2nd District candidate Cindy Allen runs away from the media

Cindy Allen 2nd District

Cindy Allen, a candidate in Long Beach’s Second District City Council race, runs away from a journalist who tries to interview her Monday while she was canvassing in the district. Photo: Q Voice News.

LONG BEACH — Not only is Cindy Allen running for an open seat in Long Beach’s Second District, but she also is literally running away from accountability, transparency, and the media.

Allen, a former Long Beach police officer and former owner of the Long Beach Post, was canvassing Monday in the “gayborhood,” the city’s predominantly LGBTQ neighborhood in the Alamitos Beach area.

Q Voice News contacted Allen in September to arrange an interview about a variety of issues impacting the LGBTQ community in the Second District.

Allen agreed to a telephone interview, but cancelled without notice and wouldn’t reschedule, despite several follow-up emails and text messages. Allen wanted questions emailed to her, but Q Voice News has a mission of holding public officials or people running for public office accountable and conducts live interviews.

Second District Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce is not seeking re-election. Robert Fox also is a candidate in the Second District race.

On Monday, a journalist from Q Voice News identified himself to Allen and began conducting an interview on the sidewalk along Second Street just west of Falcon Avenue.

At one point during the interview Allen said, “I’m always about getting the information out there, whether it’s good or bad. You need to let the public know.

“I want to be truthful,” she said.

Cindy Allen runs from media

But approximately 10 minutes into the interview, Allen refused to answer any additional questions and literally ran away from the journalist.

Why did Allen run away?

Allen signed a controversial agreement with the new owners of her former business, ETA Advertising, which has had contracts with several City of Long Beach agencies. According to the agreement, Allen will receive 10 percent of ETA’s revenue for 36 months after the sale, which took place in July.

That means that if Allen wins the Second District race, she will receive revenue generated from the same agencies that the council and Allen will be voting on — a conflict of interest.

The public was not aware of this agreement until it surfaced as part of a lawsuit filed against Allen earlier this month by the new owners of ETA Advertising.

When the sale was announced in July, several local media outlets asked Allen for a copy of the sale agreement, but she refused to release it. That means she concealed the conflict of interest from the public.

Running away from the media

Earlier this month, during a Second District virtual candidates debate with the Alamitos Beach Neighborhood Association, Allen was asked about the sale agreement and the conflict of interest.

Allen said it was an “attack question” and abruptly left the Zoom meeting.

As Allen was running away from Q Voice News, she said, “None of it’s true,” even though the signed sale agreement in question has not been disputed by anyone.

As she was running north on Falcon Avenue toward Broadway, Allen said she was being “harassed” by the questions.

LGBTQ ally?

In various campaign mailers, Allen has tried to paint herself as an ally of the LGBTQ community. She has worn a T-shirt with the phrase “Love is Love” in rainbow Pride colors.

But on her official campaign website, Allen doesn’t mention anything about the LGBTQ community.

During the brief interview with Q Voice News, Allen was asked questions about issues impacting the LGBTQ community, but she struggled to answer them.

  • Allen says that she has been active her entire life with the LGBTQ community, but couldn’t mention any specific city issues or policies she was active in supporting.
  • What are the top three LGBTQ specific policies or ordinances she would like to implement in the city? Allen didn’t have an answer.
  • The Second District has the city’s highest rate of new HIV infections. Gay men are disproportionately impacted with more than 90% of the infections. What does Allen think the city should be doing that it isn’t doing to reduce new HIV infections? What’s her strategic plan to reduce HIV infections? Allen said she didn’t know the Second District has the city’s highest rate of new HIV infections. She offered no plan to address the public health issue.

About the author

Phillip Zonkel

Award-winning journalist Phillip Zonkel spent 17 years at Long Beach's Press-Telegram, where he was the first reporter in the paper's history to have a beat covering the city's vibrant LGBTQ. He also created and ran the popular and innovative LGBTQ news blog, Out in the 562.

He won two awards and received a nomination for his reporting on the local LGBTQ community, including a two-part investigation that exposed anti-gay bullying of local high school students and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protections for LGBTQ students.

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