Hermosa Beach civil service board defers revised Parks & Recreation job specifications amid budget and disclosure concerns

The Hermosa Beach Civil Service Board on June 23 postponed action on revised job specifications that would retitle two Parks & Recreation positions, after commissioners raised concerns about the scope of the new duties and whether the changes should be disclosed to City Council.

Director Lisa Nichols, the city's director of Parks and Recreation, introduced the proposal and said the retitling is intended to "better reflect the responsibilities that it holds." She said the department currently has two related positions — a lead special events and filming coordinator and a special events and filming coordinator — and that the proposed retitles better match how those employees now function within the department.

Nichols told the board the coordinators would handle more of the department's programs and services beyond filming and special events, and that the lead role would oversee higher-impact events and filming while the other position would manage lower-impact, city-produced events. She said the coordinators would report to supervisors (named by staff as Nick and Cambria) and would manage long-term event agreements, farmers market arrangements and a tree lot contract. "They would actually be negotiating with those folks," Nichols said, describing negotiations over multi-year event dates and fees.

On revenue, Nichols provided an approximate breakdown of last year's receipts for the programs the positions cover. She said film licensing brought in about $70,000, special events about $97,000 and promotional activations about $50,000 — a combined total Nichols said was roughly $317,000 for the programs in question.

Several commissioners questioned whether the retitling amounted to creation of new positions for budgeting purposes. One commissioner said the new job descriptions differ substantially from the prior titles and argued the changes should be presented to City Council as new or materially altered positions before being implemented. Another commissioner expressed concern that film revenues underperformed expectations and asked whether the city should instead reduce staff.

Nichols and staff pushed back that the change was a reclassification driven by evolving duties and an effort to align titles with actual work, and noted the City Council ultimately approves positions and the budget. A city staff member said the budget adopted next week still referenced the old titles, and that revised specifications would be visible to council if approved by the civil service board.

When the board moved toward a vote on item 7A (the coordinator specification) members debated whether an abstention would permit passage. Commissioners concluded there were not enough affirmative votes to approve the changes; the board agreed to carry both item 7A and the related lead coordinator item 7B to the next meeting rather than adopt them at this session.

Separately, the board approved the April 13, 2026 minutes with the requested correction to reflect prior vice-chair election results; that consent-calendar motion passed on a roll-call vote with Board member Elman, Board member Williams and Chairperson Collins recorded as "yes." The meeting adjourned at 5:28 p.m.

The civil service board will reconsider the specifications at a future meeting; City Council review will be required before any reclassified titles take effect.