by Kevin Cody
Minutes before 1 a.m., eight hours into the Tuesday, September 12 Hermosa Beach City Council meeting, Councilmember Dean Francois asked, “Are other council members interested in taking a look at the mayor rotation policy?”
A long silence followed, finally broken by Mayor Raymond Jackson asking, “Anyone interested? Seeing none…. Meeting adjourned at 12:58 a.m.”
The council is scheduled to vote on a new mayor, and a new mayor pro tem at a special meeting on Thursday, October 5.
Traditionally, the votes have been formalities. Every nine months the mayor pro tem becomes the new mayor, and the newly elected candidate with the most votes in the previous election becomes the new mayor pro tem.
If tradition is followed, current Mayor Pro Tem Justin Massey will be voted Mayor when Mayor Raymond Jackson’s term expires, and Francois will be voted mayor pro tem because he was the high vote getter among the new councilmembers in last November’s council election.
However, multiple council observers have speculated that Francois will be passed over as mayor pro tem in favor of Councilmember Rob Saemann, who finished behind Francois in last November’s election.
Speculation about Francois being passed over was fueled by his inability at the last council meeting to find support for discussing the rotation.
The speculation went public two weeks ago in an open letter to the city council written by former Hermosa Beach councilmembers Sam Edgerton and Robert “Burgie” Benz, who served as mayor and mayor pro tem, respectively, in 1997.
“There is concern that this council is not going to respect precedent when the rotation vote comes before the council…. The people who elect their candidates expect them to become Mayor. Every one of the elected has their fans and detractors. But to play games with the rotation is bad for the City and bad for the Council. It suggests a clique on the council, which is bad for decision making.”
Hany Fangary is the only Hermosa councilmember in at least 50 years to have been passed over as mayor pro tem. Fangary was passed over in 2019, and again in 2020. Councilman Mike Detoy, who was newly elected in 2020, was the only councilmember to oppose passing over Fangary that year. The reason Fangary was passed over was attributed primarily to his conflict with City Manager Suja Lowenthal, who joined the city in 2018.
Councilmember Mary Campbell stated, after voting against naming Fangary mayor pro tem in 2019, “It would be irresponsible for the city council to appoint a mayor or mayor pro tem who refuses to communicate or interact directly with the city manager.”
Fangary complained at the time that Hermosa had a “strong manager, weak council” form of government. He said the city manager, not the council was driving policy
“Our job has become to receive a verbal update from staff, provide our comments and concerns to staff, and then staff takes the action that staff — not council — deems appropriate,” he said.
Fangary resigned from the council after being passed over the second time. His wife also sued the council for allegedly violating the State Brown Act by privately agreeing to deny Fangary the mayor pro tem position prior to the public council vote on the issue, and for publicly disclosing a closed session discussion about the issue. The suit is still pending.
Francois has similarly been in conflict with the city manager.
At the most recent council meeting, after residents complained about the elimination of guest parking passes, Francois proposed extending the guest pass expiration date until the subject is rexamined by the council at a future meeting. The expiration date had already been extended by six months because a software snafu had prevented issuance of new parking permits.
Lowenthal responded to Francois’ proposal by saying she could bring the guest permit issue back to the city council at its upcoming council meeting as an “information” item, but that the council would not be able to vote on extending the guest permit expiration date until a later date.
“So guess permits will no longer be valid after October 15?” Francois asked
“Correct,” the city manager said.
Another issue fueling speculation that Francois will be passed over as mayor pro tem was raised at the August 8 city council meeting by resident Ashley Tull.
“Dean Francois, you should not be on this city council,” Tull said during the public comments part of the meeting.
Tull followed with a litany of allegations against Francois related to inappropriate sexual behavior.
Mayor Jackson twice asked Tull to “stick to [council] performance issues.”
But Tull continued her criticism of Francois for the three minutes allotted to each speaker.
Francois responded to an Easy Reader request for comment on Tull’s allegations by stating in an email, “I hope that no one gives validity to the unfounded lies, accusations and hearsay that comprised a resident’s [Tull’s] public comment Tuesday night…. I categorically deny the allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, etc. Such claims not only undermine the integrity of our democratic process but also have the potential to harm the reputation of both me and the city council.”
In neighboring cities
Manhattan Beach also faced controversy in the mayor and mayor pro tem rotation issue in December 2020, the same month Fangary resigned after being passed over as mayor pro tem.
Over 150 people attended the December 2020 Manhattan Beach council meeting when a new mayor was to be voted on to replace Richard Montgomery. Next in rotation was Suzanne Hadley, a newly elected councilmember whose outspoken criticism of COVID-19 protocols put her at odds with the four other council members. After City Clerk Liz Tamura presented a history of the traditional mayoral rotation policy, dating 42 years, the Manhattan Council voted unanimously to name Hadley mayor.
Last June, the Redondo City Council ignored its rotation tradition by passing over Councilwoman Laura Emdee, who was next in line to be mayor pro tem. Instead, Nils Nehrenheim, who nominated himself for mayor pro tem, was elected with support from Councilmembers Todd Loewenstein and Zein Obagi, Jr. Obagi said Emdee had supported an unsuccessful recall effort against him. ER
