Redondo Beach Year in Review 2022: Harbor, leadership, space reexamined
by Garth Meyer
Local eye on beginning of time
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope spent the first weeks of 2022 flying and unfolding in space, without a hitch, after 19 years of design and construction at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach.
Launching Christmas Day 2021, the spacecraft reached its orbit destination a month later at a million miles out.
After tuning of instruments, aligning mirrors and cameras, on July 12, its first images – constructed from data collected by the Webb’s infrared lenses – were revealed to the world.
Northrop Grumman top staff who worked on the project later received the highest of NASA accolades for non-government workers.
Special, special elections in Redondo
“There is simply nothing more important than elections,” said Mayor Bill Brand at a July city council meeting during which Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr., drove up from San Diego for an unexpected, late-night vote to schedule a special election on Wednesday, Oct. 19 for both a retail cannabis legalization measure and Obagi’s own recall vote.
Councilmen Nils Nehrenheim, and Todd Loewenstein described the date, three weeks before the general election, as a way to give focus to the two local matters.
The retail cannabis vote was originally set for March 2023, and the Obagi recall would otherwise have been on the November ballot.
Councilmembers Christian Horvath and Laura Emdee walked out of the council chambers in protest before the vote to set the October ballot.
In the aftermath, residents accused the city of not “properly agendizing” the Oct. 19 date before it was voted on.
The office of L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon subsequently absolved Redondo Beach from accusations that it violated the Brown Act – its meeting agenda stipulations – though stating that the process to establish the ballot measure for Oct. 19 violated the “spirit” of the public meetings law.
When election day arrived, Redondo voters opposed both the cannabis legalization measure and the recall by similar margins of about 75 percent to 25 percent.
The dope on cannabis sales
The Redondo Beach city council passed an ordinance in October to allow up to two retail marijuana stores in town.
The new law was approved just before a separate, public retail cannabis initiative led by two private marijuana companies went to voters Oct. 19, failing by a wide margin.
Redondo is now the only Beach City to allow marijuana stores, though Hermosa legalized marijuana delivery by city-licensed dispensaries.
Pustilnikov proposal
AES power plant co-owner Leo Pustilnkov filed a preliminary application for development of the 54-acre waterfront site, to include 2,700 housing units, a large office complex, a grocery store, and 22 acres of green space. Across the street, on Harbor Drive, Pustilnkov proposed 30 more residential units and commercial space next to the existing S.E.A. Lab.
Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand pronounced the developments “dead on arrival” after city council members balked at their sheer size.
Pustilnikov said he believes he can overcome the city’s objections because Redondo, at the time of his filing, was not yet in compliance with a new state law requiring a certified housing (plan) element for each municipality in California. The city has since obtained the certification.
City homeless response shows success
The City of Redondo Beach began the year with the hiring of Lila Omura as its homeless housing navigator.
This summer, on the same day the 2022 Greater L.A. Homeless Count was released, showing a 44 percent drop for Redondo Beach since 2020, the city was named recipient of the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in Housing Programs and Innovations, given by the League of California Cities.
In May, a private, non-profit announced it had bought the former Pacific Coast Inn on Pacific Coast Highway, near the Knob Hill intersection, to convert it to a “Project Homekey” property — offering “Permanent Supportive Housing” to homeless people who pay 30 percent of the rent.
Also this year, the city received $500,000 from State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi to aid its homeless efforts and another $250,000 in a grant from L.A. County.
Superintendent Keller retires, Wesley hired
Redondo Unified School District Superintendent Steven Keller announced in September that he was retiring, effective January 1, after 16 years.
His successor, appointed with Keller’s support, will be Nicole Wesley, his assistant superintendent of human resources, and an 18-year district employee. She was confirmed by a 5-0 school board vote in October after one of the five board members initially advocated for a broader search.
Coach Ellison takes helm
RUHS legend Keith Ellison took over the job as head football coach at his alma mater, after eight years as an assistant. The former Buffalo Bills and Oregon State University outside linebacker, with better RUHS basketball memories than football, coached his first-year football team to a 6-0 start.
Then they lost twice in Bay League shutouts (Culver City, Palos Verdes), before Mira Costa came to the Sea Hawk Bowl to find open turf, scoring touchdowns with no Redondo player in the picture frame.
It was a third blowout for Redondo. Nonetheless, Ellison’s team got into the playoffs and pulled out a comeback win in the first round to host a second-round game back at RUHS.
BeachLife Ranch brings out cowboy cops
The BeachLife Festival held two events in 2022, its third installment of the original, three-stage concert gatherings, and a new BeachLife Ranch edition in September, headlined by the Philadelphia pop/soul of Daryl Hall and John Oates.
Though the new “Country and Americana” event sold fewer tickets, co-founder Allen Sanford’s observations of the crowd led him to predict BeachLife Ranch “will be bigger than Beachlife in two years.”
Whatever happens, Redondo Beach Police officers in cowboy hats are bound to return. RBPD Chief Joe Hoffman surmised that the weekend attire caused jealousy in the fire department.
Mayor pro-tem takes on new importance
Mayor Bill Brand took a step back from appearing at city council meetings, for the most part, beginning in June, to focus on a new treatment for lung cancer.
On the same night of his announcement, the rotating mayor pro-tem post was to be assumed by Council Member Laura Emdee.
But instead, Council Member Nils Nehrenheim nominated himself for the position and was supported by Council members Todd Loewenstein and Zein Obagi, Jr.
The disregard of the traditional rotation put Nehrenheim, instead of Emdee, in charge of council meetings during Mayor Brand’s absences.
Kauffman retires; new chiefs
Keith Kauffman, Redondo Beach’s popular police chief, retired in February at age 50, but remained with the city for several months as its interim fire chief to help complete a study of the fire department’ structure and practices.
Joe Hoffman, a 29-year- Redondo P.D. veteran was selected as the new chief by City Manager Mike Witzansky. Hoffman met his wife on a police call to the Cheesecake Factory, while responding to a 911 hang-up from the restaurant’s payphone.
Pat Butler came out of retirement, after 31 years with the Los Angeles Fire Department to serve as Redondo’s interim fire chief.
Harbor amenities plan completed
A $107 million “amenities” plan for King harbor was approved by the Redondo City Council in November, following a year-long study by landscape consultant SWA Group of Los Angeles.
The plan calls for rebuilding the closed Sportfishing Pier, $20 million to improve Seaside Lagoon, and $7.9 million for car and pedestrian circulation improvements.
A long-sought public boat launch is slated to go in at Mole D, behind Captain Kidd’s, with a dedicated vehicle lane through the adjacent parking lot.
Double goals
On a Friday night in February, it felt like football homecoming at Sea Hawk Bowl, at Redondo Union High School. Instead, it was the CIF Soccer Championships, featuring Redondo girls in the afternoon, and Redondo Boys in the evening. Both teams won, securing the Sea Hawks’ first, and second CIF soccer championships. Neither the boys nor girls program had ever played in a finals before.
In the girls game, RUHS beat Oaks Christian 3-0. After sunset, the boys, in a raucous matchup against Montebello, the score was 0-0 in the final seconds of the first overtime, when suddenly it happened: Zarnick to Vorndron to Hancock, and into school history.
A clearing boot by Owen Zarnick led to a flicked header from Daniel Vorndron to Jaden Hancock, who scored from a mid-air kick.
The games included veteran players who had joined the RUHS teams after previously playing in the disbanded U.S. Soccer Development Academy League. The league had barred participants from school-team rosters.
The trolling of Zein Obagi, Jr.
District Four City Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr. was the subject of “trolling,” as he described it, for most of 2022. It began in Dec. 2021, when he was the target of a mailing by retail cannabis operators saying he was “the Grinch who allegedly stole his clients’ money.”
At the start of the new year Catalyst Cannabis Co. CEO Elliot Lewis led a recall effort against Obagi, which required the signatures of 25 percent of the district’s registered voters to qualify for the ballot.
District Five councilmember Laura Emdee was accused of being behind the recall effort. Text messages surfaced suggesting she had expressed interest in helping a potential candidate. Nonetheless, Lewis gathered the necessary number of signatures by enlisting company budtenders to ring District Four doorbells before the June deadline.
Voters rejected the recall effort by a nearly four to one vote.
Witzansky starts as city manager
Once upon a time, Mike Witzansky would step into the batter’s box for Pomona College and deliver whatever might be needed for his team and its fans.
He has performed the same role for Redondo Beach, serving as community services director, then public works director, and now as city manager.
Since being named city manager in January, he has hired a new Redondo police chief, an interim Redondo fire chief, and for his personal staff, a former Pomona baseball teammate.
During the city council’s final meeting in 2022, it expressed its appreciation for Witzansky by giving him a raise and extending his contract for another year. ER