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City Prosecutor Candidates Will Debate Tonight by Ryan ZumMallen | Archive | 03.15.10 |
+  11:45am | The latest in series of debates hosted by the Long Beach Press Club will be held tonight when candidates for the office of City Prosecutor square off at Smooth's Sports Grille tonight beginning at 7:00pm. Admission is free and open to the public. Smooth's is located at 144 Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach.Current assistant city prosecutor Timothy O'Reilly is taking on former deputy city prosecutor Doug Haubert. O'Reilly has served in his position for three years while Haubert left Long Beach professionally to work for an independent law firm that provides attorneys to serve as City Prosecutor for client cities. In January, O'Reilly challenged Haubert's professional description that will appear on the ballot, claiming that it was "misleading" for Haubert to classify himself as a City Attorney/Prosecutor. Long Beach City Clerk Larry Herrera said the description would not be changed unless challenged in court. The debate figures to follow in the competitive spirit of last week's showdown between City Attorney Robert Shannon and challenger Tom Reeves (current City Prosecutor). Can't make it tonight? Register at this website to watch the debate live from any computer. The Long Beach Press Club is hosting public debates for each open office leading up to elections this April. Candidates are questioned by a panel of local journalists and questions from the audience are encouraged. In coming weeks, debates will be held between candidates for the 1st, 3rd and 5th District City Council seats. The LBPOST.com is proud to have participated in last week's City Attorney debate and will be involved in the 5th District debate as well. Disclosure: Smooth’s Sports Grille is an advertiser of the LBPOST.com.
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Angel One observation from: an independent thinking tax-payer and homeowner as well as long time Long Beach resident. Please note that I attend the last debate at Hughes JHS between the current assistant city prosecutor Timothy O'Reilly and former deputy city prosecutor Doug Haubert. One issue that was very troubling to me was the expressed position by both candidates on the “enforcement” of airport noise violation that is on the books! Although primarily Jet Blue has continued to violate Long Beach City’s Ordnance on numerous occasions, both Candidates stated that since the fines were being “contributed" towards our Library fund that this unlawful practice was OK! Mr. O'Reilly, current assistant city prosecutor and former deputy city prosecutor Doug Haubert implied in their answers that it was “OK” for Jet Blue to continue to violate our Ordnance with apparently no consequences for the continuance of these unlawful acts. And these gentlemen want to represent and protect us the people’s interest?! You decide! No contest Haubert's the guy, no question. He's got more talent and support than Oreilly could ever hope for. Go to Smooth's or tune in online to see for yourself why. Haubert will enforce the law: make 'em pay or put 'em, away! LB Mike I agree with 'No Contest' that Haubert is the guy! He knows, and more importantly cares more about code enforcement and quality of life issues than anyone else in office. He also understands the Airport and Wet Lands issues. LBHUSH2 Do not put Doug Haubert and Tim O'Reilly in the same category. Doug has defended the neighborhoods and fought against late night flights for many years, while I understand O'Reilly just moved to LB a year ago. I was at the debate and Doug said you can't renegotiate the existing agreement, it has to be honored. But Doug also said if the $1,000 per violation fine does not get Jetblue's attention, the next City Prosecutor would have to look at other measures. john m. fentis Excellent topic Angel. Since I was the prosecutor who originally filed the criminal complaints against JetBlue, let me see if I can lend some clarifications to this issue. First of all, let's begin with the idea that the Municipal Ordinance under which Jet Blue was prosecuted was borne out of a settlement of over 20 years of litigation between the neighborhoods which surround the airport and the airlines. I will concede that the ordinance is far from perfect. The key factor to remember, however, is that the ultimate authority to regulate the airport lies with the Federal Aviation Administration. That comes under the heading of Interstate Commerce over which the Congress has sole and exclusive authority. What this means is that if the local enforcement authority becomes too heavy handed in its enforcement efforts, the federal agency will step in and add its weight to the fray thereby cancelling out the local enforcement effort. If the ability to enforce locally is taken away, then we are back to square one and the endless and overpriced litigation begins anew. You don't want this one being decided by a judge as it probably would not bode well for the City given the huge interest and authority the federal government has in air travel. Frankly, the original Jet Blue fine structure called for a payment of $3000 for the first 6 violations of each quarter and $6000 for each violation thereafter. The reason the money goes to the library was that, in my view, it was the only way to benefit the entire city and not just those living around the airport. The weakness of the ordinance lies in the inability to prosecute the pilot, and the action was maintained criminally against the corporation. The original agreement expired a few years ago, and I did not know that it was still being enforced. The shame in all of this is the the City Council cut the budget of the library by the amount of the penalties it was receiving as a result of the enforcement action thereby negating the possibility of expansion of library services for all concerned. Jet Blue's conduct is still not perfect, but if the consent decree settlemetn is still in effect they are paying far more than the ordinance calls for by way of penalties and the library system is still the beneficiary of their misconduct. Is it perfect? Not by a long way, but absent some more stringent federal regulations, I'm afraid that's about the best that the local enforcement entity can do at the present time Diamond Dave The Long Beach Press Club should be commended for its extensive and unbiased coverage of the LB City Prosecutor's race. In the end there is a clear choice for Long Beach residents and that is long time resident Doug Haubert. Doug Haubert has the full support of almost all Long Beach officials as well as extensive and board experience having covered many more cases which are relevent to Long Beach than his opponent. Long Beach residents dererve to be protected by someone with Doug Haubert's experience and skills. LBHUSH2 Angel & John, It is a great topic and should have been publicly discussed before Reeves struck the deal behind closed doors! Unfortunately it was not! Reeves gave the dough to his favorite charity, the Library. This is not to say anyone opposes our Library's. However the deal was made as Angel says, to circumvent the law and keep the top executives of JetBlue out of court. That is not right! In essence it gives JetBlue a free pass to come and go at LGB anytime they want! Furthermore, the large majority of their violations are a result of poor scheduling. Understand, the Long Beach Airport will accommodate any late arrivals that divert to LAX and transport their passengers to Long Beach at no cost! Bottom line is that is not a good business practice for JetBlue... they would prefer to disrupt the sleep and lives of thousands of residents under the airports landing and takeoff pattern, than inconvenience 50 of their passengers. Good for JetBlue business, heck yes, crappy for residents, Hell Yes! I have seen the way LB Government can be creative with their port revenues, redevelopment funds, tidelands funds, selling bonds, Queen Mary deals, etc., etc.. I'm sure they can find to find a way to compensate the impacted residents who continue to suffer JetBlue's late night flights! John M. Fentis @LBHush2-I understand your frustrations, but I clearly need to communicate to you that there was absolutely no way you could file the case criminally against any Jet Blue execs or management. Under the ordinance you cannot even prosecute the pilot. In short, the ordinance is impotent in that regard, but that is the best that you can do because if the FAA intervenes, they will take away ALL the ability to enforce because the FAA will deem local prosecution at odds with the exclusive right of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. As for the library funds, the only way to keep those funds within the proper ethical boundaries of the municipal ordinance was to use them in a way that the entire city could benefit and not just those who live around the airport. Noise pollution and violations will not go away....not in our lifetimes or those of future generations. While I don't think that the settlement was perfect, the only penalties available without criminal prosecution would have been a $200 administrative penalty which would have solved nothing. The ordinance was not designed to put anyone in jail. That will never happen. I appreciated the frustration level of those in the neighborhoods surrounding the airport, but this solution is the only one so far that keeps us away from an FAA declaration of unlimited flights due to the demands of travellers. That would be the worst possible result of heavy handed enforcement. Typical LB voter After seeing the debate it is VERY clear that the most qualified person for this job is Timothy O'Reilly. He is the most knowledgeable and most experienced! typical LB voter !After seeing both candidates,Timothy O'Reilly is far and above the most qualfied person to hold this office. he hands down has the most experience No Contest To Typical LB Voter: R U kidding? He stumbled into every trap Haubert set, even the obvious ones. Oreilly couldn't keep his cool for more than 5 minutes. Not the guy I'm counting on to get justice for me and my family after being victimized. Omar Suarez Haubert lied about being a prosecutor!!!! At the debate, haubert admitted that he only represents cities in ordinance enforcement and does not prosecute from the Penal Code, or Health and Safety Code...or any state law. He lied and doesnt seem to know much about criminal law. Scary!
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LBPOST.com Managing Editor Ryan ZumMallen keeps up on all the current and breaking Long Beach news.
Ryan ZumMallen has served as the managing editor of the LBPOST.com since 2007. He graduated from CSULB with a degree in Print Journalism in 2008 and is a member of the 2009 class of Leadership Long Beach. You can find him on various basketball courts around the city.
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