PREFACE - 2024 Edition of the Long Beach City Charter

A quick look at the legislative history of the Long Beach City Charter (Charter) brings to mind an old maxim: "the only true constant is change." The current charter has been amended in dozens of elections in the many years since it was first passed in 1907. While the City had charters before 1923, the structure of government that these previous charters laid out radically differed from the Council-Manager form of government that the 1923 charter provided and that exists in an evolved form today.

The 2024 Edition of the Charter reflects the changes from the November 5, 2024 election. To make the Charter more accessible to all our citizens, the Long Beach Office of the City Clerk has reformatted and reprinted the entire charter.

The reprinted edition of the Charter in 2013 researched and expanded the legislative history feature for all Charter sections that have been amended since the 1980 Revised Edition, beginning with the first set of Charter amendments as adopted by the voters on April 13, 1982, up and through the November 5, 2024 Charter amendments.

We hope that you learn much from reading our Charter, the City's foundational document. Please visit the Office of the City Clerk website, at www.longbeach.gov/cityclerk, to see the electronic version of the Charter or for any announcements regarding changes to the Charter. For historical information regarding the Charter prior to the April 13, 1982 amendments as adopted by the voters, please contact the Office of the City Clerk.

City of Long Beach

Office of the City Clerk

411 West Ocean Boulevard, 11 th Floor

Long Beach, CA 90802

(562) 570-6101

cityclerk@longbeach.gov