📬 Councilmember Ray Jackson | Hermosa Beach | April 13, 2026

Dear Hermosa Beach,

This is one of those weeks where most of the action happens outside our city limits and every bit of it lands right back here. Tomorrow night, Council meets in our Chambers. Wednesday through Friday, the California Coastal Commission “gavels in” up in Gonzales. Friday afternoon, a Santa Barbara courtroom takes up the Sable Offshore injunction that will shape what our coastline looks like for the next generation. And in between, we welcomed a new City Clerk, and I am still chewing on where our pier goes from here.

Here is what you need to know.

🏛️ At City Hall

🔹 Welcome, City Clerk Martha Alvarez. As of April 1, Hermosa Beach has a new City Clerk. Martha Alvarez joined us from Manhattan Beach, where she spent a decade in the City Clerk's office, most recently as Assistant City Clerk managing four election cycles, thousands of Public Records Act requests, and Council agendas and minutes. She is a Torrance native, a Loyola Marymount graduate, a certified Master Municipal Clerk, bilingual in English and Spanish, and is finishing her Master of Public Administration at the University of Miami later this year.

→ 🎯 Why this role matters: The City Clerk is the backbone of public access at City Hall. Agendas, minutes, elections, Public Records Act requests, all of it runs through that office. When it runs well, residents can trust that the meetings they want to weigh in on are properly noticed, the records documenting our city's decisions are preserved, and the information they need is findable. Martha brings a decade of South Bay muscle memory to that job, and that is exactly what we need. Welcome to Hermosa.

👉 Read the full announcement from the City

🔹 Tuesday, April 14 Council meeting: Nike "After Dark Tour LA 2026" returns. Tomorrow night at 6:00 PM, Council picks the proposed Nike-sponsored October half marathon back up for deliberation. What comes back to the dais tomorrow is the detail work that any event of this size has to answer for: proposed route, start and finish times, traffic and parking impacts, public safety staffing, and whether the numbers pencil out for the city.

→ 💡 Where residents fit in: If you live on or near one of the streets a race route would touch, or if you have strong feelings either direction about a nighttime event of this scale in Hermosa, tomorrow is the night to show up. In person is best. If you cannot make it, an eComment submitted before the meeting goes straight into the record and into our meeting materials.

👉 View the agenda and submit an eComment

🌊 Environment & Protecting Our Coast

🔹 Coastal Commission: three days in Gonzales, April 15 through 17. Wednesday through Friday, the Commission convenes at the Dennis and Janice Caprara Community Center in Gonzales, up in Monterey County. I will be there for all three days working through the docket. For anyone who wants to follow along in real time, Cal-Span typically carries the livestream, and the Commission posts its full agenda on its meetings page.

→ ⚡ What I am watching for Hermosa: Any item touching coastal access, beach protection, short-term rentals in the coastal zone, or enforcement posture against offshore oil has a direct line back to us. I will report what matters for our city as soon as the gavel drops Friday.

👉 View the Coastal Commission meeting schedule

🔹 Sable Offshore injunction hearing: Friday, April 17. This is the court date I flagged two weeks ago, and it is now here. Friday, a Santa Barbara County judge will hear arguments on whether the injunction against Sable's restarted operations stays in place. Whatever the ruling, it is a pivot point for the legal fight over who gets to decide what happens off the California coast.

→ ⚡ What I will do with the result: I will report the ruling in next week's edition with a plain-English read on what it changes and what it does not, for Hermosa and for the coast as a whole.

💰 Budget & Finance

🔹 The pier: how we pay for it is the real question. Since Public Works Director Joseph SanClemente laid out the pier numbers at Council earlier this month, I have been thinking hard about how we talk about this publicly. Walking away from our pier is not on the table. It is a defining public asset, central to our identity, our economy, and our coastal access. The question worth debating is how we pay for its future.

→ 🎯 My stance: Real solutions mean reimagining the pier, activating it, generating revenue, and making sure the visitors who enjoy it help pay for what they use. That is responsible governance. No false choices. No walking away. I will keep pushing for a conversation that starts from that baseline.

🤝 Regional Recognition

🔹 Councilmember Nina Trieu Tarnay of Manhattan Beach. Our Southbay published a feature this week on my friend and colleague Nina Trieu Tarnay of the Manhattan Beach City Council. Her story, from a six-year-old refugee to an elected public servant, is a reminder that the people seeking refuge in this country today are no different from the neighbors we already know and love. I am proud to serve alongside her.

👉 Read Nina's story in Our Southbay

🔹 Cerritos: passing the gavel. Congratulations to incoming Mayor Lynda Johnson of Cerritos, and a real thank you to outgoing Mayor Frank Yokoyama for setting the bar so high. Cerritos keeps doing the kind of steady regional work that lifts all of LA County, and I am glad to be at the table with its leadership at Independent Cities Association and South Bay forums.

🎖️ A Personal Note

This past weekend marked three years since my son's Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. That is not a City Hall update, but it is the part of my life that shapes how I think about everything else I do in this job. We are fortunate to have great insurance, outstanding medical providers, a school district that gives us confidence every time he walks out the door, and a community that has wrapped its arms around our family in ways we will never forget. To every family walking this road with a T1D kid, and to every neighbor who has quietly shown up for us in ways big and small, thank you. The support network is the reason any of this is survivable.

📅 Upcoming

🔹 Tuesday, April 14, 6:00 PM: Regular City Council meeting. "After Dark Tour LA 2026" half marathon returns for deliberation. Council Chambers, 1315 Valley Drive.

🔹 Wednesday, April 15 through Friday, April 17: California Coastal Commission meeting at the Dennis and Janice Caprara Community Center in Gonzales, Monterey County.

🔹 Friday, April 17: Sable Offshore injunction hearing, Santa Barbara County Superior Court.

🔹 Wednesday, April 22: Earth Day. 🌎

🔹 Thursday, April 23: First meeting of the South Bay Regional Housing Trust. The same evening, the Hermosa Beach Museum kicks off Surfers Walk of Fame Weekend with a discussion and Q&A featuring 2026 inductee John Van Hamersveld, the artist behind the Endless Summer poster and Hermosa's own Great Wave mural.

🔹 Friday, April 24: Surfers Walk of Fame induction at the Community Center.

👉 Surfers Walk of Fame Weekend details

📱 Stay Connected

If you have a service issue to report, the Go Hermosa! app is the most direct way to get it to the right department at City Hall.

👉 Submit a service request via Go Hermosa!

For community updates and commentary between editions, you can follow me on Instagram.

👉 Follow @RayForHermosa on Instagram

A week like this one is a reminder that representing a small coastal city is less about being in every room and more about knowing which rooms matter. Tomorrow night in Council Chambers. Wednesday through Friday in Gonzales. Friday in a Santa Barbara courtroom. Each of those spaces shapes what Hermosa Beach will look like next year, next decade, next generation. Showing up in all of them is the job, and I am grateful to do it on your behalf.

Thank you for reading. As always, reach out anytime with questions, concerns, or information you believe I should know.

Working together to build an ever better Hermosa Beach.

Ray Jackson
Councilmember, City of Hermosa Beach
rjackson@hermosabeach.gov