Long Beach’s Patrick O’Donnell Calls Unique Legislative Session A Success

Former Vice President Joe Biden, center, speaks with California Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, left and Mayor Robert Garcia, right, during a tour of the Gerald Desmond replacement bridge project in Long Beach on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020.

Long Beach Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell (D-70) is home from his sixth year in the state legislature — one he calls the strangest yet. “It definitely is unprecedented,” O’Donnell said in an interview last week. “It was interrupted by COVID; we started, stopped, then started again. “I’d have to say it wasn’t marked by the quantity of the legislation, but by the quality,” he added. “There were fewer bills, but they were more effective.” O’Donnell was a high school history teacher before and during his tenure on the Long Beach City Council. He continues to emphasis education in his Sacramento efforts. He is chair of the Assembly Education Committee. “We succeeded in the fight to hold off cuts in education in this budget,” he said. “…We were able to use our reserves — something we couldn’t have done 10 years ago, because there were no reserves then. But next year will be different. We’ll have to be strategic going forward; there are going to […]

Click here to view original web page at www.gazettes.com

More from Long Beach