Community Grants Survey Opens/ LBPD Commander Promoted and Candidate Announces For City Council District One

Port Opens Survey on Multimillion-Dollar Community Grants

The Port of Long Beach has released a survey to gather public input on the 2022 through 2024 funding priorities for the Community Grants Program, a landmark effort to lessen the effects of port operations on the surrounding area.

Find the survey in English here and in Spanish here. Survey results will directly inform Port staff’s annual funding priority recommendation to the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners for solicitations in 2022. It will also help assist the Port’s longer term planning in future years.

This survey closes Dec. 23. Two virtual workshops are being held on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 for the public to influence funding priorities. Registration links can be found here.

The Community Grants Program was created to help those in the community who are most vulnerable to port-related impacts. Combined with a previous program started in 2009, the Port of Long Beach has set aside more than $65 million, making it the largest voluntary port mitigation initiative in the country. To date, $33.1 million has been committed.

Details:  www.polb.com/grants.

LBPD Commander Gerardo Prieto Promoted to Deputy Chief

Long Beach Police Chief Robert G. Luna announced Dec. 3, the selection of Commander Gerardo Prieto to the position of Deputy Chief. On Dec. 4, Deputy Chief Prieto assumed command of the Long Beach Police Department’s Patrol Bureau, which includes the North, South, East, and West Patrol Divisions as well as the Field Support Division.

Prieto began his career as a police officer with the Long Beach Police Department in 1994. His assignments have included working in patrol, as a field training officer, detective, community policing officer, traffic motor officer, DUI unit, Internal Affairs, and airport security/TSA explosive detection K9. As a lieutenant, he was assigned to field support where he managed the mental evaluation team, quality of life unit, event planning section and the Reserve Police Officer program. Prieto previously led the security services division and the South patrol division as a commander.

Prieto attended California State University Long Beach and completed the POST Management Training Course. He serves as board member for the Peace Officers Association of Los Angeles and is a member of the National Fraternal Order of Police, and the Long Beach Police Command Officers Association.

Lee Charley Announces Candidacy For Long Beach City Council District One

LONG BEACH —  A former homeless, gay veteran enters race. Grassroots for 2nd District Accountability Long Beach or Grassroots, in a press release Nov. 26, announced Lee Richmond Charley’s campaign for City Council has officially kicked off.

Grassroots said  “Rich” has been an active member of District One for more than six years, and has worked [on] correcting numerous local issues on his own.

Charley has a Bachelor in communications and a minor in political science from Tennessee Technological University. He has also received Paralegal Certification from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. His experience includes; managing a small business, paralegal, debating, working on local political campaigns and including a Presidential campaign. He has stated his staff will be Long Beach residents and they will represent the diversity that makes Long Beach such a special place.  

Charley was chronically homeless when he came to Long Beach. After battling back from a life on the street, he worked two, sometimes three jobs to make enough money to get his own place again. He says he considers himself extremely lucky to have found some of the greatest people in the world right here in Long Beach, who helped him up when he was down.