On Sunday April 12, I attended the campaign kickoffs for four of the candidates for City Council, Lester Friedman, Andy Licht, Rebecca Pynoos and Sharona Nazarian (in that order). Here are my impressions.

Lester Friedman served the famous Pink’s hot dogs and was introduced by his wife, Simone Friedman. The mood was receptive but quiet.

Andy Licht served hot dogs, burgers and Lisa Licht’s chocolate chip cookies. The mood was exuberant and the crowd seemed comprised of people who have known Andy for many years from Beverly Hills schools to Hillcrest Country Club. Tom Hudnut gave a highly charged and very effective wrapup speech.

Rebecca Pynoos served wraps and had a popular ice cream stand. She was introduced by former Mayor Bob Wunderlich and former Board of Education member Alissa Roston gave a wrapup talk. Rebecca’s own remarks were unusually substantive.

Sharona Nazarian served cake and coffee. The mood was very enthusiastic. She was introduced by Sandy Pressman and gave a rousing speech about the state of the city and her plans for the future.

Brian Goldsmith, candidate for the Senate seat in District 24, attended all four of the kickoffs. Our Assembly representative, Rick Chavez Zbur attended several.

The crowd at Nazarian’s event was enthusiastic and seemed far larger than any of the others. It appeared that Pynoos’s crowd was slightly larger than Licht’s and seemed a bit younger. Friedman’s was a bit smaller.

All of the candidates stressed the importance of public safety and Sharona Nazarian detailed some of the improvements in crime statistics during the past 3 ½ years that she has been on the Council. None of them engaged in the type of fear mongering referenced below.

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The three person group of Board of Education members (Judith Manouchehri, Sigalie Sabag and Russell Stuart) that has taken dysfunction of the Board to new heights once again has egg on all of their faces.

A few weeks ago, the Board disregarded its own by-laws to elect Sigalie Sabag as Vice President instead of Dr. Amanda Stern who, under the by-laws, was entitled to the position and then become President. Dr. Stern has been consistently vilified by this group because she has not always engaged in uncritical support of every initiative that they have cooked up.

Daniel Lifschitz, a parent of a BHUSD student, brought a lawsuit seeking a court order that the Board comply with its own bylaws and install Dr. Stern to the position. When I guess that BHUSD does not comment on ongoing litigation except when it has something false to say and vindictive to do.

After this very preliminary procedural victory, the District filed a motion (demurrer) raising a number of legal arguments requesting that the case be dismissed.

Last week, the court rejected every material argument that the District had made and ordered that the case go forward to trial on the issue of whether Dr. Stern should be sworn in as Vice President.

The court explicitly rejected the purported Brown Act violation that was an after the fact justification of disregarding the Bylaw.

As you might expect, I asked Board President Manouchehri and the District’s public information officer to comment on the court’s most recent ruling.

The response:

“BHUSD does not comment on ongoing litigation.”

Seriously?

This came from the same spokesperson who had previously commented in a written press release that the ongoing litigation was “frivolous”.

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I have observed with interest during the city council race some fear-mongering by candidates who implicitly criticize the efforts of BHPD with exhortations that we must elect them to “take our city back.”

I thought that I should look into the facts to see the status of the achievements of BHPD and whether our City needs to elect a self-described tough guy to ensure residents’ safety.

Not surprisingly, the facts are encouraging and reveal that the politically motivated claims are false. From a very low crime rate base, our boys in blue have succeeded in reducing the level of offenses even further.

Comparing the first quarter of 2025 with the first quarter of 2026, crimes of burglary, larceny/theft and motor vehicle theft are down 50%, 26% and 71% respectively.

BHPD Chief Mark Stainbrook elaborated: “Overall, since the start of our Real Time Watch Center [a few years ago], city-wide crime is down 34%, and arrests are up 22%. A key reason is that the cameras, ALPRs and drones are interdicting criminals before they commit crimes.”

Chief Stainbrook also gave credit to our City’s leadership: “Our current city council has been amazingly supportive with the budget and good policy direction.” I asked him specifically whether there is anything that BHPD wants or needs from the City Council that it is not getting? His response: “No.. Our City Council, past and present, has been the most supportive governing body I have ever worked for.”

So it turns out that there is no need to take back our City because no one took it away.