Marchese aims for District 3
Sandy Marchese was just looking for a reason to get out of the house, she says.
It was a low point in her life. Her husband had recently died of pancreatic cancer, closing a marriage that simply ended too short. She found herself looking through the South Bay Adult School class catalogue. She settled on taking improv classes. “It just evolved,” she said. “At a time when you’re grieving, you have sadness, it was an evening a week filled with laughter.”
“Pretty soon there was that transition from how often the tears are flowing to how often you’re laughing,” she said.
Sandy Marchese, a 22-year Redondo Beach resident, is a candidate for the District 3 city council seat. Courtesy of Sandy Marchese
Marchese moved to Torrance after graduating from college, then moved to Redondo, where she has been a resident for 22 years.
In 2007, when she retired from her position as a chief executive in the consumer electronics industry she decided that to get more involved with her community. She rattled off her public service quickly. As president of Redondo’s Community Emergency Response Team in 2011, she served as the incident commander during that year’s fish die off and clean up in King Harbor. She was a police volunteer for six years, tchair of the Safety Commission and served on the Historic Commission. She’s also attended a “majority” of Redondo’s city council meetings since 2007.
“I think it helps being there, seeing things in action and how items can move forward is vital to being a member of that council,” she says.
While Marchese’s background is in marketing, improv is one of her greatest joys. “It’s a passion,” she says. “My greatest strength in improv is listening: it’s one of the skills that you’re taught, because if you’re listening, not preformulating what you’re going to say, you can gather more information.”
“Too often, we’re in the process of thinking about what we’re going to say and not listening to what’s happening.“
“I see differences of opinion being a good thing,” she says. “Hopefully with sufficient information members of the council are not opposed to changing their opinion based on further information. I look at myself as being one of those people who can bring information, listen to the others and hope to facilitate a positive, good action that will be best for the citizens and the community.”
Marchese said she wants to improve property values, to ensure that public safety services have the resources they need and ensure that Redondo’s infrastructure are properly maintained.
Asked her position on Measure B, the waterfront redevelopment item on the March ballot, she answered, “I’m still in a fact-finding venture on that, because I think we need redevelopment and it needs to be done responsibly, but one of my sayings is ‘preserving our past, protecting our future,’” she said.
“It’s my responsibility to represent the voters responsibly,” she said. “I think more information can still come in so when I ultimately cast my vote, I make the right decision. When I walk the district, most people are glad that AES will be going away and I do hear the concerns about the number of residents planned for [Harbor Village], and concerns about traffic, and I think all of that has to be brought up before the ultimate decision is made.”
Marchese said she decided to run about a year ago. “Councilman Aust is terming out,” she said. “I was an advocate against extending term limits, because I’ve always thought that two terms was sufficient. When that ends, it gives another person an opportunity.”
“I think a lot of things have led up to this, including my involvement in the CERT program, the commissions and Leadership Redondo in 2010.”
“It’s like blocks that have built up. It’s feeling that I can make a difference in the community, that I can be a voice for the community and that I can bring intellect as well as what constituents want resolved as part of the decision making process.” ER