The Long Beach Public Library Foundation and the Friends of the Long Beach Public Library have jointly created a 2014 Voter Guide to prepare library supporters to make an informed decision regarding the Long Beach elections, which will be held on April 8, 2014. This is a very important election with several seats available. The newly elected City Council members and Mayor will help set the direction and determine future budgets for all City departments, including Library Services. This guide focuses specifically on the candidates’ positions regarding the Long Beach Public Library.
To prepare the guide, we sent a letter to all candidates who had registered with the City Clerk’s office by January 1, 2014, including 10 mayoral candidates and 19 city council candidates running for seats in the odd-numbered Council Districts (1,3,5,7,9). The letter invited candidates to submit a brief statement outlining their views about the library system and, if elected, their plans for its future. Twelve candidates responded with position statements by the deadline and we have included their statements. For those that did not respond by the deadline, we have included email and website information as submitted to the City Clerk (if available) and encourage you to do additional research to find out their positions on the Long Beach Public Library.
Please note that the Long Beach Public Library Foundation and the Friends of the Long Beach Public Library are 501(c)(3) organizations. By law, we cannot endorse or campaign for candidates. We have presented the statements exactly as we received them, without edits, and we are distributing the guide to our stakeholders as an education piece without commentary.
We invite you to read the complete comments from all the candidates who participated and we encourage you to make sure you are registered to vote and participate in this important civic process.
