The Redondo Beach City Council said goodbye to now-former District 5 Councilman Matt Kilroy at Tuesday’s meeting, ending his eight year tenure sitting at the dais with a standing ovation and the Key to the City.
His opponent in the city’s 2013 mayoral race, Mayor Steve Aspel, gave a glowing introduction to his colleague, whom he recalled working with on the city’s planning commission prior to becoming fellow members of the Council.
“He’s more than just a council member, he’s an AYSO everything — reffing to coaching and he’s a regional commissioner for region 17, and what’s impressive about that to me is that he has no kids in the league playing,” Aspel said. “He’s doing this from the goodness of his heart, and that’s the kind of guy he is.”
After presenting Kilroy with the Key to the City, the former Councilman recalled how he was hooked into volunteering to serve on a city commission: A promise to play softball from former Councilman John Parsons, more than 26 years ago.
“You never know where the next opportunity is going to come from, or what paths your journey is going to take, so be open to everything; don’t be afraid to say yes,” Kilroy said. “I wouldn’t have all the experiences I have today if I didn’t take advantage of my opportunities.”
With that, during a mid-meeting recess, Kilroy took his nameplate off of the dais, where it was soon replaced with that of new District 5 Councilwoman, Laura Emdee.
Emdee accepted her post on Tuesday night after beating official write-in candidate Robe Richester with nearly 95 percent of the vote on March 3.
During a short speech following her swearing in, she thanked the voters of Redondo Beach, and took time to recognize the friends and supporters she had in the room, including members of the Redondo Beach Women’s Club, as well as some of her former colleagues of the Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education.
Hotel halted
It was announced that the principals of the 750 N. Francisca Ave. Project withdrew their application to move forward with attempting to rezone the property for a hotel.
In a brief discussion at the meeting’s end, District 4 Councilman Steve Sammarco called attention to the fact that the project, discussed at the March 17 City Council meeting, was not agendized for this meeting, as agreed upon.
The city’s Director of Community Development, Aaron Jones, confirmed that 3600 Torrance Management LLC, represented by political contributor Mohamad Pournamdari, pulled the application to move forward.
As reported in the April 2 issue of the Easy Reader, Pournamdari was discovered to have made significant contributions to the campaign of District 3 City Council Candidate Christian Anthony Horvath. Horvath returned Pournamdari’s contributions after the developer’s connections to a disgraced Hawthorne City Councilman were revealed.
Pournamdari was also revealed to have donated to the campaigns of Redondo Mayor Steve Aspel and District 1 Councilman Jeff Ginsburg, and was introduced to Horvath by Aspel.
RBPD’s Neu hire
The Redondo Beach City Council elected to appoint retired Torrance Police Chief John Neu as the city’s new interim police chief.
The position was vacated last October when long-time chief Joe Leonardi opted to retire after 32 years with the Redondo Beach Police Department.
In 2006, Leonardi was the first person in 50 years to ascend to the department’s top seat after beginning his career as a beat cop, and spent eight years in the position. Since his departure, Captains Jeff Hink and Tom Krafick have rotated the position between each other.
Neu began his career with the Pasadena Police Department before transferring to Torrance in 1985. He was appointed Torrance’s Chief of Police in late 2006, retiring in January 2014, with a tenure highlighted by overhauls of the city’s beat deployment system, the development of the city’s forensics and cold case units, and Torrance’s 2013 ranking as America’s tenth-safest city.
As a retiree within California’s Public Employees’ Retirement System, Neu may only work 960 hours per fiscal year, giving him roughly six months of work with RBPD, accounting for a 40-hour week.
Neu was briefly emotional during his introductory speech when acknowledging that he’s returning to law enforcement after fifteen months of “being joined at the hip” with his wife. But after a moment of collecting himself, he jumped into business, saying that he plans to “pick up where he left off” in Torrance.
“I didn’t take this job to just maintain,” he said. “I can be a part of your success. There is an awful lot of talent there at every rank, and we are going to build upon that and be more efficient.”
Brand sidelined
District 2 Councilman Bill Brand was not in attendance at Tuesday night’s meeting, as he is currently hospitalized fighting a staph infection.
He posted about his situation on Facebook, writing from his room at Torrance Memorial.
“Yep, yours truly got admitted last Sunday with a nasty MRSA infection in his leg that has yet to turn the corner. I won’t make the Council meeting tonight, but I’m in good hands with great nurses and an infectious disease specialist. Looking forward to being discharged within the next couple of days.”
Brand also left the March 17 meeting early, due to flu symptoms.
