NEWS: Police and fire academy funding, medical pot on council agenda

What's on the LB council agenda?

The Long Beach City Council meets today in City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.

The meeting can be viewed live in Long Beach on Charter Communications Channel 3, Verizon FiOS channel 21, and online at www.longbeach.gov.

Among the items that will go before the council:

A discussion about how to fund new police and firefighter academies in 2011 despite ongoing budget problems. The academies were axed in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, but the police and fire departments are now losing personnel as people retire.

A vote that should finalize regulations for medical marijuana collectives in Long Beach. Last month, one pending issue was whether the collectives should be required to grow their marijuana on site or within the city of Long Beach, or whether the law shouldn't include a cultivation location requirement at all.

Final approval of the 10-year plan of the Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness.

A five-year extension, beginning in 2011, of the city's contract with Sea Festival Association to run the annual event. The contract will change the city's cut to be the greater of either 20 percent of the gross revenue from the Sea Festival or the value of all of the application costs and fees associated with the event (estimated at $40,000 to $50,000).

This changes the previous revenue commitment of $150,000 to the city, which was to be paid in advance this year - a change that is being implemented because of the difficult economic times.

A recommendation to nominate 7th District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga as the city's candidate to represent the Western Los Angeles County Cities region on the South Coast Air Quality Management District's governing board, a position that Uranga holds now.

A proposal by 5th District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske to give the city's traffic engineer authority to determine whether a neighborhood's parking is affected by traffic directly related to the use of a public park by permitted team sports, to conduct a parking study, and then establish a preferential parking district if 60 percent of the residents agree.

Proposals from 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews to have the city manager work with utility companies to develop a streamlined process to more quickly remove shoes that are hanging from utility lines and to streamline city procedures and implement additional penalties for the illegal posting of signs on the public right of way.

Source: Long Beach Press Telegram

IN THE NEWS: Police served warrants at 15 locations, 17 arrested on suspicion of illegal sales of pot

LONG BEACH - Police said Tuesday that search warrants were served at 15 locations in and outside of Long Beach last week in connection with an investigation into the illegal sale of marijuana at local dispensaries.

While specifics of the search warrants were still being kept under wraps, the Long Beach Police Department confirmed Tuesday that 15 search warrants were served and that 17 people were arrested during last week's operation.

Both the LBPD and the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley confirmed last week they were working together on an investigation into illegal sales of marijuana at various medical marijuana dispensaries.

Sgt. Dina Zapalski, a Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman, said the department was not going to release the names of those arrested because charges have not yet been filed with the DA's office.

Because the people arrested are out of custody, authorities have time to finish their investigation and expect to bring charges sometime in the New Year, the sergeant said.
"There's a lot of information they're going over and there's still a large amount of evidence the detectives are sifting through," Zapalski said Tuesday.

The sergeant confirmed that warrants were served at 15 locations throughout Southern California.
Among those arrested, all of whom are either owners or employees of marijuana dispensaries, were nine Long Beach residents, four Garden Grove residents, two people from Anaheim, one person from Westminster and one Perris resident, she said.

Three marijuana dispensaries were searched last week. Two are located in Long Beach and one is in Garden Grove. All three are believed to be connected, the sergeant said.

Long Beach police Cmdr. Laura Farinella said last Thursday that the police department's Narcotics Division was working with other officers on the force and the district attorney's office to serve warrants at several locations that had generated numerous complaints from neighbors about illegal, over-the-counter sales of pot.

Chris Glew, an attorney representing a cooperative located on Fourth Street at Elm Avenue, said he has yet to see any documentation from authorities who served warrants at his clients' business and home, but he insisted the dispensary has always operated within the state's Compassionate Use laws.

Glew said last week that the district attorney and the police department "appear to be operating under the theory that everything is illegal, they seem to interpret any collective or dispensary is operating against the voter's initiative."

The initiative outlined by Prop. 215 - the compassionate use act that legalized marijuana for California patients suffering from debilitating conditions and disorders - was passed by voters in 1996.

Patients seek permission to use marijuana from doctors under both Prop. 215 and a follow-up 2003 law, which clarified the original proposition and ordered counties to issue identification cards to patients.

Arguments over how to distribute the drug, however, have simmered on national, state and local levels ever since the 1996 passage of Prop. 215.

Source: Contra Costa Times