by Kevin Cody
An appeal of a $2,500 Hermosa Beach short term rental (STR) citation got off to a rocky start in a City Hall conference room Monday morning when attorney Frank Angel asked hearing officer Colleen Berg to recuse herself.
“Is the playing field tilted?” the attorney asked the hearing officer.
When Berg didn’t respond, Angel cited email exchanges between Berg, who is hired by the city to be a neutral arbitrator, and Hermosa Beach Building and Code Enforcement officer Guillermo Hobelman.
An email from Berg to Hobelman, dated November 18, 2024, includes a “decision letter,” in which Berg rules against Hermosa Beach resident Josh Friedrich. The high school teacher had appealed a $5,000 citation for an illegal short term rental in his home.
Hermosa Beach bans STRs (under 30 days), except in the commercially zoned downtown.
Berg’s email to Hobelman begins, “If it does not break any rules can I send you my decision so I am sure it has in it all the components that are needed? There is a big hunk of text in one of the [earlier] decisions I removed as it did not see[m] to apply to Hermosa.”
Hobelman responded by e-mail, “Yes, please do.”
To which Berg responded the following day, “I hope you are feeling better! I have attached the decision, with some questions….”
Berg subsequently denied Friedrich’s appeal.
Code Enforcement Officer Hobelman, when asked by Angel at Monday’s hearing about the emails, responded, “I proofed it….She [Hearing Officer Berg] did not ask for input.”
Berg denied Angel’s request that she recuse herself.
Angel was representing resident Gary Ashe, owner of 3500 The Strand in Hermosa Beach. The house was built in 1915, and is commonly known as the Beverly Hills 90210 House. Ashe bought the house in 2000, on the day the 10-year-old television series shot its final scenes at the house.
Since then, Ashe has advertised rooms for rent in his home on short term rental websites. Ashe was issued the $2,500 citation on March 14, 2025, for advertising short term rentals at his home on Airbnb
After Berg said she would not recuse herself, Angel argued Hermosa lacks the authority to enforce its STR ban because it lacks Coastal Commission approval for the ban.
Angel also argued his client’s short term rentals were “legally non conforming” because Ashe began renting the units before the Short Term Rental ban was passed by the City Council in 2016. (“Legally non conforming” refers to uses that are allowed to continue, after passage of legislation making a use illegal).
Attorney Denise Hansen, who represented the City at Monday’s hearing, countered that Ashe’s short term rentals were not “non conforming” because short term rentals were not “enumerated” in the zoning code when the ban was passed, and that Hermosa is not required to obtain Coastal Commission permission for its STR ban.
Hansen further argued that the hearing officer only needed to find the ordinance was violated, and not if the ordinance itself was “unenforceable,” as Angel contended.
At the end of Monday’s two hour hearing, Berg said she would issue her decision within 15 days.
Monday afternoon, Angel filed a motion with the Los Angeles County Superior Court for a preliminary injunction against the city on behalf of clients Todd Koerner and his father Thomas Koerner.
Like Ashe, the Koerners were cited for illegally advertising a short term rental in their Hermosa Beach home, and fined $2,500. An appeal on their behalf filed by Angel was denied by Berg on February 18.
On March 7, Angel sued the city on the Koerners’ behalf, asking the court to order the city to refund their fine, and to prohibit the city from enforcing its short term rental ban in the coastal zone (west of Valley Ardmore Drive).
The suit also asks the court to exempt from the ban, short term rentals anywhere in the city that were rented prior to adoption of the 2016 ban.
Monday’s motion for a preliminary injunction asks the court to prohibit Hermosa from enforcing its short term rental ban against the Koerners, pending the outcome of their suit.
In 2019, Angel filed a similar suit against the City of Manhattan Beach, on behalf of client Darby Keen, who rented a short term rental in Manhattan’s residential coastal zone. Manhattan’s Council had also approved a ban on short term rentals in 2016. Angel prevailed in the lower courts on the basis that a Coastal Commission permit is required to regulate STRs in the coastal zone. In 2022, the California Supreme Court declined to hear Manhattan’s appeal of the case. Angel’s client was awarded approximately $150,000 in attorney fees.
After losing the suit, Manhattan Beach stopped enforcing its ban, and now collects approximately $1 million annually in Transient Occupancy Taxes from STRs.
Last August, Angel was also successful in appealing short term rental citations issued to two Hermosa property owners, resulting in the city refunding $8,000 in fines. The administrative hearing officer in those two cases was attorney Steve Napolitano. Naplitano was on the Manhattan Beach City council that took Angel’s Keen v. Manhattan Beach case to the State Supreme Court.
In upholding Angel’s two Hermosa Beach appeals, Napolitano cited Keen v. Manhattan Beach.
Last week, the Hermosa Beach City Council hired Napolitano as its interim City Manager. He is no longer on the Manhattan Council.
As a result, Hermosa has an interim city manager responsible for enforcing a STR ordinance he ruled “invalid” as a Hermosa Beach administrative hearing officer. The council that hired Napolitan has expressed continuing support for the STR ordinance.
Hermosa over 300 STRs, averaging $443 a night, according to the aggregate STR website AirDNA. Hermosa has issued fewer than 20 STR permits.
“That’s 300 homes that could be rented by people who live, work, play and send their kids to schools here, strengthening our neighborhoods…Illegal short term rentals have drastically reduced affordable options, making it even harder for those looking to put down roots in Hermosa Beach,” Councilmember Raymond Jackson said during a March council meeting discussion on the subject.
“It’s time to get those 300 plus homes back on the long term rental market. Hermosa Beach doesn’t need nor does it want more mini hotels scattered throughout our neighborhoods,” Jackson said. ER
