by Kevin Cody
Brian Sheil pulled open his sports jacket to show he was wearing a black and white referee’s shirt when he introduced himself at a recent Hermosa Beach City Council Candidates Forum, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.
“If you saw the last council meeting, you know the council needs a referee,” he quipped. The audience laughed, knowingly, because of the current council’s recent bickering, which has forced Mayor Dean Francois to wield the gavel to bring order to the dias.
“The people I work with in television are very passionate, and work very long hours, which has prepared me for serving on the council,” Sheil said, eliciting more laughter.
Sheil is a professional comedian. He frequently performs at the Comedy and Magic Club. But as he also quipped at the candidates forum, “You’d have to tell a lot of jokes to buy a house in Hermosa Beach.”
Sheil has been a homeowner in Hermosa since 2003. He is married with a 16-year-old son.
His company, Entertainment Services LA, provides sound production for BeachLife Music Festival, Comedy and Magic Club, and television programs, including American’s Funniest Videos, Nickelodeon, and MTV.
Sheil has worked behind the scenes for dozens of local businesses, among them the Chamber fiestas, Allen Sanford’s Saint Rocke, Adam Goldberg’s Fresh Brothers Pizza, and Michael Zislis’s Rock N Brews. Comedy and Magic Club’s Mike Lacy convinced Sheil to move to Hermosa from his native New Jersey in 1995.
This year’s Hermosa city council race is Sheil’s first venture into local politics.
“I’m walking every day and find residents very engaged. But I’m surprised at the behind the scenes political machines. It’s like musical chairs, with candidates going from city commissions to council. Endorsements were made before the debates,” Sheil said. He added that he will not seek endorsements.
“I’m here to remind people the council works for the residents, and not the other way around,” Sheil said.
He said he opposes Measure HB, the proposed .75 percent sales tax increase on the November 5 ballot. And he said he opposes the nearly $60,000 the city has spent promoting the sales tax increase.
“It’s disingenuous for the city to spend taxpayers money on mailers to convince taxpayers to pay more in taxes,” he said.
His view on e-bikes, he said, is, “They are here to stay. We need to stop demonizing them, and teach kids to ride safely.”
He admitted to having called a gang of Mira Costa High e-bikers a chapter of Hells Angels. But it was during a show at Comedy and Magic.
“It got quite a laugh. There is no better feeling than making a room full of people laugh,” he said.
Sheil is more seriously concerned with Hermosa’s homeless, whom he has gotten to know on a first name basis from singing and playing guitar at restaurants on Pier Plaza. Sheil majored in music composition at Montclair University in New Jersey.
“The city has homeless services available, but its position is it can’t offer the services unless the homeless ask for them. We aren’t doing them a favor by allowing them to sleep outside because the longer they are on the street the more their conditions deteriorate,” he said.
He favors what he said is the practice in neighboring cities, of arresting the homeless when they commit misdemeanors, and taking them to homeless shelters where they will get help.
Sheil also said he’d like the city to allow dogs on the beach south of Second Street, at least during certain hours. ER
