Steve Napolitano and Richard Montgomery easily won reelection to the Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday night and Grettel Fournell appears to have won a somewhat more narrow victory in a municipal election that featured seven candidates vying for three seats.
Napolitano led the field with 10,030 votes, 23.29 percent of the total, and Montgomery followed with 8,269 votes, or 19.2 percent. Fournell won 6,482 votes, 15.05 percent, which pending further updates from the LA Registrar’s office gives her a lead over Joe Franklin, who earned 6,220 votes, or 14.5 percent.
Rounding out the field, 23-year-old candidate Phoebe Lyons garnered 5,628 votes, or 13.07 percent; former councilperson Mark Burton tallied 5,101 votes, or 11.85 percent; and Chaz Flemmings earned 1,327 votes, or 3.08 percent.
The Los Angeles County Registrar’s office was still tabulating votes late Wednesday but it was unlikely enough untallied votes existed to change the results.
Napolitano, a lifelong Manhattan Beach resident who first served on council when he was elected as its youngest-ever member at age 26 in 1994 and then returned to the dais in 2017, said this victory had special meaning for him.
“I’m dedicating this one to my dad,” Napolitano said at a celebration party outside Ercoles Tuesday night. His father, Anthony Napolitano, passed away last November at age 92.
Napolitano said this race was particularly challenging because the pandemic allowed almost none of the traditional door-to-door campaigning that often makes a big difference in local politics.
“It was a hard race to call,” Napolitano said. “Because of COVID-19, we couldn’t get out and take the temperature.”
Montgomery, who also served two terms in the early 2000s and then came back to council in 2017, said his experience mattered. He has served as mayor throughout the pandemic, just as he served as mayor during the Great Recession a decade ago. He has forged productive relationships with Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 team and county leaders Supervisor Janice Hahn and Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the director of the LA County Department of Public Health.
“I’ll be able to keep the city’s political contacts with Janice Hahn, because I’m on the [LA County] Beach and Harbors Commission, and with Dr. Ferrer, whom I meet with other mayors every Friday.”
Fournell is a political newcomer who expressly ran for council to fill the shoes of her good friend Nancy Hersman, a single-term councilperson who did not run for reelection because she is leaving the area. Fournell, who has a background as a financial analyst, campaigned with a stated priority to find creative ways to help local businesses weather the pandemic economy.
In her campaign, Fournell found creative ways to connect with voters despite the limitations of the pandemic. She hosted weekly “Coffee with Grettel” Zoom calls which served as town halls for those interested in learning more about her, and made herself available for Zooms and phone calls with any voters who asked. Her campaign even organized Zoom parties for seniors who were unfamiliar with the technology.
“It was so hard, because we had to do things differently because of COVID,” Fournell said. “We probably would have done the same thing [if not for the pandemic] except the parties would have been replaced with real parties. I would have liked to have met people in person. But I found meeting them via Zoom was alright. It worked for me and for some of the residents…I would have liked going door-to-door because I’m a social person.”
The entire campaign for all the candidates, in fact, was significantly conducted on Zoom. Forums were hosted by several organizations via Zoom, including one by Easy Reader, which attracted over 1,300 viewers. Fournell noted that many people are able to attend such events who might not be able to attend an in-person forum, which in general rarely attracts more than a 100 people.
“Even if there was no pandemic, I think going forward that it’s a good way to connect with people,” Fournell said. “Especially people who are not mobile, or kind of tucked away.”
If Fournell wins, it will mean a majority of the council remains female — a first that was achieved last year with the election of Suzanne Hadley and Hildy Stern. She will be the 13th woman to serve on the Manhattan Beach City Council and, as a native of Costa Rica, the first Latina. And Fournell experienced another upside of Zoom campaigning Tuesday night, when she hosted a Zoom campaign thank you celebration for her supporters that not only was attended by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi but her father and brothers in Costa Rica and cousins in Miami.
“That kind of made it nice,” Fournell said, “to be able to have people who would normally not be able to be there to join in.”
Also in Tuesday’s voting, City Treasurer Tim Lilligren was reelected with 12,648 votes. He ran unopposed. ER
