Councilmember Steven Neal
 
3:20pm | While talking with Long Beach Post last week regarding the city council’s vote on how to allocate the Uplands Oil Fund surplus, 9th District Councilmember Steven Neal discussed his feelings about the lack of cordiality that takes place behind the rail at council meeting.

“I don’t know what I can do to facilitate the relationships,” he said, “but if you ever come to a council meeting and watch how we interact each other, it’s somewhat disrespectful, and [it’s] disheartening to see that this body can’t be cordial to one another. … I don’t think you have to treat people with the kind of disrespect that’s [displayed] on the council. You know, I’ve served on a lot of boards and commissions, and I’ve never been on one quite like this.”

Neal also expressed his belief that his colleagues may target specific individuals for disrespectful treatment. “If you’ve ever watched the interaction of the council, when certain individuals are talking, it seems like what they have to say has no value at all,” he said. “And personally, I feel like that’s kind of like what happened with the original plan [put forward by Neal, Schipske, and Gabelich regarding the surplus]. The fact that it was me, Gerrie, and Rae that put it forth, I wonder if it didn’t get any traction just because of the kind of people that were involved. … It’s nine different people, so we’re not going to have one mind and everybody’s going to think one way, but I do think we could be a lot more cordial to each other in hearing out each other’s opinions.”

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