Q & A

Seal Beach Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings Marilyn Bruce Hastings, Seal Beach’s new mayor, is a staunch defender of her community’s small-town atmosphere in the face of increasing tourism and crime. Hastings, 66, is serving her first one-year term as mayor. She was elected to the council in 1990 but declined a term as mayor two years ago because of the death of her husband. Born and reared in Long Beach, Hastings has lived in Seal Beach for 12 years. She recently discussed city affairs with correspondent Russ Loar.

Q: You’ve said that public safety is among your top priorities, but city officials say they cannot afford to hire additional police officers. What can be done?

A: I want to keep Seal Beach a safe town. That’s the reason I’ve been promoting the building of the community safety office at the pier. Even with volunteers, a police-type presence is going to be a real deterrent to crime. It would cost us about $110,000 a year to hire an additional police officer. That’s a great deal of money, which we don’t have right now. Seal Beach is a small town. We don’t have any industry in our city. We just don’t have a lot of sales tax revenue to draw from.

Q: The cost of purchasing sand for badly eroded beaches in Old Town and in the private community of Surfside is high, and the sand is hard to come by. What are the risks to coastal homes if the beaches are not replenished?

A: Our need for sand at both locations is critical. The next time we have the combination of high tides and stormy surf we’re going to have a disaster--there’s no way it can be avoided. Even with the additional sand we bought, we’ve already had high tides that breached the berm. The high tide is lapping up within 30 feet of the homes in the Surfside Colony. I’m working to get funding (for sand replenishment) back in the state budget.

Q: The city must now hire a replacement for City Manager Jerry Bankston, who is leaving at the end of the month. What kind of city manager will you be looking for?

A: We went through this process four years ago. You almost need an accountant as a city manager these days. That makes it difficult. You must have somebody who knows how to do city budgeting. Jerry was very good at that, and we hope we can find somebody just as good to replace him.

Q: You have a reputation as an outspoken council member who does not shy away from controversial issues. Have you always been so outspoken?

A: We were always taught in my family to be honest and straightforward. We were always allowed to say whatever we wanted with no criticism or put-downs. . . . We discussed politics and religion at the dinner table. No one ever said, “Hush now, you can’t talk about that .”