It's Napolitano, Montgomery, Franklin For Manhattan Beach Council

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — The Manhattan Beach City Council loses a woman and gains a man for its new lineup set to take their seats in mid December. Incumbents Steve Napolitano and Mayor Richard Montgomery pretty much skated away to victories, but Franklin resurrected himself and as more votes came in took the lead from Grettel Fournell.

With the final vote tally today [Monday, Nov. 30], Franklin has beaten Fournell by 88 votes with 7,887 [a gain of one vote since the last tabulation} and 14.90% to Fournell's 7,799 [two votes gained since the last count] and 14.74%.

Incumbents Steve Napolitano and Mayor Richard Montgomery have held commanding leads ever since the first tally results were released on election night. Napolitano, to date, has 12,245 [a gain of five over the last tally] votes at 23.14% and Montgomery has 10,185 [a gain of three] and 19.25%.

It seems second time's the charm for Franklin, who ran for MB City Council in 2019, when two seats were up for grabs. Current Mayor Pro Tem Suzanne Hadley and council member Hildy Stern prevailed in that election. Other candidates in 2019 included Mark Burton, who ran again in the current election, claiming 6,301 votes at 11.91% and finishing sixth, previously served a four-year term on council; Wayne Powell, who had previously served an eight-year term on council; Joseph Ungoco and Brian Withers.

The 2019 election saw a 28.09% election turnout, far less than what is expected to be the final tally for Manhattan Beach votes in the 2020 election. Mayor Pro Tem Hadley, who is under some fire in her current run-up to serving as mayor, took first in that election with 3,111 votes, fewer than the number six of the seven candidates in the 2020 election earned. Council member Hildy Stern scored 2,363 in the 2019 election while Franklin fell into third with 2,172 votes, keeping him just shy of securing a seat on council.

Burton fared better in the 2019 election than he did in 2020. In 2019, he finished a close fourth with 1,972 votes. Powell had 1,917 votes, Withers 649 and Ungoco had 307 votes.

The 2020 election brought out more voters, perhaps intent on weighing in on the presidential election. Phoebe Lyons made an impressive showing at 6,879 and 13%. Burton was after Lyons and Chaz Flemings finished with 1,621 votes and 3.06%.

The new city council members are set to be sworn in during the Dec. 15 city council meeting.