots approach that I used while working alongside families to help pass healthcare legislation here in California.

[00:20:34]For me, that work began in a deeply personal way. My son was denied access to medically necessary treatment and suddenly I found myself navigating a healthcare system that felt overwhelming and impossible for many families.

[00:20:47]Like so many parents, I refused to give up.

[00:20:50]What started as fighting for my own child eventually grew into advocacy work alongside Long Beach families and Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal to help pass legislation expanding insurance coverage for California children and youth affected by autoimmune encephalitis, including PANS and while also working to improve access to care and educational support uh for families navigating these complex medical conditions.

[00:21:17]Thank you, Connie.

[00:21:17]>> thank you very much, and that is why I'm running for mayor. If you'd be so kind to pass the microphone over to our next candidate, that's uh Chris Chris Sweeney.

[00:21:27]Good. Okay.

[00:21:28]Hello, everybody. Uh my name is Chris Sweeney, and I wanted to thank everybody uh for showing up this evening. And I also want to congratulate all the candidates up here uh sitting next to me. And uh we're all in the same uh this room for one reason, cuz we love Long Beach. We want to see Long Beach better than what it is today. Uh and uh you know, I came up here two decades ago. I actually grew up in South Orange County.

[00:21:48]My dad was a blue-collar worker. My mom was a school teacher. Uh my mom actually migrated here from Costa Rica. And uh she's she's my half-mother, but she raised me from uh 2 years old all the way till I uh went to high uh college. I ended up in Long Beach going to Long Beach State. I ran track at Long Beach State about 20 lbs ago. Uh and I uh you know, I chose Long Beach to continue my dreams and build my dreams here. And uh so, I started my small business right nails, which is located in downtown Long Beach today. I started this from the ground up, literally from my house kitchen. I struggled. I you know, I grinded. It's literally a business that was started from the ground up. A ton of grit, tenacity, things that I learned being a college athlete. And uh you know, look, we're going to sit up here and talk about a lot of negative things that goes on in the city, but the city's incredible. You know, I want to be here another 20 years. There's a There's a ton of opportunity here. We have one of the most diverse communities in the nation, amazing universities, amazing community colleges. And uh I want to stay here another 20 years. I want to represent the people of Long Beach. I want to represent everyone in Long Beach. And I want to make Long Beach better than what it is today tomorrow. And uh you know, my name is Chris Sweeney, and I'm running for mayor of Long Beach. Thank you.

[00:22:57]Thank you, Chris. Pass the microphone to Josh.

[00:23:03]Good evening, everybody. Thank you for coming out. My name is Josh Rodriguez. I am a police officer, Marine Corps veteran, National Guard veteran. I hold a bachelor's degree in organizational leadership. I'm a father of three boys and a lovely wife at home right now watching a lot of those crazy kids.

[00:23:21]My platform is simple. I've been This is my second time running for mayor. Public safety being my number one issue because with public safety and quality of life, you don't have a city. Again, the city's lovely, but our government sucks and they fail at the the basics of what they're supposed to provide.

[00:23:38]We have less officers, 624 officers in Long Beach PD. We only have four motor officers for the entire city when we had 30 4 years ago.

[00:23:49]The first time I ran, we had 740 officers. Before COVID, we had 983.

[00:23:54]20 years ago, we had 1,300.

[00:23:57]Officers do not want to work here.

[00:23:59]So, that's why we have long response times, 5 minutes for priority calls.

[00:24:04]What are we going to do about it? So, my priorities are simple. We need to hire armed security that can patrol the residential neighborhoods, business neighborhoods, help detain suspects. We need to create a mandatory reporting system for all city employees. So, it would be a panic button they would press so we can get officers to respond there to a GPS location at at a faster way.

[00:24:25]Our homeless issue, we have 3,500 homeless people and you're going to hear a lot of policies and a lot of you know, other programs that we need to offer, but we don't have the money.

[00:24:33]We're in a 60 to 80 million-dollar deficit in the city. We don't have the money. We spend 144 million dollars on homelessness.

[00:24:40]The cost to house everyone in Long Beach would cost us 500 million to a billion dollars. We don't have the money. We need the help from the federal government, from the state government to help us because this is not just a Long Beach problem. This is a California issue. And as mayor, I would declare a state of emergency and ask for their help because we need the help. Because if we get Mayor Pratt in LA, we're going to get all the homeless people from there come here. Thank you.

[00:25:06]Okay. Thank you, Joshua. Next uh next up is Lee.

[00:25:10]Two minutes.

[00:25:12]Uh thank you to the league, and thank you to St. Anthony's.

[00:25:16]I've been hearing in the news about how Long Beach, in terms of our city charter, has what's called a weak mayor.

[00:25:21]Okay? They don't control the budget.

[00:25:23]They don't control the police. They don't even have a vote on the city council.

[00:25:27]So, what does the mayor have?

[00:25:29]The mayor has a voice.

[00:25:31]And I want us all tonight to think about how our current mayor chooses to use his voice.

[00:25:36]He's not here tonight using it to speak to you. Wherever he is with his scheduling conflict, I guarantee he's not using it to speak up for you.

[00:25:45]When our neighbors' rights were getting trampled on by ICE, his voice was silent.

[00:25:51]And while these corporate polluters use our port as their personal piggy bank, he cheers them on.

[00:25:57]And while thousands suffer in the streets from the humanitarian crisis of homelessness, while small businesses >> I was told that you cannot talk about someone who's not here.

[00:26:08]Are you serious about that? I think we do not want Um we want to hear your plans and ideas.

[00:26:16]They want to hear your plans and ideas.

[00:26:17]We don't want to hear you talking about somebody else's plans and Okay. Well, this is how I would use my voice. I'd use my voice to stand up for small business owners, to stand up for immigrants, to stand up for our creatures in the ocean, to stand up for our waters. I'd use it to stand up against the corporate interests using our town for their own good. And I'd use it to talk up against the AI war profiteers at Anduril Systems that are turning our town into a digital gun running operation. Okay, I can't talk about people who aren't here, but we all know who isn't here.

[00:26:50]Long Beach might have a weak mayor, constitutionally, but she is not a weak city and she deserves a strong voice.

[00:26:57]You're going to hear from some different voices tonight. You're going to hear from the voices of veterans, of mothers, of fathers, of educators, and you'll hear from me, whether you like it or not, a radical leftist. Okay? So, our voices will not be silenced and if we stand together, neither will yours.

[00:27:14]Thank you.

[00:27:15]Thank you, Lena.

[00:27:16]Next up is Oscar.

[00:27:19]Hi. Good evening, everybody. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you to the organizers.

[00:27:29]My name again is Oscar Cancio, one of the main mayoral candidates. I'm going to keep it simple with my platform. The main three things There's a lot more than three things that the need This city needs help in, but the main priorities I have for this city are one, public safety.

[00:27:45]Now, with public safety, I'm not talking about necessarily more police officers.

[00:27:49]Yes, we do need them, but I'm talking about more community policing. When's the last time you saw an officer get out of their car, walk the beat, get to know the neighbors? You have to build trust with the community in order to help enforce laws and have positive outcomes. So, community policing and bringing it back to the basics is absolutely important.

[00:28:11]Now, I had the privilege of riding the bus up here with a couple of residents, Andre Donadelle. Yay! So, I'm a big advocate of public transit. Part of the reason is because of the safety on the streets.

[00:28:23]Right now, we have close We've had close to 30 deaths, traffic-related deaths.

[00:28:30]Speeding, negligence, DUI. We are on pace to far exceed last year's most deadly year of close to 60 people passing on our roads.

[00:28:40]That cannot happen. So, we need safer roads, we need better investment in public transit, and in order to do that, we need a right side of the budget.

[00:28:48]We're projected to be in a deficit of 60 to 80 million dollars, and that's incredibly problematic. One of the first things, as Letha mentioned, you know, the mayor can't on day one get rid of people, but you can certainly have conversations with the city council to talk about talk about a city manager, because I know we can't talk about somebody that's not here, because that position gets paid half a million dollars, and we haven't seen the results of it. The data is not matching the narrative, folks. So, thanks again for being here, and we wish you the best of luck, Letha.

[00:29:19]Thank you, Oscar. Next up is Liane Rivers. I mean, Terry Rivers. Terry Rivers.

[00:29:26]>> Hi, my name is Terry Rivers. I'm a mother of three beautiful daughters. I also raised three of my nephews. My oldest daughter and my oldest nephew is here with me today.

[00:29:36]So, my lane will consist of child care.

[00:29:40]So, I've been a child care provider since the age of 26. This year will be my 21st year. Uh with doing child care, it taught me a lot with working with kids, and because that's my lane, I decided to start a nonprofit. It's called NACCP, National Association of Child Care Providers, helping other providers, because we have the passion, but a lot of us didn't have the business sense when starting an LLC or corporation, or doing handbooks or contracts. So, I teach handbooks and contracts.

[00:30:06]And I also started a marketplace app. It's like an apartments.com. So, if you put in a zip code, then all the child cares will come up around you. It's for child care providers. My love for children and the things that I do actually had me go to the White House. They invited me there for a proclamation signing of child care providers and health care workers. And I now that I'm out of my lane trying to become a mayor, I want to use that same tenacity with doing and reaching as far as I can in this position. The only reason why I decided to run because I feel like our current mayor is not doing what he needs to do. And every time I see an election come up every four years, and four years before that, and four years before that, even as the governors are running, you see the same complaints. Everybody say we're going to fix homelessness, we're going to fix affordable housing, we're going to make property We're going to do public safety. And they keep on saying the same things over and over again. And with us being in America, we haven't mastered not one thing. And I feel like the only way that we can master this is by training the children, giving them extended programs, making sure they have what they need. So, when they get older, their studies that are staying, if you train the kid and you give them the education that they need, they won't go to crime. They have high-paying jobs. We won't be looking at homelessness or affordable housing because we focus on our children.

[00:31:22]Thank you.

[00:31:24]Thank you, Jerry.

[00:31:26]Now, on with the questions. Remember, folks, you have 1 minute.

[00:31:30]And we're going to start with Chris Sweeney.

[00:31:34]And the first question is, what do you feel is the most important issue facing the city of Long Beach today?

[00:31:40]And how would residents measure your success?

[00:31:44]So, the most important issue today is our budget deficit that we're facing. Uh we have a $3.7 billion budget, and we're facing a $80 million deficit. We have all these great ideas and things we want to fix in our city, but we're not going to be able to accomplish any of that if we tackle the budget and the deficit that we're facing. I want to work directly with our city auditor. Uh we're one of very few cities that actually have our own internal auditor. She presents great ideas, suggestions. I've read her reports personally. And uh you know, to be a city that can, you know, handle all the issues that we're facing, whether it's homelessness, uh you know, we have an issue with our, you know, crime going on in our city, and then also, you know, uh you know, post-small business as well. I'm post-small business first. I want businesses to succeed. And uh in order for any of this to happen, we have to tackle the budget deficit that we're facing.

[00:32:34]Paul, thank you.

[00:32:35]>> [clears throat] >> Pardon me.

[00:32:37]Next up is Josh. you need me to reread the the question? Okay.

[00:32:41]Public safety is my number one concern in the city because that diminishes your quality of life. Without officers on the street or there lower response time, we're going to have higher deaths.

[00:32:51]Again, that's immediate to you. Again, your safety is my number one concern, especially as a resident of Long Beach.

[00:32:57]I have a a large family. I got three boys. It's important.

[00:33:01]We need more officers on the street.

[00:33:02]They already have the budget for it. So, we need to continue hiring uh officers for the city. And so, that will help drive back business into the city because we need the revenue from these businesses. If people don't want to set up shop here, they'd rather go to Seal Beach, Orange County because they feel safer there. That's what I want to bring here to Long Beach. Thank you.

[00:33:25]Thank you, Joshua. Next up is Lee.

[00:33:27]I judge the success of any society based on how well we take care of our most vulnerable.

[00:33:33]Last year, there was 3,500 people experiencing homelessness in the city.

[00:33:37]One of them was living in a car outside my house. I worked together with my city council, with the police, with local businesses, and my beautiful, beloved wife to find him a home. And he's in housing now.

[00:33:50]Next year, whomever's mayor, we're going to do that 3,499 more times.

[00:33:57]I'd like your help. Thank you.

[00:33:59]Thank you, Lee.

[00:34:01]Oscar.

[00:34:03]Outside of the budget, we need to have trust back in the city. Take a look at a local news article that came out a few days ago about how the state had to pressure the city of Long Beach to amend how public comment is handled.

[00:34:17]Our city council and the mayoral position, not the current mayor, makes it a point not to listen to residents.

[00:34:26]How many of you, you don't have to raise your hands. How many of you have emailed or called your city council person or tried to get word in with the mayor and then you've been turned down this time.

[00:34:35]I know I have. When I lived in District 2, that was a real issue. Now that I live in District 3, it's a real issue. I hear crime is going down, yet my building has been broken into seven times in the last 18 months in the Zafaria.

[00:34:49]We need trust back with the public. How do I measure the success?

[00:34:54]When the narrative fits the data and it matches up evenly cuz right now it doesn't.

[00:35:04]Thank [clears throat] you. Go ahead, Sherry. Can you read the question again?

[00:35:07]Just want it to be fresh.

[00:35:15]Okay, you read the question again. Oh, I didn't hear you the first time.

[00:35:18]What What do you feel is the most important issues facing the city of Long Beach today and how would you how would residents measure your success?

[00:35:30]So, the biggest thing in our city is transparency and a lot of people are saying where is the transparency and crime? Where's the transparency with homelessness? Where's the transparency with all the funds? Where are they going? So, no matter what, we need a data a data dashboard for each of those.

[00:35:45]That's when it comes to even with our small businesses, knowing where the money is going. But my biggest issue is the accidents that's happening on the street. I don't feel like it's safe. Every time I cross the street, I'm I'm worried. I'm like, "Lord, cover me."

[00:35:59]Like I'm really praying cuz I don't want a car to hit me.

[00:36:01]That's the biggest thing and then the Seventh District is the biggest thing too because of the pollution and the fumigation. I feel like anytime it's causing a life, that's a problem for us.

[00:36:10]We can fix homelessness, we can fix the crime, but you cannot bring a life back.

[00:36:15]So, when it comes to the pollution and how everybody is getting sick in the Seventh District and nothing is being done, I feel like that's that's a need that needs to be tackled. And how do how do you do that? With a dashboard of saying, "Hey, we got them all air filtration systems. We got them all monitors for their home, so then we could they could clock the pollution in the air."

[00:36:34]Thank you, Terry. Next up is uh April, can you pass the microphone down to her, please?

[00:36:41]Hi. So, my issue would be to protect the residents of Long Beach, and I hear what all the other mayoral candidates are saying. We need to have a voice in in in the mayor's office that speaks to the community, and I see that a lot as I go around meeting with families as I discuss health care issues. Uh I hear uh that every residents are frustrated they can't get into city hall, they don't know where their tax dollars are being spent, and I agree with the dashboard. I think we need that for all the projects that are being used all the projects that are being funded. We don't know where the money's going, and as an educator, we use dashboards all the time. We're all constantly using dashboards to track data, so I don't see why we can't do the same thing to track the money. Thank you.

[00:37:30]Thank you, April.

[00:37:31]>> [clears throat] >> The next question is Long Beach is home to many immigrant those documented and undocumented. How will you handle the presence of ICE here in the city of Long Beach, and that goes to Joshua first.

[00:37:48]Ladies and gentlemen, I have zero tolerance for criminality. So, we have to work with the federal and law enforcement. So, if we have someone in our custody in our jails that is already arrested and they're undocumented, they need to be released to ICE, period. I would work with the federal administration to back down on raids because that's their stance right now anyway. They want to make sure they won't touch the workers.

[00:38:13]We simply just want the criminals out of here. We can no longer tolerate this behavior here, especially if you're a guest in our nation.

[00:38:21]We have to enforce our law. Again, I want you all to feel safe and there's only one way of doing that is by having law enforcement do their jobs. Thank you.

[00:38:31]Thank you. Next up, please.

[00:38:35]If it was up to me, I'd tell Long Beach police to arrest every ICE member in the city as a domestic terrorist and drop them off at the porch of the nearest FBI office. But as I said, the mayor isn't in charge of the police, but he is in charge of the police oversight commission. So what I would do is I would commandeer a couple of police helicopters, which we have about a million dollars in the budget for, and take some cameras, kind of like these, and I'd set up a live feed on the city website. We take [clears throat] the choppers, if you want to do a ride-along, I'll take you on one. Chris, I know you like ride-alongs. And we're going to follow these guys around the city and make sure that everyone knows where they are.

[00:39:15]Thank you. Oscar I agree with Joshua that we need to need to get rid of the criminals and the criminals are the ICE agents. They need to get out. We need to abolish them.

[00:39:24]Absolutely. Now, what I wouldn't do is put a banner in a building saying ICE out and then turn my back on the residents and sign these mega contracts with corporations that are supporting ICE. They're the most the poorly trained agency in the federal government. There are other agencies that make fun of them on the daily. They have to be abolished.

[00:39:48]We need to unfortunately work with our federal partners in order to do that.

[00:39:52]And in order to do that, we have to have uncomfortable conversations with them.

[00:39:55]We have to be the adults in the room because they are terrorizing our community. I am the son of immigrant parents. I am very fortunate. This is a privilege. They came here legally, but not everybody has that privilege to manage the system. So yes, we do need to get rid of the criminals and the criminals are the ICE agents that are terrorizing our community.

[00:40:15]Jerry.

[00:40:17]Okay, so I went to this meeting with Lena Gonzalez and she's one of our senators. She's right here in Long Beach and she does meetings all the time with Odaly and other programs. So, I will get with other organizations because I keep on finding out new information, you guys. I am no politician, okay? So, all of this stuff is coming to me like so fresh. And so, the information that I found out that she does and what her organization do and all these other organizations, I wouldn't know the first thing about getting a a citizenship because I didn't have that issue. And then I'm hearing there's like over 200 citizens that either get a temporary, a permanent, a six-month, a work. She knows. The organizations that they work with, they know. So, I will meet with them as far as immigration to help them get their citizenship because they do add to our working sector. They do add to our standard. They They do add to our economy. And then I will make sure that everybody know when ICE is on the scene.

[00:41:11]April?

[00:41:15]I'm in agreement. We need to abolish ICE and I spent my 24 years in education in primary education and I have to tell you kids carry more than backpacks into school. They carry stress and housing insecurity, but they carry fear from ICE. I said I was teaching up until this school year and it is I taught in Artesia at a title one school and these kids are frightened and the parents are frightened and when ICE comes, the kids don't come to school. So, we need a support system. And I remember years ago when we had raids here in Long Beach, we had dads standing in corners and and community coming out and we need to have some sort of whistleblowing support system to get our community out when we do have raids with ICE, but we what every everything we can do to get out ICE out of our communities we need to do. We need to work with our partners. We need to go to nonprofits and we need to work with our neighbors. But, as I said, we cannot allow our children go go in fear or parents send their kids to school in fear any longer. ICE needs to go. Thank you.

[00:42:18]So, this all comes down to a public safety matter. You know, everybody in the city deserves to walk around their communities feeling safe, whether they're going to their schools, their workplaces, uh you know, their favorite restaurants.

[00:42:28]I don't agree with indiscriminate stops in our city. I don't agree fear force within our cities. Uh you know, I will ensure that families that are affected by this that understand their rights, their constitutional rights, that they understand their chemo due process. And also, we have the Long Beach Value Act that was created in 2018. I want to grow up the Long Beach Value Act and make sure that families understand if they were affected by this, they know what their rights are, what they can do, uh you know, all the resources that are available through them, through the Long Beach Value Act. Uh and again, I don't agree with indiscriminate stops in our city. And again, we don't even have enough officers to actually work with ICE agents. And uh I know temporarily now, we don't they don't even operate with ICE uh from what I was told directly. Thank you.

[00:43:11]Thank you. Our next question is, "Voter engagement is low. How can you encourage a higher voter turnout?" Lee.

[00:43:23]Well, across the country, uneducated voters are up, as we can all see, but we'll try to do a little bit about that.

[00:43:29]Look, here's the thing. If I was a voter, I wouldn't trust anyone to put their name next to a ballot, frankly. So, here's the thing. How do we increase voter engagement? It's very simple.

[00:43:42]We tell the truth.

[00:43:44]All these people up here, we're telling the truth tonight. I don't see that a lot.

[00:43:48]We can increase voter engagement by treat by candidates treating each other with the same respect that we've treated each other here throughout these last few weeks. We increase voter engagement by offering policies that actually help people find homes, that actually help people find security, that actually help create a equitable society.

[00:44:12]That's how we engage voters. We offer them something instead of the same old lies and BS.

[00:44:19]Arthur.

[00:44:21]One of the nicest compliments/criticisms I received was about my website that it just had too much information about not myself and how to get people registered when the actual date of voting is, how you can go ahead and turn out to the polls. We need more of that. We need more transparency. I agree with Jerry that I'm learning something new every day about the city of Long Beach and the other nine other eight districts. I live in district three.

[00:44:45]Uh but we need that transparency and trust with the community. In order to do that, we need to engage voters and meet them where they're at. You can hold events at a park. You can hold events at city hall. But if you're not pounding the pavement and getting out there and talking to voters and understanding them, that's going to be problematic. You have to be an excellent listener.

[00:45:03]Part of what I do, I'm school relations manager. And part of what I do is interviewing students for a living. I will interview residents and really listen to what the issues are so we can engage them and make sure they vote.

[00:45:13]Well, yes, I absolutely respect all the candidates here and it's been a pleasure getting to know you all.

[00:45:20]Okay, so what I've learned in this whole process is that you do have a platform. And even before I decided to run for mayor, everybody would come to me and ask me questions about do you know this about business? How do I start this? How do I do this? Now that I'm running for mayor, I have so many things in my inbox. What about this? What about So, I think it's more so of sharing the knowledge. Most of these measures that people are signing, please stop signing these petitions if you're not reading them, okay? But most of the stuff is people are not understanding it. So, give them the information. So, I go on my Instagram and I'll tell them, "Hey, we got this type of tax going on. This is what's happening. Do not vote if you don't want your high higher taxes, vote Vote on measure ER. Vote no on measure ER.

[00:46:03]And so then I'll just use that or oh, what changes can a mayor make as far as policy and rent control? Well, we could change this or then I try to be as informative as possible on the platform that I have.

[00:46:15]April.

[00:46:19]Voter engagement is low. How can you encourage a higher voter turnout?

[00:46:24]Um coalition building. That's what I did to get the health care law passed in California. So I would start with just starting right with my neighbor. Start with my block and and spread outward. We need to go to our community and speak to each other again. We're not talking to one another. Everybody's on social media. We need to open up dialogue. I know with the with the families I've spoken to and I know with health care but they're all feeling the same way.

[00:46:52]They're not being heard by our government, not by our city hall. And we need to bring communication back. We need a mayor who can be that bridge. And once we get that coalition, we can engage the voters. I know I sit on a youth board for Pan Pacific Alliance and they're very engaged. Youth want to come out and vote. They want to get engaged in civics. We need to give them a platform and we need to get into our communities and word of mouth and speaking to each other again. That's how we engage voters and that's how we get out the vote.

[00:47:25]Thank you.

[00:47:27]Kristin.

[00:47:28]So as a small business owner I've been to council meetings multiple times and you know, voice our concerns not just representing small businesses but you know, as residents as well. And our concerns go in one ear out the other.

[00:47:39]It's beyond frustrating. It's like our council does not listen to our concerns and I'm running my campaign boots on the ground. I'm you know, I'm visiting the shelters. I did a 12-hour ride along with our PDR. There's a 24-hour schedule fire department ride along next week. I want to hear what the people want for their communities. I want to represent Long Beach and feel like the people that are currently leading our city right now, they're not representing us the way we want to be represented.

[00:48:04]We just want to be heard, we want to vote, and that's it.

[00:48:08]Joshua.

[00:48:10]Only 18 to 26% of Long Beach resident registered voters vote in Long Beach.

[00:48:16]And you can only do so much to convince people to actually care about the the city. We're in a pretty dire, you know, dire straits right now. And I'm going to have a job to do. And safety is my number one thing. I will be out there on my feet at least two districts every single day engaging people, hopefully having them engaged and caring about what the condition of the city is.

[00:48:40]That's all I can really do. For the last six years I've been talking to voters, residents, and everyone complains, but nobody wants to wants to sign up or or vote. They don't read any of the tax measures. They they keep voting yes for some reason I I don't understand. And we have the highest taxes here. So, all I can ask is for you to engage your your fellow neighbors, and I'll do the same.

[00:49:02]Thank you.

[00:49:05]Officer is going to start the next question.

[00:49:08]>> [clears throat] >> This city faces ongoing budget budget pressures and structural deficits. What would your approach be to balancing the budget?

[00:49:18]Are there any city programs, spending priorities which you'd like to reduce, expand, or modify modify?

[00:49:25]Absolutely. Right now, over 70% of our general fund is being spent on salaries at City Hall. I'm talking about pensions, salaries, time off. That's problematic. It has to start there. So, while the mayor can't on day one go ahead and get rid of 75 positions, they can certainly work collaboratively with the City Hall to figure out what needs to be cut. Cuz unfortunately, needs to be cut. Now, we need to do it in a humane way. I've been part of executive leadership teams during COVID where we had to do that. It was an incredibly uncomfortable thing to do and very difficult thing to do.

[00:50:00]You know, these are people that have to put food on their table, pay rent, pay their mortgage.

[00:50:04]But, we have to sacrifice those small things in order for the better good of the entire city. That's one of the main things I would do is make sure we lessen that and crunch the numbers to make sure that we're coming up on top of our budget because everything else that we talked about, we can't do without the right budget.

[00:50:24]Okay, so of course it's an audit.

[00:50:26]Um Okay, I'm going to go to the meeting.

[00:50:29]Okay, so of course there's an audit, but it's a zero-based approach to where you require all the departments to account for all the all the spending so we can see where the waste is. Um there's a direct connect that the city has right now that they pay people out for retail theft every week. And on that list, you can go to the agenda and they have it every Tuesday, somebody got paid $20 million. Now, what type of retail theft is that?

[00:50:56]So, I don't I don't really believe that there is a a deficit. I just think there's mismanagement of funds and somebody is stealing the money, okay?

[00:51:04]So, there's an audit and there will be a zero-based approach.

[00:51:10]April.

[00:51:14]Um the budget is such a huge concern for our city. Um it is 80 million dollars 61 to 80 million dollars and yeah, when I get in first thing is mayor, we're going to audit, of course, but we also need to look at the contracts. I mean, there are so many contracts that are going out to nonprofits and whatnot. We need to look at those numbers, too. And after audits, we go into departments and see where the waste is. And what whatever we can do to eliminate uh waste is what we're going to do, but I believe we need to keep people.

[00:51:49]Um, I do not want to lay off workers, but I will look at where we can save money. We do this in education to save teachers. We start looking at the non-essentials, and people are always going to be essential.

[00:52:02]So, we'll look at the audits, we'll look at the contracts, and I'll work with city the city council, and, uh, the city manager to make sure that we're we're using our tax fair dollars efficiently, and that our residents are aware of where the money's going.

[00:52:21]So, I would work directly with our city auditor. Uh, you know, there's millions of dollars being left on the table, and I would find where that money is. Uh, we're also wastefully spending money, our tax-paying dollars, and we're getting penalized for the waste wasted money being spent. Look what happened with First Step Shelter, nearly $68 million going to these shelters. One particular, $21 million in a year and a half being open, they've only successfully housed six people. That's a failed system right there. Uh, all the city projects that we have going on, we're not penalizing these contractors.

[00:52:50]We need to start penalizing because we're the ones being penalized. And on top of that, you know, impact fees.

[00:52:56]We're not charging these major developers the impact fees that we should be charging them. We're leaving millions and millions of dollars on the table for not charging developers their impact fees. And then, streamline businesses to open up. Let's Let's generate natural sales tax revenue.

[00:53:09]Let's businesses open up. It shouldn't take two to three years for a small business to open up in our city.

[00:53:19]Even with business back, we won't have enough money to right-size the budget.

[00:53:23]Again, 60 to 80 million dollars for the next five years in a deficit, so this is a big problem. We need to look at what we've done. We've hired 600 to 800 new employees in the last 10 years. And what services have you received? None. We need to fire bureaucrats, we need to fire middle managers. We need to see who's not doing their job and they need to go because we owe it to the residents of Long Beach that we spend the money that you give us to make sure all your services are still working.

[00:53:53]It has to It has to stop. We need to recall all the money from the nonprofits and audit everything. The books need to be open and I will be doing doing that day one. Thank you.

[00:54:07]When hundreds of billions of dollars are going to more pork than outside corporate interests and we're still $80 million short, something's gravely wrong. It's time for us to grease our palms, folks, because they've been greasing their palms long enough. All right, Anduril Systems, whose lattice targeting system is currently being used by the Trump administration to bomb my wife's cousins in Iran to never meet into the Stone Age. I'll start by taxing them into the Stone Age. Then I'm going to call the city attorney and I'm going to ask her to sue the state attorney for the money that we need to clean up our waters and help our homeless, folks.

[00:54:42]I'm not going to raise your taxes because we're paying enough.

[00:54:47]But it's time to grease our palms, folks. The days of the sweetheart deals for the outside businesses are over.

[00:54:53]It's time for sweetheart deals for you and for small business owners.

[00:54:59]Well, thank you.

[00:55:00]>> [clears throat] >> The next question is a interesting question that's coming up uh in 2028 and we're going to start with um Terry. And the question is Folks, we're going to be on the world stage for the 2028 Olympics.

[00:55:14]How do you envision that outcome and what will you do to prepare, Terry?

[00:55:22]A man first.

[00:55:25]Okay, well, I feel like there's already funds because if you guys already know how our city is running, they love cutting ribbons and they love doing, you know, photos. So, that money is there because they want to be in front of the camera. So, how to prepare with I don't know if you guys know, but years ago there used to be a round It's called a roundabout to where it was like free in the city. You just get on it and it would drop you off in Long Beach and then they had trams down the promenade that you could just go all the way down the shoreline and come back. So, the main thing that's the issue here will be transportation in the city when it comes to that. I want it to be a free roundabout to where you just go That should be the only thing on the street.

[00:56:06]Everybody else there should be no parking. Everybody should take the roundabout and take the tram, okay?

[00:56:10]Because it's going to get congested and it's going to be a lot of tickets and it's it's just not going to work if we don't figure out the transportation part.

[00:56:19]April.

[00:56:23]So, there's going to be a lot of money coming in for the 2028 Olympics and we need to make sure that we are honest with ourselves and the taxpayers of where that money's going. And what I want to do is make sure not that we're not only improving the downtown area and the areas for the Olympics, but we're bringing the renovations into the neighborhood. We need to fix our streets. We need to fix our sidewalks.

[00:56:45]And we need to make sure that whatever we do for the Olympics it carries on for our neighborhoods, for our communities.

[00:56:51]We can't just focus on that area and forget about what's happening elsewhere.

[00:56:56]So, for LA yeah, there's federal money coming in. We have money coming into the city. There's grants. There's There's all kinds of revenue. So, we just have to make sure that it's being equally spread out across the city and not just staying in one location. Thank you.

[00:57:12]So, I've been a member of Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Committee for six years and we work directly with LA 2028 and LA 2028 is a nonprofit organization. There's a ton of money that we can use and you know, borrow from LA 2028 to help the city succeed with the Olympics. And also, there's a ton of small businesses that can flourish with the Olympics coming here.

[00:57:33]Uh we don't have a committee here in the city uh to let businesses know how they can succeed from these opportunities that are available. Uh we'll make sure that, you know, small businesses here have those same opportunities that other businesses in LA do. And then also, you know, transportation. Free transportation throughout the city for, you know, people that are involved, you know, with that living within Long within Long Beach. And then uh you know, let's limit the amount of traffic that's on our freeways. Limit the amount of you know, the the trailers and the the trucks with the trailers limiting on their time on the freeways. And then go back to COVID hours. Let's go work from home. Let's uh let's regulate the the amount of people that are on the streets. Uh you know, let's limit all the traffic that we have in the city.

[00:58:15]Frankly, I don't care about the Olympics because it's going to be an embarrassment.

[00:58:19]Uh our infrastructure is already crumbling. We don't have enough officers. My focus is going to be on the residents. We have to take care of you first. We have to make sure the roads are fixed, that our the erosion stops on our beaches, that we clean up our city.

[00:58:31]And then whoever shows to our city, what I want them to have a good time and be safe. And I would hope that they would use our bus system or the the MTA line to get here. But again, you can't force that. So, all all I can do is focus on you. And that's where matters to me the most because no matter what happens after the Olympics, it's going to be a disaster.

[00:58:52]After people leave, every city that I've been to that's held an Olympics, every country I've been to, all gone, and they're devastated after. Their infrastructure is worse off. So, I'm going to focus on you. That's all that matters.

[00:59:08]I think of the Olympics, I think of two things.

[00:59:11]Think 1936 when fascism was on the rise in this world like it is today.

[00:59:16]I think of Jesse Owens showing the white supremacists and the Nazis that their ideological ideology would be stopped. But I also think about Athens 20 years ago and how their city was basically destroyed by the Olympics, how it didn't bring anything. And as I sit here and over the past couple days I've been hearing what Chris has to say and his work in the sports entertainment community here, and uh I like what he has to say. So, when I'm mayor, I'm going to put him in charge of my Olympic committee. Thank >> [laughter] >> This question keeps me up at night, and it's because I'm really nervous regarding the infrastructure. Right now, we don't have the infrastructure to support more than 10 events, and that is really problematic. If you're looking at the traffic accidents, the traffic that we have here, just imagine when thousands, thousands, and hundreds of thousands of residents from outside of Long Beach come to visit our beautiful city for these events. It makes me nervous. Uh they've already bundled a lot of things. I mean, $5,000 for a ticket to see the closing ceremonies?

[01:00:18]It's not equitable, it's not affordable, so we need to take a close look at why it's being rushed. Take a look at the infrastructure problems already that we have with things like Colorado Lagoon, Stearns, Bellflower. Those are incredibly problematic. Delays, delays, delays. How can we expect the current administration to figure things out when we have just 2 years to go? It's going to be problematic, but opportunity, we have to find a solution. It has to happen.

[01:00:46]Well, thank you.

[01:00:47]That's all the time we have for the questions, but we're going to give them 2 minutes for closing, and after that, these fine candidates are going to be around to answer any questions personally, right?

[01:01:01]Okay, we're going to start from the top with Inflo.

[01:01:08]Thank you again everyone who came out tonight, and thank you to the organizers for hosting this forum.

[01:01:15]I decided to run for mayor because I love Long Beach. This is my home. My children go to school here, and like so many residents, I care deeply about the future we're building for the next generation.

[01:01:27]Throughout this campaign, I've heard many of the same concerns from people across our city. Residents want safer neighborhoods, cleaner streets, greater accountability, and leadership that feels connected to the community.

[01:01:39]I'm not a career politician. I'm a former teacher, a mother, an advocate, an author, and a small business owner who has spent more than two decades working directly with children, families, educators, and working people in our community.

[01:01:55]Through both my professional and advocacy work, I've seen firsthand how government decisions impact everyday families. That experience led me to work alongside Long Beach families and Assembly member Josh Lowenthal to help pass legislation supporting children and families affected by autoimmune encephalitis, including PANS and PANDAS, while also advocating for better support and access to care. And that law passed and went into effect January 1st of 2025.

[01:02:25]And what I learned through all that work is simple. People want leadership that listens, communicates honestly, and stays accessible, and remains connected to the everyday realities facing the people in our community.

[01:02:38]Long Beach is filled with hardworking, creative, and resilient people, and I believe city leader- leadership should reflect that same spirit.

[01:02:47]I'm running because I love Long Beach, and it deserves practical leadership that brings people together, focuses on real solutions, and never loses sight of the community it serves.

[01:02:58]Thank you again for being here tonight.

[01:03:01]My name is April Romney. I'm a write-in candidate for mayor. I appreciate uh thank you again. Good night.

[01:03:11]>> [applause] >> Uh again, I want to say thank you to everyone who showed up tonight. And uh again, congratulations to all the candidates sitting up here with me. Uh you know, we love this city. Again, I want to see this city better than what it is. And uh I truly care about the people sitting here and outside these walls. As a mayor, I want to represent everyone. I don't care what your religious background is. I don't care what your political views are, your sexual identity, your your immigration status. As a mayor, you represent everyone in this city. And I'm going to fight for everyone in this city. I've always been a fighter. I've always been a person of promise and a person of action. And you know, my small business, that's how it started. Uh during the fires, I I put my my my whole entire time out there just being of service to people. And I want to continue to do that. And I want to serve the people of Long Beach. But again, listen. I feel like we don't have leadership that listens and uses common sense. And I want to be that person and that voice and fight for everyone in this room and outside this room. And that's what I want to do as this as the mayor of Long Beach. And I'll be boots on the ground, actively involved, going to small businesses, not just Small Business Saturday. I want to go and visit the schools. I want to hear the teachers' concerns. You know, I I don't firefighters shouldn't be going on 25 calls a day. You know, our police officers shouldn't be, you know, so much hatred on our streets. I I don't want so much division that's going on in our city. I want us all to be together. Long Beach is one, and Long Beach is home.

[01:04:31]>> [applause] >> Ladies and gentlemen, I'm leaving my 14-year pension on the table.

[01:04:40]I lose all of my certifications if I become your mayor. I have to do a good job.

[01:04:45]Public safety is the number one concern in this city. And it's important. And everyone up here, they've never uh enforced the law.

[01:04:55]I enforce policies and the law, and none of them work.

[01:04:59]We have to take a common sense route to fix the issues in the city.

[01:05:05]Because if we're going to continue spiraling into an uncontrollable tailspin, and it has to stop.

[01:05:12]So, we fix the crime in the city.

[01:05:15]We fix the homelessness in the city because we need the help.

[01:05:19]We're only inheriting the problems from everybody else. If we continue to tolerate letting criminals here, allowing people to send their homeless here, we can't serve everyone. We need to serve you first. We need to serve your families first. That's what matters.

[01:05:35]We all pay a lot to this system to live in paradise.

[01:05:39]And it's being destroyed from the inside out.

[01:05:43]Our city government has one job, and it's to make sure that you're safe.

[01:05:50]And they're not doing that.

[01:05:52]That's all I can offer you.

[01:05:54]And win or lose, I'll be here again.

[01:05:56]Over and over again.

[01:05:58]Warning you of the same things. Public safety, public safety, public safety.

[01:06:02]People go to Seal Beach over less taxes to feel safe. Their sidewalks are pressure washed for a reason.

[01:06:09]Because they actually spend their money on the things that matter for quality of life in the city.

[01:06:14]You rarely see cops there because they're probably sitting at a donut shop, right?

[01:06:19]That's what we want for you. We want you to be at peace.

[01:06:22]And that's what I'm going to do for you as your mayor. Thank you.

[01:06:27]>> [applause] >> Um I found out my wife found out this week uh that she lost a family member, her cousin, to gun violence.

[01:06:40]And when we read the obituary, we found out something that we didn't know about her.

[01:06:46]She was a member of the League of Women Voters, the Indiana chapter.

[01:06:54]I said enough tonight.

[01:06:57]I just want to dedicate whatever is left of my time to Ellen, to her voice, and to the voice of all the women voters, the ones that died for the right, and the women voters of tomorrow, we hear you. You won't be silenced.

[01:07:32]Well, thank you again so much everybody for being here.

[01:07:40]It's your free time and you came here today, so clearly you all care about Long Beach just as much as we do.

[01:07:46]We're tired of this status quo. We want change. We want things to happen. And in order to do that, we need to rebuild trust with the community. We need to do that by pounding the pavement and getting to know one another, talking to residents on the bus, making sure that we're engaging with one another and bringing the temperature down. We're in a very precarious time in our country right now. There's a lot going on with hate speech. There's a lot going on with violence. Let's bring it back down to the small steps. I invite you to have coffee with me. Often times you can see me in District 3, at Cañadas, on a Thursday or Friday evening enjoying some Mexican food, or over at Good Time enjoying a delicious breakfast burrito.

[01:08:25]Stop by and say hello, and let's talk.

[01:08:28]The truth of the matter is that we're not going to agree on absolutely everything, but we're all passionate about our city. And you know how we're passionate about our city?

[01:08:37]Years ago, when they had a performance on the beach to promote the 2020 Olympics, they called us Venice Beach.

[01:08:44]Do you remember that?

[01:08:46]Do you remember how we all got up and said, "This is Long Beach. What is wrong with you? Respect that." I love that we all have a chip on our shoulder. I love that we all rally together. I love that many of us will rally against ICE. I love our police enforcement.

[01:09:04]I'm a veteran in the United States Army Reserve, so I appreciate the service of others, especially our Marines over here.

[01:09:10]I want to make sure to get to know the different residents.

[01:09:13]And by doing that, we need to make sure that we start up young. So, thank you to the ambassadors for being here, cuz that's absolutely important.

[01:09:22]That gives me so much hope, cuz you're going to make our city and our country better.

[01:09:27]Thank you, April, for being a school teacher. That's absolutely important.

[01:09:30]They're not paid enough.

[01:09:31]Our nurses are not paid enough.

[01:09:34]We need to pay them cuz they become much better. Thank you.

[01:09:38]>> [applause] >> Okay, so everything that's going on with the election is affecting us all. When I say it's affecting us all, it's affecting us all. When it comes to our colon, that's our cost of living adjustment, it goes up by 2.8% every year, but yet your rent will be increased by 8%. So, if there's over 42,000 citizens and 65 and over, that gets Social Security, you know what that's telling them? Telling them that they're going to be out on the street in a second. And that's Long Beach. That's Long Beach, and that's sad. That's sad.

[01:10:11]And we already have 60% renters. If this measure ER pass, that's going to hurt the businesses. The people aren't going to go outside and start shopping. They're not going to shop within our city. So, that's going to hurt the businesses. Uh we have 5,000 kids graduating every year, don't know where they're going to go. That's another unhoused, or what are they What are they doing? We're not really focused on the people in the city. Everything is a money grab. So, I hope that not only we're using our platform to say vote, vote, vote, but I hope you guys are using your voices out there, too.

[01:10:44]Telling everybody on your media, telling your neighbors, "Hey, it's time for us to vote." Don't just vote for your favorite mayor. Don't just vote for your favorite governor, but please look at the superintendents, look at the measures, because it's affecting us all.

[01:10:56]Right now, our taxes are at 10.5. I was just at a I was just at a concert at the symphony and almost didn't want to buy something because of my taxes.

[01:11:05]I almost left it there and I was like, you know what? Okay, you're out. You're having fun. I had to really tell myself make the purchase. But that's what we're up against right now, trying to see if we really want to waste money or not.

[01:11:17]Because right now, if if you guys go yes on Measure Y, we're going to be wasting a lot of money, okay? But um you could if whatever you didn't hear here, I'm sure that I spoke about it on my Instagram platform. So, you can follow me at Terri Rivers for mayor, Terri Rivers for Long Beach mayor on Instagram. Thank you, guys.

[01:11:37]>> [applause] >> I'd like to thank the candidates for for being up here and I think they deserve a big round of applause.

[01:11:46]>> [applause] >> So, we'll turn over the microphones back to Diane for the Women's Legal Voters.

[01:11:55]Thank you, Diane, for everything So, on behalf of St. Anthony's Neighborhood Association and the League of Women Voters, we want to thank the candidates for running and for coming here this evening.

[01:12:14]You guys had amazing questions and unfortunately, because of time constraints, we could only get to maybe a quarter of them. So, it wasn't that we didn't like your question. We just ran out of We only had a strict amount of time.

[01:12:27]Um we wanted to thank our timekeepers and our question sorters. And thank you so much for being a wonderful audience.

[01:12:36]Um and we just want to remind you to vote on June 2nd.

[01:12:42]Thank you for coming.

[01:12:44]>> [applause] >> How are you feeling?

[01:13:34]Okay.