The City of Hermosa Beach is the...

The City of Hermosa Beach is the adopted parent--and not exactly a proud one--of a mountain lion, which may soon find itself in a foster home.

Mayor Etta Simpson donated $25 to the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation to “adopt” the big cat in the city’s name. She even got a certificate that says so.

But when she included the certificate, a letter of thanks from the foundation and some mountain lion facts in a recent City Council agenda, some council members started growling.

In Hermosa Beach, it is said, everything is a controversy.

Simpson, who calls herself an environmentalist, said: “As long as (the city’s) not funding it, I don’t think it’s a problem.” Her intention was simply to make a nice gift to the city.

“That’s improper,” charged Councilwoman June Williams. “I do not think it’s appropriate for her to make a donation in the city’s name without council approval. Suppose I wanted to make a donation to the Nazis in the name of the city?”

The Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation is a research and education organization that also is trying to stop the 1988 mountain lion hunting season, said Executive Director Sharon Negri. The season--if approved by the California Fish and Game Commission in April--would begin Oct. 8 and continue for 79 days, with a maximum 190 permits issued.

Williams said: “I’m in favor of not shooting mountain lions, you might say, but I don’t think City Council meetings are the place to bring that up. Hermosa Beach has enough of our own problems. We don’t need anymore.”

Councilman Jim Rosenberger, who also was not thrilled with the gift, had his own ideas: “Otters are more beach related. . . . We’ve got displaced surfers maybe we could adopt. . . . We have options.”

Simpson said that if her colleagues feel the gift is inappropriate, she will withdraw it and adopt the big cat herself.

The council is expected to consider the issue Tuesday night, although most council members said they have more important items to worry about.

“I just hope (Mayor Simpson) named it, so that we can claim our mountain lion if we ever decide we have space for it,” Rosenberger joked, and added that the cat might supply perfect reason for keeping as open space the abandoned Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway right of way in the center of Hermosa.

“That’s the secret strategy of obtaining the right of way--turning it into a wildlife preserve,” he joked.

In reality, there is no mountain lion that Hermosa Beach can call its own, only a photograph. The Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation has photographs of 10 lions, and they are sent at random to the hundreds of people who have signed up as adoptive parents. The money is used for the organization’s programs, Negri said.