Outgoing council member Massa-Lavitt honored

SEAL BEACH COUNCIL

by Ruth Osborn

rutho@lwsb.com

The Seal Beach City Council honored Sandra Massa-Lavitt of Mutual 5 on Feb. 27 for years of dedicated public service representing District 5, which encompasses Mutuals 2-9 and half of Mutual 1.

LWer Nathan Steele was sworn in to replace her. The festive evening featured a finger food reception, lots of certificates of recognition and a boatload of praise for exemplary public service. The spillover crowd included California Sen. Janet Nguyen who represents the 36th district, and a host of representatives from Orange County, Boeing, the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Los Alamitos School Board, the Naval Weapons Station and more.

They were there to bid a fond farewell to Massa-Lavitt and Mike Varipapa, an eight-year Seal Beach councilman representing District 3 who was also termed out.

District 1 Councilman and outgoing mayor Joe Kalmick praised Massa-Lavitt’s comprehensive approach to city administration. “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Sandra these past four years,” he said. “While she has been a strong advocate for her district in Leisure World, she was always engaged in the issues that were important for the city as a whole. Sandra’s wise advice helped me to be a better council member.”

City Manager Jill Ingram expressed her “sincerest gratitude and appreciation for her dedicated service. I thank her for her consistent and steady leadership, guidance and support of the city and our entire staff team. Sandra has worked incredibly hard and truly cares very deeply about Seal Beach, our residents, the city, and our entire city staff team,” she said.

Massa-Lavitt is a can-do woman capping off 15 years of civic service that started when she retired in 2008 from her career as a consulting city planner. She served on her Mutual board and then was appointed to the Seal Beach Planning Commission, which she chaired for four years of her seven-year tenure. In 2014, Leisure World voters sent her to the Seal Beach City Council.

A natural born leader, she has served two terms as Seal Beach mayor and in every other capacity as a council member. Over the years, she and her fellow council members have wrestled with city budgets, district boundaries, the 405 Freeway project, vector control, drought, water, waste water and storm water mangement; organic waste disposal, and the list goes on. Lately, it’s been pandemic recovery and associated economic impacts, loss of revenue, budget cuts, staffing shortfalls, and housing and zoning issues.

It’s a lot, and it demanded a fully scheduled life. Shef, her husband of 63 years, has always supported his wife’s challenging schedule, although it’s not his idea of retirement.

But for Massa-Lavitt, leadership is a core value and that demands time and a lot of it. She loves people and fostering good administration for her community. She likes learning new things and works to find ways to enhance life for the betterment of all. Married at 17, she and Shef raised three children and, in a different kind of leadership, the couple added foster children to their family, beginning a 20-year campaign to provide a stable family life to the vulnerable among us. From 1964-1984, the Masa-Lavitts serially fostered a total of 11 kids aged 7 to the teen years.

Meanwhile, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public administration from California State University, Long Beach.

During completion of her college adventure, Massa-Lavitt started working for the City of Lakewood Planning Department. She ultimately branched out into consulting as project manager in other cities or as interim director to help run a city until a permanent person was hired.

The couple moved to LW in 1991, and Sandra retired in 2008, when she began a new career as a public servant on the Seal Beach Planning Commission.

As a council member, she was appointed to to the boards of directors for agencies within Orange County jurisdiction.

“It was like being on the learning curve of so many of the agencies responsible for keeping us safe,” she said. “These appointments are held by the people you elected to represent you.”

During her tenure on the Seal Beach Council, Massa-Lavitt has earned the respect of her colleages and city staff.

Newly installed Mayor Thomas Moore, who represents the part of Leisure World in District 2, praised Massa-Lavitt for “showing up to almost every council meeting over the past six years and not only that, she would go to almost every GRF meeting to provide updates.

Of special note was the positive collaboration between Moore and Massa-Lavitt: “Sandra and I spent our discretionary funds to redo the ‘Welcome to Seal Beach’ sign outside of Leisure World. Before that, it was an old decrepit wood sign,” Moore said.

The pair also worked on getting the Seal Beach police to start a traffic enforcement program in Leisure World and allocated a dedicated detective, who now helps with fraud prevention and investigations. They also pushed to re-establish free shuttle service to the Seal Beach Pier area, Moore said. District 4 Councilwoman Schelly Sustarsic thanked Massa- Lavitt for “all your years of service and your expertise as a planner. Thank you for your service on the OC Sanitation District and the West Orange County Water Board. I always looked forward to your very helpful updates at our meetings on how to protect ourselves from mosquitos!”

In turn, Massa-Lavitt thanked City Manager Jill Ingram and her staff: “The city manager is the very best. She has good sense and insight.”

And the feeling is reciprocated. “On behalf of the City of Seal Beach and our executive management team, it has been an incredible honor and privilege to work for and alongside Council Member Sandra Massa-Lavitt for the past eight years,” Ingram said. “Sandra’s expertise, experience and perspective as a well-respected professional urban planning director and consultant for over 30 years, as well as a longtime Seal Beach planning commissioner, has been invaluable in her success and effectiveness.”

Ingram praised Massa-Lavitt’s “in-depth knowledge, respect, and appreciation for how local governments are managed. She has a keen sense of anticipating issues and concerns, and as a result, she continually ensures that city staff has the resources we need so that we can successfully and effectively support the council in their ongoing efforts to provide the best possible service and programs to our community.

“The significant policy work that Sandra has done on the city council and on the regional boards and committees will continue to have a positive impact for many years to come on the quality of life for those that she so passionately served—Leisure World residents and the residents of our entire community.

“Sandra will be incredibly missed, and we wish her so much happiness in this new well-deserved chapter of her life,” Ingram said. Massa-Lavitt once said her favorite quote was: “This too shall pass,” and indeed, this chapter in her life is passing. But as Ingram said, her legacy remains—keeping the channel between Seal Beach and Leisure World solid and secure to help residents thrive in their retirement years.

California State Sen. Janet Nguyen presented a resolution praising Sandra Massa-Lavitt’s work on the 405 Freeway project: “We made our voices heard at the OCTA,” she said. “Your expertise has helped make Seal Beach whatit is today.”

Sandra Massa-Lavitt is known for participating in the LW community. Here is at an American Legion event.