Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel, seen here at the 2015 State of the City address, has announced his candidacy for re-election in 2017. Photo
Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel was tired.
He won the highest elected position in the city in 2013 after two terms on the City Council and more than a decade of involvement, all to sit in the middle of two potential landscape-changing projects: the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront, and the erasure of the AES power plant from that same waterfront.
But three years in the big chair had taken its toll, he told his daughter.
“I was talking to Brett one day and told her that I don’t know if I’m going to run again, that I’m tired of all the b.s.,” He’d be worn down by the “small minority of people” who pepper him with constant grief and negativity, he said.
She looked back at him and said “Dad, if you don’t run, that means that they win.”
That clicked.
“She put it in my head: Don’t be scared away because you don’t want to deal with nasty people; there are nasty people no matter where you go,” he said.
So, as he told a small group of supporters at a “Mayor’s Reception” held on Wednesday, Jan. 20 at the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, he’s decided to run for a second term as Mayor of Redondo Beach.
Though he doesn’t plan to begin campaigning actively, walking the streets and knocking on doors, for months, he said that it was time to start telling people.
The months leading up to the March 2017 election, however, are going to be telling for Aspel. Due to numerous real estate holdings, District 1 councilman Jeff Ginsburg will be recusing himself from any discussions related to the CenterCal Waterfront project and the AES property. That, potentially, makes Aspel the tie-breaking vote on those discussions, should the city’s four other council members be deadlocked.
Traditionally, the mayor’s job in Redondo Beach is that of a moderator on the council dais. As the position doesn’t come with a vote in meetings, the mayor strives to be a voice of reason and discussion-leader (and, in Aspel’s case, Master of Ceremonies). But with Ginsburg’s now-regular recusals, the big chair is in an even bigger spotlight.
That became especially clear on Tuesday night, when Aspel cast the decision-making vote on a contract extension for the City’s Exclusive Negotiating Rights with CenterCal’s potential waterfront redevelopment project.
“Usually, the Mayor of Redondo can wash their hands of things,” Aspel said. “What this does is it sets the mayor’s position up for more criticisms…but you can’t base your vote as if you’re running for reelection. You have to do what you think is right,” he said.
There haven’t yet been any publicly-named challengers for Aspel’s seat, though of currently-sitting council members, District 2’s Bill Brand makes the most potential sense. Brand’s final term ends in 2017, and as the most visible public opponent of the Waterfront project, he and Aspel frequently butt heads in discussions.
Brand has admitted that he is “keeping his options open” regarding the mayor’s race, but that his sights were aimed at current-day issues in Redondo Beach.
“I’m more concerned about the infrastructure needs of waterfront, and reducing the density of mixed-use zoning than a local election that’s more than a year away,” Brand said. “It’s very premature. Sure, when people tell you they want you to run, you give it thought, but it’s premature.”
Other seats up for grabs in 2017 include District 1, represented by Jeff Ginsburg, and Steve Sammarco’s District 4.
Ginsburg already has filings under “Jeff Ginsburg for City Council 2017,” while Sammarco posted on Facebook that he “I will not announce my campaign for office in Redondo Beach until we put campaign-finance laws into place in Redondo Beach.”
Though there are many approaching forks in Redondo’s road, Aspel says he’s not worried about building “a legacy or a plaque” with his name on it.
“[Rebuilding the waterfront] has been a thought in Redondo as long as I’ve been around, and will be around long after I’m gone, but it’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing through,” he said.
