Mayor Bill Brand rebrands Redondo Beach: 2017 Newsmaker of the Year
What began as quixotic effort to replace the AES power plant with a park gains credibility under the leadership of Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand
Five lawsuits. Two FPPC complaints. One alleged physical threat from a Redondo Beach commissioner.
It’s no wonder why Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand, the Beach Cities Newsmaker of the Year, feels like he’s got a target on his chest.
“I’m definitely in the [sights] of a lot of people who see me as being in the way of their overdevelopment plans,” Brand said.
This year, 2017, is the year Brand and his self-described “slow-growth” development philosophy burst over the political dam he felt he was straining against since he began his activism in 2001.
Brand was elected to Redondo Beach’s top executive position in March, alongside Measure C, a rezoning measure that essentially outlawed CenterCal’s redevelopment plans for Redondo’s Waterfront. He was joined by two new activist Council Members, Nils Nehrenheim, and Todd Loewenstein.
Nehrenheim made his name standing against the Legado Redondo development at the former Bristol Farms site at Pacific Coast Highway and Palos Verdes Boulevard.He then joined hands with the anti-CenterCal organization Rescue Our Waterfront. Loewenstein first engaged in Redondo politics as a member of the Redondo school board, then worked against the 2015 power plant rezoning initiative, Measure B.
Their election saw a sea-change in Redondo.
“But there’s still a majority on the council that supported CenterCal,” Brand said. “The majority did not bring the Galleria under the moratorium we established for mixed-use development. While there’s been change and progress, it’s been incremental over many, many years.”
This year has been validation for Brand’s 16-year path of activism, when he and his then-wife stumbled across a televised Redondo Beach Planning Commission meeting about Heart of the City, a 2002 attempt to redevelop Redondo’s waterfront.
Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand pounds the pavement in the LA Kings Beach Cities 5K/10K in July. Photo by Jason Kihara
Brand won election to the City Council in 2009, succeeding one-time-ally Chris Cagle, with whom Brand split in the mid-2000s.
Though Brand is fond of saying he and his fellow elected officials “agree on much more than we disagree on,” he’s just as fond of saying that politics is a “contact sport.”
Redondo Beach’s City Council meetings have become the political equivalent of trench warfare since Nehrenheim won the District 1 seat in a runoff with incumbent Martha Barbee, particularly over the last two months.
Three- to two-votes on issues from finance and revenue generation discussions, to decisions over joining utilities programs have become routine and contentious. The mayor does not have a vote but can veto any decision with less than a 4-1 majority. He hasn’t hesitated to use the veto.
Council members Christian Horvath, Laura Emdee and John Gran have already seen four of their 3-2 votes vetoed. One veto blocked the passage of fee increases for parking permits; two others blocked approvals of city commissioner appointments, and the fourth blocked a plan to comply with 2015’s State Senate Bill 415.
Mayor Bill Brands hope to convert the AES power plant into a park gained momentum in November when he enlisted the support of Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn and State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi. Photo (CivicCouch.com)
SB 415 was passed with the goal of increasing voter turnout in municipal elections by moving odd-number-year municipal elections to even-year statewide elections. The bill requires cities to have a plan to do so by Jan. 1, 2018,
Of all of the ammunition used by those aligned with Brand against the three other council members, SB 415 has become the most valuable and potent in the arsenal.
Despite debate as to whether or not charter cities, such as Redondo Beach, need to comply with the law, approving a realignment plan would keep the city on the safe side.
A plan was approved by the Council on Nov. 21, when Horvath, Emdee, and Gran voted for a measure that they projected was cheaper than alternative plans, but also extended the current council members’ terms to five years, rather than four.
Brand and his aligned colleagues favored a plan that would reduce current elected terms to three years, but was projected to cost the city up to $2 million more than the five-year term plan.
Both plans would require voter approval. Brand defended his veto of the term-extension plan by arguing that it disenfranchises voters.
Emdee, Horvath, and Gran have pushed back against Brand and his aligned council members. The three, for instance, blocked a Loewenstein motion to reopen discussion of the SB 415 alignment issue.
When Brand, on 24 hours notice, called for a special meeting on Dec.19 to discuss SB 415, Emdee and Horvath both cited holiday-related conflicts. When Gran also failed to attend the meeting it had to be canceled for lack of a quorum.
Mayor Bill Brand gained support for his agenda with the election of Councilman Nils Nehrenheim in March. The two are pictured at the finish of the International Surf Festival Dwight Crumb Two-Mile Swim. Photo
It was the second time in three months that a meeting was canceled for lack of quorum due to absences from Horvath, Emdee, and Gran. They first forced a meeting to be canceled when the three believed Brand, Nehrenheim, and Loewenstein were planning to “ram through” commission appointments.” The gulf between the sides is widely evident, leading an attendee to the erstwhile special meeting to ask Brand what the council is doing to work together with one another.
“I’m 19 years old, and I can tell when adults agree and don’t agree,” said Ignacio. “I don’t see a path forward — one side says this, the other side says that, and they don’t end up working together. What can you do?”
“Well, we’re here, so you can say that to us,” Brand replied while gesturing to the three empty seats.
The Council has taken some unified action. It voted unanimously to challenge the State Attorney General’s ruling that charter cities are subject to SB 415, doing so at their last regular meeting of 2017.
All five Redondo Council Members also voted together to submit a proposal to purchase the AES power plant property.
“We’re looking for a partner to acquire this site for mostly public uses, not just a development plan,” Mayor Brad said at a Nov. 19 press conference at the power plant. He was joined by fellow council members, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn and Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who both promised their support.
Progress toward developing at least part of the AES property as a park was widely viewed as hopelessly quixotic Brand joined the effort more than a decade ago. But the target on his back is not going away.
Brand has been named as a defendant in multiple lawsuits related to the CenterCal project and been targeted by FPPC investigations related both to his support for Measure C.
He’s also currently embroiled in a controversy over his effort to unseat Planning Commissioner Marc Mitchell, who allegedly threatened Brand at a Nov. 3 Planning Commision reception.
Mitchell’s seat on Planning will be reviewed in the new year, Brand said, as will be SB 415, the AES power plant, CenterCal, the South Bay Galleria and, possibly, Redondo’s involvement in the 2028 Olympic Games. Brand said he hopes to make Redondo a site for open water swimming and water polo.
“If you believe in something, you don’t stop and weight the risks of where you want to go — I’ve learned if you believe in something, and think it’s the right thing to do, you’ve gotta take risks,” Brand said.