City Council hopefuls face off in first election debate

Three incumbents meet three challengers as candidates clash over short-term rentals, taxation, spending and the future of the Hermosa Pier

Five of the six candidates for Hermosa Beach City Council said Tuesday night they support the half-cent sales tax on the Nov. 3 ballot, including Elka Worner, who opposed the city's last measure. Councilmember Dean Francois was its only opponent this time around.

The three incumbents also traded pointed criticism over short-term rentals, the city's budget and a proposed downtown entertainment zone.

Francois, Councilmember Ray Jackson and Councilmember Rob Saemann are seeking re-election against school board trustee Maggie Bove-LaMonica, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Elka Worner and nonprofit director Eric Horne. Three seats are on the ballot. The forum was hosted and moderated by Al Benson of HBneighborhood.org, who has staged council debates since 2006, and covered 10 moderator questions and seven from the audience.

Sales tax: five yes, one no

Jackson, Saemann, Bove-LaMonica, Worner and Horne all said they would vote for the measure. Two of them framed their support as reluctant.

"We voted it down twice, and I voted against it last time," said Worner, who opposed the 2024 measure. "So this time I'm voting yes, but I also expect the city to tighten its belt."

"I'm willing to pay a little more to protect the city I love, but I expect every dollar to be spent wisely," Worner said.

Horne said he would be "reluctantly voting yes" because the city faces rising county fire, lifeguard and beach maintenance contract costs, an unfunded city yard overhaul and no funding plan for the pier.

Jackson used his first answer to criticize Worner and Francois for opposing the 2024 three-quarter-cent measure "with no alternative plan." Had it passed, he said, the city could have received approximately $6 million in additional revenue by now.

Saemann said the 2022 and 2024 measures failed because "the public didn't trust the city to spend their money very wisely," a view he said he shared at the time. "This time, I believe, we have begun to regain the public's trust, and we are spending our tax dollars more wisely," he said. He said Hermosa Beach generated $40 million in sales tax last year but kept only $4 million after the state and county took their shares, and that the new tax would add roughly $2 million a year for city services, the deficit and projects like the city yard and pier.

Francois, who said he cast the only council vote against placing the measure on the ballot, argued that residents, not visitors, would carry much of the cost. He cited an extra $400 (sic) on a $40,000 car and said the rate would rise from 10.25% to 10.75%. "Isn't that enough?" he said. He also faulted the council for paying consultants to gauge voter support and spending $50,000 to publicize the measure.

Bove-LaMonica backed the tax but said the council had not delivered the community education it promised when it approved the measure over the summer. "We will lose community trust if a third time this sales tax doesn't pass," she said.

Closing the deficit

Benson asked candidates how they would close a structural deficit he put at $3.2 million in 2027, growing to $4 million by 2031, assuming the sales tax fails.

Horne said the question understated the problem, projecting "roughly $9 million a year in annual cash-flow shortage" by 2032. He proposed about $700,000 in cuts, including capping police overtime at $800,000 a year using AI analysis of crime and calls-for-service data.

Worner said the city should be as careful with taxpayer money as residents are with their own. "I don't shop at Erewhon. I shop at Trader Joe's and Costco," she said. She proposed cutting consultants and sharing services with neighboring cities, saying the city should have explored sharing Redondo Beach's city yard rather than potentially spending $20 million on its own.

Francois outlined a five-point plan he said could save $4 million a year by renegotiating county lifeguard contracts and charging the county rent for lifeguard facilities. Jackson (who has served on council since 2021) said this year's budget was balanced through "budget fairy dust" and called for an independent financial review. Bove-LaMonica blamed "this particular council's mismanagement" and said the city missed more than 3,000 parking citations during World Cup watch parties.

Saemann attributed the deficit to "poorly planned, poorly executed, overfunded projects" and heavy use of consultants before 2022, and said the council is now managing projects to completion on time and on budget and cutting costs without cutting services. Beyond the sales tax, he pointed to hotel taxes on short-term rentals, including back taxes from previously illegal rentals, and future revenue from development on Parking Lots A and D. "There are only two things you can do to balance a budget," he said. "You either increase your income or reduce your expenses or both."

The pier

All six candidates said the pier must be saved. Saemann (a longtime general contractor) said he made the March motion directing staff to plan for replacement in 2032 and proposed segmental reconstruction, the method Santa Cruz used after its wharf collapsed, to keep part of the pier open during construction.

"The pier needs replacing. That debate, I think, is over," Saemann said, adding that residents are likely to be "the largest investors in this pier." He advocated for community engagement around possible options for pier financing and amenities, questioning whether we really should be building "a copy of what was built in 1965".

Horne proposed a dedicated pier fund of $2.5 million a year, financed in part by a surcharge on coastal-zone short-term rentals. Jackson called for critical repairs now and a long-term funding plan. Francois said the council is "not in turmoil" over the pier. Bove-LaMonica said the council has yet to hold a community conversation on options since the pier's condition was flagged in February.

Worner said she wants to keep the pier, "but I don't want it to break the bank," and that voters should know what each option costs before a decision is made. She said she has spoken with the Army Corps of Engineers about potential federal involvement and proposed a design contest for local children. "We're building it for the next generation," she said. "Let's give them a say."

Short-term rentals

The sharpest exchanges came over short-term rentals, which the city must now allow across the coastal zone after a court found its ban unenforceable.

Jackson said "three folks on this dais" support a policy that lets long-term homes become vacation rentals, and called for the "unlimited short-term rental policy" to be repealed and replaced.

Francois called that "fear-mongering" and noted that Jackson sits on the Coastal Commission, which he said requires the city to justify any restrictions. He said he brokered a six-month compromise to gather data before regulating. Jackson responded later with a reference to comedian Flip Wilson's catchphrase, "The devil made me do it." "The Coastal Commission didn't make us do anything," he said.

Saemann said it was "absolutely incorrect" that the council left the city "wide open," listing registration, business license, tax and posted-contact requirements that remain in force.

Worner said many visitors, including families in town for volleyball tournaments, prefer rentals to hotels, and described a widowed neighbor who rented a room to European travelers and made them coffee each morning. She said she does not want party houses or corporate operators either, but argued policy should rest on data. "We should make our policy based on the evidence and not fear," she said.

Bove-LaMonica and Horne criticized the council's timing. "Manhattan Beach did seven meetings of community engagement before they came to a decision," Bove-LaMonica said. "Hermosa Beach didn't do a single one." Horne said that if elected he would immediately reopen the issue to distinguish owner-occupied rentals from investment properties before the Olympics.

Entertainment zone dispute

Francois and Jackson also clashed over Jackson's proposal to explore an entertainment zone that would let people carry drinks outside, and over a summer block party he held up as a model for it. Worner had earlier likened that idea to "Bourbon Street."

Jackson said the idea was about rotating neighborhood block parties, not an open-air bar. "If I'm at Patrick Molloy's and I've got a frozen Irish coffee, is there anything wrong with me walking outside with that frozen Irish coffee?" he said. "Whether I'm drinking rum and Coke or Coke, it's the behavior that we penalize. It's not necessarily what the individual is consuming."

Crime, alcohol and the Strand

Benson cited his own analysis showing Hermosa's per-capita violent crime rate from 2023 through 2025 was more than double Manhattan Beach's. Several candidates questioned the comparison. Horne said the moderator's per-capita police spending figures were off, putting Hermosa's police budget at more than $20 million, or over $1,000 per resident. Worner said the discussion should "start with the facts," noting overall crime is down 22% year to date, while calling for a closer look at a rise in simple assaults. Saemann cited the same decline. "I don't want to encourage a narrative that crime is somehow out of control," he said, pledging not to cut the number of sworn officers.

No candidate supported reinstating the city's decades-old "50-50" rule requiring alcohol-licensed restaurants to make at least half their sales from food, which the city removed in July. Several said menu prices had made the formula outdated.

On e-bikes, Horne proposed rotating two-officer enforcement details along the Strand, and Jackson called for a park ranger-style presence funded in part by the sales tax. Saemann described his push for license plates on Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes, an idea he has taken to neighboring mayors, the school board and the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. Francois questioned whether the state could afford plates on every bike. Worner, who said she has nearly been hit twice on the Strand, called for officers on e-bikes and consistent tickets rather than warnings.

Audience questions

Audience members asked about selling the city's accumulating sand to neighboring beaches, owner-occupied rentals, traffic deaths on shared arterials and a proposed privately funded dog park at Valley Park East. All six candidates voiced support for the dog park. Worner, who said she came up with the name Bark for a Park and served on the Parks and Recreation subcommittee that identified the site, said she has "full faith" in the organizers. Saemann called the group "a perfect example of community engagement" and said Valley Park is the best spot. Jackson and Francois said that as sitting council members they could not commit before a final proposal.

Asked whether the Pride-painted 13th Street lifeguard tower should return to blue, all five candidates said it should stay. Jackson said he was "proud to stand by the Pride Tower" and noted that any group can apply through the county to paint and maintain a tower of its own. Going a step further, he said he personally "doesn't think the standard blue looks good."

Closing statements

Jackson returned to the four words he opened with, "Colonel, Coach, Council Member, Commissioner," and urged voters to test every candidate's claims against the public record. "Look at the work," he said, telling voters to "look beyond all the crap that's going to come into your inboxes...the next couple weeks." 

Bove-LaMonica pointed to her 13 years on the school board, where she said she helped pass and manage $87 million in facilities bonds and to endorsements from Rep. Ted Lieu and state Sen. Ben Allen. She said her youngest child is a kindergartner at Hermosa View. "I'm not being dramatic when I say that the decisions we're making right now for this city are going to impact his future," she said.

Francois, who called himself "your independent voice" in his opening statement and "the independent candidate" in his closing, returned to the label throughout the evening. He is a longtime Democrat. The council race is nonpartisan, and Francois framed his independence in terms of council voting blocs, saying "we don't come in with a team vote." He said he would be decisive, "but not before I listen," adding that "compromise isn't a weakness. It's how we actually get things done for this city."

Saemann leaned on his experience. He said he has lived in Hermosa for 52 years, in "every corner and every neighborhood," owned and operated two small businesses, and served two years on the Public Works Commission, eight on the Planning Commission and four on the council. "Nobody on the dais can say that," he said. He said his decisions over those 14 years have followed one question, "what is the best thing for Hermosa Beach?" and that the city needs "that kind of leadership and experience right now." He pledged to donate his council salary to local causes.

Worner pitched herself as an outsider. "I'm not an insider. I'm not beholden to party politics, and I don't see this as a stepping stone to higher office," she said. In her opening statement she noted that half the city's residents are women and said "it's about time we had a woman on the council."

Horne got the final word on the evening, and spoke about growing up in Hermosa with a single mother while his father was incarcerated, dropping out of Mira Costa and turning his life around at El Camino College. "Government can work," he said, pointing to his work with non-profit Megafire Action. "I don't think that empty slogans are going to be enough this time," he said.

Election Day is Nov. 3. A full replay of the debate is available on the City's YouTube channel.