Mayoral Shift: Richard Montgomery Looks Ahead

Manhattan Beach will welcome Richard Montgomery as its new mayor Tuesday. The City Council will mark the beginning of Montgomery's term—and the end of Mayor Mitch Ward's—during the ceremonial portion of its scheduled evening meeting.

In an interview with Patch, Montgomery contrasted his governing style with that of his predecessor. "We are going to be different," he said.

First elected to the City Council in 2005, Montgomery said he has focused on making Manhattan Beach a greener city by planning ahead to keep it a forerunner in progressive environmental technology, while maintaining its excellent quality of life.

Though the city is currently financially stable, despite a dismal state budget, Montgomery acknowledged the need for the public's help with projects such as the upcoming county library renovation. He said he hopes that Manhattan Beach residents will continue their fundraising and sponsorship efforts communitywide. 

Manhattan Beach Patch: What do you think are the most important issues facing you as mayor?

Mayor Richard Montgomery: I think the biggest issue we have is our economy. Our budget for next year is our most important item on our agenda going forward. We put money away for a rainy day, so we're very lucky we haven't had to have a big reduction in city services. We put aside over $16 million* in our reserve, so that if and when we received no help from Sacramento or the federal government, we would be able to exist on our own.

This council has not been responsible for the economic meltdown. We don't deal in derivatives or any high-risk investments. Our investment portfolio had no net losses, and I don't know that any other city in California can say that. [Councilman] Nick Tell knew how to move money around and protected us, which is an outstanding fact, considering what happened to other cities.

The job of local government is to do some local things, public safety, keep paving roads, keep water clean, keep schools good. Anything else is icing on the cake that makes life here better, but they're not the basic services that a government is supposed to do. When you're elected to be a leader, no one likes to lay off anybody, but you have to if it's required, to protect the rest of the city. That is our job. We can't sit in the middle. You have to pick a side. Councils have to do what's best for the city as a whole.

We haven't touched our designated reserves, but I don't know if we're going to have to do that in July, when the new fiscal year starts. We won't know until mid-January where we are, when we're halfway through the fiscal year. We have three of our unions up for negotiations—police, firemen, teamsters—which accounts for 70 percent of our total budget. What can we do to stop that slide where we're paying above what is fair for salary pensions? We all want to give our employees a fair pension, but at what point does the pension become too generous?

Patch: What are you looking forward to in your upcoming term?

Montgomery: On a positive note, we're building a new library. We already hired the architects who are going to build a two-story 22,000 square-foot modern library with more computers, more terminals, and fewer people staffing than today. Johnson Favaro is our architectural firm, and the library, of all the polls we did, was the No. 1 [desired change], according to our residents. We have $4.2 million in our account for the library today. It costs $16 million today for everything, including all the furniture, books, and computers, and L.A. County can give us $12 million of that, so if we can get some private fundraising, we can cover it.

We're starting construction in 2012, which is the year of our city's centennial. We're planning for it to be finished a year later. Every month we're going to have a celebration for the city's centennial too. We've been talking about city parades, fireworks on the pier, live concerts, that sort of thing.

Patch: What have you learned from watching the terms of past mayors, especially those of Mayor Ward?

Montgomery: Every mayor is different in how he or she approaches the current state of the city. Until you've been mayor, you don't understand what it is. We're the first ones to get calls about power outages, someone parking a motor home in front of a house, dogs barking. The mayor is the main contact point. The mayor goes to all the regional, state and national meetings. You set the agenda for your city. If I want to talk about RVs blocking a house, I put it on the agenda. The mayor is ceremonial to a point, but is also the regional and national rep for your city.

I am an elected member of a regional body called ICA (Independent Cities Association). I'm the president from September 2010-2011, so all the mayors know each other. Cities can be like an island. We have to get along with our neighbors. We need all our neighbors to be on the same page with freeway exits, for example, like Rosecrans at rush hour. It's much more powerful to get together with all the mayors and write a letter to Caltrans.

Patch: Are there any past mayoral mistakes you will be careful not to repeat?

Montgomery: Mayor Ward's style is different than my style. I think he is a very good speaker who gets his point across well. I will keep those strengths in my mind during my term. As far as specific other items, we are going to be different. Everybody gets his or her own curve ball as mayor. You're going to react when your residents call you about gas lines, for example. Every mayor has a crisis. If something happens, you have to make sure you are ready for it.

*Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly quoted Montgomery as saying the city holds $60 million in designated reserves. In fact, the figure is $16 million.