Long Beach Councilmen call for changes

Five months into their term, City Councilmen Len Torres and Mike Fagen are challenging how the city does business.

Elected in November, the councilmen said they have serious issues with the practices of bloc voting and holding private meetings before public sessions. They also said they have not been able to obtain the financial information necessary to make informed decisions.

City Manager Charles Theofan said that all council members receive a financial report every two weeks, but Torres said that he and Fagen want the raw data used to compile those reports. "This makes us able to make solid decisions about the financing in Long Beach," said Torres, adding that he has been denied this information even after filling out Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, requests.

“It is everything you could possibly want or need to know,” Theofan said of the semimonthly reports. “From time to time Mr. Torres and Mr. Fagen have asked for additional information some of which has been freely given, some they were told they had to FOIL.”

Council President Tom Sofield and Councilman John McLaughlin said they have been able to make informed decisions based on the reports. “If Fagen and Torres are unable to decipher them, they should have asked for help,” said Sofield.

Fagen said that as elected officials, they should not have to use the Freedom of Information Law to find information pertaining to the city's finances. “It's just remarkable that elected officials are being denied access to documents,” he said.

Torres and Fagen also took the city to task for the practice of bloc voting, in which members vote on all items on the agenda at once rather than individually. The practice was implemented when former Councilman Lenny Remo was president in 2006. “The primary reason for this implementation was to move the end of the meeting along, since most votes deal with routine matters and are unanimous yes votes,” said Sofield.

But if you do not approve of voting for the bloc, Torres said, “It appears that you're against everything.”