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  Candidate's Statement:

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"I entered this race to give the voters a voice that they have been systematically denied. There are better uses for public land, and Beach Cities residents deserve better than a rubber-stamping board captive to a self-perpetuating bureaucracy."

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Read the Easy Reader article on the candidates for the Board.

 

Excerpt from article:

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Mike Martin, challenger

Mike Martin is a first-time candidate for the Beach Cities Health District Board.

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The retired systems engineer/manager, with a PHd from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, now serves on the BCHD property advisory committee. He spent much of his career working with Boeing defense contracts – under accompanying federal rules and regulations.

He questions how the Beach Cities Health District came to stay in existence after its founding mission to build a hospital ended in 1998, with the closing of South Bay Hospital. 

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“The hospital failed and the government agency kept on going. Just on the principle of government bureaucracy should continue forever,” Martin said. “If you follow the money, it’s really a real estate empire funded by (property) taxes. It’s an example of bad governance.”

Martin said he would like to see term limits for BCHD board members, and for them to represent districts rather than serve “at-large.”

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He questions the work BCHD does and how it is funded.

“The stuff they do is more akin to social work, which is fine, but I don’t need a government agency to do that,” he said. “I would take a look at exactly what they are doing. They should go out and get grants for their funding. None of this is easy, by the way.”

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Martin also suggests BCHD would be better as a public health department, similar to Pasadena’s. 

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He contends the board is not listening to public opposition against The Healthy Living Campus.

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“Because they don’t have to,” Martin said. “The internal mandate is to self-perpetuate and even grow. My reading is that the board is captive to the staff. I think that they think they know better, they think they’re doing good. In the diplomatic corps, they call it going native.”

 

Martin is against the Campus.

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“It is a highly inappropriate use of public land. Beach Cities resident quality of life should always take first priority,” he said. “Revenue generation to support an entrenched bureaucracy should never be treated as the prime directive.”

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He comes back to the original BCHD mission and how it relates to now.

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“The voters gave the Beach Cities Health District one job: give us a hospital. When the hospital was done, the district should’ve been done too,” he said. “In the ’50s, they didn’t know to include a sunset provision. To ask, ‘what if it fails?’” ER
 

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"I bring the following qualities to the Board:

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Fresh thinking

I bring an objective, evidence-based perspective to the Board, and am not personally tied to previous policy stances. I intend to advocate for term limits for the BCHD Board, and a re-examination of the BCHD charter.

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Accountability

Public agencies are by definition accountable to the people, and I firmly intend to treat public views and voting options with utmost respect.

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Transparency

I will strive to keep all board decisions fully debated in open/public meeting.

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Ethics

Actions that are arguably “legal” are not necessarily “right”. The ends don’t justify the means, despite good intentions (which are said, for good reason, to pave the road to a bad destination). I view the public as the definitive arbiter of the “right” policy.

 

I have lived in Redondo for over 35 years, and am on the BCHD Property Advisory Committee. I have 40+ years of system engineering/management experience in the local aerospace industry. My education includes an Engineering Doctorate and a Business Master’s Degree."

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See Mike's Voter's Edge profile here.

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