About
STEWART FOURNIER
Born in 1956 in what was then called south-central Los Angeles, Stewart witnessed the radical beginning of the civil rights movement at a very young age. He was nine years old when the Fournier family of four moved to Culver City in 1965, just six months before the Watts riots.
In 1965, the family moved to the Marina Del Rey/Culver City area, one of the world's most culturally diverse places. Graduating from Culver City High in 1974, he attended the newly established West Los Angeles College and transferred to U.C.L.A and obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. His first exposure to official government functions occurred when he was a student worker for Los Angeles County Harbor Department, working in Marina Del Rey during his college days.
In 1981 after working for a prestigious law firm in Century City, he created a courier/messenger/attorney service organization that was in operation for over 20 years. He met payroll for well over 400 employees and serviced thousands of customers, including Fortune 500 companies. In the early 2000s, his passion switched from management ownership to a more individual entrepreneur career as a real estate consultant, which remains his current profession. He and his wife Randi have been active real estate consultants for over 24 years.
In 1974 Stewart took a job at Zeppy's pizza on the pier and fell in love with Manhattan Beach. Coincidently, his father took on a career in the town two years later, and the family moved to Manhattan Beach in 1977.
From 1981 until the present, Stewart's engagement in volunteer community leadership is near without comparison, given the decades and diversity of organizations he has been a part of for the last 42 years. Few citizens have held leadership positions in our Health, Education, Business, Leadership, Government Administration, and Public Safety sectors for decades as he has. You can see a partial list of his history on the "Community Leadership" summary page.
He and his wife Randi of 19 years (Past City Commissioner and present Rotarian) and daughter, a Mira Costa High School student, are grateful residents of Manhattan Beach. The family has been immersed in local soccer and lacrosse clubs for over a decade.
Stewart's 50-year work history and his 42-plus-year city leadership are only partially why he decided to run for City Council in 2022.
Stewart Fournier ran for the Manhattan Beach City Council in 2022 because he believed our evolved and welcoming citizens needed a strong voice. A voice whose leadership experience communicates this town's true resolve to share inclusive values for everyone no matter who you are or where you come from. He has seen and made it work for 45 years in our community and knows it can be played forward even more. He is passionate about an inclusive, collaborative vision which has always been a Manhattan Beach leadership hallmark.
Closing Thoughts On The Election
I meet my goal of knocking on approximately 2500 doors in the last election. Therefore I am comfortable saying I was the hardest-working candidate in this election. It was a life-changing experience. My skin got a bit thicker.
However, my outlook became more resolved in a good way. With no feedback to the contrary, everyone I met shared one serious concern. Are we as a community going to accept the goal of outside interests to divide and conquer the soul of Manhattan Beach? The look on most people's faces was nearly identical. So why is this a positive? It gave me hope that the disdain for attacking our way of life is on everyone's mind.
Our character is never to take ourselves too seriously; however, we are serious people who do not attack the character of those with whom we disagree. Social media, contradicting propaganda newsletters never seen before, and 24-hour comments chip away at this consistently and it is something we cannot avoid. So what is the answer? As we always have, the answer is to be aware that creating ideas rather than finding blame is who we are.
Let's learn that arguments are healthy only when the person speaking is respected for their thought rather than a judgment of their character. You can't change someone to your way of thinking, but you can learn something new if you listen to them respectfully.
I did that for nearly two months solid, and it was a life-changing experiment I wish all of you could experience. Thank you, Manhattan Beach. In reality, it can only be done every two years and for just six weeks. If given the opportunity with support, I would do it all again.