Filing Period Opens for Redondo Elections

The filing period for the Redondo Beach municipal elections on March 5, 2013 opened Tuesday.

Offices up for election to four-year terms expiring March 31, 2017 are mayor; city council seats for districts one, two and four; city attorney; and three seats on the Redondo Beach Board of Education.

Candidates who have officially declared their intention to run for mayor are Councilman Steve Aspel, who is termed out of his District 1 council seat; and councilmen Pat Aust and Matt Kilroy, of Districts 3 and 5, respectively. Mayor Mike Gin will be termed out.

If Aust or Kilroy is elected mayor, the city council will appoint someone to serve out the two years remaining on the term.

Those in the running to replace Aspel as District 1 councilman are Public Works Commissioner Jeff Ginsburg, slow-growth activist Jim Light and efficiency consultant Kimberly Fine.

In District 2, current Councilman Bill Brand has announced his bid for re-election to a second term; however, he has hinted that he might change his mind and run for mayor. Harbor Commissioner Michael Jackson has declared his intention to run for the District 2 council seat.

Councilman Steve Diels in District 4 will be termed out and does not plan to run for mayor. According to the Daily Breeze, Jan Jeffreys, a library commissioner, is interested in running to replace him.

City Attorney Mike Webb will also run for re-election, according to the Daily Breeze. Unlike the mayor and city council, there are no term limits on the city attorney position. Webb was first elected in 2005.

School board members Jane Diehl, Drew Gamet and Todd Loewenstein will be termed out. So far, Michael Christensen, an executive with the Port of Los Angeles; Brad Serkin, the former president of the Redondo Beach Educational Foundation; and Brad Waller, a local entrepreneur, have expressed interest in running to replace them.

All three attended an orientation earlier this year designed to teach potential candidates about the inner workings of Redondo Beach Unified School District. Unlike the Redondo Beach City Council, where members are elected to represent certain districts, members of the school board serve at large. The top three vote-getters in the race will be elected to the school board.

People wishing to run for school board must file a Declaration of Candidacy; however, nominating papers do not need to be filed or circulated.

The filing period will end Dec. 7, unless an incumbent who is not termed out does not file papers. Then the filing period will end Dec. 12.

All candidates must be residents of Redondo Beach for at least 30 days immediately preceding the filing of election paperwork, according to the city clerk's website.

An initiative to rezone the AES-owned property at North Harbor Drive  for up to 40 percent commercial and institutional uses and at least 60 percent parkland will also be on the ballot. The ballot measure will give the power-generation company until 2020 to retire the aging AES Redondo Beach power plant. AES' current power generation contract at that facility ends in 2018.