Sparks fly amid rumored ouster of Long Beach's MLK Center

City Council members: no plans to remove organization from Riverside Blvd. building

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Hundreds of people packed Tuesday’s City Council meeting amid talk about the potential removal of the Long Beach Martin Luther King Jr. Center Inc. from its home of 35 years on Riverside Boulevard, though city officials quickly dismissed any claims that the organization was being forced out and said they were simply rumors.

MLK Center board Chairman James Hodge, 40, claimed that some council members had discussed potentially making the organization take part in a bid process in order to use the facility, and allowing other organizations the opportunity to occupy the building, at 615 Riverside Blvd.

“There was never a discussion,” said City Council President Len Torres, adding that this was the first he had heard about it. Other council members said that any talk of a bidding process or the organization’s possible removal was news to them.

Councilwoman Anissa Moore tried to dismiss what she called rumors after a flier reading “Help Save the Martin Luther King Center,” and claiming that the center was being forced out in two weeks, circulated before the meeting. “I heard from several members of the community that in two weeks, the MLK Inc. … would be asked to remove themselves from the building, and that was new information to me,” Moore said.

But Hodge, who addressed the council and appeared to be backed by hundreds of supporters, accused some council members of lying, including Vice President Anthony Eramo and Councilman Scott Mandel, and threatened to withdraw support for them when they run for re-election.

“It has been discussed among some council members, the removal of the MLK Center Inc., because it didn’t have support from the North Park community,” Hodge said after the meeting. “Nobody said that MLK would be kicked out in two weeks, but some of the council members said that they were told by another member that I would be kicked out as the board chair, and that the MLK Inc. needed to go through a bid process.”

Both Eramo and Mandel strongly denied claims that they lied, saying that such a conversation never took place. “We talked for quite a while, and there had been no discussion to remove MLK Inc. from the building,” Eramo told Hodge. “We talked about additional programming — that’s what you and I talked about.”

“Apparently, Mr. Hodge received some bad information, did not verify it and turned something that wasn’t even an issue into a major community concern,” Mandel said after the meeting.

The MLK Center is a nonprofit organization that has operated out of the Riverside Boulevard building since 1982, and leases it facility from the city, which owns the property. The center offers numerous educational and athletic programs, and works closely with several other organizations, ranging from the Long Beach school district to the Latino Civic Association. Many supporters told the council about the center’s significance in the community and the positive role it has played in their lives.

“[James Hodge] and others … around the MLK shaped me into the leader I am today,” said D’Andre Cohen, president of the center’s Youth Council. “The MLK opened my mind up, and showed me what my true ability really is. There is a lot of violence in my community, and most of the problems start at home … these kids come to the MLK Center each and every day to have a role model to look up to.”

Moore said that residents had been misinformed, and read an internal email addressed to Hodge from community leaders — and obtained by council members — expressing concern about the future direction of the center and how the city’s comprehensive plan would impact the community.

The email, obtained by the Herald, also included inquiries about the ongoing search for a deputy executive director; who the center’s current board members were; and the organization’s goals for 2017, among other issues.

“I want people to understand this is what the letter said — how did it become something else?” Moore asked.

Hodge also said that there had been talk of removing him as chairman. He claimed that Mandel and Eramo told him that Moore presented them with the email in order to show that he did not have support from the community, which Eramo said was not true.

“I said that I heard a rumor that people want to vote you out as board chair,” Eramo told Hodge. “That has nothing to do with the city.”

Some of those whose names are attached to the email, including Jacquetta Odom, chair of the Concerned Citizens of North Park and past chair of the MLK Center, emphasized that they never called for the removal of Hodge or others from the center.

“We never signed such a letter,” said Odom. “Me and my board were the first ones who opened the MLK Center. I have a lot of life, blood and tears from the MLK Center. I am standing here to let you know that we will fight for the MLK Center.”