Harbor Lights: The vocal minority

by Harry Munns

Redondo Beach city councilmen Steve Aspel and  Bill Brand recently had a very public disagreement about the validity of Brand’s claim that he speaks for a majority of Redondo citizens when he says the people want to vote on zoning changes and significant development. While the citywide requirement to vote for a vote on most zoning changes leaves the door open for citizen voting on development anywhere within city limits, it’s really all about King Harbor.  

Brand’s opinions reflect the mission of Building a Better Redondo (BBR), an organization that claims it supports slow growth, but seems much more intent on no growth. BBR portrays its mission as a citizen’s revolt against city government. I love a good revolution but I’m also partial to facts.

BBR cites Heart of the City as justification for its struggle against city government, so let’s look at some facts about Heart of the City. In March, 2002 the Redondo city council adopted a resolution that amended land use documents to allow development in an area that included Unit 1 of the AES power plant. The city had a productive dialogue established with the property owners and some creative ideas about acquiring and developing the property.

In April, 2002 a petition was submitted that would have enabled a referendum to be placed on the ballot allowing citizens to vote on the zoning changes. Redondo Beach voters never voted on that matter. The City Council voted to repeal its own resolution so it wasn’t necessary.

The notion that the citizens took some kind of action against Heart of the City is simply not true. A small group of activists collected enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot and the council backed down.

Have you ever been solicited for a petition signature while you’re on your way into Von’s, Albertson’s or Trader Joe’s? Inevitably, the solicitor will ask a question you almost cannot answer “no” to. “Would you like to have a voice in development in Redondo? Would you like to see less traffic in Redondo?” Yes, Yes.

At that moment, before you have any facts, it makes you feel good to support positive ideas in your community and all it costs you is a signature.

If proponents of development in King Harbor were looking for signatures for a petition, they might ask different questions. “Would you like to ensure our schools, police, fire departments and parks don’t suffer from severe cuts in funding when state and federal support gets reduced?” Yes again.

You choose to help your community for the price of a signature. You might even sign both petitions on the same trip to the supermarket. You’d probably be surprised to discover the two petitions compete directly with one another.

Signatures on a petition are not an indication of the public’s will. They are merely a reflection of the organizational skills and persuasiveness of the parties collecting the signatures.

It’s always fun to compare the rhetoric to the numbers. The current conflict between the city and Brand and BBR arises from the city’s approval of land use document amendments in 2008 and the subsequent voter approval of Measure DD, which would ensure that citizens vote on major changes to zoning regulations.

Slightly fewer than half the people who voted in that election voted for DD. That total represented only about 45 percent of registered voters. The measure passed fair and square with a simple majority of votes cast for or against it, but don’t let anyone tell you that a majority of the registered voters in Redondo Beach voted for DD because it simply isn’t true. Measure EE, which was portrayed as a competing measure, passed with fewer votes and a narrower majority, but it still passed.

Bill Brand has cited his own election as proof of the community’s support for the slow growth and citizen control ideas he espouses. The numbers simply don’t support those claims. To begin with, while he gets to vote on citywide issues, only District 2 voters participated in his election. Bill Brand got about 53 percent of the votes cast in that district in the 2008 election. Again, it was enough to win fair and square, but hardly a landslide. Considering most of the city’s voters didn’t cast votes in that District 2 City Council race, Brand’s election has little connection to the overall feeling of the electorate about development and zoning.

I’m going to have to side with Steve Aspel on this one. You can’t cite Heart of the City as an indication of the voters’ attitude because they never voted on it. More than a year after DD, it’s impossible to explain how it relates to EE, especially when you consider some of the same people must have voted for both.measures. When you look at the numbers, Bill Brand only speaks for the 828 people in District 2 who voted for him.

So while there may be some ground swell of support for taking the power to decide the fate of King Harbor out of the hands of elected officials and placing it in the control of voters, the numbers just don’t support those claims.

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