Locally Legislative: The City Council ft. Beverly Hills Vice Mayor Mary N. Wells

Ever wondered what your city council did for your community? This podcast episode will answer all of your questions about local government and more! Joined by the wonderful Vice Mayor of Beverly Hills Mary Wells, we are able to learn directly about the importance of participating in your local governments. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hello everyone, welcome back to Red White and You, a podcast dedicated to informing the public about our American history and civics in an accessible, digestible way, because let's be honest, we all need a little bit of a refresher course. I'm your host, Evan Hyman Muchnik, and today we will be learning about the importance of involving yourself in local government, ways to participate in your local government, and what the duties of your local government are.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

First of all, Miss Wells has been serving on City Council since March 2024, and prior to her election, she served as a member of the Beverly Hills United School District Board of Education and as its president in 2022 and 2023. So would you like to give us a little bit of an introduction? I know that there is a little bit of extra detail where that came from, so please.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I'll expand. Well, it's true. I joined the school board. I was elected in 2020, which was actually during COVID. It was the first uh and only election that has happened during a time like that where you really couldn't be out knocking on doors and really um engaging with the community in a really public way. So a lot of my communications were really one-on-one phone calls, and um it was an interesting time to be running as an elected because we did a lot of Zoom debates and forums, and people really had a pivot. And at the time that I was on the school board, it was really uh an unprecedented time. Uh schools had been shut down, everyone had a pivot to online learning, and then to uh in order to be able to bring uh open the schools and bring the students back, we had to make sure that we had safety protocols in place at that time. We were we were really being governed by LA County Health Department in terms of when it would be safe to come back and what the protocols were in terms of testing or wearing masks. And that was a big challenge on the school board to meet the needs of our residents and most importantly the students while adhering to the county uh LA County Health Department's rules and regulations and pivoting quickly to be able to do that. So it was a challenge and really interesting time. I found that I was very effective as a school board member. I think uh probably the most important thing for me is that I really listened to people and I like to problem solve. So I think that really resonated at a time when the community felt like they were not being listened to because COVID and the shutdown, it was very much uh feeling heavy-handed for many people. So the fact that I was a new school board member and I really was interested in hearing what people had to say and what the issues were and uh how to solve that those problems. I I found that this is a good place for me to be involved in our community in terms of local government. And I've always been involved interested in local government in the sense of it's my hometown, it's where I live, I you know how our city runs has always been uh probably in the back of my my mind, something that's always been of interest, although I never thought I would run for a political office. So as I was finishing my four-year term on the school board, um there were three seats that were two seats that were open. Um there was one incumbent running for the city council seat. There's three three seats on the election, but one was an incumbent, so there were two seats that were wide open, um, which makes it easier to run when you're running because you're not running against someone who's already in the seat. And um, so I decided that I would take a run for city council, and um that was in March of 2022, so here I am.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Or 2024.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Yes, that's so wonderful. And just I know really, just only a few weeks ago, it was councilwoman wells, and now you're the vice mayor. Um, what what has that transition been like, and also why has that transition happened?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Um, it's interesting. We are an independent city, so as an independent city, our form of government is we are run by our city council, and the city council is really five council members that are elected and represent all of our residents. Um within our council of five, we rotate on as mayor and vice mayor, vice mayor and then mayor, and really that position is um to be the spokesperson for the city and for the council. So your responsibilities are more public-facing. You're more, you know, if any anything's happening in the city and they want a statement from the city, or uh you want the mayor to come to recognize uh your organization or something that's happening, we the mayor, you know, fills that role during that their year as mayor, and the vice mayor fills in for the mayor when they're not able to do those duties because there's many in our city, quite frankly. And then the other thing that's really important is the mayor runs our city council meetings, which are twice a month, and that's really where all of the discussions and all of the decisions that are made for the city from the council that happens in our formal study sessions and meetings, and that the mayor does run that meeting and and and also determines what things go on the agenda when. So that's an important role.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Very cool. Um, okay. Well, so when people hear City Council, I mean, at least for me, when I hear it, I feel like it can change so much, especially. I mean, Beverly Hills, an independent city, so there's just there's so many, there's so much room for flexibility and adapting to your city's needs. So um what decisions are you actually making week to week or month to month? What is your day-to-day look like? All of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Well, because we're an independent city, we as a city, um, the city council really sets our policy and um we approve our budgets and really give the direction to our essentially three direct employees, which is we hire a city manager to run our city, and we hire our city attorney and our city clerk. And from there, they run the city manager, then all the different departments report to the city manager. We set the priorities and the goals and we approve the budgets. Um, but as an independent city, we are able to have our own fire, our own police department. Uh, we set the local zoning laws for how we build things and develop uh how our city should look and um the basic uh business district versus our residential districts and where where they are and how how they look. Um we also make decisions around uh how we deliver our services. We have water, we have power that we use through our through uh through Southern California Edison. Um we make the decisions about how we do our um plan for our infrastructure and what the infrastructure needs of our city are. So our you know main water mains to how we get our water to all of the residents, and uh how do we deliver our power to the city and how do we um ensure that our city is sustainable in terms of having the resources that we need to maintain our independence?

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Wonderful. Um how does local government connect to state and even federal government? Um how does national policy debate affect what happens at the city level? How are you in the city trying to navigate a time where politics and giant political ideas and rhetoric are so important to people and to voters?

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Um I well when you think about just uh if going from the city to the state, right? Um the state has the state budget, and the state budget um will then filter down to cities in terms of we may have portions, they may set aside certain, like for example, affordable housing. We're talking about housing and how we need more housing. The state will set funds for affordable housing to support the building of more affordable housing. Um when they make that decision, it comes from all of the representatives that are either lobbying for that or uh those dollars are going to affordable housing, but so where are they um what is it not going to? And so people um we work with our state senator, our senator, we work with the representative for our region right now. That's Ben Allen, and we work with our assembly member, which is uh Rick Zwer, and let make sure that they know what where we stand on any issues that are being considered through the state and state legislation and the the things that matter the most to us as a city. So um it could be from talking about uh street takeovers that are happening, and if there's legislation that's being put forth to have uh tougher consequences and uh you know rules around if there's street takeovers because it's so dangerous, we may support that because it's also happening in our city. If it's crime is happening and uh the whatever the process is for different levels of crime, we may be supporting that at the state level so that for us as a city we're able to enforce the law in a more effective way if we feel that there's gaps that are that exist. Um so all of those different things impact us. If the state comes um makes law that then it impacts us, we will have a voice for those items and we track what's what's going on at the state level from a legislative standpoint at all times, so that we know things that we might want to oppose or things that we may want to be in favor of. And an interesting fact that many people don't realize is that our school district is not governed by our city, so they're independent from the city city council, they run with their own school board and they answer to the um LA County Office of Education and to the state. So they have a we can't tell the schools what to do. So many times residents will come and say, You should uh change this rule at the school, and and we can certainly talk to the school board, but it's they're independent.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Very cool. Um, talking about the school board, um, which you were a part of and all of that stuff, what initially drew you to A, be a part of the school board and B go on to being part of city council? Like what what values were you like, yes, this is what I have to do?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Well, I think um I've like I said, I've always been interested in locally how the city is run. Yeah. My kids were starting to go my our last child was graduating from high school, so um at that time I wanted to be more involved in the city, and there was an opening for the schools. For our the schools have a bond that was voted on by the taxpayers to provide money to the schools to renovate the schools. And as part of that bond, they had to have an oversight committee that was made up of the community to look at how they spent the money to make sure the money was spent for modernizing the schools and not something else. So uh that's was called the um citizens' oversight committee. So I interviewed to be on that committee. I have a finance and accounting background, and I worked my first job was with municipal bonds, so it seemed like a good fit for me to get involved in that avenue. So I was doing that, and from that uh the board members at the time asked me if I would run for the school board, and I decided I would do that. I felt like I had three kids in three different schools, very different. Yes. And I had been a single parent and I'd been a blended family, and I felt like I had a really unique perspective to bring as a school board member and uh private school, public school. Um, you know, our daughter went through the public school at Beverly Unified, and one at the Center for Early Education and one at Wildwood. So very different experiences, and um I was very and I've always loved education, so that's how I ended up on school board, and I was very successful in getting things done on the school board, and I felt like I really had um I had a I had a knack for this way of operating within this government structure, which is different than a private entity because there's a lot of rules and regulations and compliance, and everything is done in the open so the public can see, and it's uh it's a very different way of doing things, and I really liked it. I liked that it's open and that people can access everything and participate in it.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

So that's great. Um, and then in addition to that, like when you are hearing from your constituents and all of this kind of stuff, do you feel that what's going on right now with our national government all and all of that stuff do you like because you've talked a lot about infrastructure and parking and safety and all of these things? Is there a presence of politics in the current like Trump versus Democrat Re Republican versus Democrat sense that's going on in city council that you feel or in Beverly Hills that you feel?

SPEAKER_01 15:04

I think that um whatever happens nationally happens also locally in a micro in a on a micro level. Um it's certainly you can see it play out in our city at the same the same type types of things that we see nationally can be happening in our city. Our city is its own makeup of population, and and so that could change things somewhat depending on you know what the you know different issue is. And so it may be much louder in our city or it might not be as loud in our city because our our population is a different mix. But typically whatever's playing out on the national level, especially the bigger, broader conversations, they definitely play out. It plays out at the schools, it plays out in the city, and I think some of those things that become part of that conversation are not the day-to-day things that we as a council are actually voting on and uh putting policy around because we're really running the city. Yeah, we're providing the services to the city, we're providing um for the community um what the city looks like, what this, you know, how we plan and protect the city from a sustainability standpoint. And we then also have the county and the state and the federal laws that impact us. And to the extent that those things impact us, that's where we will have a voice. But we typically aren't making um voting on things that are going to change what's happening from necessarily a national level, but we might support something that's happening either at the state level or nationally. We may have a voice to support, but we're not having that vote directly necessarily.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Absolutely. Um, and then final question what are you most proud of from your tenure on the Beverly Hills City Council?

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Um, I think it's certainly I think of my political life as the school board as well as city council. I've been on city council for two years. And I think consistently I'm I'm I think that I'm very clear about listening to our community and um representing our community in a truly authentic way. I I don't I think that my decision making doesn't get clouded by what's best for me necessarily as a politician. I'm not a politician. I really like local politics. I like representing our our residents in Beverly Hills. It really matters to me to protect what is really important to our community. And we're such a small city that we're able to make those decisions and we can really have an impact to represent our community in our small city, and that's what I really am proud about is that I'm able to reinforce those values that matter to our city. Yeah. And we're able to do that in our city and and also protect the brand of our city, which is so unique about Beverly Hills. We're this small city in the in the you know big Los Angeles County area, but we have this world-renowned reputation and notoriety, and this really wonderful brand for something that's really um special. And it's also protecting that and and people value that. But underneath that, what makes that such a known brand was ultimately the people that lived here and what mattered to them, and that's really something that we really value here in the city, and it's it's a real honor to be able to represent our city and our constituents.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

100%. It's so nice to hear how like the care and to see the care and the passion that you put into your work. Um, well, on that note, let us end this podcast episode. Thank you so much for joining me here. Your city council and your council members, they're here to listen to you. They're so much closer than you think. I sent an email to the wonderful Vice Mayor Wells, and I did not expect such a quick and wonderful answer, and now I have the pleasure of having you on this podcast. So um I've yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

There's also other ways to be involved. Like we have a teen advisory committee, so you can and I'm cities have these committees where you can apply and be on the teen advisory committee, and as a group, they decide things that to do as as teens in the city and participate either in the different events or how they would participate, but they also have a voice collectively as well. And you meet that's how you can build your coalition because you'll meet other teens and talk about issues that you see and and decide what things should be brought to the council.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

It's fabulous. Love that. Everyone join your teen advisory committees right now. It's amazing. It's really great, I think, for young people to hear people like you and to get just a breath of like, you know what, it's not all gonna be bad. We have wonderful people like Vice Mayor Wells keeping our cities safe and working super hard for the next generations. Um, so yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Well, thank you for having me, and I'm happy to answer any questions in the future. Just reach out.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Yes, all right. Um, everyone, I will see you when I see you. Thank you so much for listening and have the best day. Come back for the next episode of Red, White, and Yellow. Bye.