Centennial Committee Seeks City Council Advice

After spending $133,026.57 on the Taste of Manhattan Beach and being told their centennial Beach Ball cannot include alcohol on the beach, Manhattan Beach's volunteer centennial committee, which includes Mayor Nick Tell and Councilman Richard Montgomery, wants City Council to weigh in and tell them what to do.

Such is the gist of a special City Council meeting the committee asked its vice president and MB Mayor Nick Tell to convene. The meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at 1400 Highland Avenue.

The special meeting comes on the heels of three council member's expressed opinion that the beach ball not include alcohol. The subject of having alcohol at the Sept. 22 Beach Ball was brought before council at its April 16 meeting.

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Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Powell and council members David Lesser and Amy Howorth cited a variety of reasons why they did not want to adopt an uncodified ordinance and resolution so that alcohol could be served at the Sept. 22 Beach Ball.

Tell and Montgomery, the committee's president, were obviously not happy with the three's positions. Tell suggested that the city now might have to foot some of the bill for the upcoming centennial events; Montgomery said that the idea of serving alcohol on the beach during the beach ball had been public knowledge for quite some time, implying that council was now disrupting plans cast many months before.

in January, the centennial committee via a permit application and letter to Tell were informed by L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors Director Santos Kreimann that the county, which has jurisdiction over the beach in MB, would be willing to approve the application if the city was able to suspend its own ordinance banning alcohol on the beach. Other conditions included appropriate insurance coverage and proper regulation of any alcohol service.

Beyond the idea of serving alcohol at the Beach Ball, details for the Sept. 22 gala have been relatively unavailable. At issue, too, for the three council members opposed to working around the city's alcohol bans was knowing who would be allowed to imbibe on the beach: Would it just be centennial event sponsors and their friends and, if not, how many Manhattan Beach residents be included. The city's population, including children, was more than 36,000 in the 2010 census; the Beach Ball, according to the city's permit application, would allow up to 500 people to be admitted to the cordoned off event.

In an article published by the Beach Reporter on Wednesday, Montgomery said, ""The centennial committee is paralyzed with the loss of direction. The focus of (the special meeting) will be: how do you want us to move forward? Chevron, Skechers, everyone who contributed money, what are you going to tell those people? Are you going to go back on your word and burn them?"

Tell told the newspaper reporter, "The purpose of the meeting is to try to resolve apparent differences on city council regarding the centennial events and how to pay for them.

"As a result of comments made at the last council meeting, the centennial committee has informed me that they cannot move forward with any of the planned events without having these differences resolved."

The next centennial committee event, a parade and picnic, is scheduled for Sat., May 19. The committee's website calendar lists a Manhattan Beach Centennial Festival, Downtown Open House and Pier Event on July 7, the Centennial Ball on Sept. 22 and holiday fireworks on Dec. 9.

Previous events include holiday fireworks in 2011, a centennial carnival at Manhattan Village and the Taste of MB.

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