Wayne Powell always carries a handful of city pins in his pocket – whether while helping this year’s Leadership Manhattan Beach class spread mulch over the soil of their sustainable garden-to-be, or observing disaster response volunteers extinguishing a fake fire.
One recent morning at Peet’s Coffee, the new mayor of Manhattan Beach handed a city pin to a new city resident whom he’d just met – “For a new resident, you get a city pin” – welcoming the recent college graduate to the beach town.
Community-oriented Powell began his nine-month mayoral term on Tuesday, in front of a packed Council Chamber, full of former mayors and residents.
Starting May 15, Powell will continue former mayor Nick Tell’s walking group on the first and third Tuesday mornings of the month. During what Powell’s dubbed the “Mayor’s Walk and Talk,” he’ll meet residents at Peet’s on the first Tuesday, and at the North End Café on the third at 9 a.m. Eastside residents will soon be able to meet him for a walk around Polliwog Park one morning each month.
During his mayoral term, Powell hopes to not only welcome public participation, but encourage it, he said. At the next meeting he’s hoping to increase audience participation from 15 minutes to a half hour. Any comments that are not addressed he hopes to continue at the end of each meeting. “That way everyone will have a chance to speak,” he said. “That’s what a democracy is all about.”
To encourage more participation, he’ll be hosting three or four town hall meetings, the first of which will be held in August and focus on disaster preparedness with seismologist Lucy Jones.
At the beginning of each council meeting, he also plans to honor a distinguished youth, older adult and community business, he said.
He doesn’t consider himself a politician, but rather a community volunteer. “What we’re trying to do is listen to the public and make well-reasoned, well-informed decisions based on the interest of our entire community,” he said.
The theme of his term is “I Heart MB” – because, he said, “There’s no other place I’d rather live.”
