Andrew Brozyna will step down as head of the Hermosa Beach Public Works Department next month.
Brozyna, who has served as Public Works Director since January 2015, will work his last day in Hermosa June 15. He has accepted a position with the City of Berkeley as its Deputy Director of Public Works.
In an interview, Brozyna said his exit was “mostly triggered by personal reasons.” He is originally from the Bay Area, and still has family in San Jose. He also has an 11-month old daughter.
“My mom is getting up there in age, and it will be nice for her to be able to bring the family together. Having kids definitely changes things,” he said.
Brozyna’s tenure was marked by notable projects helped by funds from outside groups. He helped secure funds from CalTrans for the City’s Pacific Coast Highway-Aviation Mobility Improvement Project; according to a statement from the city, the state agency funded 80 percent of the project’s $4.3 million cost. He also presided over the long-awaited opening of South Park, a universally accessible playground that benefitted from a $300,000 grant from then-Supervisor Don Knabe and the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District. (Phase I of the project is completed, while the city finished accepted bids for Phase II at the end of March.)
Brozyna is also exiting at a critical time for the department. The City Council is in the process of finalizing PLAN Hermosa, its updates to its General Plan and Local Coastal Program. (Katie Casey, a public information officer for the city, said that Brozyna’s departure would have no impact on the PLAN Hermosa approval process.) In addition, some 100 capital improvement projects are in the works throughout the city, ranging in size from a few thousand to several million dollars. Among the largest are overhauls of the city’s sewers and sidewalks, including an extensive renovation of 8th Street between Valley Drive and Hermosa Avenue.
The multiplicity of projects has created some difficulties. While discussing the annual sewer fee attached to property taxes at a recent city council meeting, Councilmember Carolyn Petty raised questions as to why no progress had been made on the sewer project, and pondered whether the department had taken on too many projects at once.
Brozyna disputed that no progress had been made. He said that although streets have not yet been dug up, the department was in the process of creating a series of master plans for different categories of projects, and that once completed, the plans would be approved all at once. He said that this can help the city avoid wasted work, like having to dig up a street on separate occasions for sidewalk repair and sewer work.
The master plans will be completed before Brozyna exits.
“We’ll get drafts in early June. It’s something staff just wants to better understand, so we can coordinate [projects] from an efficiency standpoint before we get City Council’s blessing,” Brozyna said.
Councilmember Stacey Armato said that the multiplicity of projects was due to “decades of deferred maintenance,” and praised Brozyna’s stewardship.
“Importantly, we have the money set aside for the majority of projects, Andrew has laid a great foundation, and we have a solid public works team to see these projects through,” Armato said in an email.
The city will name an interim Public Works Director before Brozyna departs and begin its search for a permanent replacement, according to a statement from the city. The hiring process is expected to take between one and four months.
The position will be the first big hire of recently arrived City Manager Sergio Gonzales. In a statement, Gonzales thanked Brozyna for his service, and said he left the city in good hands.
“He leaves us on strong footing with a wonderful team of City staff in our Public Works department, a robust capital improvement program and a comprehensive set of plans for building a better, safer and more accessible Hermosa Beach,” Gonzalez said. ER
