SAY NO TO WASTEFUL SPENDING
Car
Purchase
Staff Salaries & Benefits
Our local government is the largest employer in Hermosa Beach. Almost 60% of General Fund revenues go to pay for the salaries, bonuses, benefits and pensions of City staff. That's $30 million just this year alone.
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​The City Manager earns nearly $400k annually for a 4-day work week, with Hermosa Beach residents paying $17.67 per capita for her salary—far more than neighboring cities like Redondo Beach ($5.29) and Manhattan Beach ($9.75).
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The City Manager now enjoys a 5 year contract, voted for by this City Council, including incumbent candidate Michael Detoy. She has appointed a Deputy City Manager who costs us $300,000 per year. The City Manager has been paid another large bonus, but residents are not permitted to see the performance review that enabled it. Staff costs have risen by 30% since she took over, and staff headcount has increased by 15%. Taxpayers will remain liable for their generous pension benefits long into the future.
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Staff costs are budgeted to rise by 9% or $2.4 million in this budget year alone. The city is looking to raise $3 million a year from the sales tax increase. In other words, it wants to raise your taxes to pay for more unchecked spending on city staff.
​The Clark Building Renovation Project
This project is a sorry tale of one mistake after another. It started in 2017 with a budget of just $135,000. Seven years later, the main work hasn't even started and the budget is now an unbelievable $3.6 million. The building has been closed for 4 years, with residents denied access to this precious community resource.
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The Clark Building is unlikely to be reopened until at least late-Spring 2025. Why would you trust more of your tax dollars to an administration that demonstrates this level of incompetence ?
Barbara Ellman explains the
Park Restrooms 'Boondoggle'
The Park Restrooms Project
This project started in 2016, with a combined budget covering four park restrooms of $615,000. After seven years, and another costly legal battle with contractors, the work was finally completed with a budget of (gulp) $2.4million.
Residents have had to suffer the inconvenience of such a lengthy mismanagement, caused in large part by two factors.
Firstly, the city's inability to manage contract bid processes effectively, or to manage contractor performance during the project.
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Secondly, the council's insistence in adding solar panels and other unnecessary features to such simple facilities. In Seaview Park, they added an entirely separate structure in the park to house solar panels that power one light bulb and a camera. It's a wildly wasteful use of taxpayer money.
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As city leader and Commissioner Barbara Ellman told the council in 2021 - "this is a case study in everything that is wrong with city government... it is a huge mistake, and totally disrespectful to the residents." The council refused to listen, and voted to plough ahead with this fiasco.
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Before you vote to give this administration more of your money through tax rises, perhaps you should demand to see what they propose to change in order to avoid a repetition of projects like the park restrooms.
The Greenbelt Granite Path Project
This is a project that has been under discussion for several years. In 2021, the city council discussed spending around $200,000 to create an 'accessibility path' on the Greenbelt. In March 2022, the council voted to extend that path (created from decomposed granite) all the way from Pier Ave. to 8th Street. Former Councilmember Stacey Armato insisted that this would be funded by grants from either the state or county level. It should be noted that there are no legal ADA issues with our current Greenbelt.
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In July of this year, the city council voted to approve an eye-watering $1 million for this project from city funds. There are no grants or external funding. The entire cost will be borne by Hermosa residents.
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In other circumstances, this might be viewed as a worthy project. But the city cannot afford it, and the price has increased five-fold since it was first discussed.
Expensive external consultants
In addition to the gross expansion of city staff and salaries under this City Manager, the use of highly paid external consultants is excessive and unnecessary.
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The City Manager employs a consultant publicist at a cost of almost $100,000 per year. The city has engaged 'community outreach' consultants on the absurd $100+ million new City Hall project, in an attempt to influence public opinion on this unpopular idea. That's in addition to the consultants that were employed to come up with the idea in the first place.
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A recurring theme is the use of consultants (and the hiring of staff) from the City Manager's former Long Beach contacts list. Hermosa Beach is not Long Beach. We don't need this level of outside 'expertise', and we certainly can't afford the bill that comes with it.
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It's hard to track the costs of all the outside consultants. The city does not declare the costs in one easy to follow budget or document. What are they so keen to hide ?
Costly lawsuits & disputes
The Council's misguided actions in the CrossFit Horsepower case led to a $1.2 million settlement that the city had to pay from taxpayer dollars.
https://easyreadernews.com/crossfit-gym-a-1-million-nuisance-to-hermosa-beach/
The provably biased actions and poor judgement of former Councilmember Stacey Armato (who is endorsing candidate Jani Lange) resulted in a Writ of Mandate from a Superior Court judge. This action cost Hermosa Beach residents dearly, yet Jani Lange and Mike Detoy continue to align themselves with this failed leadership.
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The Greenbelt Water Infiltration Project was another prolonged dispute, pitting us against our neighbors in Redondo Beach.
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The City has faced numerous lawsuits from contractors and employees, and continues to make the same mistakes that lead to these legal battles.
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$450,000 is budgeted this year for City Attorney services, in addition to any additional fees or settlement costs. The City refuses to put legal services out for a public tender (RFP). We should ask why they are unwilling to use a public process to achieve better value for taxpayers. In the Crossfit gym case alone, the City Attorney's firm filed costs of over $300,000 which taxpayers footed the bill for. Nice work if you can get it.
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The city has had no less than four lawyers as elected council members in recent years, and the result has been legal jeopardy and chaos. Maybe it's time to elect people with real world business experience who understand how to get things done efficiently. People with an independent position, untainted by the mess of the last five years. People who aren't simply going to be controlled by the Massey/Jackson/Detoy/Lowenthal stranglehold on Hermosa Beach. Use your votes wisely.
The City Hall/Civic Center/'Taj Mahal'
Have you met anyone recently who thinks that what Hermosa Beach really needs is a new City Hall ? No - neither have we.
And yet this administration is preparing to go for broke with an absurd plan for City Hall and Civic facilities.
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Even the City's own highly paid consultant has said that this project is likely to cost at least $100 million, 'whichever way you look at it'.
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Would you trust this administration with a $100 million project, when they can't build bathrooms and kitchens on time or anywhere close to budget ? This project could end up spiraling out of control, and putting the City in huge debt for decades.
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The City has said that they will appoint a 'Community Advisory Group' (aided by yet another highly paid set of consultants) but guess what ? That committee will be handpicked by the City Manager herself. This administration does not like opposing voices or healthy debate. The City Manager wants to follow her Long Beach playbook, and burnish her resume using vast amounts of taxpayers' money.
