District 5 city council candidates debate on budget deficit before upcoming election

_{District 5 City Council member incumbent Megan Kerr, left, and candidate Tara Riggi, right, during the debate for District 5 council position. Primary elections to elect the council members will occur on June 2. (Maximus Rago)}

A debate between two candidates for District 5’s representative in the city council of Long Beach, current District 5 representative Megan Kerr and challenger Tara Riggi, took center stage at the Expo Arts Center on Wednesday.

Over a hundred people were in attendance to hear how their concerns would be addressed as the debate prompts were all submitted by citizens of the fifth district of Long Beach, the largest section of Long Beach which is where LBCC is.

Attendees came out for many reasons like having support towards one candidate and some who were currently undecided but came to make sure their voices were heard.

 “(If) no one shows up, they get a mandate to do whatever they want so Megan was running unopposed, the opposition is always good to get debate happening,” said Long Beach resident Derek Stansfield on his reason to attend.

As well as those who were unconvinced of their politician’s platforms, some attendees fully believed in the messages of their chosen candidate and had come out to support them in the debate.

_{A full house of attendees comprised of residents of Long Beach’s District 5 came to watch the debate between incumbent Megan Kerr and candidate Tara Riggi on May 20. Primary elections to elect the council members will occur on June 2. (Maximus Rago)}

One outspoken Megan Kerr supporter, Edmund Wills, shared his motivations for why he came out.

“I support Megan Kerr. For more money, more food, more job skills, and too many homeless.”

However, Riggi supporters seemed to make up a larger majority of the room during the debate and shared their excitement for the candidate, which came from Riggi’s potential to introduce new ideas.

“I think she’s got the energy and passion for the position she’s going to take on. She also lives a block away. So I think that issues in my neighborhood are likely to be served,” Amanda Kaleps, a Riggi supporter, said. 

While several issues were covered, the primary focus of the questions posed at the debate was the transparency of spending as well as addressing the budget deficit.

“Transparency is huge and it doesn’t really exist. I’ve been to two city council meetings since I’ve been down here and it was like a slam bam operation. You know people spoke but there was already a predetermined vote,” said attendee Mark Lowe.

Those concerns proved well founded as the night’s debate quickly honed in on Long Beach’s budget deficit, which totals almost sixty million dollars, and how it got to that point. 

“The general fund has increased in the last four years by seventeen percent. That’s almost a hundred and ten million dollars, so my question is, where is the money? Measure A was passed 10 years ago to pay for these things and we still don’t know where the money is,” said Riggi. 

Frequently brought up in the debate was Measure A, a measure that was meant to allocate more money to fund public infrastructure and public safety services through a tax increase which passed in 2016; the actual allocation of these funds was consistently questioned by Tara Riggi. 

Accusations of misusing funds prompted a response from Kerr, who frequently defended herself regarding spending. 

“We have seen $302 million in loss of federal funding. You can’t say that doesn’t impact a city budget. We have budgeted items over this year. That we found out a month ago, 6 months ago, that all of a sudden, this federal government does not want to continue to fund”, said Kerr.

Explanations offered by the incumbent were not deemed satisfactory by her opponent and frequently resulted in rebuttals being used and further demands for accountability being leveled against Kerr.

_{Candidate Tara Riggi, right, uses a rebuttal token to refute a statement made by District 5 city councillor incumbent Megan Kerr, left, during a debate on May 20. Primary elections to elect the council members will occur on June 2. (Maximus Rago)}

The issue of spending and the budget continued to dominate the conversation and Riggi called for an external audit to rectify the problem. 

“We need to do an external audit to figure out what exactly and where we are being wasteful as far as our tax dollars and implement the recommendations of this audit. We’ve done this in the past, and we’ve never actually implemented those recommendations,” said Riggi.

These calls for action and pushes against issues in spending were met by applause from a majority of the audience, who had to be told to quiet down multiple times by the moderator.

With no clear way for candidates to verify or disprove the claims from the candidates, audience members were left to make their own decision based on what they heard that night.

This debate is one of the many for city council position seat races that are leading up to the primary election, held on June 2.

For the city council, if one of the candidates manages to get fifty percent of the vote they will win the seat outright, but if not the top two candidates in the race will move on to be voted for in the state’s general election Nov 3.

Election ballots have been dropped off to residents registered to vote already and must be mailed in by June 2. Other ways to vote include voting early in person from now until June 1 or voting in person on June 2 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Your polling place, dependent on where you live, can be found by searching online or through the voter information guide mailed to you.