Q&A: Unpacking Rex Richardson’s first 100 days as Long Beach’s mayor

By KRISTY HUTCHINGS | khutchings@scng.com |
PUBLISHED: April 24, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. | UPDATED: April 24, 2023 at 8:47 a.m.

It’s been a busy few months in Long Beach — especially for Rex Richardson, who took over the city’s top political spot in late December.

Shortly after his  inauguration on Dec. 20, Richarson delivered his first State of the City Address at the Long Beach Terrace Theater, outlining his plan for his first 100 days in office, dubbed the Opportunity Beach Agenda.

It laid out his priorities for the city in five key sectors: Homelessness and housing, economic development, public health and safety, expanding opportunities for young people, and preparing Long Beach for a more sustainable future.

Richardson hit the century mark on Thursday, April 20, and the following day, he sat down with the Press-Telegram to discuss those first 100 days as mayor.

Homelessness & Housing

Shortly before Richardson’s inauguration, he and First District Councilmember Mary Zendejas proposed a local emergency related to homelessness — largely in response to the previous year’s tally of homelessness in the city finding a 62% spike over a two-year period.

The City Council OK’d the declaration  — allowing Long Beach to better mobilize its resources, request assistance from other governmental agencies, and expedite its overall response to the homelessness crisis.

Since then, Long Beach has secured more than $22 million in additional funding from multiple sources, and rolled out multiple new initiatives, from a Mobile Access Center to a new homelessness data dashboard, a new interim summer shelter and directing the city manager to begin working on a Housing Promise, among other programs.

Q: How did the emergency declaration on homelessness and the Opportunity Beach Agenda help Long Beach map out its plans to address the crisis in your first few months as mayor?

A: We had to do a lot to prepare our office for a strong administration. But (we) actually had to govern in the first 100 days because of all those challenges. So the declaration of emergency, on day one, allowed the city to say this is a top priority. Let’s get all of the city together, create an Incident Command Structure with all departments, and be strategic about showing what we can do as local government.

Q: You hosted a series of roundtable meetings with local stakeholders to discuss how the city can better address homelessness. What were some lessons learned?

A: We brought everybody to the table — the mayor, the city manager, both Incident Command leaders and whatever councilmembers were in those areas. So those conversations were really the strategic stakeholders in (those) areas, to really hone in on those communities. The local, boutique strategy, I think, is really key because we’re a big, diverse city — you just have to bring people together.

The very first one that we did, we talked through the Silverado Park situation and thought through how was this different than the past few years and what the city needs in order to acknowledge that we’re in a different environment. (Long Beach had plans to open a second interim winter shelter at the Silverado Park gym, but cancelled those plans after serious community pushback.)

From that first one was the commitment to make sure that we do community outreach when we’re locating a site and understanding the local context. Another one was that we’re going to add to the community, not (take) away —  so that was was something that really came out of that discussion.

Q: What kind of progress has been made on localizing and expanding mental health services?

A: The homeless emergency is really broken into four phases — immediate, short-term, medium-ter, and long-term. Those medium-term and long-term (goals) are going to require resources and partnerships; we’ve been planting a lot of seeds that are really going really well.

We just applied for a $31 million grant (from Los Angeles County) to do recuperative care — our hospitals, when people check out the hospital, they don’t have anywhere to go. They refer to the valley or to East LA. Whereas, LA county hospitals have recuperative care on site so they can send you to a place. So we’re excited about that.

Planting those seeds (is) huge, and there’s a bunch of coordination — I sent letters to the governor, congressional reps, convened the mayors of the gateway cities, met with the county and county supervisors, and convened internally in the city. Good things are coming out of that.

(In terms of expanding mental health services), we got a consultant. I think it was last year’s budget, I advocated including $100,000 as a councilmember to do the study to lay out how Long Beach can actually expand mental health services in the city. So that will be in front of the City Council for discussion on (Tuesday, May 2).

Q: You’ve also established a two new positions in the mayor’s office, a housing deputy and an economic development deputy. Can you explain the functions of those roles and where you are in the hiring process?

A: These two positions are essentially going to be a single point of contact as it relates to policy liaison. So, for example, on housing, I’m going to be on a board called LACAHSA — the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency. It’s like Metro, but for housing.

So (the housing deputy) will be my liaison to that group to make sure that we’re bringing on our fair share. That’s something that the deputy mayor does — intergovernmental relations. That could mean meeting with the other policy deputies, the LA County Board of Supervisors, or legislators in (Washington) D.C. and Sacramento, to make sure we’re pursuing opportunities, and then carrying out my vision on housing.

We’re going to have to be thinking big picture — so commitments we can make moving forward. This person will help to shape some of those concepts or initiatives that may need the mayor to lead.

We’ve concluded our search, and we’re gonna announce our person by the end of this month.

(Richardson has already appointed Lucius Martin as his economic development deputy, whose role is similar but with a focus on business and the economy.)

Q: Some Long Beach residents and other stakeholders have been critical of the city’s response to homelessness, arguing Long Beach isn’t doing enough to help unhoused folks or ensure public safety in the community. What would you say to them?

A: Wee’ve tried to set expectations really well. The city is not going to end homelessness in a six to nine month emergency. But the city can show how we can manage the crisis better, and how we can save more lives. And (when I) say manage the crisis better, (I mean) protect some of our priorities, protect public safety, ensure that we’re approaching things from a public health lens, and that we’re approaching it also from a compassionate standpoint that values people, because everyone out there has a story.

Sure, there are people who want to see things happen and see us get to the resolution — but this is a big, complex issue and requires a lot of consensus. What I hear from city staff that are working on this, they say it’s great that the City Council and the mayor are giving us some priorities to focus on so they can do their job. We’re delivering some real results, and I’ve seen things shift from a very hopeless frame to an empowered frame. We’re showing a lot of hope.

Local economy

Q: The Grow Long Beach Initiative was a key fixture of your economic goals for your first 100 days in office. The City Council passed that plan recently. Tell me why it matters.

A: We asked the City Council to look at ways to grow our revenue, so that we’re less dependent on oil revenues. Because based on the shifting legislative environment around production of oil, it may not be something we go back on. Now that that’s happened, we’re exploring different opportunities. You’ll see in the months to come, as we build the budget, investments that we can make that are planting seeds for the future and growing revenue.

So my first 100 days was building a team and building some momentum — and then my next 90 days is building a budget.

Q: Where is Long Beach in the processes of creating a Public Service Pathways Program and making it easier to access government jobs?

A: We met with AmeriCorps and California Volunteers and got support from them; they want to help fund this program. We (also) met with Long Beach Unified, Long Beach City College, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Dominguez Hills, and we set aside $171,000 in one-time funds to help launch a pilot of the program this year.

We had discussions with Civil Service Department, the City Attorney’s Office, and Human Resources to identify short-term solutions that can be done administratively (to speed up the hiring process). If we want to, for example, have a preference for people who graduate from CSULB or City College, that may (require a City Charter change) and have to go to the ballot. So, over the course of this year, we need to shape that through a charter process and we’re still evaluating what those steps are.

We’re doing a whole California Fair Chance Campaign, encouraging people with second chances to apply for jobs in the city. We got rid of medical exams and drug screening. And and we signed the Equal Pay Pledge, which requires us to do an analysis every year on gender pay equity for city employees.

Public health and safety

Q: Voters approved a Charter amendment to establish a new Police Oversight Commission in November. Where is Long Beach in the process of establishing that panel and hiring an oversight director?

A: We’re beginning the process and the national search for the police oversight director. We had had one closed session discussion so far, and as the search gets going, we’ll schedule more. We’re treating it just like our recruitment for the city manager or the city clerk. It’s one of the three positions that the City Council appoints, so we’re beginning that process.

Q: Tell me about Long Beach’s efforts to establish more community policing initiatives.

A: We have not only the Quality of Life officers, but the neighborhood safety bike teams are also being set up. Then you have the civilian (program) being rolled out this year — about 20 people who are civilians who help respond, for example, if there’s a car accident with no injury, they can take the report. It it frees up time for our police department to focus on higher priority challenges.

Q: The 100 day plan also talked about “empowering neighborhoods” and supporting young people in Long Beach.  Can you expand on those efforts?

A: We’re planning our first Neighborhood Empowerment Summit on Saturday, April 29. That’s the key deliverable — to host a citywide convening of all recognized neighborhood associations. That’s what I’m doing here, and it’s going to engage about 100 people.

We also set aside $200,000 to help fund block parties for the summer, so this one implements some specific benefits for our neighborhood associations, including a fee waiver for summer block parties.

Protecting and supporting immigrant communities was in there as well — so we’ve changed the ordinance to allow undocumented folks to be able to advocate for themselves on commissions.

(The City Council recently amended an existing ordinance to allow undocumented immigrants and people on fixed-incomes to serve on city commissions).

That was historic — and I’m going to make sure that we have representation from the undocumented community on commissions.

Sustainability and the environment

Q: Your plan outlined a goal to ask the Port of Long Beach to commit funds to help support truck operators transition away from diesel fuel, and establish 100 public electric vehicle charging stations within the next three years. Updates on that?

A: I addressed the harbor commission on Wednesday, April 19, and what I talked about with them was competitiveness, clean air and community. That’s how I broke it down — investing in our infrastructure and aligning with the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

I asked them to set aside a $10 million electrification fund for small and local operators to transition. We called on them to develop a timeline to build 100 new public charging stations within three years, and we called them to double the clean truck rate sometime this year from $10 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units, the standard cargo measurement in the shipping industry) to $20.

We also signed a 10-year project labor agreement with the Port of Long Beach. That helps stabilize the workforce and make sure that we have labor peace, and more certainty on projects over the next decade. We’re gonna have to make sure that our port sector is investing in infrastructure so that we can maintain our competitiveness. When we invest in our port, and do things like electrification, for trucks, you get multiple benefits. Cleaner air, obviously, but when they plug up, we make money because we have a utility users tax in the city. So electrification is important.

Looking ahead

Q: So now that your first 100 days are finished, will the Opportunity Beach Agenda continue serving as a guiding document for your administration?

A: I will say that I’m glad that I took the time to plan out my first 100 days. I’m glad that I took the time to go Harvard and think through how I wanted to structure my office, commissions and City Council committees to all align with our biggest challenges in the city. (Richardson was one of 25 mayors selected to participate in Harvard University’s Program for New Mayors before his inauguration.)

It helps me feel confident that we’re going to move the city in the right direction, and we’re gonna do so in a way that feels authentic — and that brings our community along through the process. We have some big things to overcome in the next decade, with respect to our revenues in the city, climate and housing. The seeds that we planted right now, in these first 100 days, allow us to be able to have the capacity and the support and the community to ultimately get our city to where it needs to be.

Q: What’s your next immediate priority for Long Beach?

A: The next thing you’ll see is we’re going to appoint a dynamic group of commissioners — and then we’re gonna work on our budget. We’re going to further dive into the future planning for the Queen Mary, and that space around there. We’re going to begin to think about what the next five years looks like in terms of like economic development, infrastructure, planning for the Olympics — all of those things.

We’re going to continue to do more and more on our homeless strategy as we get into the medium and long-term, windows. You’ll see us talk about  the more capacity we can build for mental health and having more capacity to deal with behavioral health and substance use — and then ultimately housing.