Scrutiny follows Redondo mayor pro-tem vote after Brand announcement
by Garth Meyer
With Mayor Bill Brand stepping back to focus on a new treatment for his lung cancer, the city council looks to fill-in as necessary, led by a new mayor pro-tem.
Councilman Nils Nehrenheim was named to the role in a 3-2 council vote June 21.
The decision represented a change from a long-standing rotation which dictated the next pro-tem.
The main duty of the mayor pro-tem is to run city council meetings when Brand is absent.
The mayor – or mayor pro-tem – does not decide agendas. That is done by the city manager and the council.
A pro-tem has neither veto power nor the ability to make appointments to boards and commissions. They may sign contracts, resolutions and warrants.
Brand’s medical decision is not a leave of absence.
No such formality is required, since a mayor’s main two powers – veto and appointments – may still be done by an absent mayor.
“There’s nothing to say Mayor Brand won’t be able to do that,” said City Attorney Mike Webb. “There is absolutely no need for him to rush back, he is free to turn his attention to things much more important than city council.”
Brand made his announcement the same night as the mayor pro-tem vote for Nehrenheim.
Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr., served as the previous pro-tem, as part of the regular rotation.
If it had continued, the post would have gone to Laura Emdee, or next after her in line, Todd Loewenstein or Christian Horvath.
“I don’t think this is that unusual, I have confidence that it should be just fine,” said Loewenstein, one of three votes to confirm Nehrenheim. The new mayor pro-tem made the motion to appoint himself, with a second from Obagi.
Previously
While a mayor-pro tem helps when the mayor is away, in a worst-case scenario, if a mayor becomes unable to further serve, or resigns, the city charter maps out what happens next.
If more than two years remain on his or her mayoral term, a special election is to be held.
If less than two years are left, the council takes applications and chooses a new mayor – who may be a city councilmember.
If so, that councilmember’s now-open seat would fall under the same protocol, gauged by whether two years or less remains in their term.
As for the previous rotating of mayors pro-tem, the practice goes back some time in Redondo Beach.
Up until 1986, the city council did not appoint a yearly pro-tem, instead just voted for someone to take the role if a mayor could not attend a meeting. As of June 1986, the council was required to appoint a yearly mayor pro-tem.
Eleanor Manzano, Redondo Beach city clerk for the past 15 years, said the rotation was in effect before she began.
“It was before that time. Way before that time,” she said. “The rotation has been that way forever.”
In looking through council minutes, she reports the first specific mention of the rotation in 2000, with a suggestion of it in 1997.
In public comment June 21, a man stated that a previous councilmember in the modern era by the name of Steve Colin had not served as mayor pro-tem in his seven years on council.
According to minutes dated May 18, 1993, Colin was approved as mayor pro-tem starting July 1 of that year. He was elected in 1987 and 1991.
“What (today’s) council did is legal, it just varies from the norm, or what has been the norm for decades,” said Webb, city attorney for the past 17 years in Redondo Beach, and 11 before that as city prosecutor. “I don’t recall that a council deviated, no matter who was in the majority or minority.”
Votes
Emdee and councilman Christian Horvath often cast similar votes in city matters while Nehrenheim, Obagi and Loewenstein tend to have an opposing view. Obagi was elected in March 2021, replacing John Gran, who often voted with Emdee and Horvath.
“(The change in rotation) was just a decision the council made for the reasons they stated,” said Mayor Brand. “I wasn’t going to veto it from my three biggest supporters, absolutely not.”
Nehrenheim gave his reason as discomfort with Emdee being mayor pro-tem because she is in the last year of her final term on the council.
Obagi said that Emdee is behind a recall effort against him, that she is “constantly clawing at me, attacking me, disparaging me (and) causing divisiveness between north and south.”
Horvath spoke against this, saying that the council had long used the rotation “regardless of any personal animosity,” and that what was being proposed was something that occurred in other cities “but not here.”
Emdee denies involvement with the Obagi recall.
“This (mayor pro-tem) vote was unfortunately predictable,” she said. “Their attempts to justify it with vindictive and completely false comments says more about them than me.”
Now, with Nehrenheim beginning as pro-tem July 1, in the coming weeks, if Mayor Brand is absent and Nehrenheim is unavailable to run a meeting, the city council will vote to decide on a fill-in for the night.
What if it is a tie 2-2 vote?
“(We) trust in the wisdom of the council members there to act wisely and cooperatively, in the best interest of the city,” said Webb.ER