Sept. 4 is LBUSD’s First Day of School See pages 10 and 11
Signal T
Vol. 35 No. 12
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Artwork by Gail Werner See page 12
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August 23, 2013
SERVING BIXBY KNOLLS, CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS, LOS CERRITOS, WRIGLEY AND THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
8th District residents weigh in on LB budget as city officials project $3.5-million surplus
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
Expunging a criminal history won’t erase the past, but workshop offers job-seekers chance to move forward
Cory Bilicko/Signal Tribune
Sean Belk/Signal Tribune
Eighth District Long Beach City Councilmember Al Austin leads a budget meeting at the Expo Arts Center in Bixby Knolls on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Sean Belk
or significant reductions in services next fiscal year. On top of that, officials are planning to make $45 million worth of investments in streets, sidewalks, parks and libraries after coming into a windfall of “onetime” revenue. That’s a stark contrast to the sit-
uation last year, when city management was planning to make harsh cuts to General Fund services, including police and fire departments. “What a difference a year makes,” said 8th District Long
according to city staff. The new plan comes after Signal Hill, Cerritos and Downey objected to a proposal brought forward in 2009 by a group of seven water-rights holders in mediation with WRD. The cities claimed that the initial plan would have given large pumpers more control over water-storage projects and essentially driven up water prices. “This has been a long time coming,” said Signal Hill City Manager Ken Farfsing. “If we could move forward with this, we could at least put to bed or put to rest one of the litigations we have against WRD.” Signal Hill City Attorney David Aleshire said the City gave up some entitlements but the new water-storage plan was made as a compromise and, if approved, would be beneficial to all parties involved. “We had to start negotiating with the other side, and we had to make some compromises,” he said. “I think the WRD
role is a little more than what we wanted it to be, but it’s not what it would have been under the old proposal.” Aleshire added that the new agreement doesn’t settle disputes regarding another lawsuit by Signal Hill, Cerritos and Downey against WRD that claims the water agency did not follow state law in establishing its water-replenishment rate in recent years. While a final judgment has not been issued, a judge has so far ruled twice that WRD did not follow Proposition 218, a law approved by voters in 1996 that requires governments to notify property owners and give them the right to protest any proposed increases in assessments and taxes before they’re voted on and approved. Farfsing said WRD tried to add language in the water-storage agreement that would require a “uniform” replenishment-assessment rate for both West and Central Basins– a stipulation that has
Staff Writer
After years of cuts, Long Beach is projecting something that the City’s General Fund hasn’t had in a decade– extra cash. City officials are anticipating a $3.5-million surplus with no layoffs
Signal Hill Council supports agreement that may resolve litigation over groundwater storage
Sean Belk Staff Writer
A long-running legal battle over groundwater storage in the Central Basin of Southern California may soon be resolved after regional water agencies, several local municipalities and private pumpers recently reached a landmark agreement. The Signal Hill City Council gave the go-ahead at its Aug. 20 meeting to authorize the city attorney to initiate a new settlement in court that may end years of disputes over whether to give pumpers access to groundwater storage. The city attorney is expected to submit documents in court during a status hearing today, Aug. 23. After almost two years of negotiations, 26 gateway cities, the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD), the Central Basin Municipal Water District and various private pumpers have come to a tentative agreement on a new groundwater-storage plan,
Weekly Weather Forecast August 27, 2013 Friday
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see BUDGET page 18
see COUNCIL page 7
Just about every job application asks whether an applicant has a criminal conviction. Workshops like the one offered last Tuesday by Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network help participants understand how to address past criminal history and even how to petition their records to be expunged. CJ Dablo Staff Writer
“Have you ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor?” It’s such a simple question on an employment application for that coveted position, but it can haunt job-seekers with a past, even if they were convicted of a crime decades ago. How to answer that question was on the minds of the participants who joined an Aug. 20 workshop at Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network in Long Beach. The workshop focused on how to expunge criminal records. Luis Reyes, a business-services specialist with L.A. County’s Department of Public Social Services, offered simple advice to the more than a dozen attendees who hoped that getting their cases expunged could help them with their job search since it would essentially mean that their case was dismissed. It’s a simple “yes or no” question, Reyes reminded the group gathered in a conference room at the Pacific Gateway office on Atlantic Avenue. Reyes acknowledged that there is a small space on most applications to fully explain that “yes” answer, but he advised against either offering detailed explanations or leaving the ques-
tion blank. “The issue is not necessarily the offense. It’s how people explain the offense,” Reyes said, as he recalled how some people take a page or two to answer the question. “I’m a believer in the short but sweet.” He advised identifying the offense (e.g. naming the penalcode violation or vehicle-code violation) along with the date and the sentence. Reyes acknowledged that while there are other theories about what it means to expunge a criminal record, he recommended that job-seekers still provide a short summary of the offense and the sentence even if the record is expunged. When a criminal record is successfully expunged, however, job-seekers can add two key words in the explanation line: “case dismissed.” Those key words may make a big difference in how the employer sees a job candidate and also may mean everything to the job seeker’s self-esteem. Reyes explained that expunging a criminal case will not erase a person’s history from public records. By the time a judge reviews an expungement petition, the judge looks to see whether the conditions in the original sentence have been met and if the probationary period has been completed, see WORKSHOP page 15
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