by Mark McDermott
Every candidate running for Manhattan Beach City Council has spoken of public safety as a priority. Mark Burton believes that he has done more than talk about it.
He points to his 31 years as an attorney working on behalf of public safety for the City of Los Angeles, and his four years on City Council, when he successfully advocated for automated license plate readers for MBPD.
“If you look at public safety, I think I am by far the most qualified of all the candidates, and also the current council members,” Burton said. “I was a misdemeanor prosecutor. I’ve prosecuted thousands of cases, so I understand quality-of-life crimes and how important it is to enforce those crimes.”
The recent spike in crime in Manhattan Beach, Burton said, makes his experience especially relevant. He cites his experience working as general counsel for LAPD during the early ‘90s, when police commissioner Rick Caruso brought in Chief Bill Bratton, and crime in LA was driven down. Later, Burton said he worked alongside James Butz, the current mayor of Inglewood, who was in charge of public safety at LAX.
“That was one of the lowest-rated airport police departments in the nation,” Burton said. “Within one year, it was number one. He did the same thing. He drove crime down to record lows.”
Burton has a plan to drive crime down in Manhattan Beach. It begins with hiring more police officers, which would enable more foot patrols in commercial districts such as downtown, and car patrols in neighborhoods.
“We’ve had 65 officers for 20 years,” Burton said. “That’s a police force for yesterday’s crime. For today’s crime, and tomorrow’s crime, we need more police officers. And so I’m proposing, in the next three, five years, to go from 65 to 80. That’d be 10 more permanent police officers and five overhires, and that would give us enough police officers to do more patrols.”
Another aspect of Burton’s experience is negotiating public safety employee contracts. Burton said he was appalled at the handling of the recent MBFD contract, in which the City Council imposed a contract, ignoring both a mediator’s fact finding report, and suggested compromise and voluminous public testimony.
“When I was general counsel for the Los Angeles Fire Department, I got to know all the different departments in Southern California,” he said. “Each one has its unique culture, and our culture is one of the best. Our firefighters love to serve our residents. It’s one of the best service models I’ve ever seen. And for them to be treated the way they were, I just don’t get it. I thought it was shameful.”
“Our firefighters are honest and hardworking, and we need to have labor peace,” Burton said. “I can help bring that labor peace. I am certain of that.”
Another of his priorities is achieving quicker turnarounds in permitting in the Community Development department. Burton said he’s heard numerous complaints that the people at the counter simply don’t seem engaged with residents, something he’s identified as a recurring theme in other areas of the City’s culture, starting with the Council.
“For any successful organization, you have to work with a sense of urgency,” he said. “And if you do, that becomes the culture, and your customer service model really enhances. What I see from our Council right now, they’re totally reactive, hoping not to make a decision. They need to be proactive, because change is a constant, and the job of the City Council is to manage that change with a vision of the future.”
Burton sees this in the City Council’s approach to the HighRose project. He argues that it’s a project residents clearly don’t want.
“Our low profile character is a big part of who we are in Manhattan Beach,” he said. “In Los Angeles, we litigated a number of times when the state was overreaching, and we won about 80 percent of the time. We did it here when I was on council with the plastic bag ban, which we took all the way to the Supreme Court, and won. We need to litigate intelligently and strategically. We can’t just talk. We have to fight.”
“This council needs to start listening to residents and making decisions in the best interest of residents. We’ve kind of lost that. Everyone knows it. People have kind of given up on City Council. They don’t listen anymore, and that’s their job. People ask me how I feel about a certain issue, and that is kind of irrelevant. It’s about how the residents feel, and that is who I’ll be representing.” ER
