Two newcomers will challenge incumbent Hermosa Beach City Councilmen Peter Tucker and Michael DiVirgilio in November, and four-term City Treasurer John Workman will face his first electoral challenge since 1999.
The Hermosa ballot also will feature two competing tax-hike measures, and a race for the city school board that will result in at least one new member. City Clerk Elaine Doerfling is running for reelection unopposed.
In the at-large council race two newcomers — H. S. Fangary, who has emerged as a prominent critic of the city’s tattoo parlors, and Steve Powers — will challenge Tucker, who is in his second four-year term, and DiVirgilio, who is in his first.
Fangary, 44, an environmental engineer and lawyer, wants to protect “small-town, environmentally conscious traditions,” address “the significant risks” in a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the city by Macpherson Oil Company, address plans for the AES power plant in neighboring Redondo Beach, and “safety and nuisance concerns in the downtown [Hermosa] area,” he wrote in an official candidate’s statement.
Powers, 62, a business consultant, wrote that he has “over 40 years experience in running multimillion dollar companies” and would help “cultivate and grow small businesses that reflect the innate special qualities that are purely unique to our ‘quaint village by the sea.’” He wrote that he would fight for “residents’ rights” in “all matters.”
Tucker wrote that he “had a major role in designing the award winning Upper Pier Avenue Street Improvement Project” which “re-energized a public pride in Hermosa Beach.” he wrote that he would focus upon “reducing legacy cost of pensions and healthcare,” promote revitalization of the Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard commercial corridors, and “successfully conclude the Macpherson Oil lawsuit.”
DiVirgilio wrote that he has “helped orchestrate a thoughtful plan to revitalize Pier Avenue, and led the effort to crack down on nightlife abuses,” helped spearhead the Project Forward effort for greater transparency and communication from the school district to the public, and wants to “resolve the [Macpherson] oil lawsuit in a way that protects our community.”
David Cohn, a corporate managing director, will challenge Workman for the city treasurer’s job. Cohn ran for a City Council seat in 2003, finishing last in a seven-candidate field with 161 votes, or 3 percent of the total.
Cohn wrote that he has “served on many corporate, hospital and charitable boards” and has “returned 12 failing companies to success.” He wrote that Hermosa currently earns less than $133,000 a year on its $25 million investment portfolio, and he “will ensure that our city earns at least $425,000 a year on its investments, without compromising financial safety.”
Workman wrote that he has earned the city $12.7 million in interest with “safe, low risk investments.” He wrote that “yield-driven portfolios,” without sufficient safety and liquidity, have suffered “major losses throughoutCalifornia,” adding, “Capital should never be put at risk.”
Workman faces his first electoral challenge since he trounced then-Councilman Bob “Burgie” Benz and activist Rosamond Fogg 12 years ago.
The school board ballot was not set as of Tuesday, because of an extended filing deadline for candidates that was triggered when longtime board member Cathy McCurdy declined to run for reelection.
Incumbent Lisa Claypoole and local teacher Patti Ackerman will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, and will win the two open seats unopposed unless one or more other candidates throw their hats in the ring. Trent R. Stamp has taken out documents needed for an appearance on the ballot, but had not filed the documents by Tuesday.
The ballot also will feature a citizens’ tax-hike initiative that has been repudiated by its own sponsor, and a city-backed tax-hike measure that is more modest in its increases and was placed on the ballot to compete with the citizens’ initiative. The city measure would raise license taxes on a variety of businesses, and the citizens’ initiative would impose steep license tax increases on many nightspots.
