City Manager presents budget proposal
City Manager Mike Witzansky presented his proposed 2026-27 fiscal year budget to the city council May 19. The council must approve its new budget by July 1.
This year’s phone book-sized document includes 32 decision packages for the council – discretionary items they need to decide on whether or not to fund.
“It was a far more austere process than we’ve had,” Witzansky said. “… Everybody understood we have a limited capacity going forward.”
The council balanced the 2025-26 budget with $3.5 million from a pension savings account.
Councilmembers will meet with city department heads and discuss the budget in meetings over the next month.
No new news on Pier bomb threat
“Nothing at this time. It’s an ongoing investigation,” Redondo Beach Police Chief Stephen Sprengel said of the Sunday, May 3 pier bomb threat.
The incident led to an extensive search of the Pier and and the nearby BeachLife Festival grounds in Seaside Lagoon, leading to two-hour delay in performances.
County D.A. Hochman to speak in Redondo Beach
City Councilmen Scott Behrendt and Zein Obagi, Jr. will host a public forum with L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman June 3 at 6 p.m. at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.
“The presentation will be tailored to our unique concerns in Redondo Beach,” Behrendt said.
The event is the fourth installment of Obagi, Jr. and Behrendt’s “Pillars of Public Safety” series, which previously featured the Redondo Beach police chief, fire chief and city attorney.
Memorial Day ceremony 1 p.m. Monday
The annual Redondo Beach Memorial Day ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. Memorial Day at Veterans Park. Keynote speaker is Captain Blaine Pitkin, U.S. Navy Naval Weapons School, Seal Beach. The Veterans Memorial flag recipient is Lt. Col. Mike Merlini, United States Marine Corps, Redondo Beach.
Music is to be provided by the USMC band, Third Marine Aircraft Wing, Miramar.
A barbecue follows the ceremony, outside the Redondo Beach Elks Lodge.
New summer car show for Seaside Lagoon opens Friday
“Cruizin’ the Lagoon” a new Friday evening car show, debuts on the Redondo Beach Waterfront on Friday evenings, beginning May 22, and continuing through through Sept. 11. All makes and models are welcome, with no awards nor raffles.
The new show takes the place of the longtime “Cruise at the Beach Legacy Car Show” which held its final event last November after 25 years.
“Cruise at the Beach was closing and nobody wanted to step up to start a new one, so I thought, well, I’ll make a phone call,” said Larry Scarth, organizer of the event. Scarth lives in Manhattan Beach and formerly owned Mango’s restaurant in Manhattan and Rosecrans Auto Body in Hawthorne.
He will be at the show Friday with his 1966 black-on-black Chevrolet Chevelle (black interior, black exterior).
“How much better of a venue can you get for a car show in Southern California than the Redondo Beach waterfront?” he said. “You can’t.”
Deep End Live opens
Deep End Live, the subterranean music venue in the former Brixton’s space at the Redondo Beach Pier, marked its grand opening May 15 with a performance by Missing Persons and Bow Wow Wow.
A project by Joe P. Smith and Daryl Swensson – Smith a co-owner of Project Barley on the International Boardwalk – the new club has a 10-year lease.
In decades past, the underground Pier space has been Concerts By the Sea, a jazz club in the ‘70s and ‘80s, then Fashions dance club in the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s, Humphrey’s Underground in the ‘90s and early 2000s and then Brixton’s from 2008 to 2013). ER
