by Garth Meyer
Early election returns indicate the city of Redondo Beach will be getting a new police station and two new fire stations after voters approved Measure FP by a 71% margin Nov. 5.
A major school facilities bond also passed and voters turned back a Beach Cities Health District bond, which would have torn down the former South Bay Hospital, and funded other work at its Redondo Beach campus.
Also Tuesday, Measure RB was approved – to amend the city charter to strengthen local land use decision-making – and Measure SD, to remove the ban on compensation for school board members, who were paid $250 per month for expenses before the city charter language against it was brought to light last year.
Measure FP’s margin exceeded the required two-thirds threshold. The bond provides $93 million to fund the new stations, replacing buildings from the late 1950s.
Measure S, the $278 million school facilities bond, passed with 66% support.
“I’m very, very, very happy for the students of Redondo Beach, and super-grateful to the community for their continued support,” said Raymur Flinn, Redondo Unified School District board president. “Now the hard work begins, deciding which projects go first, and forming a citizen’s bond oversight committee.”
Measure BC, for the Beach Cities Health District, failed by a 53% to 47% margin.
Measure SD passed with 57% support.
Early returns showed voter turnout for the measures ranged from 49% to 53% of Redondo’s 48,935 registered voters.
“These numbers are all preliminary, as of right now,” said City Clerk Eleanor Manzano Wednesday morning. “All of the ballots dropped off in the boxes have not been counted.”
Measure SD’s approval follows a series of discussions by the school board on the matter. The board voted to end its pay last year and subsequently put this bond before voters.
“If the city charter is amended, it’s settled. The citizens have spoken,” Flinn said.
“I think we can stop talking about this and move on. The main issue, I believe, was bigger than the payment, it was so a board can receive health benefits,” she said, referring to a question of whether the charter language prevented that.
“(Now) they can receive what any school boardmember can receive in the state of California.”
The board will have to decide whether or not to reinstate the payments.
Measure BC would have funded the demolition of the former South Bay Hospital, helped fund the construction of allcove, a youth health facility, as well as build open space and a parking lot on the BCHD campus. ER
Since BC was so small financially compared to the other bonds, the voters sent a message to BCHD that even if inexpensive, they disagreed with taxpayers funding allcove and tearing down the hospital building. I wonder if BCHD will bother to listen to the voters?