Redondo Beach’s District 4 voters will only have one alternative candidate from which to choose when deciding whether to recall current Councilman Zein Obagi Jr. during the all-mail-in special election on Oct. 19.
Tonya McKenzie, the president of the all-volunteer North Redondo Beach Business Association and founder of a public relations company, was the only one to beat this month’s filing deadline to make it on the District 4 special election ballot.
The special election will also include a citywide measure that would, if approved, repeal Redondo Beach’s cannabis restrictions and allow up to three dispensaries to open up.
For the recall, voters in District 4 will be asked whether they want to oust Obagi — a straight yes or no answer. They will then be asked who should replace the sitting councilman, with only McKenzie listed. If a majority of voters support the recall, Obagi will be ousted. McKenzie, as the only alternative candidate, would serve the remainder of the District 4 term, until March 31, 2025.
Having only one candidate effectively sets up a two-person race in the city’s north end. But Obagi, in a Monday, Aug. 15, interview, disputed that it’s a two-person race. Instead, he said the entire Oct. 19 election is really about a special-interest cannabis group pushing its way into the beach town.
The recall petition accused Obagi, elected in March 2021, of abandoning District 4 and “making (it) a dumping ground for the controversial items that South Redondo Beach City Councilmembers want to keep out of South Redondo Beach.”
The petition cited Obagi’s votes last year on a temporary shelter and housing density.
In July 2021, Obagi voted to keep Pallet homes — housing units for those without permanent shelter — in District 4. near the South Bay Galleria, despite local opposition. Then in October, he voted to locate nearly all state-required affordable housing in North Redondo Beach, including in District 4.
Obagi and his council majority will urge residents to vote “No” on both the recall and on the other Oct. 19 ballot item — a citizen’s cannabis initiative. That initiative, which the entire city will vote on, is being funded by Catalyst Cannabis, Co., a Long Beach marijuana dispensary chain that has backed similar initiatives to open legal pot shops in the other beach cities.
South Cord Holdings LLC, which is Catalyst Cannabis Co.’s parent company, essentially drove the recall effort, serving as its primary funder, Catalyst CEO Elliot Lewis said in an interview last month.
“He seemed vulnerable and not popular in his district,” Lewis said in mid-July.
McKenzie, though, said the recall isn’t about pot.
The recall, she said, is really about representation for District 4 businesses. And when it comes to accepting campaign funding from Catalyst, if offered, she said she probably would not accept it.
The nine-year Redondo Beach resident said she was asked by former Councilman John Gran and other community members to “jump into this race because they wanted someone to fight for District 4.”
“They feel like they’ve been a forgotten district,” McKenzie said in a Monday interview.
North Redondo, once the economic engine of the city, has become an afterthought to the City Council, McKenzie said.
Obagi, though, said he’s been a good steward of District 4 since he was elected.
He’s secured $2.7 million for for his district over the last two city budget cycles, spearheaded upgrades to Anderson Park and has been working with nearby Lawndale and Torrance to persuade LA Metro to put the new Green Line along Hawthorne Boulevard.
“I don’t see this as a two-person race,” Obagi said Monday. “First and foremost is a question for residents if they want monied interests influencing Redondo politics.”
McKenzie understands why city leadership decries Lewis’s influence on Redondo politics, she said. But, McKenzie added, she’s personally never taken a side on cannabis.
“I don’t smoke it, I don’t take it,” McKenzie said. “But I don’t judge people who do.”
Lewis has appeared as a guest on her podcast “Leaders and Learners,” McKenzie said, after which she received blowback from people saying she was supporting him.
“He’s a business person,” McKenzie said of Lewis. “I support everyone. I’m fine with people who have differing opinions.”
For Obagi, voters who will mark ballots on Oct. 19 will have done their research and will know what the election is really about, he said: special interest money.
“It doesn’t matter to me who is running,” Obagi said. “Whether it’s John Gran, or Tonya McKenzie, it shouldn’t get to that level when we’ve achieved so much in the 16 months I’ve been in office.”
McKenzie, for her part, said factions within the city “have more in common than they have differences” — referencing the north versus south divide.
“A city functions better when every part of it functions well,” McKenzie said. “I want the (North) residents to have a voice.”
