Long Beach
The seventh-largest city in California and home to one of the world's busiest seaports, Long Beach pairs a working waterfront with a dense downtown, miles of coastline, and a charter government that runs its own utilities, airport, and health department.
- Population 466,742
- Size band large
- Area 51.4 sq mi
- Government Council–Manager (charter)
- Council by-district
- Incorporated 1897
- Meetings YouTube channel ↗
Coverage: 40 meetings · 612 substantive items · 2025-12-02 → 2026-07-14 · agenda source: PrimeGov
Long Beach's council agenda is dominated by infrastructure investment at significant scale. The single largest commitment is a $50 million amendment to the citywide asphalt and road resurfacing contract (All American Asphalt), followed by a $30 million traffic striping and signal construction award and a $20.5 million infrastructure project. Supporting these are a $2.5 million EV charging station contract (ChargePoint), $4.78 million for trash excluders and ocean environmental services, and $699,660 to extend the Los Cerritos Wetlands maintenance contract. A $13.5 million construction contract for the Police Department Crime Laboratory rounds out the public safety capital side. Insurance costs are also material: the council renewed $13.9 million in excess municipal liability coverage, $7.2 million in property and cyber insurance, and $822,611 in workers' compensation — a combined risk-management spend of over $22 million in a single meeting.
The most legislatively active thread across the June 9 and June 16 meetings is a comprehensive land use overhaul that moved through first readings and then final adoption in rapid succession. This includes creation of two new zoning districts — Mixed-Use Main Street (MU-M) and Commercial Main Street (C-M) — rezoning of major corridors in the Greater Bixby Knolls Area, updates to the Enhanced Density Bonus program (including a Local Coastal Program amendment), amendments to the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, and multiple General Plan map and text amendments. The speed limits ordinance followed the same two-meeting arc. Taken together, these represent the most concentrated zoning restructuring visible in this window, affecting multiple corridors and housing typologies simultaneously.
Economic development and community investment appear in smaller but consistent amounts: a $750,000 EDA grant for economic development, $405,500 via Grow America Fund for small business lending, a $4.6 million tourism marketing agreement with Visit Long Beach, $200,000 for a Community Land Trust, $150,000 for the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, and the FY 2027 CDBG/HOME/ESG action plan. Health and human services items include a Cambodian Community Health Needs Assessment presentation, pharmaceutical distribution amendments, EMS equipment contracts (~$1.3 million across medical supply vendors), and a directive to analyze community violence intervention recommendations from the 2025 Community Safety Roadmap. IT modernization is also active, with two KloudGin mobile field services software amendments totaling over $2.4 million and a $9 million IT staffing contract pool.
(Synthesized from the 120 most recent items.)
What to watch AI-generated
Key items (8)
- [46] Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to amend Contract No. 36566 (Specifications No. R-7196) with All American Asphalt, of Corona, CA, for providing as-needed major and secondary highway construction services, to increase the annual contract amount by $50,000,000, for a revised total annual contract amount not to exceed $100,000,000. — Long Beach, 2026-06-16 · Largest single commitment: $50M road resurfacing contract amendment, the clearest signal of infrastructure priority scale
- [43] Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. R-7287 and award contracts to Elecnor Belco Electric, Inc., of Chino, CA, and Select Electric, Inc., of Anaheim, CA, for providing as-needed traffic striping and signal system construction services, in a total aggregate amount not to exceed $30,000,000, for a period of three years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contracts, including any necessary subsequent amendments. (Citywide) — Long Beach, 2026-06-09 · $30M traffic striping and signal construction award, paired with a separate traffic safety program update — signals sustained multi-front investment in street systems
- [42] Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to purchase, through Alliant Insurance Services, Inc., the following insurance policies: excess municipal liability insurance at a premium not to exceed $13,935,240, with multiple carriers; a deductible buy-down policy with Safety National to reduce the City's self-insured retention to $7.5 million at a premium not to exceed $2,411,881; Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) coverage with Lloyd's of London at a premium not to exceed $901,511; airport liability insurance with National Union Fire Insurance Company at a premium not to exceed $169,091; aircraft liability and hull insurance for Police Department helicopters with National Union Fire Insurance Company at a premium not to exceed $61,742; storage tank insurance with Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation at a premium not to exceed $44,038; SPILLS pollution coverage with Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company at a premium not to exceed $11,529; drone coverage with Starr Indemnity & L — Long Beach, 2026-06-16 · $13.9M municipal liability insurance renewal, part of a $22M+ combined insurance spend that reveals the city's risk exposure footprint
- [47] Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-7254 and award a contract to New Dynasty Construction Co., of Tustin, CA, for construction of the Long Beach Police Department Crime Laboratory TI Project, in the amount of $13,520,817, authorize a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $1,352,082, for a total contract amount not to exceed $14,872,899, at the discretion of the City Manager; and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary subsequent amendments; and Increase appropriations in the Capital Projects Fund Group in the Public Works Department by $12,500,000, offset by future bond proceeds, to fully support Project delivery, including design, construction, and associated administration and design support costs. — Long Beach, 2026-06-16 · $13.5M crime lab construction contract — major public safety capital investment in forensic infrastructure
- [53] Recommendation to adopt ordinance amending Title 22.11, 22.12, 22.15, 22.30, 22.40, and 22.41 of the Long Beach Municipal Code (ZCA24-005) to establish two new zoning districts, Mixed-Use Main Street (MU-M) and Commercial Main Street (C-M) that will implement the Neighborhood Serving Corridor Low (NSC-L) and Community Commercial (CC) PlaceTypes of the Long Beach General Plan Land Use Element and minor amendments to all existing zoning districts contained within Title 22, read and adopted as read. — Long Beach, 2026-06-16 · Adoption of Mixed-Use Main Street and Commercial Main Street zoning districts — centerpiece of the multi-item land use overhaul affecting major corridors citywide
- [28] Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to amend Contract No. 36656 with Ocean Blue Environmental Services, Inc., of Long Beach, CA, for installation of new trash excluders and providing routine storm drain maintenance and related services, to increase the annual contract amount by $990,000, for a revised total contract amount not to exceed $4,782,000. — Long Beach, 2026-06-16 · $4.78M trash excluder installation and environmental services contract — the environmental compliance spending anchor
- [27] Recommendation to adopt resolution authorizing City Manager, or designee, to execute a contract, and any necessary documents including any necessary subsequent amendments, with ChargePoint, Inc., of Campbell, CA, for electrical vehicle supply equipment, materials, and related services on an as-needed basis, and on the same terms and conditions afforded to Sourcewell, a state of Minnesota local government agency and service cooperative, in a total annual amount not to exceed $2,500,000, until Sourcewell Contract No. 02185-CPI expires on September 18, 2029, with the option to renew for as long as the Sourcewell contract is in effect, at the discretion of the City Manager. — Long Beach, 2026-06-16 · $2.5M EV charging station contract (ChargePoint) — reflects the city's clean transportation infrastructure build-out
- [49] Recommendation to direct City Manager to conduct a feasibility analysis of the community violence intervention and prevention (CVIP) recommendations outlined in the 2025 Long Beach Community Safety Roadmap Report, prepared by the One Long Beach CVIPI Collaborative, and report back to the City Council within 60 days. — Long Beach, 2026-06-09 · Direction to analyze community violence intervention recommendations from the 2025 Safety Roadmap — an emerging public safety policy thread distinct from capital projects
Scorecard vs 6 cohort peers
Each topic is shown as this city's share of council attention (% of its substantive items) next to the median share of its peer cohort — so size doesn't distort the comparison. Dollars are shown per resident (a causal denominator) and suppressed where too few peers have extracted amounts.
| Topic | Attention share | Peer median | vs peers | $ / resident | Peer median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget & Finance | 38% | 25% | ▲ +13pp | $1006.84 | $264.15 |
| Governance & Administration | 19% | 19% | ≈ | $10.92 | $1.96 |
| Permitting & Land Use | 11% | 8% | ▲ +3pp | $22.98 | n/a |
| Public Safety | 10% | 6% | ▲ +4pp | $395.35 | $9.72 |
| Streets & Infrastructure | 8% | 14% | ▼ -6pp | $919.06 | $265.08 |
| Economic Development | 6% | 5% | ≈ | $49.24 | $6.38 |
| Climate & Environment | 4% | 6% | ▼ -2pp | $131.53 | $141.96 |
| Homelessness | 2% | 2% | ▲ +1pp | $123.54 | $14.80 |
| Other | 2% | 1% | ≈ | $1.70 | n/a |
| Housing | 2% | 7% | ▼ -5pp | $26.31 | $53.54 |
pp = percentage points of attention share. Peers: Glendale, Pomona, Claremont, Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, Culver City.
📅 Browse all meetings & agendas (35) — filter by date, topic, or keyword
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Peer cohort comparable cities
Cities most comparable to Long Beach by population, size, governance, and sub-region — the basis for fair comparison. Budget attributes are not loaded yet; cohort uses size, governance, and sub-region. With a small sample this is a soft grouping — the framework scales as cities are added.
Decisions worth knowing
Biggest dollars
Contested votes
Vote records are partial — captured only where a city publishes minutes or an official council journal (chiefly Long Beach and Los Angeles); this is not a cross-city contestedness comparison.
Learning from peer cities
Matches found from similar agenda wording across cities — useful starting points to investigate, not proof that one city copied another.
Where Long Beach and peers overlap
Matters Long Beach worked on that peer cities also took up.
Ideas from peer cities (not found here yet)
Matters peer cities acted on that we haven't found a comparable item for in Long Beach.
Data gaps & notes (6)
- 2026-07-14 City Council Meeting - Cancelled: No agenda document published for this meeting.
- 2026-07-07 City Council Meeting - Cancelled: No agenda document published for this meeting.
- 2026-06-23 City Council Meeting - Cancelled: No agenda document published for this meeting.
- 2026-06-02 City Council Meeting - Cancelled: No agenda document published for this meeting.
- 2025-12-23 City Council - Cancelled: No agenda document published for this meeting.
- 651 items ingested; brief generated from the first 160 by recency for length.