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Brad Waller Newsletter — November 9, 2026
📬 Brad Waller, District 1 Newsletter, November 9, 2026
Happy Veterans Day week, Redondo,
Thank you. More than 19,000 of you returned a ballot last week, weighed a complicated set of zoning questions, and did the quiet, essential work of self-government. While the County keeps counting, our city kept moving: Franklin Park's all-accessible playground opened Thursday afternoon, the citywide El Niño preparedness meeting filled the Main Library that evening, and the Chamber celebrated 119 years at The Portofino in between.
This week asks a little more of us, in the best way. The Council meets tomorrow night to settle two tax questions headed for your March ballot, Wednesday we gather at Veterans Park to honor the neighbors who served, and Thursday morning you can have coffee with both of our public safety chiefs. Here is everything you need.
🗳️ Measure ART Is Passing, and the Count Continues
🔹 The early returns are decisive. As of the County's midweek update, Measure ART was passing with roughly 64 percent support, a lead of more than 5,000 votes. The results stay preliminary until the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder certifies the election, but the direction is clear.
→ 💡 What this means: Once results are certified, the zoning and General Plan changes voters approved begin taking effect along our commercial corridors. The follow-through work continues at City Hall, including refining design standards through future ordinances and finishing the companion ordinance that protects existing homeowners' ability to maintain, improve, and rebuild under their previous residential zoning. I will keep pushing both.
→ 🎯 My take: I spent years on the General Plan Advisory Committee helping shape these proposals, and I voted yes, so you can guess how I feel about the early numbers. But whether you voted yes or no, thank you for engaging with a genuinely complex measure. Approval was the easier half. Now the accountability shifts to us to deliver corridors worth the vote.
👉 Track the County election results
🏛️ Tomorrow Night at Council: A Hotel Tax Rate, the Streaming Fix, and What's in a Name
The Council meets tomorrow, Tuesday, November 10, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chamber. Three items worth your attention.
🔹 The hotel tax question comes back for a final number (M.1). On November 3 we debated how much to ask of overnight visitors: our transient occupancy tax has sat at 12 percent since 2005, and the draft measure would allow up to 16 percent. For comparison, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach are at 14 percent, and each percentage point is worth an estimated $600,000 to $750,000 a year for city services. My position at the dais: 15 percent is the easier case to make to voters, and if we want 16, we should phase our way there. Tomorrow we settle the rate and the ballot language for the March 2, 2027 election, where the final call belongs to you.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Growing city revenue without leaning on residents is the first priority I ran on, and a visitor-paid tax is exactly that. The rate just has to be one voters will actually approve.
👉 Read the hotel tax item (M.1)
🔹 The streaming tax language returns too (M.2). The modernized utility users tax ordinance and its ballot question come back for final wording, also bound for March 2027. The principle has not changed since I covered it last month: streaming video has replaced cable in most homes, and our tax rules should not depend on which wire a show arrives through.
👉 Read the utility tax item (M.2)
🔹 How should a city name things? (N.1) The Council will consider a formal facility naming and renaming policy, alongside discussion of renaming General Eaton Parkette and the Perry Park Teen Center.
→ 💡 What this means: Naming decisions carry history and emotion, and they go better with clear criteria set before any specific debate, not during one. A good policy now saves heartache later.
👉 Read the naming policy item (N.1)
🔹 Also on the agenda: a Key to the City for Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi in thanks for his service representing Redondo Beach in Sacramento (D.2), a proclamation of November 2026 as Native American Heritage Month (D.1), and a consent item funding a parking study for the Aviation Boulevard corridor (H.5), a small but necessary ingredient in the corridor work Measure ART just advanced. You can participate in person, over Zoom, through eComment, or by email.
🎖️ Public Safety & Service: Veterans Day Wednesday, Coffee with Both Chiefs Thursday
🔹 The Veterans Day Tribute is Wednesday, November 11, at 1:00 PM at the Redondo Beach Veterans Memorial in Veterans Park. This year's keynote speaker is Jonathan Williams, president and CEO of the Pacific Battleship Center in San Pedro, home of the Battleship Iowa. The Coastal Sea Cadets will retire the flag they raised over the memorial on Memorial Day, and it will be presented to a local veteran. Afterward, the Redondo Beach Elks Lodge hosts a barbecue in their parking lot, free for veterans, military members, and first responders, and $5 for everyone else. One hour, once a year, to thank the people who signed a blank check to this country. I hope the park is packed.
👉 Read the Veterans Day announcement
🔹 Ask the Police Chief and the Fire Chief your questions over coffee. This Thursday, November 12, from 7:45 to 9:00 AM, the North Redondo Beach Business Association brings Police Chief Stephen Sprengel and Fire Chief Brian Regan together for Rise & Shine Redondo at the South Bay Galleria Community Room (park on Level 4). Chief Sprengel has served Redondo since 2002, and Chief Regan is closing in on 15 years here. Direct access to the people leading our public safety departments is transparency in its most useful form, so bring real questions.
👉 RSVP for Rise & Shine Redondo
👉 View the event post (Instagram)
🔹 El Niño prep finished its community tour. Thursday evening, city staff and public safety personnel walked residents through what this winter could bring and how to get ready, closing out a series that started at the harbor in October. If you missed both sessions, the City's storm preparation page covers home checklists, harbor guidance, and regional resources. Ten minutes there now still beats a flooded garage in January.
👉 Visit the storm preparation page
🏘️ Housing: The Mayor's Town Hall Has a New Date, and History Gets a Workshop
🔹 Mark the change: Monday, November 23, at 5:30 PM. Mayor Light's Town Hall on State housing mandates, originally floated for November 19, has moved to Monday, November 23, at 5:30 PM in the 2nd Floor Meeting Room at the Main Library, 301 N. Pacific Coast Highway. The discussion covers what Sacramento requires of Redondo Beach and what it means on our blocks, followed by open Q&A.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: With Measure ART headed toward certification, understanding which housing decisions are made locally and which are mandated by the State is the single best upgrade you can give your civic toolkit. Come with questions, and leave with the full picture.
👉 Read the Town Hall announcement
🔹 Preserving the Redondo we love, Saturday, November 21. The Public Amenities Commission and Community Development Department host Celebrating Our Historic Landmarks from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM at the Historic Public Library, 309 Esplanade. On the agenda: historic landmark designations, historic districts, guidelines for modifying historic properties, and the Mills Act, which can offer property tax benefits for preservation. A city updating its corridors should be just as intentional about protecting its architectural heritage, and this workshop is where both property owners and the simply curious can learn how. Space is limited, and registration is required.
🌳 Environment: New Monitoring at Dominguez Park, Explained
🔹 Gas monitoring probes are coming to the park's perimeter. Dominguez Park sits on a former landfill that closed in 1968, and when the City moved to replace the playground equipment there, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health required the site to meet current standards for closed landfills. The Council has hired Geosyntec Consultants, for a fee not to exceed $639,000, to install and run monitoring that detects whether gases are migrating beyond the old landfill's borders, with compliance due by March 17.
→ 💡 What this means: The park is open, nothing has been detected, and no closure is on the table. This is standard practice for sites like this one, and if readings ever exceed thresholds, a mitigation plan gets developed. Most landfill gas activity happens in the early years after closure, and 1968 was a long time ago.
→ 🎯 My take: You cannot manage what you do not measure. Real sensors producing real data, reported publicly, is exactly how a city earns trust on environmental questions, and I will be watching the results along with you.
🎄 Economic Development: The Holiday Stroll Returns December 3, Carousel and All
🔹 Save Thursday, December 3, from 5 to 9 PM. The Riviera Village Holiday Stroll is back with twinkling lights, holiday music, the Jolly Makers Market, special guests, and yes, the return of the carousel. For everyone's safety, S. Catalina Avenue closes to vehicles from Avenue I to S. Elena Street, and Avenue I closes from S. Catalina to S. Elena. This tradition is brought to you in part by our Riviera Village businesses, so here is my annual pitch: do some of your holiday shopping right there that night. Every gift bought in the Village keeps a local shop healthy and keeps sales tax revenue working for Redondo.
👉 View the Holiday Stroll details
🎓 Education: See 30 Career Paths Under One Roof Thursday
🔹 SoCal ROC opens its doors Thursday, November 12, from 5 to 7 PM at 2300 Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance. Guided tours showcase more than 30 career and technical education programs, from healthcare to skilled trades. I believe career technical education is one of the most underrated engines of opportunity in the South Bay: it hands students a marketable skill, a professional network, and often a paycheck before their peers have picked a major. If you have a teenager weighing what comes next, two hours Thursday could reshape the conversation at your dinner table.
👉 Read the About Town roundup with details
✍️ A Personal Note: Talking AI with Easy Reader
🔹 Easy Reader recently published a Q&A with me about the South Bay Cities Council of Governments AI Working Group, which I chair. I have been working online since my first ARPANET account in 1985, so I am neither starry-eyed nor scared about artificial intelligence: the working group's job is to help South Bay cities adopt it deliberately, with guardrails, so technology actually improves city services and customer service for residents instead of just generating headlines. That has been one of my core priorities since the day I took office, and I would genuinely like to hear where you think AI could make City Hall work better for you.
🤝 Around Town: A Ribbon, a Birthday, and a Healthy Week
🔹 Franklin Park's all-accessible playground is open. Thursday afternoon, the City cut the ribbon at 807 S. Inglewood Avenue on our first play space designed for children of all abilities, with thanks to the LA Kings Foundation, the California Parks and Recreation Society, and GameTime. A playground every child can use is not an amenity, it is a statement about who this city is for.
👉 Visit the Franklin Park page
🔹 The Chamber turned 119 in style. Thursday's Community Awards lunch at The Portofino honored the businesses, nonprofits, and individuals who keep this city running, including the Woman's Club of Redondo Beach as Non-Profit Business of the Year. Congratulations to every honoree, and thank you to the Chamber for 119 years of showing up for Redondo.
🔹 Blue Zones Project Week wrapped Saturday, November 7. Thank you to Beach Cities Health District and everyone who joined a moai, tried a new healthy habit, or supported a participating business. The week ends, but the habits are welcome to stay.
📅 Coming Up
🔹 Harbor Commission meets tonight, Monday, November 9, at 6:30 PM in the Council Chamber.
🔹 City Council meets tomorrow, Tuesday, November 10, at 6:00 PM. Highlights above.
🔹 Veterans Day Tribute, Wednesday, November 11, at 1:00 PM at Veterans Park, with the Elks barbecue to follow.
🔹 Thursday, November 12 has three stops: Rise & Shine Redondo with both chiefs from 7:45 to 9:00 AM, the SoCal ROC open house from 5 to 7 PM, and the Budget & Finance Commission at 6:30 PM in the Council Chamber.
🔹 Celebrating Our Historic Landmarks workshop, Saturday, November 21, 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM at the Historic Public Library. Registration details above.
🔹 Mayor Light's Town Hall on State housing mandates, Monday, November 23, at 5:30 PM at the Main Library. Note the new date.
🔹 Measure FP Citizens' Oversight Committee applications get their first review on November 30. If you have finance, auditing, or construction management experience, the window to apply is closing.
👉 Apply for the oversight committee
🔹 Riviera Village Holiday Stroll, Thursday, December 3, 5 to 9 PM.
🍍 Weekly Markets
Farmers' Market by the Pier (Veterans Park), Thursdays, 8am to 1pm. 309 Esplanade.
Riviera Village Farmers Market, Sundays, 8:30am to 1pm. Triangle Lot, 1801 S. Elena Ave.
North Redondo Beach Farmers Market, Wednesdays, 2pm to 7pm. Green Lane at Artesia.
📱 Access Redondo
Do you have a problem or need to report an issue to the city? Use the Access Redondo App. If a council meeting is not your speed, this is the other direct line to City Hall: one report reaches the right department the first time, and every report helps the City fix problems where they cluster.
👉 Download the Access Redondo App
🏖️ Redondo Roundup
A ballot measure crossing the finish line, two tax questions getting their final polish for March, a park every child can play in, and a Wednesday set aside to say thank you. My ask this week is simple: be at Veterans Park at 1:00 PM on Wednesday if you possibly can. Policy debates will always be there on Thursday. Gratitude works best delivered in person.
Questions, ideas, or corrections: hit reply. I read every message. Have a meaningful week, Redondo.
Brad Waller
City Council Member, Redondo Beach
