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Council members expressed concerns about business, Main Street, and the budget.
The Sun asked each of the council members what they saw as the opportunities and challenges facing Seal Beach in 2025. Council members were interviewed by phone, text, and email. Interviews began in January. By Feb. 24, four of the five council members responded.
In January, the Sun did an informal online survey of residents on the same question: What are the opportunities and challenges facing Seal Beach in 2025. (See “A look at the year ahead” at sunnews.org.) At the time, participating residents saw parking and infrastructure as the big issues for the year ahead.
District Five Councilman Nathan Steele
Nathan Steele, who represents part of Leisure World, said: “We still have a fiscal challenge.”
Steele said Measure GG put the city in a better position. (Measure GG is the half-cent sales tax approved by a majority of Seal Beach voters in November 2025. The tax goes into effect April 1.)
“We can’t do anything about inflation, we can’t do anything about unfunded state mandates from Sacramento,” Steele said.
Steele said he suspected that paid parking would come back as an issue in 2025. As previously reported, the issue was considered by the Ad Hoc Parking Committee. In February 2024, the committee voted to recommend against paid parking at the curb on Main Street. Steele, who was not a member of the Parking Committee, had argued in favor of paid parking. In May 2024, the council voted 4-0 to receive and file the recommendations of the Parking Committee. (For details, see “City Council receives Parking Committee recommendations” at sunnews.org.)
Steele also suggested looking at the five-year forecast in the city’s budget.
“We were forced to cut $6 million out of the budget,” Steele said.
He said next year’s forecast will not be as difficult. (Readers should remember that the fiscal year is from July 1 to June 30. So the next fiscal year will start on July 1, 2025.)
“We need to accumulate capital,” Steele said.
He said he was hoping not to spend every dollar that comes in. He cited the cost of the community swimming pool and Lifeguard headquarters as two examples of expensive projects.
In February 2024, Carol Jacobs, of the consulting firm Baker Tilly, put the cost of a new pool at $18.5 million. (For details, see “City Council, staff discuss McGaugh Pool,” sunnews.org.) At that time, District One Council Member Joe Kalmick, apparently speaking off the top of his head, put the cost of a new Lifeguard headquarters at $13.5 million. (For details, see “Seal Beach Lifeguard Headquarters: falling apart, expensive to replace,” at sunnews.org.)
Steele said Seal Beach was 97% built out.
Steele said every time Seal Beach wants to do something, the price goes up.
He said Seal Beach has cash in the bank that the city can’t spend because it is spoken for. He was apparently referring to funds set aside for specific projects. For example, the 2024-25 budget lists $4,395,824 committed to the swimming pool project. (The money was listed in the column for the 2022-23 budget.) The adopted 2024-25 budget also lists $1,792,805 committed to College Park East capital projects.
He said it had been the pattern in recent years for people to have made “stupid decisions.”
“The cost of a dog license in California is excessive,” Steele said.
Steele said it was expensive every time the city updates the code.
“I’m looking forward to working with the new council,” Steele said.
He said the city got insurance money for the pier but doesn’t have free cash flow to float a bond to get things done.
“We are in a position currently where we have to spend every dollar of revenue on services,” Steele said.
He said the city didn’t have space to set aside money.
“We have to get in a position so costs are not going up faster than our expenses,” Steele said.
District One Councilman
Joe Kalmick
Joe Kalmick, who represents Old Town and Surfside Colony, said he hoped that this year Seal Beach could complete the certification of the Housing Element. The Housing Element is a state-mandated section of the city’s General Plan. In a Feb. 10 email, Community Development Director Alexa Smittle wrote: “There is nothing further to report at this time. We continue to work on the EIR, which must be completed before the Element can be considered by Council again.”
He also hoped to get the local coastal plan approved. (“The Coastal Act requires that local governments develop Local Coastal Programs (LCPs) that can carry out policies of the California Coastal Act at the local level,” according to the California Coastal Commission website. An approved LCP essentially transfers some of the state commission’s permitting authority to a city government. The CCC rejected Seal Beach’s application for an LCP in July 1983.)
Kalmick said he would also like to see the start of something regarding food service on the Seal Beach Pier. (Ruby’s Diner closed on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. See “Patrons have final meal at Ruby’s Diner,” at sunnews.org. The restaurant building was destroyed by a fire in May 2016. )
Kalmick said he hoped the influx of Measure GG sales would bring in money so Seal Beach can get back to work on infrastructure projects.
He said he hoped to revitalize Main Street.
He said the lighting was inadequate.
“The sidewalks continue to decay—faster than the city can make repairs,” Kalmick said.
“It’s gone beyond being funky,” Kalmick said.
“Funky is fine, decrepit is not,” Kalmick said.
“I hope that if Seal Beach is able to invest city funds into a revitalized Main Street, that the money will come back to the city in sales tax revenues,” Kalmick said.
District Two Councilman
Ben Wong
Ben Wong, who represents College Park West and part of Leisure World, said Seal Beach needs to encourage new business development.
He said if he had neon lights, he would put one up saying Seal Beach was open for business.
He said you can’t grow a city by taxes.
“We need to grow the city organically,” Wong said.
“We’ve got to find out how to drive more outside business,” Wong said.
Wong said he wanted to reach out to the owner of the Shops at Rossmoor Center (which is actually in the Seal Beach city limits).
He said it was tricky dealing with commercial real estate.
Wong said that landlords would rather have an empty space with potentially high rent than have a space occupied by tenants paying a lower rent.
He talked about walking on Main Street at 8 p.m. He said Main Street was dead.
“There’s got to be some form of development,” Wong said.
“You’re not going to tax your way out of it,” Wong said.
“You’ve got to help Main Street,” Wong said.
He was optimistic that the Bay Theatre would be successful.
“Much as you want to keep this way of life, you can’t sustain it without business,” Wong said.
Wong said he would like to see out-of-town tourists. He said he saw potential in the Aryes Hotel.
As for the Lampson Avenue development, Wong said the benefits would go to Los Alamitos and the costs would go to Seal Beach.
“How do we benefit from this?” he asked.
He said Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce marketing was very local.
“Is it spreading as wide as we would hope? I don’t know,” Wong said.
He said Seal Beach has to expand social media. He said right now the Seal Beach Police Department is successful at advertising the city.
“We’re going to have to leverage social media to draw more visitors to the city,” Wong said.
He said there has to be marketing aimed at young people.
He said that when an Instagram blogger posted a review of a Long Beach restaurant, the restaurant hadn’t seen business slow down since that time.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal
Patty Senecal, who represents College Park East, wrote in a text message: “Delivering city services and public safety are my top priority. As we are all facing at home, the city budget is challenged to address inflation and the higher cost of goods and services. As we manage the complex balance between revenues and expenditures, we can find opportunities by leveraging federal and state grants for specific infrastructure projects our residents need. Economic development is another opportunity I intend to explore. I see community involvement in the budget process to increase the ideas that are brought to the table. Our budget needs to align with the residents’ and business needs.”
District Three Councilwoman/Mayor Lisa Landau
Lisa Landau, who represents The Hill, did not reply by deadline. She apologized on Feb. 24.
