Skip to main content

MB News

Closing Argument: Joe Marcy

Oct 27, 2024 09:35PM ● By Joe Marcy

Editor's note: MB News has offered each candidate for city council the opportunity to publish a "closing argument." Three are to be published Monday, and three on Tuesday. The order of publication was randomly selected.

----------------------------------------------------


This campaign season has been extraordinary. It’s been an honor and a privilege to run for City Council, getting to meet with members of our community over the past several months. I hear your concerns, I see your vision, and I feel your love for Manhattan Beach.

I believe now, more than ever, we need hometown leadership. We need a representative in the City Council who understands where we’ve been and who we’re trying to become. I was born and raised in Manhattan Beach and am a product of our MB schools. I entered this race to honor the legacy of our community leaders and build upon it.  

As we enter the final days of this race, we have some big decisions to make. Do we accept the status quo or is it time for change? I believe we need to shift course to better address the needs of our community. We need to be more proactive and strategic, innovative, and fiscally responsible, while continuing to prioritize health and safety. 

We cannot keep seeing 35-50 crimes reported each week. We need to fully staff our police department and get creative with our benefit structure. Additionally, we should be exploring all the technology necessary to assist our PD.  

We need to be more aggressive in addressing infrastructure, including expediting the rebuild of parking lot structure 3. We need to offer more support to the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business and Professional Association.  A portion of the Transient Occupancy Tax should support an Economic Development Director.

We need to move quickly to get things done. It’s unacceptable that the pier railing improvement project took 4 years to complete after being brought to council. Wayfinding consistency issues were presented in 2015. 9 years later, the project is still incomplete. Outdoor dining was approved in 2020 during the pandemic, yet a task force wasn’t established until 2023.

Additionally, we need to address fiscal responsibility in a real way. This extends beyond city employee compensation - we need to address third party services, feasibility studies, pension liabilities and more.

We need to exhaust all options and fully review the scope of work before approving costly feasibility studies. We spent $245k to review Begg Pool, which will likely be a partnership with the Bay Club. We spent $400k to review outdoor dining which the current council has now paused.

While it’s important to hear where I stand on many of the issues our community faces, I think it’s equally important that you get to understand who I am as a person and a leader.

Although I am the youngest candidate in the race, I have dedicated over 15 years to serving this community. I have held multiple city commissioner roles and have been the president of the board for our beloved Hometown Fair. In these roles, I’ve shown a keen ability to work cohesively with people of all backgrounds and have proven my capacity to lead effectively. This is why I’m proud to say that I have received endorsements from both sides of the aisle. I've learned that no matter how different we may be, we all love our beach town and we need to work together to get things done.  That’s what unity looks like.

My promise to you, if elected to City Council, I will be proactive, transparent, and prudent with our finances. Bost most importantly, I will continue to listen to the concerns of the community and will be an advocate for you.

It's what you should expect from a hometown leader.

Thank you for your support. See: joemarcy.com


Subscribe to MB News Emails | Don't Miss a Thing!

* indicates required

Subscribe to MB News Emails | Don't Miss a Thing!

* indicates required