Shortly after buying a home near Pacific Coast Highway in 2006, Ken Hartley would step outside in the morning, and frequently find water pooling in front of his house. He went to a meeting of the city’s Public Works Commission, but was told that there was no money to fix the street.
“Their solution was, ‘Buy a broom and sweep it up,’” Hartley said.
Instead, Hartley determined that the street in front of his house was slightly slanted, then stayed up all night and observed water flowing down from a nearby business.
He approached the business the next day, and the owners realized they had a leak. They thanked Hartley for saving money on their water bill, and the puddle stopped showing up.
The story embodies the kind of practical problem-solving that supporters say Hartley will bring to the council.
“He’s a stand-up Jersey boy,” said Hermosa resident George Zeigler, alluding to Hartley’s East Coast roots. “He can’t sing a capella, but he can get stuff done.”
Like many of Hartley’s supporters, Zeigler located Hartley’s ability to push past obstacles in the candidate’s experience as a small business owner. Hartley is the owner of CIDR Systems, an information technology company.
His experience there is not viewed as an asset by all residents. He previously did work for E&B Natural Resources, the oil company whose drilling efforts in Hermosa were spurned by residents with the defeat of Measure O in March. At a candidates debate last month, an audience questioner asked whether taking money from an oil company made a candidate unfit to serve.
Hartley disputed this, and points to the pro-forma nature of the work he did for E&B.
“I was an IT consultant; I set up database work and spreadsheets,” Hartley said. “My whole life has been IT related.”
As a council member, Hartley promises to make life easier for businesses. He often tells a story about the various difficulties associated with applying for a home-based business license for his company. The process took more than three months.
“If I had a a building, and I couldn’t open while I was paying downtown rents, that’s a problem,” Hartley said.
This outlook, combined with his three-term stint as head of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, has won him support from some of Hermosa’s business community.
“It’s really important to have someone up there who knows what it’s like to write checks, meet a payroll, be responsible for a business,” said Jed Sanford, the entrepreneur behind Hermosa restaurants including Dia de Campo and Abigaile. “It’s important to have someone like that on the council.”
As evidence of his thoughtful position on business issues, Hartley notes that he is in favor of Measure H, which would boost the Transit Occupancy Tax on Hermosa hotels.
“I’m not in favor of just always raising taxes,” Hartley said, later noting that Hermosa has a sizable elderly population on fixed incomes, for whom tax increases would be burdensome. “But what better way to get it from people coming to use our beaches, our civic resources.”ER
