Posts by Mark McDermott

by Mark McDermott City Manager Bruce Moe, who has served the City of Manhattan Beach for 35 years, has announced his retirement. Moe, who was appointed as city manager six years ago and served as the City’s finance director before that, made the surprise announcement at the very end of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.…

by Mark McDermott  Pamela Muelot was 18 years old and about to graduate from Redondo Union High School. She figured that working at the local Ralphs supermarket might be good while she figured out what to do with her life. “It was a summer job,” Muelot said. “I was going to graduate Redondo, and I…

by Mark McDermott  Mayor Joe Franklin’s late-starting and very local career in politics has been premised mostly on a single quality. His downright giddy love for his adopted hometown of Manhattan Beach.  And so what was surprising about Franklin’s first State of the City address was certainly not its effusiveness but rather its brevity. For…

by Mark McDermott  The City Council last week grappled with an unusual problem. Its library fund has an $11 million surplus.  The City of Manhattan Beach operates its own library, but the facility is a branch of the Los Angeles County Library System. Property taxes paid into the system by local residents far outpace the…

by Mark McDermott  The once-rejected 3-D shark mural reappeared at the Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday night, and this time found a home. The mural, by artist Eric Snyder and originally proposed for the fire station, will be painted on the Civic Plaza parking lot wall.  It was a night of artistic appraisal at the…

by Mark McDermott  Measure MB, the $225 parcel tax that generates $2.5 million for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, has been renewed. After another week of vote tallying by the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office, approval for the ballot surged well above the two-thirds threshold necessary for passage. On March 5 Election Day, Measure…

by Mark McDermott The City of Manhattan Beach, thwarted at every turn by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office in its hopes of prosecuting non-violent crimes the DA no longer pursues, is taking another route. The City will try to go beyond the DA’s authority. The City Council last week unanimously agreed to sponsor…

by Mark McDermott  Ongoing vote tallies have brought Measure MB to the brink of approval, but the margin remains so thin that its passage is still uncertain.  The ballot measure, a $225 annual parcel tax that would provide $2.5 million in revenue for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, was just shy of the two-thirds…

by Mark McDermott  Manhattan Beach Councilperson Steve Napolitano finished first among a field of four candidates in the race for Judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles Seat 39. He will now face the second place finisher, Jacob Lee, in a runoff election in the November election.  Napolitano said he was “honored and humbled”…

by Mark McDermott  Measure MB, the proposed renewal of the local parcel tax meant to stave off teacher layoffs, finished election night just below the required two-thirds vote total for approval. But hope was very much still alive among the ballot measure’s supporters because several batches of votes have yet to be counted.  Campaign co-chairs…

by Mark McDermott  The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Education authorized the layoffs of as many as 38 employees, including 33 teachers, at its February 28 meeting. Twenty of those layoffs were hoped to be rescinded if the Measure MB parcel tax was successful at the March 5 election. Trustees expressed sadness and…

by Mark McDermott  Tyler Morant saw something he’d never seen before shortly after arriving in Manhattan Beach 14 years ago. As he works on behalf of the Yes on MB campaign, that image often comes to mind. It was a large group of kids, accompanied by a few parents, walking to Grandview Elementary School together…

by Mark McDermott  He wasn’t planning it, but when Steve Napolitano looks back at his career as a public servant, he can’t help but believe each step was almost the perfect preparation for what he hopes is his next position. He is running to serve as a judge on the LA Superior Court.  The Manhattan…

by Mark McDermott  A permanent plan for outdoor dining was presented to the City Council last week that would extend sidewalks in the downtown and North Manhattan Beach business districts. But the plan arrived without a price tag, and the Council deferred making a decision until City staff can provide a cost estimate.  “I want…

by Mark McDermott  The list is unlike any you will see elsewhere. It includes surfers, Olympian volleyball players, CEOs, writers, actors, a punk rocker, an asteroid hunter, a U.S. Army brigadier general, an Ivy League linebacker, and an array of influential educators.  The Mira Costa High School Hall of Fame is only a little more…