Manhattan Beach About Town
Election finalized
The results of the March 5 election have been all but finalized, with only 26 ballots left untallied. Hildy Stern, who leads Joe Franklin by only 37 votes after election night, now has a 189 vote lead. The election will be certified by the LA County Registrar’s office by the end of the month.
Stern will join Suzanne Hadley as new incoming council members when sworn in on April 2. Together with Councilperson Nancy Hersman, they will form the first City Council with a female majority in Manhattan Beach history.
“It is cool,” Stern said. “I don’t really believe gender was necessarily a determining factor, and we’ve certainly had amazingly competent, qualified, and wonderfully successful City Council members of each gender. But it’s an exciting time we are experiencing, in which women have a voice.”
Hadley earned 3,105 votes and Stern 2,361 votes. Measure A, which next year will increase the local hotel bed tax from 10 to 12 percent and raise $1 million for city services, passed with 5,182 votes, 76.5 percent approval.