The Courier spoke recently with Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) Board Member Russell Stuart about his City Council candidacy. The conversation touched upon his tenure on the school board, political factions in the city and critics of his “hammer-and-nails” style.
Courier: The election is two weeks away, but many voters in the city are still undecided about their top three choices. In a crowded field that includes two incumbents and others with years of service in the city, why does Russell Stuart deserve a place on the podium?
Stuart: I ran two years ago for City Council as truly, you know, an unknown person. A breath of fresh air when it came to my kind of almost hammer-like honesty. And I think that because I don’t have any political background, I don’t have any political training, if you want to call it that. But, once you get into office, you’ve got to learn how the machine works. The proof was in the pudding when I had a lot of parents reach out to me after my loss who said, “Hey, we really loved your messaging, and we loved how passionate that you were, and you just ticked off a lot of boxes.” I’m a parent, I’m a business owner, I have a public safety background. I’ve got all of these elements that a lot of people were basically saying, “Would you be interested in running for school board?” I was like, “Absolutely.”
So then when I was convinced to run for school board and then I won the election, I just got this real massive eye-opener. Obviously, City Hall is different than the school board, but technically in its governance systems, it’s fairly similar.
Courier: You have incited some controversy as a BHUSD board member from early on in your tenure, beginning with your “DOGE” social media post. Do you think criticism of you is warranted?
Stuart: I showed up with my hammer-and-nail style kind of honesty of doing things. I just sat down and said, “Let’s open up the books; let’s look at our best practices. Where are we spending money? Where are we losing money? Why has the Beverly Hills Unified School District been failing for almost a decade?”
Someone filed a recall against me in my first month. It didn’t go anywhere because it was an emotional reaction. Not to the fact that I was doing something wrong. It was an emotional reaction to change. Even though my ideas were, I don’t see them as radical, but they were radical just because they were so different. I didn’t see them as different. I saw them as common sense. But, for instance, you guys ran the story, there was big pushback on the Nike contract.
Courier: Yes, we did cover the deal that you spearheaded for Nike to supply uniforms and other equipment to students. Not all board members supported or even knew about it. People questioned the high cost, and whether it was a good look for students to be promoting a brand. You understand the concern, right?
Stuart: So, when I got the pushback on the Nike contract, and it was pretty extreme, it really confused me. It confused me because our mission as board members is to improve the lives of the students. It didn’t have to be Nike or Adidas or any other specific brand. It had to be a reinvigoration of the athletics program. When I was running for the school board, I had many parents say, “My daughter is in volleyball, or my son is in basketball, and our kids look like they’re in a homeless shelter.” And, of course, just because of my hammer-and-nail style, I came to my colleagues and said, “You know, I would love to make an investment in the athletic program. There’s a partnership deal that we can sign with Nike.”
It got major pushback because, again, there’s been a trajectory at the school district to be more on the progressive front and to not focus on certain things that might be a bit more, you know, male dominated.
Of course I got the talk about, “You can’t be that aggressive. You need to ease things in. There’s no hurry, da, da, da, da, da.” But, when Nike shipped the first batch of uniforms for football, it changed the culture completely. And it not only brought back a commitment to excellence to kids, it brought back community spirit, it brought back camaraderie.
Courier: After you were elected to the BHUSD school board, you did publicly state that you would serve out your term. Why did you decide to abandon that promise and make this City Council run?
Stuart: Because of John Mirisch’s empty seat. I’ve loved every minute of the BHUSD board, even some of the fights and controversial stuff. I don’t mind that because we’re moving the ship forward. But when John’s seat came up, people started to call me. John has always been known as the more conservative voice on the City Council. And that is why there are countless historical 4-1 votes. If we lose that seat to someone who is more of a “go along to get along kind of person,” or someone who’s more a part of the machine, you’re going to lose that opposition vote, or sometimes, in my opinion, the common sense vote.
Courier: So, you see yourself as someone who’s needed to bring a common sense viewpoint. It is safe to say that it is a conservative Republican viewpoint, or is there another way to describe your ideology? I ask because even though the seat is nonpartisan, you do bring partisanship into the conversation quite a bit.
Stuart: I was endorsed by the Republican Party for this run. I’ve always been a Republican. I’ve always voted conservative, yet I consider myself a modern conservative. And this is one of the most partisan towns I’ve ever been in. I mean, look at the people that attacked me at the school board. I don’t need to look up what their party affiliation is; I already know because they wear it like a badge of honor.
People take a stand and people take sides and for me I am a very proud modern conservative, not the MAGA ultra-right movement. The modern conservative just stands for common sense. And I wanna get back to what we did at the school district. A lot of the people that I’ve been speaking to in the community have said, “Russ if you could do at City Hall what you did in your first year at the school district, you’ll change everything.”
Courier: We know a fair amount about the current members of the City Council, their backgrounds and career paths. We know very little about Russell Stuart. You were born in Canada, came to Beverly Hills about 20 years ago and are now a business owner and BHUSD Board Member. Can you fill in some of the blanks about your life’s journey?
Stuart: I was in the production space for several years, and I was working in a security capacity with my clients. The reality TV world is quite toxic. So, I had the opportunity to transition into something that I still had a passion for, which was on the private security front. I did have some clients from my reality past, then I transitioned mainly into the music touring security world, where I worked with a bunch of major artists. I still do that. My company still sends people out on to music tours. And then I served nine, nine and a half years in the California State Guard.
Courier: What about your educational background? I know you’ve taken many courses at local community colleges. Do you have a college degree?
Stuart: I did not complete a degree, but I did take a considerable number of college courses. I graduated from the reserve police Academy at El Camino College, which is a part of my college credits. I also studied Public Safety and Law Enforcement at West LA College. I deal with law enforcement every day in my day job, not only on the security front, but obviously on the firearms front. I wanted to expand my knowledge of my own industry rather than really focusing on going to a college and getting a degree. I mean, sure. You know, I could have. But I’m very pleased with the education that I’ve gotten.
Courier: You presently own a gun business that sells to individual law enforcement officers, including those from the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD). Do you plan to continue selling guns to members of the BHPD if you are elected to the City Council?
Stuart: Yes. I would obviously make sure that anything I would be doing was kosher, but to individual police officers, yeah. It’s not funded by the city. It’s funded by the officers themselves. I don’t give, you know, freebies to cops. They still go through the same background check as everyone else, and they must have their proper documentation and a proper ID.
Courier: You have launched an online news publication that covers the city, including news about you. If elected to the City Council, do you plan to maintain a website with clickable ads, that reports on the city and your own actions?
Stuart: You know, it’s not me. It’s done by an AI agent and it writes based upon press releases. So, when you see something on the school district, it is based upon the press release that’s put out by the school district. Read it if you want, don’t read it if you don’t want. It’s a work in progress, but I think that there is a future in AI journalism.
Courier: All the City Council candidates are echoing concerns about public safety. What unique ideas do you have, and how would you implement them?
Stuart: We all know that public safety is everyone’s number one concern. So just simply saying, “I’m for public safety,” that’s the catch-all phrase. What are the issues internally [at BHPD] that you’re not speaking about? Issues that are going to affect recruiting, scheduling, mental health, equipment, technology, all of these different things go into what builds a proper law enforcement agency that keeps us safe. And the fact that I’ve been able to not only have some closer relationships with officers just in what I do for a living, but I’ve said, “Talk to me, tell me what’s needed, what’s happening on the ground.” I’m expecting, we all are expecting these people to take a bullet for us, yet I don’t see anyone sitting down with cops.
Courier: The Wilshire/La Cienega station has only been open for two weeks. You have ridden the Metro and say that you’re especially concerned about what you’re seeing. What changes would you implement?
Stuart: I took the train, and you know, some people there were totally fine. Some people I was quite concerned about. I had to step over a homeless guy who almost got into a fight with a couple that had to walk around him. I went to the Community Service Officer and told him about it. You have a person whose sole job is to do what I could have done by calling 911, it almost defeats the purpose.
So having police there, not uniformed personnel, but having police there would be my number one thing. I would change that day one. I have clients who will tell you nightmare stories of what the 4th and Main Street train station did. When the train gets let off at like three o’clock in the morning, all of the wandering zombies come off the train. That’s not to be too disrespectful to the homeless, but there are many, you know, homeless who are mentally ill and on substances that then turn into not themselves.
But again, on the police front, we need a culture change. And again, that truly sets me apart because I understand these people. I did the same thing at the school district. I said, “I’m not here to blame or point fingers. I’m here to fix it.” And that is why no matter what headline that you read of whatever tasty morsel that the papers like the print, as a whole the school district has not done better in a generation.
Courier: The state found last year that BHUSD failed to properly address racially motivated behavior at El Rodeo. The district is in litigation over racial harassment and discrimination claims, as well as for its selection of vice president. Is this consistent with “doing better?”
Stuart: The Ivory case is from the MAGA rally at the high school. Yeah. So that was on Election Day, or it could be the day after. I wasn’t even certified. Collins-Williams, I’m not gonna talk about this particular case. If you look at the timeline, that happened prior. Or even the other African American family and their daughter who got the appeal from the state that happened, I believe, two and a half years ago. Romeo Carey was placed on leave prior to the election. So, these are all cases when, if you want to talk about the quote-unquote new MAGA board, all of these things happened not on the MAGA board’s watch. So, the only thing that is current is the vote with Dr. Stern. They are pursuing what they believe is a righteous fight to install Amanda Stern back to her rightful place. Unfortunately, our lawyers and our board do not agree with his standing on it. So that’s about as best as I can say.
When you look at how certain leaders of our city view me, they’re not viewing me on the district lawsuits. Look at the endorsements I have from the Police Department and the Fire Department, I’m right there with Sharona and Lester. They’re looking at my commitment to my craft, which is leadership.
Courier: You aren’t holding traditional campaign events and haven’t raised much money compared to other candidates. What do you see as your path to victory?
Stuart: I’ve not been doing the traditional campaign. What is different is that I have close to 6,000 parents that are involved in the school district. Their kids’ lives are directly associated with decisions that I have made over the last 18 months. I do talk to a lot of people, I have a lot of surrogates, hundreds of surrogates who also speak to their neighbors.
If I don’t win, I know that the city will be in good hands because the one thing that all the candidates care about is the future of our city. But where I know that I have skills that others don’t is drive. There is a drive that people that know me will tell you about. Yeah, some people call me the “break-glass-in-case-of-emergency” guy. I’m totally fine with that title, because with a $24 million deficit, and law enforcement that we can’t staff, and a train that’s already proving to be a problem, and future problems, I think we’re at the “break glass-in-case-of-emergency” stage right now.
