Is there anyone outside of City Hall who thinks replacing the existing RDA Board with the City Council is a good idea? Apparently not. Perhaps that's because the community itself doesn't gain by this action.

However, individual city council members would benefit. There would be more campaign money from special interest groups, more redevelopment project "chips" that can be exchanged for special favors (the perfect recipe for corruption), and more "justification" would be given to convince the public that a full time City Council is needed — with, of course, a significant pay raise.

Is there an opportunity to improve the redevelopment process in Long Beach? Absolutely. But the community itself has called for an independent study of this redevelopment agency and that study just started two weeks ago. Bypassing an independent study creates an environment where redevelopment decisions are based on political considerations, rather than economic goals.

And lest we forget -the last time the City Council had the opportunity to make a significant financial decision, they created a three-year, $100-million city budget deficit.

Yet still, some of our city council members refuse to listen to their constituents. Who knows? Maybe all this talk around town of launching a recall makes sense

Michael Betts.