Ex-Councilman Leaves Hospital

Archie Snow, a former Redondo Beach councilman and longtime civic activist, was discharged from South Bay Hospital on Wednesday. He was taken to the hospital after he collapsing during an impassioned speech about the Police Department budget at the City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The 70-year-old Snow, who is recovering from a heart attack, had been fitted with a defibrillator that uses electrical shocks to govern his heart rate, friends said.

Snow had taken the podium to threaten the council with a voter initiative if it refused to beef up police funding in the upcoming budget. A shock from his defibrillator prompted him to cry out in mid-sentence. As the council called for paramedics, Snow attempted to finish his speech but was shocked a second time.

Fully conscious, he lay on the floor in front of the podium chatting with members of the audience until paramedics took him to the hospital, where he was kept for observation overnight and discharged in satisfactory condition.

“When he gets excited, the defibrillator reads it as his heart being out of rhythm, and it shocks him back in sync,” Redondo Beach Battalion Chief Pat Aust explained. “He just got a little agitated. . . . He’s the only guy I know for whom public speaking could be hazardous to his health.”