Local Elections : Hermosa Candidates Differ on Most Issues but Agree on Right of Way

The center of Hermosa Beach has become the focal point of the coming City Council election and although the Santa Fe Railway right of way physically divides the city it has united--on one issue at least--even political opponents.

All four candidates say they will work to buy the property for preservation as open space.

Two candidates will be elected at large Nov. 3 to the four-year, part-time positions that pay $300 a month. Incumbent Tony DeBellis, 40, is seeking a second term. Mayor John Cioffi, whose term will also expire next month, is not seeking reelection.

Civic activist Roger Creighton, 49, marketing manager Michael Neiman, 28, and Planning Commission Chairman Chuck Sheldon, 44, are the other candidates.

No Voting Blocs

There are no consistent voting blocs on the City Council and alliances are expected to vary with each issue no matter who is elected.

One of the most important decisions the next council will make is hiring a new city manager, who will carry out council policies and directions and oversee day-to-day operations.

But to Sheldon, obtaining the railroad right of way is the only major issue in the city. He said voters should elect the candidates who can best “present themselves in a way that would enhance negotiations.”

Three of the candidates, DeBellis, Neiman and Sheldon, emphasize that compromise will be necessary in dealing with these problems no matter who is elected to the City Council.

That’s not Creighton’s view, however.

“I have the strength of my convictions. I pursue them,” he said, adding that if he felt strongly about an issue and could not get the other council members to agree with him, he would circulate a petition and put that issue before the voters.

Filed Several Suits

Creighton has sued the city several times in recent years to gain access to city records that he felt should be public or to stop the council from spending money in ways he felt were improper. Although he has not always won the suits, city practices often changed because of them.

DeBellis described Creighton and Sheldon as confrontational, saying either might strain council relations if elected.

The most important qualification for a City Council member is interpersonal communications, he said.

“You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but you have to convince--not the public--but two other people,” he said. “Nobody changes things by themselves.”

When DeBellis was elected in 1984, he joined a council known for its rudeness, which sometimes included public criticism of residents. By 1986, the atmosphere had changed; three new members were on the council and DeBellis was mayor. Debellis takes credit for setting a tone of “positive cooperation” and creating the noticeable improvement in decorum at meetings.

Age an Issue

Nevertheless, Neiman said it is time to make the City Council more like the community it governs. Neiman, 28, said that because he is young--the average age in the city is under 30--he would be more representative than current council members. At age 40, DeBellis is the youngest on the current council.

About 65% “of the people in this town are people like myself, they’re renters . . . they’ve been here for a short time,” he said.

City financial accountability has become an issue and, as always in Hermosa Beach--with about 21,000 people in 1.3 square miles--the voters are talking about open space, density, development, parking and parking enforcement.

Financial Accountability

One issue is the council’s discovery earlier this year that top city officials had failed to inform council members that the city had an $818,000 surplus.

Believing that there was a surplus of only $11,000, council members asked voters in a November, 1986, initiative to increase property taxes by $52 a year for four years to fund police and fire services. They warned that the city was facing financial difficulties.

The initiative was defeated and council members learned in January that the surplus was $818,000 and not $11,000 as they had been told by then-City Manager Gregory T. Meyer.

Creighton, who has been a council watchdog for years but previously vowed never to seek public office, said he decided to run because of those events and to fight what he sees as an increase in density.

Mismanagement Claimed

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen this kind of . . . misrepresentation of public funds,” he said. “That sequence of events cannot continue if Hermosa Beach is going to be a clean, green, safe place to live.”

Creighton was especially critical of the council, including DeBellis, for not calculating the surplus on its own or holding the city staff responsible for providing accurate information.

“A disregard for keeping track of what’s going on is inexcusable,” he said. “If they have a finance director or a city manager who is not getting the information in an appropriate manner, they have an obligation to the taxpayers of this city to dismiss him from his job.”

Meyer resigned the following September.

DeBellis and other council members have said that they did not know about the surplus last November when the tax initiative was presented to voters and relied on the city staff to provide clear and accurate financial reporting.

Indication of Surplus

Meyer said later that the surplus was indicated to the council in financial reports in July, 1986. The reports totaled 44 pages of figures, and did not include a separate total for the surplus.

DeBellis said he reviewed the monthly reports as “a cursory informational thing,” concentrating on agenda items that required action.

He said it was the council members who were left with egg on their faces “after this whole fiasco.” As a result of the problem, he and the other council members have insisted on more precise financial reports.

Another result, DeBellis said, was that Meyer “probably didn’t get the reward (bonus) that he normally would have been justified in seeking.”

He credits the council in part, however, with creating the surplus by bringing in more revenues through commercial projects and development standards it approved.

Commercial Development

The commercial developments already on Pier and Hermosa avenues and Pacific Coast Highway are satisfactory, and expanding those areas would only compound traffic problems and intrude into residential areas, Neiman said.

The other three candidates disagree with Neiman. The city needs more commercial development to increase revenues to the city, DeBellis, Sheldon and Creighton agreed.

Density

Density remains a key issue in the crowded city. DeBellis and Sheldon said they have sought to lower density during their respective terms on the council and Planning Commission and that they are running on their records. Creighton, however, claims that the two city officials have recommended or approved regulations that will result in a more crowded city.

DeBellis points out that he pushed for the 1986 “density-reduction ordinance” which reduced the maximum number of units in a high-density residential zone to 33 from 40 units per acre.

“I think further density reduction is still a key issue,” he said.

Although Sheldon said in an interview and on his campaign flyer that he voted for the 1986 density-reduction resolution when it came before the Planning Commission, he actually voted against it.

Confused With Another Vote

Sheldon recently explained that he had confused the zoning vote with a related vote on density reduction. He explained that he voted against the rezoning because he did not understand why staff recommended reducing the number of units allowed to 33 per acre and not another, perhaps lower, requirement.

The Planning Commission and the City Council have been reviewing the General Plan designations and zoning in the city to make them consistent, Sheldon said, and in every case chose the less dense alternative, he said.

(Planning Director Michael Schubach said the council and the commission approved the higher density in all but one case.)

In claiming that DeBellis and Sheldon voted for increased density, Creighton points to an ordinance that allows more than two units on lots in medium-density zones that are at least 3,500 square feet. Previously, only two units could be built in those zones regardless of the size of the lot.

Value of Home Reduced

DeBellis said Creighton is confusing the issue because the ordinance will prevent more people from developing even two units than it will allow to build more than two. His vote to adopt the ordinance decreased the value of his own home, he said, because previously, he could have built two units on his lot, but now the zoning permits only one.

Creighton said density also has also been increased because the number of units built each year since 1979 far outnumbers those demolished during the same year.

Sheldon replied that there will always be more units built in the city than demolished because people will build up their multiple-residential zones that have been in effect for more than 50 years.

“You can’t change what’s here and that seems to evade some people,” Sheldon said. “You can only preclude and reduce density in the future and that requires some vision, some planning and some experience.”

Height Limits Reduced

Sheldon said that he has helped reduce density within the city by reducing the height limit in the commercial zones and by increasing the number of parking spaces required with new developments. The council should further reduce the number of housing units allowed in residential areas, he added.

DeBellis said the city needs requirements to establish landscaped buffer zones between commercial and adjacent properties, and stricter setback and open-space requirements. He made strides along those lines, he said, by voting for more restrictive open space requirements.

Neiman is the only candidate who does not see density as a campaign issue. He said that although density is a problem it is not a priority and the current zoning laws are adequate.

Santa Fe Right of Way

All four City Council candidates said that acquiring the Santa Fe Railway right of way for parklands is the most important issue facing city officials and that residents are going to have to pay for the 100-foot-wide strip, at least in part, through increased taxes.

The right of way that bisects the city now has a jogging path, an exercise course, parking spaces and landscaped, grassy stretches.

All four said they would be willing to apply the council’s eminent domain powers if the city and the railroad could not reach an agreement.

DeBellis got the council to put an initiative on the Nov. 3 ballot that would raise the utility-users tax to 10% from 6% to help buy the right of way. If approved, the City Council and all the candidates have pledged to use the $666,000 the increase would generate to help buy the right of way.

Some residents have criticized the council for acting to slowly in acquiring the right of way, but DeBellis said the council has been stopped from buying the right of way in the past because of a lack of money and by a suit the railroad filed against the city that has since been dropped.

Sheldon thinks he could do better because he has experience in business negotiations, he said.

Parking

Parking is critical for the city not just because it is crowded, but because tickets and parking fees are the city’s third largest source of income.

Neiman, a Hermosa Avenue renter, said the city’s parking problems are the second most important issue in the campaign, behind the acquisition of the right of way. “The parking enforcement in Hermosa Beach is unreasonable,” he said.

Restrictions--including no-parking zones and when meters must be paid--should be eased during off-peak hours when the spaces are used primarily by residents, he said.

“The parking situation down here scares people away from Hermosa Beach,” he said. “People pretty much know if they come down here and they’re lucky enough to find a space, they’ll probably get a ticket, so the question becomes: ‘Why come down here? Why not go to Manhattan Beach or Redondo Beach where the chances of getting a parking ticket are not as great?’ ”

Raise Permit Fees

Businesses also would benefit if the parking restrictions were eased and any revenue lost by the city would be made up in increased sales taxes and a possible $5 increase in the cost of residential parking permits, Neiman said.

DeBellis said that although some improvements are needed--such as the City Council’s recent decision to change meters in the downtown area to accept coins other than quarters--the parking enforcers do not cause the tickets. “The people do that to themselves,” he said.

If people believe the enforcement officers are unfair, they can go before an arbitrator who can nullify the ticket, he pointed out.

“I think the parking issue is really the lack of parking rather than parking enforcement,” DeBellis said.

Aid to Circulation

When asked about the frequent complaints about parking enforcement, Sheldon said: “It’s only a complaint from people whose meter ran out . . . It’s important to the businesses that you get circulation and the way you get circulation is through metering. . . . The solution acceptable to people who get tickets, I think, is absent.”

About two weeks later Sheldon had changed his mind, saying the City Council must resolve the parking enforcement problem. “The parking laws of Hermosa Beach must be geared to the residents,” he said after campaigning among downtown residents.

Creighton once said that parking problems are a small price to pay for living in a wonderful, beachfront community like Hermosa Beach. But he said the problem would be eased if the city enforced the law that garages be used for parking and not storage, and by getting rid of bootleg apartments.

Campaign Contributions

None of the council candidates anticipate spending more than $7,000 in the race.

Candidates Creighton and Neiman criticized DeBellis for taking $249 campaign contributions--the maximum allowed under city ordinance--from developers Joe Langlois and David Greenwood, and from members of the MacPhearson family whose company has the exclusive rights to drill for oil on city property. Langlois and Greenwood are the developers of a $24-million shopping center under construction at 16th Street and Pacific Coast Highway and the proposed 250-room hotel at the old Biltmore site on The Strand.

“It costs money to run. They offered the money and I accepted it,” DeBellis said. “I will not be anymore beholden to Joe Langlois or the MacPhearsons or (former City Manager) Greg Meyer than to anybody who gave me 25 bucks or no bucks.”

DeBellis said he expects to spend about $3,000 in the campaign.

Sheldon said he will probably spend $6,000 to $7,000.

Creighton said he probably will not spend more than $4,000.

Neiman declined to say how much money he plans to spend on his campaign.