By Laura Garber
The Hermosa Beach City Council voted unanimously at its Tuesday, January 27 meeting, to contribute up to $51,125 for the 2026 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, proposed for Saturday, March 14.
The council also approved a one year contract with the Chamber to produce the parade, and the Memorial Weekend Fiesta, and to resurrect the Labor Day Weekend Fiesta, which was discontinued three years ago.
But the council did not support a proposal from Mayor Rob Saemann to make the money losing parade profitable by hosting a beer garden following the parade.
Last year’s parade produced approximately $40,000 in revenue, and $58,000 in expenses, Parks and Recreation Director Lisa Nichols told the council.
Parade losses ranged from $18,000 to $29,000 annually between 2021 and 2024, Chamber President Michele Cristin told the Council. The parade is produced by the Hermosa Chamber Foundation, a non-profit arm of the chamber.
“The St. Patrick’s Day parade — none of us want it to go away,” Crispin said. “But the numbers don’t lie. It has produced consistent losses.”
Event producer Michael Bell, who has managed logistics for the parade for decades, emphasized its community value. “In my 30 years of producing events in this city, the parade has consistently been the city’s most popular event,” Bell said.
The City’s contribution is meant to pay for $40,000 in safety barricades, $8,000 in security costs, $1,400 in insurance, and $900 in services from the LA County Fire Department.
In 2025, following nationwide incidents of carnage from cars crashing through public events, the city required the Chamber to deploy Archer Meridian Barricades at major intersections along the parade route. Archer Meridians are heavy, L-shaped metal barriers.
The parade, which began in 1995, previously blocked parade route intersections with sawhorses and water-filled barricades.
To reduce barricade expenses, Councilmember Raymond Jackson proposed Athens trash trucks be used as safety barriers at intersections.
“I see all these vehicles that are being used as barriers for the Manhattan Beach 10K, and in Redondo Beach and Torrance,” Jackson said. “If those safety measures are working in other cities, why can’t we implement that here?”
Police Chief Landon Phillips said staff would work with city traffic engineers to explore alternatives.
But last year, during a January 2025 council meeting, then Police Chief Paul LeBaron said the security measures the city requires are standard at large events throughout the state because of the risk of cars crashing into crowds.
“They aren’t recommendations. They are public safety mandates. They have to be in place. And they are not new. We started having conversations with the Chamber about this in 2021,” Chief LaBarron told the council.
“It’s meeting the standard required for the city not to be liable if something does happen. If a driver is inattentive, and rolls through a barrier; or is experiencing a mental crisis and voices in their head are telling them to do something; or someone has the intent to kill people for whatever cause they have.”
“If we had not been doing what we have been doing the last few years, there would already have been a tragedy,” Chief LeBaron said.
At the same 2025 meeting, Public Works Director Joseph SanClemente dismissed council suggestions that large vehicles, such as Athens trash trucks, be used as barricades. The vehicles would increase risks, he said. He also noted that the Archer Meridian Barricades are required because they can be quickly removed to allow entry for emergency vehicles.
Another option to reduce the parade’s cost, proposed by city staff, was to reroute the parade along The Strand, south of the pier. The Strand route would largely eliminate the need for safety barricades. Bell countered that he could not change the parade route on short notice.
The council agreed to keep the traditional route, which starts at Pier and Valley Avenues, proceeds west on Pier to Hermosa Avenue, and south on Hermosa Avenue to Eighth Street. ER
Should have approved the beer garden to offset the cost.