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A Gayle force helped build Manhattan Beach
Longtime Manhattan Beach city manager Gayle Martin is dead at 81.
by John Tawa
Gayle
T. Martin, the longest tenured city manager in Manhattan Beach's history, died
last Wednesday in Poway, California from complications from Alzheimer's Disease.
He was 81 years old.
"He was just a good man," commented former Manhattan Beach councilmember Mike Sweeney. "He did all the right things. He put the city in a good position for years."
During Martin's more than 17 years as city manager from 1956 to 1974, he oversaw the development of a majority of the city's current infrastructure. The police station on 15th Street downtown was dedicated in 1958. The adjacent fire station followed two years later. In 1965, the Joslyn Community Center opened. And the current City Hall was in the works for years until it was dedicated in 1975, the year after Martin left.
"Gayle was greatly responsible for getting the new City Hall built," said Joan Dontanville, who served on the council from 1972-76. "The city owes him a great deal. He was a very honorable man. He started us along the path that made us the pearl of the South Bay."
Martin began his career as a city manager in 1953 in Deerfield, Illinois, a small town of 6,000 people.
In those days, city managers came from one of two areas, either engineering or finance. Martin was from the engineering side. He earned his engineering degree from the University of Colorado during World War II and was sent straight off to the University of Michigan, where he learned how to build ships. He stayed on active duty for eight years, overseeing the building and repairing of navy ships and attained the rank of rear admiral. He spent another 25 years in the Naval Reserves.
In 1952, Martin obtained a master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Denver and set off to become a city manager.
"He wanted to go into a profession that changed every day and always had different challenges," said his son Tom Martin of Manhattan Beach, the South Bay representative to Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe.
After a short stint in Deerfield, Martin served as city manager for Maywood, Illinois, a city of 35,000 people, before Manhattan Beach beckoned him.
By all accounts, Martin was "old school." He believed in being a strong city manager, something that eventually created tension between himself and the council, some of whom believed that a city manager should practice "participatory management," a form of government more open to innovative ideas from employees and the community.
Martin decried the new style of government as inefficient.
"It takes forever to get a decision," he explained. "It has lay people dealing with problems that require expert decisions."
The philosophical rift ultimately led Martin to resign as Manhattan Beach's city manager at a city council meeting April 19, 1974.
"The council wants the new fad in public administration," Martin said at the time. "I'm of the old school."
Martin moved to the San Diego area and found work as the city manager in La Mesa until he retired in 1980. Interim stints in municipal government followed, including two six-month terms as interim city manager in Lomita and one six-month term in Hermosa Beach. Martin also served a six-month appointment as Executive Director of the fledgling South Bay Regional Communications Center in 1975.
Martin died at Manor Care Health Services in Poway, five years after contracting Alzheimer's Disease.
"He had 76 absolutely great years," Tom Martin said. "He hit a little speed bump five years ago and slowly deteriorated. It's not an easy disease to watch anybody struggle with. But just as he did in life, he handled it with courage and stayed the course."
"He remained sweet to the end," added daughter Jeanne Weber, a Manhattan Beach resident.
A memorial service for Martin took place Monday in Manhattan Beach. It was followed by a graveside military service at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored Martin by adjourning the meeting in his name.
In addition to children Tom and Jeanne, Martin is survived by his wife Lois, of San Diego, and a brother, Wayne, of Denver. Martin was preceded in death by his first wife, Helen, who passed away in 1982. ER