LONG BEACH - A coalition of workers and community activists called for a moratorium on new tourism development Tuesday in response to last week's Press-Telegram report that Long Beach's top development official had taken a vacation with a prominent lobbyist and received a hotel discount.

Gary Hytrek, spokesman for the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community, told the City Council that the moratorium should be put in place "until a thorough investigation is conducted."

"We want to know how far and how deep these types of relationships and interactions go," Hytrek said at Tuesday's council meeting. "We do not believe this to be an isolated incident."

Hytrek publicly called for a moratorium on commercial development, but coalition members, who have worked to improve conditions for hotel workers, said later outside the council chambers that they want a moratorium only on tourism-related development, such as hotels. No city officials responded publicly Tuesday to the Coalition's demand.

The call for a moratorium stemmed from news that Craig Beck, who is director of the city's Development Services Department and Redevelopment Agency, took a vacation with lobbyist Mike Murchison on Nov. 13 to 14. Beck has said he was unknowingly given a discount on his room at the Avia Hotel in Napa but that he later repaid it.

Beck is the primary gatekeeper at City Hall for development projects and regularly makes recommendationsto the City Council, the Redevelopment Agency board and the Planning Commission on multimillion-dollar proposals.

Beck has said that he and Murchison are friends, that he was on a personal trip and that he didn't violate any city policy. City Attorney Bob Shannon has said he doesn't believe Beck violated city laws or regulations, but the city's Human Resources Department is reviewing the matter as well.

Murchison represents the Avia Hotel's owner, Wichita, Kan.,-based LodgeWorks, which also owns an Avia hotel at the Pike at Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach. The company hopes to build a second hotel across from the Avia at the Pike called Sierra Suites, but the Coalition for Clean Jobs has filed a lawsuit against the project.

The coalition claims that the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it approved an addendum to the original environmental impact report for the Avia site. The group says the report - done several years ago - did not account for the parking, traffic and other impacts of the Hotel Sierra and wants a new report.

The Hotel Sierra would be a 125-room, high-end, all-suite hotel near Bay Street and Cedar Avenue. LodgeWorks officials say the project will generate $600,000 to $700,000 a year in taxes for the city, will hire 25 employees and will provide many construction jobs.

Hytrek said outside Tuesday's meeting that he and the members of his coalition have never had one-on-one face time with Beck or any other member of city management, much less a weekend of access, as Murchison did.

He called Beck's vacation an example of "the inappropriate and unjust culture of backroom deal-making that plagues Long Beach."

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 562-499-1278