About Town
Civic development
Councilman Howard Fishman announced the formation of the Hermosa Beach Community Alliance, led in part by prominent businesspeople, that hopes to serve as a liaison between the City Council and residents, civic groups and business community.
The impetus for the group’s formation was “the excessive negative campaigning” in the 2009 City Council election, said organizers in a prepared statement. In the wake of the campaign, members hope to encourage more civil discourse on civic issues.
Examples of negative campaigning that came up in discussions included some letters to the editors of newspapers, and a hired airplane towing a 150-foot long banner over the beach, urging voters to turn out incumbent Michael Keegan, who did not win reelection.
Listed as board members are former councilman George Barks of CVS pharmacy on Pacific Coast Highway, Geoff Hirsch, who worked on Fishman’s election campaign, JAMA Auto House co-owner Andrea Jacobsson, and Sharkeez restaurant co-owner Ron Newman.
“The group’s goal is provide an open forum to discuss these issues and suggest potential policies and programs to City Council in a positive manner, to assist the council in becoming more proactive on issues that impact our community,” the statement read.
“Potential community issues such as attracting and retaining businesses, expediting new business permits, increased support for local businesses, tourism, public beautification and other topics of interest to residents will be discussed in a town hall-style forum,” it read.
The new group’s monthly meetings are open to the public and all Hermosa civic groups. The first meeting was held earlier this month at City Hall.
Open hearts
The Hermosa Beach Education Foundation will host its signature fundraiser, “Hearts of Hermosa,” 5:45 p.m. to midnight Saturday, March 20 at St. Rocke, 142 Pacific Coast Highway. The theme is Night of Blues. The evening will feature a cocktail hour with New Orleans style appetizers followed by dinner, a silent and live auction, music and dancing.
Tickets ($140 per person) may be purchased online with a credit card at hbef.org, or by mailing checks payable to Hermosa Beach Education Foundation to HBEF, Hearts of Hermosa, P.O. Box 864, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.
The 18-year-old, nonprofit Education Foundation helps fund instructional programs in science, technology, foreign language and the arts.
Seeing dots
The Leadership Hermosa Beach class of 2010 hosts a fundraiser 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 25 at Blue 32, located at 1332 Hermosa Ave., for the Blue Dots Project to install or replace the dots in the roadways that help firefighters find fire hydrants at night.
Fire Chief David Lantzer called it a “very important project” that would have “remained unfinished for the foreseeable future without the leadership of Leadership Hermosa Beach.” The city, he said, “does not have the resources to accomplish this project on its own, especially the time it takes to survey every fire hydrant in the city to determine whether or not it has a blue dot identifier.”
Blue 32 will donate proceeds from select drinks to the class project, and other businesses will contribute raffle items.
For more see leadershiphermosa.org. ER