The Hermosa Beach City Council voted Tuesday evening to challenge a recent judicial ruling that invalidated the council’s September 2018 designation of the CrossFit Horsepower gym as a “public nuisance.”
In her Sept. 24 ruling, Judge Mary Strobel said “considerable evidence” produced at trial showed council member Stacey Armato was “biased” in her 2018 vote against CrossFit Horsepower.
Armato was one of four votes in Tuesday evening’s closed session to support filing an appeal of Strobel’s decision. She was joined by council member Hany Fangary, Mayor pro Tem Michael Detoy, and Mayor Justim Massey. Council Member Mary Campbell recused herself because she lives near the gym. In prior votes, Massey had also recused himself for the same reason.
In response to questions about his Tuesday evening vote, Massey responded in an email Wednesday morning, which read, “The Council found certain of Crossfit Horsepower’s operations to be a nuisance to surrounding residents. The Council also found the owners could eliminate the nuisance by taking steps they had committed to prior to opening. The owners declined to take those steps. The court did not find otherwise. The circumstances of the Council’s decision are unlike the cases the court cited to find Councilmember Armato had a probability of bias, so I voted to appeal Judge Strobel’s decision.”
Armato disputed the original finding by Judge Strobel, saying her vote was fair.
“I went into that hearing with an open mind, and I did my job fairly and with restraint,” she said at the time of the ruling, in a city-issued press release. ER
