Councilman Mitch Ward Bids 'Adieu'

Give him opportunity and funding, and former City Councilman Mitch Ward will feed his addiction and run for political office again.

In the meantime, the "termed out" Ward, who stepped out of his eight-year role as an elected Manhattan Beach official on March 15, will be the face on Porsche Carrera ads in showrooms and magazines as print spokesperson for the automaker.

Manhattan Beach council members may serve two back-to-back four-year terms if elected and then wait another two years before running again. Ward, who ran for the Democratic nomination for the 53rd Assembly District seat in 2010 but lost to Betsy Butler, takes public service seriously.

“It's hard to get people to put their check in front of your name," Ward told Patch on March 15. "And when you get the trust and earn that right to be called an elective official, it is a tremendous thing. And it’s an addiction. If the opportunity is there and the funding is there, I’m there in a heartbeat.” According to Ward, no race and no public seat is out of the question, but the funding and the timing must be right.

In the meantime, he will continue running his information technology business and dabbling in theater and acting, his other profession. Ward first came to California from New York in order to move from theater into camera roles. “I got here, and there are a lot of individuals who are very good, very talented in Hollywood.

“I do that work [theatrical] to augment my IT business and to keep me where I can do public service. You have to do what you have to do to earn a living. I love theater and being in front of the camera, so I’ll continue to do that.” (A commercial Ward is in is attached as video. Click on "View Gallery" at the bottom of his photo on this page and then you will be taken to a page where you can select to see the video).

Ward said that interacting with the acting community keeps his craft fresh. He has two agents in Hollywood and puts on a few plays a year, including attending the National Black Theater Festival in North Carolina. 

On City Council, Ward has made some powerful impacts. Several stand out in his mind.

"I'm proud of the promises I kept when I started running as far back as 1999," he said. During that first campaign, Ward did not win a seat, instead coming in sixth out of 11 candidates. Eventually, when he was elected, he stuck with his priority to address the aging city infrastructure. One of those measures was building Metlox Plaza, just a hole in the ground in 1999, and rebuilding the city's police and fire complex. 

He also is proud of his role in the anti-smoking and "anti-mansionization efforts," which resulted in an ordinance that restricts the flexibility to design large new homes to be built in the city. "The homes coming in are more friendly to the community," he noted. "The ordinance allows for people to remodel their home as opposed to scraping the lot and building one of these huge, platform-type, cookie-cutter homes."

The efforts the council made to conserve resources, both financial and environmental, were also a landmark in Ward's tenure. "We conserved up to 24 percent of water in the city simply by acting on one ordinance. I'm most proud of the people who were able to cut back."

He told Patch that the city has maintained its AAA financial rating as two new council members take over the seats he and former Councilwoman Portia Cohen vacated. He said this rating gives Manhattan Beach the resources it needs to overcome short-term revenue loss due to decreasing tax revenue and state funding.

On a more personal note, he is proud about the renaming of Bruce's Beach, the city's largest park that is now named in honor of the Bruce family that once inhabited the area. George Peck, the founder of Manhattan Beach, set aside this land back in 1911 for people of color—an unheard-of effort at the time. "His granddaughter shared with me that her grandfather took a lot of heat from the public back in those days for being inclusive of all people. But that's what Manhattan Beach, in his eyes, was all about," Ward said.

This inclusiveness is something Ward emulated in his time in office, leading the way for low-income residents to participate in the utility undergrounding effort and also speaking on behalf of unions and teachers when necessary. “We live in an affluent zip code, but that doesn’t mean all of us have the same level of affluence. A lot of our affluence is on paper.”

Ward is referring to those people living within the city who own high-value homes but have low-value bank accounts. Often, these people have inherited the properties or have been here since long before the affluence came to town. 

“You have to make sure that you look out for individuals that have been here for a long time before the affluence came into town. That’s my nature, I come from a family of caregivers and we look out for individuals. I look out for all, no matter their wealth. If you own property in the city, you are equal in my eyes, and you deserve equal protection," Ward told Patch. 

As the time to begin his last council meeting drew closer, Ward said, "The narrative on my public service in Manhattan Beach has been written. I think it’s a very nice narrative, I’m very proud of it, so I’ll leave it at that and say, 'Adieu.'”