Hermosa Beach Election 2022: Raedy wants HB lifestyle protected
by Dan Blackburn
Jeff Raedy is a candidate for one of three vacant council seats who recognizes an eccentric, but vital, side to the community’s identity.
“There are times when Hermosa Beach can be a little rough around the edges,” he said at a recent local candidate’s debate, “but jazz isn’t music that started in the concert hall, and punk rock didn’t start in the church choir. This is a character that has been built for 100 years.”
Like the majority of the eight council candidates, Raedy says he can’t support the proposed sales tax increase.
“For the last two and a half years — through COVID and high inflation — our residents and businesses have had to learn to live within our means, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that our city does the same,” he said. “Hermosa Beach has weathered slim years in the past, and the city needs to tighten its belt instead of asking residents for a new $3 million annual tax increase.”
Raedy, who has served on the board of Leadership Hermosa Beach, and on the Citizens’ Oversight Committee, downplayed issues involving downtown restaurant and bar businesses and conflicts with city and police officials.
“Hermosa Beach is a safe city,” he said. “Our police department does a good job of handling problems that do arise downtown, and our downtown businesses are doing a good job of being good community citizens and neighbors. I’m certainly in favor of enforcing existing laws on over-serving, public intoxication, all that. But to portray our downtown as out of control, as some do, is inaccurate.”
Raedy is critical of ballot Measure M, which would allow retail sales of cannabis products in a city which now bans it.
He said, “I am strongly opposed to Measure M. Regardless of anyone’s individual positions on marijuana use, this is a bad initiative for Hermosa Beach.”
The measure’s origin, Raedy said, is bothersome to him.
“It was put on the ballot by an outside special interest that wants to write its own rules, which include virtually zero regulation of these new businesses,” he said. “Approval of Measure M would place a huge burden on city staff and resources to develop and enforce new licensing and tax structures. It would also open the city up to potential litigation from those who find issues with the city’s implementation of the measure.”
According to Raedy, local government spending is a major problem.
“We have a city council and staff that want to spend more money”, he said. “And when they run out of budget, instead of thinking about ways to tighten the belt, they go to the people with their pockets turned out and say they need more money to run the city.”
One solution to that, he believes, is better communication.
“I want to improve the ability of our residents to let the city know what their priorities are in order to improve how the city prioritizes the budget,” he said.
He is enthusiastic about outdoor dining in the downtown area.
“The overwhelming majority of people I’ve talked to love the dining decks, and I do too,” Raedy said. “I want to make them a permanent part of our city. It’s unfortunate that it took a pandemic to bring this about, but dining decks create such a great community atmosphere that it’s hard to imagine them going away.” ER