10:45am | The entire point of a candidate forum is to influence public opinion, one vote at a time and/or through the broader, indirect channel of media coverage (e.g., more people are reading these words than the 60 or so who heard the candidates speak for themselves last night). So the “news” isn’t so much the forum as it is how the audience subjectively processed the candidates’ statements. The story is the voters’ reactions to what the candidates say.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think of that angle until sitting down to write this, so next time I’ll do a little “exit polling.” For now you’ll have to settle for a single voter’s subjective impressions.

The forum, put on by the Downtown Residential Council (DRC), had the following format: opening statement, two DRC question, two audience questions, closing statement. No debate, no rebuttal — although on occasion the candidates (Janet Ballantyne, Mike Kamer, and incumbent Suja Lowenthal) sometimes alluded to each other’s answers.

1. What will be your top priority, why is this your top priority, and how will you implement it?

Kamer:

• was the only one of the three to directly answer this question — or attempt to, at least: would “utilize technology grants” to set up a system by which residents could “vote” on every issue before the council so that he (as councilmember) would know the will of his constituents and thereby vote accordingly
• claimed Lowenthal has shown more interest in exerting her own will than doing the people’s bidding

Ballantyne:

• said she’s talked to all the businesses on Pine Avenue and that they feel they get the amount of support they get from Lowenthal is “none”
• never quite answered the question directly, but by implication her #1 priority is supporting businesses; didn’t really say how she would do this
• spent much of her answer saying that things such the public surveillance cameras and the Downtown Guides are poor uses of City money

Lowenthal:

• top priority will be maintaining city services — something she said several times during the evening that the City has done quite well in these tough economic times
• “In order to do that, we need to work on partnerships.”
• spent much of her answer touting the successes of the last six years, offering statistics on (e.g.) how many trees have been trimmed, how many Code Enforcement actions there have been, and how she’s helped various small-business corridors thrive

2. What will you do to attract additional investment into the district and city?

Ballantyne:

• would find out what businesses need, and make a concerted effort to support existing businesses
• her statements veered toward the general — e.g., “I think we need to try really hard to support them.”
• a specific suggestion: get corporate sponsorships.

Lowenthal:

• said corporate sponsorship is a terrible idea, that we don’t need (e.g.) Staples here in Long Beach: “We don’t want to turn over our destiny, the character, the spirit [?] of our city to corporations.” 
• the way to support businesses is to increase revenue opportunities — a maneuver that the Downtown Plan will go far toward achieving: “The Downtown Plan will bring additional investment.” 

Kamer:

• discussed Long Beach’s reputation as being “an extremely difficult place to operate, especially if you’re looking to open a new businesses here.” 
• wants to see “business license fees left where they are,” while increasing the interest rate on those fees, or something like that. (My lack of fiscal knowledge + echo-y acoustics = difficulty following along.)
• desires to “speed up the entertainment permit process, and slashing the expense of those permit fees for business owners, while at the same time creating a live-entertainment tax,” which “will generate more customers and revenue for downtown establishments.” 
• talked of raising a “[something] occupancy tax, while reevaluating how those funds are divvied up, [currently] 50% going towards promotion, and 50% going toward the General Fund.” 
• “In the six years [Lowenthal’s been in office], she’s done better for businesses when she’s left them alone than when she’s been involved with it. [She]’s fantastic on the environment and on bikes, but she’s terrible for business development.” 

3. What is your position on the Art Exchange project?

Lowenthal:

• said it’s a very important project
• “They are currently at Acres of Books.” (Me: Huh? That is surely the intended destination for the ArtX, but not its current location.)

Ballantyne:

• it’s an important project
• expressed her concerned that it’s in jeopardy
• spent most of her answer talking about how great the East Village’s Art Walk is and how it can be so much better
• found about a half-dozen different ways to say that it’s important to support our artists

Kamer (who said he fancies himself an amateur artist):

• said the ArtX should be privately funded, that we should find ways other than public funding to engage artists. 
• “We don’t have money to pay artists to live at home.” (Me: Um, I don’t think that’s part of the ArtX proposal.)

4. What would you do to increase voter turnout?

Kamer: 

• believes his “voting” system (see Question #1) would help reengage voters and get them out to the polls 

Ballantyne: 

• offered platitudes about “raising awareness,” “encouraging people to get involved,” etc., offering nothing in the way of specifics

Lowenthal: 

• thinks we should consider instant runoff elections
• said holding elections on Tuesdays is an archaic practice (provided a truly interesting bit of history on the subject), should be changed; didn’t say anything about how she’d do this if re-elected
• pooh-poohed Kamer’s general idea about constituents letting councilmembers know their will by “voting” at home: “I don’t believe crowd-sourcing is the answer.”
• “We need to make voting by mail much more convenient.” (Me: But isn’t it just about as simple as can be?)

Opening/Closing Statements

Suja:

• talked about how great MoLAA is (Me: What on Earth does that have to do with why we should vote for you?)
• has created 1,000 new parking spaces in the district and has cut 666 jobs without reducing core services
• “I have been in office for six years, and what I’ve learned, first and foremost, is Long Beach is no small town: it’s a big city, a big, grown-up city.”
• “It’s not time to turn it over to amateurs.” (Me: One has to admit, that’s a great line.) “It’s not time to turn it over to individuals who have not put in the work.”
• “Over the last six years […] we have managed to do not as well as we’d like to do, but certainly we’ve been able to preserve our quality of life that we hope we’d like to see in our city. The fact that our parks are not shut down [and] our libraries are not shut down is a testament to how well this council has balanced this budget in order to preserve core services.”

Ballantyne:

• talked about how great MoLAA is (Me: What on Earth does that have to do with why we should vote for you?)
• her mission is “to bring open communication, transparency, and full disclosure to the council office” — something absent during Lowenthal’s tenure
• if elected, will create a matrix of issues important to residents — “your priorities, not mine”
• said parking is biggest problem in 2nd District, even though, “I think you just heard otherwise [i.e., from Lowenthal when she credited herself with improving parking in the district], but…”
• said she’s fully committed to the councilmember position — unlike Lowenthal, who will begin running for mayor in a year: “It would be sad to waste all this time an energy for someone who’s just going to abandon it.”

Kamer:

• is not accepting campaign contributions
• said Lowenthal has failed to accurately represent the district
• said Gazette newspaper has a policy not to give endorsements “unless they see a candidate who poses a serious threat to the city. They haven’t gone after me, so I’m happy that, at least according to the editors over there, I don’t actually pose a threat to Long Beach.” [Me: He just got the only laugh of the entire forum.] 
• “implore[s]” us to vote for Ballantyne if we don’t vote for him; “She’s more likely than Suja to accurately represent the voice of District 2. Still, I believe I’m the best candidate up here.”