Manhattan Beach Bruce's Beach Co-Chairs Address Hales Statement

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Manhattan Beach Mayor pro tem Hilday Stern and City Council member Steve Napolitano are the co-chairs of the City of Manhattan Beach Bruce's Beach Task Force, which has been meeting since November 2020. These are two separate statements from each one of them in response to task force member Allison Hales' previously published statement, which can be found here: Statement From Manhattan Beach Bruce's Beach Task Force Member.

From Steve Napolitano:

What Allison Hales calls a sham, we call a shame. Her statement is inaccurate and unfortunate, but not unexpected.

To be clear, neither Hildy nor I have ever decided or made any demands as to who should speak or what should be spoken about. The Forum and History subcommittees decided on the speakers and put together the information presented at the forum ["Bruce's Beach Rediscovered: A Presentation for Black History Month"], not Hildy, not me. The only thing Hildy and I have done is provide our input based on our experience, just like every other task force member. Do our words carry more weight as co-chairs or council members? To some yes, to Allison the answer is clearly no, and that’s fine.

The rest of her statement is a twisted take on the truth. Neither Allison or Dr. Lee were “excluded” from the art committee, they just weren’t chosen by random. She objected to the random appointment, indicating that those who were chosen didn’t represent the African American community as she wanted it to be represented. If anyone accused her of saying those who were chosen weren’t “black enough,” it wasn’t Hildy or me. However, it was clear that was how some of her other task force members took her comments, which anyone can review and draw their own conclusions.

Hildy and I didn’t ask to meet with Allison on February 10 because of this one incident. We asked to meet with Allison because of numerous and continuous incidents where her behavior violated our decorum and civility policies, which each task force member was advised of when they were appointed.

And we didn’t do it for ourselves. Hildy and I are used to the slings and arrows of public service. I can’t recall any time during any task force meeting that Allison didn’t interrupt or try and talk over me. But you know what? I can take it. I would either point it out or shrug it off. But then Hildy and I started hearing from Allison’s fellow task force members about the hostile environment Allison was bringing into her subcommittee meetings, too. They said Allison made them feel bullied, insulted and unheard. Fearing reprisals from Allison, these task force members didn’t want to speak up. So Hildy and I decided we had to speak up for them.

The decision to ask Allison to step back from her subcommittee assignments was not taken hastily or lightly. Hildy and I reviewed emails and recorded meetings that supported what these task force members were saying. And Hildy and I only asked her to step back from the subcommittees after giving her the chance to come up with a plan to fix things herself and she admittedly came back with nothing. Sorry, but private apologies, if they were made, do not make up for public derisions. In fact, she told us she had apologized to many of her fellow task force members along the way, which only supports a pattern of unacceptable behavior. Still, instead of telling her we were going to council to have her removed from the task force, we only asked her to not attend the subcommittee meetings “for now” to allow for a cooling off period.

Two members of the task force who weren’t aware of her interactions with others, questioned whether Hildy and I could remove Allison from the subcommittees. Contrary to Allison’s statement, she was only asked to remove herself, she wasn’t told that she had to. That’s not true, and I’ve confirmed that with City Manager Bruce Moe, who sat in on our meetings with Allison. And yes, not just myself, but Hildy and several other task force members advised Allison many times that her behavior was disruptive, but she failed to self-correct her behavior.

To remove all doubt about the authority of the co-chairs, however, a council agenda item was added to the council meeting of February 15. At that meeting, I discussed the issue at hand without naming Allison in the hope that this situation could still be salvaged. And instead of asking her to be removed from the task force (other council members had received complaints about her behavior as well), Hildy and I just asked council to clarify that she and I have the authority to remove task force members if need be and take actions to maintain decorum. To this day, Allison hasn’t been removed from the task force.

Allison hasn’t been silenced, she’s had her say and then some and her statement continues that. How this helps the task force heal and move forward after such a statement, however, I have to wonder.

From Hildy Stern:

I continue to be surprised at the reaction and willingness by Allison Hales to bring this into the public conversation and attempt to distract the Bruce’s Beach Task Force from the work they so passionately volunteered to do. Allison is a member of a diverse task force of 15 people who were selected from a pool of approximately 100 applicants. Each member’s contribution is important as they bring their unique talents and experiences to this effort and have worked hundreds of hours to achieve the common goal of confronting the reality of the racially motivated land dispossession that occured 100 years ago, understanding how that has influenced the Manhattan Beach we know today and finding meaningful ways to address that understanding. We expected this to be a collaborative effort with each member’s input being respected. Along the way Steve and I learned that time and again, one member’s behavior was disrupting the efforts of the others. It was brought to our attention, as co-chairs of the task force, by many members who explained their frustration in subcommittee meetings, by electronic communications and live conversations, as they tried to get their work done. Similar behavior was also exhibited in open task force meetings. When Steve and I addressed her destructive behavior we did so because the work of many others was being frustrated. Hers was not behavior that we would accept in any forum in this city. Unfortunately the discussions did not reveal a level of contrition or self reflection to assure us that the difficult behaviors would end. In fact, we understand that many attempts were made by others to address these conflicts to no avail. Making the false and baseless claim that Steve and I “decided who should speak or what should be spoken about” reveals that she continues to be unsupportive and disruptive to the task force’s efforts.

This is not a reflection of the ability of the task force to continue their work — it is a reflection of the approach of one member who is making that work difficult. Steve and I recognized that there was nothing to gain from revealing Allison’s identity and we continue to be concerned that this is a distraction from the important work that this group is dedicated to accomplishing. We have no intention of allowing this to derail the task force’s goal. We are not “silencing” anyone’s voice — we are just trying to assure that each member is treated with respect so their voices are not silenced. We still have work to do as a group. Let’s put this aside and focus, not on Allison, but on the collective effort of the rest of the group (which includes Allison).