Fox to run for Mayor

 The man the city refused to talk to announces for Mayor

Robert Fox pulls papers for Mayor race

On Wednesday, January 10th, Robert Fox,  Executive Director of the Council of  Neighborhood Organizations (CONO), in a community email announced that on January 11th, the day before the filing deadline, that he was pulling papers to run for Mayor. 

Fox also stated that he was stepping down from his position as Executive Director of CONO to avoid conflicts.

In his email to friends and neighbors, Fox wrote:

"After much prayer and meditation, I have come to the decision that our City desperately needs a new direction.  The experience of the Land Use Element is only one issue which indicates that the voice of the citizenry is not being represented. ( heard, yes. represented, no).

This is the last thing I would curse on anyone, but the times seem to call for someone to step forward.  

Therefore, I am going to run for Mayor of the City of Long Beach."

Fox who needed 30 signatures on his nominating petition asked supporters to meet at his house on Thursday to sign his petition. Within minutes of opening his door, Fox had his signatures and turned away supporters for the rest of the night what became an impromptu campaign rally.

Fox who started his career in neighborhood advocacy in the Alamitos Beach neighborhood of District 2,  reemerged to reorganize CONO last year when he saw signs that the neighborhoods were again being ignored by "City Hall".    

In the August of 2017, CONO splashed onto the local political scene as the organization of neighborhood leaders led the city-wide rallying call against the Land Use Element (LUE).  Since August, CONO has become a city-wide political advocacy voice of the over 100 neighborhoods.

Amy Bodek, the former Director of the Department of Development Services, tried to silence Fox as the CONO leader during the popular LUE Townhall Meetings- at one point threatening to have Fox arrested for wanting to distribute CONO's information at one of the public forms.  

All of Bodek's attempts backfired. When Fox spoke at all of the Townhall Meetings, he was received by the huge audiences like a rockstar.