Long Beach, California
| Long Beach, California | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of Long Beach
Rex Richardson | |
| Last mayoral election: | 2022 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2026 |
| Last city council election: | November 5, 2024 |
| Next city council election: | November 3, 2026 |
| City council seats: | 10[1] |
| City website | |
| Composition data (2019) | |
| Population: | 466,776 |
| Race: | White 51.2% African American 12.7% Asian 13.1% Native American 1.1% Pacific Islander 0.8% Two or more 4.7% |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic 42.6% |
| Median household income: | $63,017 |
| High school graduation rate: | 80.2% |
| College graduation rate: | 31.1% |
| Related Long Beach offices | |
| California Congressional Delegation California State Legislature California state executive offices | |
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. The city's population was 466,742 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Council-manager government
The city of Long Beach utilizes a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council, which includes the mayor and serves as the city's primary legislative body, appoints a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the city council's policy and legislative initiatives.[2]
Mayor
The mayor presides over city council meetings and official city ceremonies. The mayor also represents the city on the state, national, and international levels.[3] The current Mayor of Long Beach is Rex Richardson (nonpartisan). Richardson assumed office in 2022.
City manager
The city manager is the city's chief executive. The responsibilities of the city manager include overseeing the city's day-to-day operations, planning and implementing the city's operating budget, and appointing departmental directors and other senior-level positions.[2]
City council
The Long Beach City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, approving mayoral appointees, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies, and ordinances.[2]
The city council is made up of 10 members, including the mayor. Nine members are elected by the city's nine districts, while the mayor is elected at large.[2]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Other elected officials
Mayoral partisanship
Long Beach has a Democratic mayor. As of March 2025, 65 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, two are independents, four identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and three mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2024
The city of Long Beach, California, held general elections for city council on November 5, 2024. A primary was scheduled for March 5, 2024. The filing deadline for this election was December 8, 2023.
2022
The city of Long Beach, California, held general elections for mayor, city attorney, city auditor, city prosecutor, and city council on November 8, 2022. A primary was scheduled for June 7, 2022. The filing deadline for this election was March 11, 2022.
2020
The city of Long Beach, California, held a primary election for city council districts 2, 4, 6, and 8 on March 3, 2020. A general election was scheduled for November 3, 2020, if no candidate received a majority of votes in the primary. The filing deadline for this election was December 6, 2019.[4]
2019
The city of Long Beach, California, held a special election for the city council's District 1 seat on November 5, 2019. The filing deadline for this election was August 9, 2019.
2018
The city of Long Beach, California, held general elections for mayor, city council, city attorney, city auditor, and city prosecutor on June 5, 2018. The primary was on April 10, 2018. The deadline for candidates to file to run in this election was January 12, 2018.
2016
The city of Long Beach, California, held primary elections for city council on April 12, 2016. The general election was held on June 7, 2016. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was January 15, 2016. Four of the eight city council seats were up for election.[5]
2015
The city of Long Beach, California, held a special election for city council on April 14, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was January 16, 2015.[6] The city held the election to fill the District 4 seat of former council member Patrick O'Donnell, who won election to the California State Assembly in 2014.[7]
2014
The city of Long Beach, California held elections for mayor and city council on June 3, 2014, with a primary on April 8, 2014.[8] If a candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary election, he or she was declared the outright winner of the election.[9] Five of the nine city council districts were up for election.
Councilman Robert Garcia won election as mayor. Lena Gonzalez, Susan Price, Stacy Mungo, Roberto Uranga, and Rex Richardson won election to the city council. No incumbents ran in any of the races.
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
| Demographic Data for Long Beach | |
|---|---|
| Long Beach | |
| Population | 466,742 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 50 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 41.6% |
| Black/African American | 11.9% |
| Asian | 12.8% |
| Native American | 1.4% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| Two or more | 13.5% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 43.4% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 81.6% |
| College graduation rate | 34.8% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $83,969 |
| Persons below poverty level | 15% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates by fiscal years running from October 1 through September 30 of the next year. The city manager provides budget instructions to city departments. The city manager then reviews and makes a presentation on the city's financial status. Departments then submit their budget proposals to the city manager, who submits a proposed budget to the mayor no later than July 3. The mayor then transmits the budget to the city council with any changes by August 2. The city council must then approve the budget by September 15. The mayor then has five days to review the adopted budget and concur or exercise any line-item vetoes. The council has until the end of the fiscal year to either agree to the changes or override any vetoes.[10]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[11]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[12] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[13] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[11]
See also
- Cities in California
- Los Angeles County, California
- Largest cities in the United States by population
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The mayor is included in this number as one of the city council members.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 City of Long Beach, "City Officials," accessed October 21, 2014
- ↑ City of Long Beach, "Office of the Mayor," accessed October 21, 2014
- ↑ City of Long Beach, "March 3, 2020, Presidential Primary Election Frequently Asked Questions," accessed February 5, 2020
- ↑ City of Long Beach Clerk, "Calendar of Events," accessed August 13, 2015
- ↑ City of Long Beach, "Election Calendar April 15, 2015, Special Municipal Election," accessed February 12, 2015
- ↑ Press Telegram, "Patrick O’Donnell victory in Assembly race leads to special election for Long Beach City Council," November 5, 2014
- ↑ County of Los Angeles, "2014 Scheduled Elections," accessed February 20, 2014
- ↑ City of Long Beach, "General Questions About Long Beach City Elections," accessed February 26, 2014
- ↑ City of Long Beach, "Understanding the City's Budget," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ Press-Telegram, "National Guard summoned to Long Beach after looting, fires," May 31, 2020
- ↑ Movement Advancement Project, "Local Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinances," accessed July 7, 2015
 |
State of California Sacramento (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |