Redondo election aftermath: Kaluderovic wins District Three city council seat

Paige Kaluderovic

by Garth Meyer

Paige Kaluderovic is the new Redondo Beach District Three city council representative, beating Candace Nafissi in the March 7 election by a final count of 1,411 votes to 1,330. 

Results were announced last Thursday by City Clerk Eleanor Manzano.

This was Kaluderovic’s first run for public office. Nafissi, a veteran member of city commissions, ran for District Three city council in 2019 and 2015. 

“I feel excited, honored and humbled,” said Kaluderovic, who moved to Redondo Beach in 2021 with her husband and two daughters. “I know there’s a lot of work ahead, and I’m willing to put in the time, and the work.”

She succeeds Christian Horvath, who served for the past eight years, the maximum allowed under Redondo’s term limits.

Certification of the final election results went before the council Tuesday night. Kaluderovic will be sworn in April 4.

“I’m sad for our community,” said Nafissi. “And I pray to God that she works very hard to prevent the Metro train (from going past backyards), and works hard to ensure that BCHD is reflective of community character.”

BCHD (Beach Cities Health District) is proposing to build what it calls the Healthy Living Campus at the site of the former South Bay Hospital. 

Nafissi will remain a member of the city’s General Plan Advisory Committee and the Public Works Commission. 

 

Candace Nafissi

 

“I genuinely believe it was the community that rallied around me,” Kaluderovic said of her win, citing the number of invitations she received to speak to book clubs and other local organizations during the campaign.

“I had a strong core of about 20 volunteers who did a lot of work.” 

Despite rumors that suggested otherwise, they were all true volunteers, all Redondo Beach residents, she said. 

Kaluderovic estimates that she knocked on 3,000 doors herself. 

“We kept trying to reach more people,” she said. 

The core knocked on doors too, made phone calls, and referred questions they could not answer to the candidate to follow up with the person who asked.

 

Keller endorsement

Redondo Unified School District board member Dan Elder facilitated an introduction between Kaluderovic and Steven Keller, the recently-retired, 16-year RBUSD superintendent.

“I was surprised to hear (later) that he wanted to endorse me,” said Kaluderovic. “The schools were why (my family)  moved here.”

Keller had not endorsed a political candidate before.

“I had to do it,” he said. “Because Paige is intelligent, she is ethical, she is objective and she is open-minded. And most importantly, she understands the positive, key word positive, (relationship) between the school and the city. District Three voters picked the person I just described. The alternative didn’t appeal to them.”

Nafissi has been a vocal critic of Keller, particularly in regard to the district’s timeline in bringing kids back to the classroom during the pandemic. 

She described Keller’s leadership on the subject as “an unforgivable act” in a post to an Easy Reader article last year about his  pending retirement.

“I have no problem with critique, with criticism,” he said. “But how you go about it is critical.”

 

Steven Keller. Photo courtesy Redondo Unified School District

 

Was this endorsement personal?

“It was not for spite. The better candidate won, in my humble opinion,” said Keller, who lives in the Torrance section of Hollywood Riviera. “(Kaluderovic) has a pure focus, what she wants to do and how she wants to do it.”

Nafissi was endorsed by Congressman Ted Lieu, Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand, L.A. County Supervisors Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell, Redondo city councilmembers Nils Nehrenheim, Todd Loewenstein and Zein Obagi, Jr., and the Redondo Beach Fire Department union and the Redondo police union.

“Paige’s endorsements came after people met her,” Horvath said. “I think that speaks volumes. Candace’s were lined up before she filed.”

 

Transition

Since she won, Kaluderovic has met with City Manager Mike Witzansky, City Attorney Mike Webb and councilmembers. 

“Now that the campaign is over, there’s more of a calm, cooperative tone to things, and I hope that continues,” she said. 

Kaluderovic, and Nafissi never met for a town hall or debate during the campaign. 

A scheduled League of Women Voters forum in February was declined by Nafissi, in objection to the involvement of co-host/facilitator North Redondo Beach Business Association. 

Kaluderovic said at the start of the campaign she was motivated by a city council decision not to fund a crossing guard at the intersection of Lilienthal Avenue and Ralston Lane — on the route she walks her daughters to school — followed by a few months later, the council’s approval of a much-higher expenditure for a rare October 19 special election for the Zein Obagi, Jr. recall attempt (pairing it with a public initiative for retail marijuana stores). 

In initial results on election night, Kaluderovic led Nafissi 932 votes to 841. Twelve days later the final total was in.

“It was a lot of time to wait,” Kaluderovic said. “I had a good feeling when I was meeting people at their doors, so I was confident (but) I didn’t know if Candace was feeling the same way.”

“Paige will continue to be a calm, collected voice of reason,” said Horvath. “I trust her judgment. Based on the conversations we’ve had, the questions she’s asked. She’s very thoughtful. 81 votes is not necessarily a close election.”

“Redondo is not a lot of crazy-left, crazy-right,” said Keller. “Redondo is reasonable. Reasonableness prevails.”

 

Solomon wins treasurer’s seat, ballot measures pass

In other races March 7, Eugene Solomon won the final vote over Matthew Kilroy for city treasurer, 5,351 votes to 4,738. For the Redondo Unified School District board, Raymur Flinn was re-elected with 5,847 votes, along with Byung Cho (5,773 votes). Jerome Chang finished with 5,088.

The six city measures on the ballot all passed with comfortable margins. These include Measure CT (retail marijuana tax), CA 1 (city charter amendment for public works contracts), CA 2 (change in city charter language about payments due), CA 3 (gender-neutral language in city charter),  CA 4 (amending the requirement that the mayor sign all contracts) and CA 5 (ranked-choice voting). ER

 

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.