Long Beach audit response deadline extended to Friday...apparently

Politics in Long Beach are very confusing

After council members complained for months that then-acting city manager Michael Tangney had hired lawyer Anthony Capozzolo last year without council approval to investigate questionable separation payments,  the council last week cancelled a meeting to formally retain their own outside counsel to respond to an audit of separation payments.

The council instead accepted the assistant corporation counsel’s opinion that current acting city manager John Mirando could retain the Ingerman Smith law firm without a council vote.

This is the same assistant corporation counsel who wrote and submitted a resolution last month that Councilman John Bendo characterized as a “piece of horseshit.”

And it’s the same acting city manager who wrote the state comptroller that Capozzolo’s response was the city’s official response.

Capozzolo in September had written a response to a draft comptroller audit without city council input.

But then the city council majority last month rescinded the Capozzolo report and received a Nov. 11 deadline to submit its own response to the comptroller.

 


Don’t forget that City Council President Anissa Moore, who lost her bid for re-election this month, actually signed a retainer agreement hiring Ingerham Smith last August, only to call off a council meeting in September to formally appoint the firm as the city’s special counsel.

Two appellate courts recently have cited a state Court of Appeals decision that found only the city council can hire special counsel for Long Beach.

Nevertheless, Ingerham Smith is back on the job and partner John Gross has told at least some city officials that the audit response deadline has been extended to Friday,

Or that’s where it stands today in Long beach politics.