At a recent budget workshop, the council members verbally expressed the desire to replace the Seal Beach Lifeguard Headquarters building. However, no formal vote was taken.
With that in mind, council on May 5 directed staff to defer about $2 million in capital improvement (construction and maintenance) projects.
Replacing Seal Beach Lifeguard Headquarters is expected to cost $15 million, according to city officials.
Seal Beach has $4 million. Staff has identified $9.3 million in available funds. (The council would have to approve using those funds for the project.) The city needs another $5.7 million.
The city has been looking at renovating or replacing the Lifeguard Headquarters/Seal Beach Police Substation for years. The 2020-21 budget put the cost of replacing the building at $9.5 million. (See page 232 of the PDF of the 2020-21 budget at the city’s website.)
“This building has served the community for decades,” said Finance Director Barbara Arenado during the May 5 improvement program discussion.
“It’s far beyond its useful life. It was not designed to meet today’s operational demands or emergency response needs. Nor does it have the facilities to house the females on the team. It has not been set up to handle the workload or the staffing and the capabilities of that department,” Arenado.
Earlier during the same meeting, Arenado noted that there were zero drownings in Seal Beach last year. (That remark triggered a round of applause.)
“There are many potential paths and this is not about looking at the specific dollar amount today. Don’t look at that dollar amount. Those exact numbers are going to evolve. They’re going to change depending on the council decisions and the community decisions of what that facility is going to look like,” Arenado said.
“We can’t fund everything. So, we have to prioritize our top projects and be intentional about where we invest. And ultimately, this comes down to balance,” Arenado said.
Arenado asked Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey and Police Chief Michael Henderson for comments. “Historically the Lifeguard headquarters was built in three phases.
“We had a little hut which is now our training room and that was started in the ’70s,” Bailey said.
“In the mid ’80s we had the tower and the garage was built. In the early ’90s the police substation was added and I say that just so you can have the picture that it was cobbled together and there wasn’t one plan for a usable lifeguard headquarters and PD substation,” Bailey said.
“It’s been undersized for the last 20 years and we’ve done the best we can to make the building useful. You know, lifeguarding as a profession has changed how we do things. For instance, we’ve added jet skis, which are now a valuable tool that started really in the ’90s,” Bailey said.
“Currently, we have to buy the smallest trucks that we have trouble putting patients in because the garage is too small to hold them,” Bailey said.
“In the ’80s when the building was built, we didn’t have a Junior Lifeguard program and now we have 350 kids in our Junior Lifeguard program,” Bailey said.
“When I started 37 years ago, men and women shared the same small locker room in that building. We’ve since made some changes and moved some things around, but the women’s locker room is still in a closet. We have our full-time staff locker room in a hallway. As you walk up the third floor, everyone has to walk through our locker room,” Bailey said.
(See “Seal Beach officials looking at renovation or reconstruction of Lifeguard Headquarters,” posted Oct. 30, 2020, and “Lifeguard HQ: A look,” posted Sept. 4, 2025, at sunnews.org.)
He said they have two toilets for 50 Lifeguards.
“Over the years we’ve put band-aids on the building, but at this point it’s really beyond its useful life and it’s crumbling around us,” Bailey said.
“Also, our building’s used for first aids, training, stingray injuries, major medical aids we bring back to headquarters. If we’re doing CPR, for instance, we don’t want to be on the beach, we put them in the truck, we do CPR, we bring them back to headquarters, we do CPR. There’s some patient privacy issues there also,” Bailey said.
“During the rain events, we have water running into our training room. It runs down the back wall and down into our building. So we get dirt and water in the room. Last year we had an electrical fire due to that,” Bailey said.
“This year we had to have professional mold remediation in both the garage and that main building that was built in the ’70s,” Bailey said.
“Lifeguard Headquarters has been the city’s number one building to be replaced for over 15 years since that report was done,” Bailey said, apparently referring to a 2010 assessment by Griffin Structures, Inc.
“And with that, I just urge you to move this project along,” Bailey said.
Police Chief Henderson said he echoed Bailey’s comments.Henderson said the building was in desperate need of replacement and upkeep.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal said she wanted to see the Lifeguard tower completely funded. She said council hadn’t seen the currrent capital improvement projects Seal Beach has underway and she had asked several times for the adjustments. “So I’m not comfortable even knowing where we’re at with the current CIPs,” Senecal said.
“Previously, a few years ago, it was focused to the pool,” Arenado said. She said a few years ago, the council moved 100% of that money to the Lifeguard Headquarters.
“Once council has given us direction, you’ll see that money moved. We’ve also in briefings talked about other opportunities of moving some other money in the budget,” Arenado said.
District One Council Member Joe Kalmick said it was important to have a consensus by voice or by vote.
“Because we’ve seen the results of not doing things. They wind up becoming so costly that they have to be taken off the list of things that we’ve lived with and enjoyed and we have to forget about them like the pool, at least at this point,” Kalmick said.
District Five Councilman Nathan Steele said if the council delayed the project it would cost more in a few more years and then would become more and more implausible. “We don’t know if it’s going to be $15 million at this point of the game or $20 million,” Steele said.
District Three Councilwoman/Mayor Lisa Landau said she felt the same way. According to Landau, it would take two years to get the process started. “So let’s start tomorrow,” Landau said.
Arenado said staff would bring the project back to council. For the proposed budget to close, she said, staff needed to make a decision about the improvement program.
Arenado brought up the possibility of using Pier money as well as the $3.25 million economic contingency money in the 2026-27 budget.
Resident Jo8n Kochevar said grants would be a great way to pay for the Lifeguard Headquarters.
Arenado said there were limits on Seal Beach’s ability to get grants.
Chad Berlinghieri offered to lead a public-private partnership to raise funds for the project.
“We need to fund it and get it done,” Senecal said.
Public Works Director Iris Lee said staff was trying to set aside money for the Lifeguard Headquarters.
Well, the city is wasting a quarter million dollars on portable water pumps they don’t need. Maybe use that. The city, also, has NEVER HAD a Human Resource Manager position before in its history. NOW we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for not only a NEW Human Resource Manager but also a Human Resources Specialist. These are (2) positions the City has never had before and just created. More waste which goes along with an overpaid City Manager. Yet the City keeps begging poverty and need more money.