Redondo Beach District 4 councilman Steve Sammarco took a moment early in Tuesday’s City Council meeting to clarify remarks he made at last month’s Dec. 15 meeting.
“My comments weren’t as an outsider, they were as a team member; I take full responsibility for any inadequacies in our public safety, and we’re going to do everything we can to right this,” he said. “Dr. Keller assured me of that, I’ve spoken with [Redondo Beach Police] Chief Kauffman, and I think we have excellent public safety policies coming.”
Last month, he criticized the Redondo Beach Unified School District for what he considered an “unacceptable” response in the wake of a spray painted threat at Redondo Union High School — an incident that was further tinted by later threats at Los Angeles and New York City school districts.
“For a lot of you, it was difficult to send [your child] to school this morning,” Sammarco said on Dec. 15. “We all sat around waiting; nothing came, and so we took our kids, reluctantly, to school — and at 8:04 a.m., we get a message saying ‘We’re not closed.’” His chief issue was with what he considered to be the district’s communication problems: “It’s pointed out glaring inadequacies in our own emergency planning in Redondo Beach.”
After the general meeting, council returned to closed session for a presentation of the city’s public safety policies, led by Kauffman.
Later that night, Sammarco posted his approval on Facebook: “Great to hear Police Chief Kauffman’s new plan to keep our kids and community safe ‘Run, Hide, Fight.’ Thank you Dr Keller and Chief Kauffman two progressive leaders Redondo Beach can be proud of. #publicsafety#1.”
