In Hermosa Beach council race, Armato hopes to convince rather than force
City Council candidate Stacey Armato. Photo
Stacey Armato joined the Hermosa Beach City council in March of last year, winning a special election to fill the seat of former Councilmember Nanette Barragan, who departed in 2015 to run for Congress. Armato’s election came almost a year to the day after another special election: the vote on Measure O, which would have repealed Hermosa’s ban on oil drilling.
The No on O campaign provided Armato’s entrance into Hermosa politics. As one of its leaders, she helped create a winning coalition by presenting an argument for almost every single constituency in the city: environmentalists, those focused on maintaining property values, and long-time residents anxious about change in the town, could all fit under the banner of “Keep Hermosa Hermosa.” But the consensus of the Measure O campaign — turning out in numbers typical for a presidential election, voters rejected repeal of the ban by a 4 to 1 margin — gave way to bitterness as the city turned to PLAN Hermosa, the city’s updates to its General Plan and Local Coastal Program.
Armato is one of seven candidates pursuing three open seats on the Hermosa Beach City Council in the coming November election. As one of two incumbents running, her votes, questions, and comments about PLAN Hermosa will be among the most scrutinized aspects of the race. The council unanimously passed PLAN Hermosa last month, but the 5-0 vote obscures extensive debate surrounding key portions of the document. Starting at the beginning of the year, a series of public hearings revealed a city more divided than the Measure O vote suggested.
Armato, an attorney, said she watched every hearing for PLAN Hermosa. Extensive public comment pushed the duration of the hearings to scores of hours, and it’s possible she spent more time in the Council Chambers audience this year than at the dais. But she accepts that it is part of the process, and suspects that greater transparency might have minimized the controversy.
“Opportunities for engagement can’t be emphasized enough. It might take a little bit longer, but we have to be okay with that because it’s the right thing to do,” Armato said.
The completism involved in watching all the hearings says as much about Armato’s willingness to endure criticism as it does about her focus on detail. (Early hearings were full of passionate intensity, but much of the process was dry, as staff and commissioners lifted commas and matched modifiers for an audience in the single digits.) It’s a mix of traits that those who know Armato say is part of what makes her successful.
Kevin Sousa was one of the co-founders of the No on O campaign. Part of the consensus that the movement created, he said, stemmed from her willingness to make people feel acknowledged. Describing strategizing meetings that Armato held, Sousa said, “Not everybody left happy, but everybody left feeling heard from.”
“Stacey is able to listen, take in information, and sometimes hold two opposing thoughts at the same time. In any movement there are going to be disagreements, and her being able to navigate through them, that really was a guiding force for us in the oil campaign,” he said.
Armato’s methods imply a faith in the wisdom of the city’s residents if given the chance to adequately consider the issues. She compared PLAN Hermosa debates to the ones surrounding fire services. The stretched-out process there included a citizen’s oversight committee, which eventually delivered a unanimous endorsement of contracting with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
“Ninety-nine percent of them probably went into thinking, ‘I am not giving up our fire department.’ They didn’t fully understand what the county could offer. But they listened to what the county could deliver to our community, they heard our chief explain how our current service would be vastly improved, and they clearly saw the benefits,” she said.
Armato is a member of the council’s downtown safety subcommittee. If re-elected, she said she would continue to focus on the issue. She became increasingly vocal following an incident last November, in which a Hermosa Beach Police Department Officer was shoved and injured while attempting to apprehend a suspect.
Here too, Armato emphasizes the power of incremental change. She supports what Chief Sharon Papa has described as crime prevention through environmental design. Lack of lighting emboldens potential criminals, Armato said, and people feel more comfortable urinating or littering in streets that are already unclean. (In the course of an interview with an Easy Reader reporter on Monday morning, she pointed to drops of blood and vomit splatter on a Pier Avenue sidewalk.)
In a 1.3 square-mile city, small changes can make a big difference. For Armato, this is a reason to move slowly. But it also means residents can readily come together for what’s right.
“This was shouted from the rooftops during the General Plan process: ‘Don’t force me, but give me an opportunity; I’m capable of doing it on my own if I believe it’s the right thing to do,’” she said.