by Garth Meyer
On March 19, newly-elected Redondo Beach Mayor Jim Light fielded Easy Reader questions before leaving on a two-week vacation with his wife to London and Scotland.
He beat City Councilman Nils Nehrenheim, and three other challengers, to win the race March 13.
Light was first appointed mayor in February of last year after the death of Bill Brand.
Why do you think you won election this time, as opposed to your campaigns for city council?
“I didn’t walk enough in my first runs for city council. I got labeled as both no-growth and overly antagonistic for my positions. As mayor I was more open and pragmatic than my opponents painted me to be. When you’re a resident, you only get three minutes for public comment (in city council meetings). You almost have to overstate your case, like it’s a black and white thing.
What do you think of when looking back at the past 20-25 years of your involvement with the city?
“We were battling an uphill battle. A council, a city manager bent on high-density development. Through the years, with the change in city council, and city staff to be more accepting of the public view, we’ve gone from fighting development to what are we going to do to meet this public mandate? The people want a revitalized city, but don’t want to overdevelop it. We were trying to protect the character of the city, open space, and space for our local ecosystems.
There’s very few people who want no change. We want to slow things down and (manage) it.”
What about the waterfront parking garage, cited by Center-Cal supporters as a looming, massive cost to the city to maintain or replace, which CenterCal would have paid for?
“The cost of doing things is a concern, but we’ve shown we don’t have to foot all the bills. The boat ramp is paid for, we’ve got $10 million for Seaside Lagoon, the Ruby’s and On the Rocks buildings have been redeveloped by private investment. A study was done of the parking garage that showed, with maintenance, you can keep it going indefinitely.”
What is the first order of business for your new term as mayor?
“Now I can take a more strategic look at the next four years, and also get a feel for the new council and what their priorities are.”
To what do you attribute your’s and Bill Brand’s successes?
“We were both driven, we were both engineers, we could come to compromise. Bill was good as the public-facing side, I was good at the details-side, the backend research. I tend to be too-detailed, too lengthy and he would keep it simple. But Bill was an engineer, he could go deep too.”
What fundamentally drives you?
“I was brought up to serve the community and serve the nation, and (I became an) environmental advocate.”
Light is eligible to run for another term.
Former City Councilman Christan Horvath (2015-2023) questioned the parking study Light referred to.
“I don’t recall any study saying that,” he said. “If it is true, it’s still an enormous cost to keep it that way. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig.”
In 2005, Light lost a District One city council race to eventual mayor Steve Aspel. In 2013, Light lost another race for the same city council seat to Jeff Ginsburg.
In Redondo Beach, the mayor has no regular vote. But he or she has veto power. And they can vote if one councilmember is absent and the other four split 2-2.
(By contrast, Hermosa Beach’s and Manhattan Beach’s five councilmembers rotate the mayor’s seat every nine months.
“I knew Jim was going to run (for election). Once you sit in the mayor’s seat, the juices flow, you want to keep going,” said Steve Aspel, former Redondo Beach mayor, who lost to Brand for reelection in 2017.
Aspel and Light spent years at odds over the proposed $400 million CenterCal development which would have remade the waterfront.
“The joke is, I want to tell Jim, you finally won an election,” Aspel said. “I’m really not upset that he won. The majority of the citizens are buying what he’s selling. I’m good with that. Back then I made comments I probably shouldn’t have said, he made comments he shouldn’t have said. The city needs Jim to be a successful mayor. I’ll do everything I can to help him. I’m just done with any animosity now.”
“Once you run for office, everybody treats you differently. Every kid knows what a mayor is… I’m hoping the city turns the corner and actually builds something.”
During the CenterCal years, Light filed two lawsuits against the city, on behalf of Building a Better Redondo, asserting that two dozen elements of the city’s Environmental Impact Report for the CenterCal project were deficient.
A judge concurred on three items on the list; health impacts from opening Seaside Lagoon to harbor waters, the circulation of safety information for a proposed boat ramp (at Mole B) and visual impacts from Czuleger Park.
Three years later, in 2021, an appeals court upheld the ruling, awarding Building a Better Redondo more than $760,000 in attorney’s fees, not counting interest.
Light was the president of Building a Better Redondo.
“He’ll say he won the suit. But the city prevailed on 25 of 28 counts,” Horvath said.
“My name was on two lawsuits,” Light said. “The first about CenterCal zoning. I was the only resident with the courage to put my name on it. Hundreds of people were involved. Our attorney, Frank Angel, said we need somebody’s name on it, same for the second lawsuit that I signed.”
Aspel marvels at how Building a Better Redondo and other anti-CenterCal forces worked their cause.
“They were the best campaigners I’ve ever seen. And I was the victim of one of them,” he said. “I’m not even mad, it was so good. Gangs taking over the Redondo Pier. That was not Jim, that was not his doing.”
“Redondo Beach is going to be known as a concert venue.”
Aspel was first a city councilman, then mayor in the midst of the waterfront controversy.
“Jim Light, he’d come up to the podium, he was constantly (complaining) about something. But at least I knew where I stood with Jim Light,” Aspel said. “That’s why (CenterCal CEO) Fred (Bruning) didn’t sue Light.”
At Aspel’s house this winter, two lawn signs were on display: Brad Waller for District One city councilman and Joy Ford for city attorney.
“Everything’s over, it’s a new world here, man,” Aspel said. “I respect the fact that Jim ran for mayor. And I respect the fact that he won.”
“That guy works really hard,” Harbor Commissioner Mark Hansen said of Light. “He researches the s— out of stuff.”
Light, married with one daughter, is a founding member of South Bay Parkland Conservancy.
He and his wife bid on their trip to Europe at a Marine Mammal Care Center fundraiser.
When the mayor first came to the South Bay in 1989, he house-sat for an Air Force major, which gave him time to look closely at the area towns. Light chose Redondo Beach.
On Bill Brand’s last day, dying of cancer, Light said he and his eventual mayor challenger, City Councilman Nils Nehrenheim were in the room at Brand’s house, and the mayor asked if there was anything else he needed to do for the city. They said no.
Nehrenheim asked him who he wanted to succeed him as mayor.
“And he pointed to me and said ‘Jim,” Light said.
Nehrenheim echoed this story at city council the night that Light was appointed mayor, and to Easy Reader this week.
Brand’s wife Diedre was at the house, in another room, then the family started arriving, Light said.
“I am honored to continue Bill’s work. He was my best friend,” Light said. “I am pleased to now drop the ‘appointed.’ I think it’s going to be a great four years.” ER
Congrats Jim! However not quite accurate. Jim Light, hope you will correct