Steve Dicterow holds head high after 20 years on the Laguna Beach City Council
Steve Dicterow, the outgoing mayor pro tem of Laguna Beach, found the reason why he got involved in city politics was the same reason he kept coming back for more.
“What happens in local government has more of an impact on our daily lives than any other form of government,” Dicterow said. “I felt that what was going on in Laguna Beach then and now was something that I could, if I were involved, I could make a difference.”
Dicterow cherished the opportunity to represent residents, so much so that he served a total of five terms on the City Council — from 1994 to 2006 and from 2012 to 2020. During that time, he served four terms as mayor.
Although the results of the Nov. 3 election saw Dicterow finish last among five candidates in the race for two seats on the City Council this year, he came away encouraged that democracy was “alive and well.”
“We’ve never had this level of participation,” Dicterow said of voter turnout on a national level. “When we have participation, it’s not only people voting — they’re educated, they’re smart, they know what they want to do.”
For each election cycle that he has participated in, Dicterow said he ran a door-to-door campaign. He said he visited about 3,500 homes this year and was amazed by how informed the public was. He heard views on everything from putting residents first to overdevelopment to issues concerning design review.
Dicterow, who turns 66 on Sunday, said that being called to serve the people of Laguna Beach for five terms has been “the greatest honor” of his life.
Costa Mesa voters overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates in national and state races, with 7,748 more casting ballots for Joe Biden than for Donald Trump for the presidency.
A lawyer by trade, Dicterow originally turned his attention to issues of public safety, as well as resolving existing litigation involving the city.
In his first term, he brought forward an agenda bill that, with council approval, added five officers to the Laguna Beach Police Department.
Helping to resolve the Diamond-Crestview lawsuit, which saved the city millions of dollars, was one of the contributions Dicterow‘s peers noted in his last council meeting on Tuesday.
Fellow council members commended Dicterow for his years of service and gave him a plaque in recognition of his last two consecutive terms on the council. Mayor Bob Whalen signed a resolution that listed 20 of Dicterow’s notable accomplishments.
Whalen had some fun with the number of contributions shown in the resolution. “There happen to be 20 listed here,” he said. “I don’t know if that was intentional, one for every year of service, but it just shows you the breadth of projects that Steve’s worked on over the years and things that he’s cared about and been passionate about.”
In his remarks, Councilman Peter Blake recounted having met Dicterow in 1993 when the latter was running for City Council for the first time. Shortly after Dicterow was on the dais, Blake got a phone call he did not expect.
Dicterow was between jobs. Blake, at the time the general manager of the Italian restaurant Romeo Cucina in Laguna Beach, obliged Dicterow‘s request for a job by having him work the door with him.
“I watched Steve at that point, and I learned a lot about Steve,” Blake said. “That he was the kind of guy who was willing to roll up his sleeves and do whatever it took to make sure that he got whatever he needed to feed his family and to keep going.”
Dicterow, a Laguna Beach resident since 1983, said he was not in a position to wait for his next break at that moment because he had a wife, Catrina, a daughter, Taryn, and a mortgage to think of.
“I look back at it with fondness, not with any form of embarrassment,” Dicterow said. “That’s just who I am is I’m going to do what it takes to take care of my family.”
Councilwoman Toni Iseman, another longtime member of the council, said of Dicterow, “He’s observant, he’s kind, he’s obviously very bright, and he has a good giggle.”
Iseman also expressed her admiration for Dicterow’s discipline, noting his propensity to get up for daily 6 a.m. workouts, regardless of how late City Council meetings went into the night.
The work will continue for Dicterow. He recently became a partner at One LLP, an intellectual property firm.
He is also about three-quarters of the way through working on his first novel and said he has settled on the title: “The Babysitter.”
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