At 34, Ariel Rofeim is the youngest candidate for the Beverly Hills City Council. As a former member of the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD), a Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) alumnus and the son of a small business owner, he believes he’s the right choice to lead Beverly Hills through its next chapter.
Rofeim grew up south of Wilshire Boulevard and attended Beverly Vista Middle School. He became a BHPD cadet after high school, going on to represent the department as a platoon leader. He later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, studied at the University of Cambridge as a Pembroke-King’s Scholar and interned at the White House under President Barack Obama, working on both foreign and domestic policy.
Rofeim now practices law in Beverly Hills, where he advocates for clients with catastrophic injuries. Despite no previous experience in city government, Rofeim said he hopes to usher a younger generation into City Hall.
“Despite not being on a commission, I’ve dedicated my career path and who I am as a person to serving my community, and I advocate on behalf of the community every single day during the worst moments of their lives,” he said. “This isn’t a position for one. This is a position to create an Avengers-style governmental body that can advocate on behalf of the community as a whole.”
As a former police cadet, Rofeim said he is uniquely equipped to bolster public safety in the wake of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) D Line station opening at Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards. He said that it is important to increase police visibility and maintain a compassionate approach while continuing to enforce the city’s strict ordinances against camping.
“My experience comes from seeing things behind the badge with the police department,” he said. “But more importantly, I’m a practicing attorney, and I don’t work for corporate law. I deal with regular people. I’m a civil, plaintiff -side attorney, and I’m an advocate for the law. And the law is what we’re going to have to rely on, not only to shape, but to impose and enforce in a way that gets us real results and shows that a train stop at Beverly Hills will not become a train stop at Western and Wilshire.”
Rofeim emphasized that he wants to build on the legacy of city leaders like former mayors Lili Bosse and Sharona Nazarian.
Rofeim said he hopes to work within the confines of state law to limit future litigation involving Builder’s Remedy projects in the city. Beverly Hills has seen proposals for 16 different Builder’s Remedy projects, tall developments that bypass local zoning measures and will reshape the city’s landscape.
“I pledge to fight for every square inch possible that allows us to preserve our iconic feel of Beverly Hills,” he said. “We are a unique community, unlike anybody else, and if we don’t fight to defend it for what we are, we will lose it and become something we are not. So, Builder’s Remedy is a reminder that we need a real advocate, a real fighter in city hall.”
With a father who had a small business in Beverly Hills for more than 20 years that closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rofeim said he has a plan to increase foot traffic in Beverly Hills.
“I will bring quality foot traffic back to Beverly Hills, and that begins with supporting our local businesses,” he said. “We don’t have any banners up throughout the Golden Triangle that say, ‘Shop local. Support our local business.’ … I want to create festivals. I want to create more events, like the Father’s Day event that we have every year, and create a Persian festival in the city, and have it be the world’s largest Persian festival in Beverly Hills, and we can celebrate many other cultures as well. We should have a Chinese New Year festival, Hispanic Heritage Month. And really create these one-day, one-off events for people beyond our city to come into our city, and enjoy the community, and go to our restaurants, and walk up and down Rodeo Drive.”
As a designated mentor in the BHUSD and the incoming mock trial coach at Beverly Hills High School, Rofeim said he wants to strengthen the connection between City Hall and students in the school district.
“My position isn’t to change the school system, per se, but what I do want to do is enforce and strengthen the partnership between City Council and the high school,” he said. “We need to collaborate, because the high school really represents not only the future of our city. I want to make sure that I have direct communication with parents by hosting forums, inviting parents only of our local schools to hear directly from them on how we can improve our policy or introduce new policy into the city.”
Rofeim said he hopes to produce results in City Hall if elected.
“We’re not just saying that we’re getting involved. We’re actually producing results,” he said. “I am someone who is a doer, and now is the time. We see what’s happening in New York with the mayor of New York, we see things happening all around the country where a new generation of leaders are emerging. And I look at Beverly Hills and I say, ‘Why not here?’”
Beverly Hills municipal elections will be held on June 2.
