The City Council this week appointed Victor Grgas, a retired business man, to replace Deb Machen as the District One Planning commissioner representing Old Town and Surfside.
Grgas will serve until Machen’s term expires in December 2018. Planners serve four-year terms.
Machen has resigned from the commission, effective Nov. 1. She and her husband are moving to Rossmoor.
Grgas’ appointment was requested by District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton.
Grgas has lived in Seal Beach for 40 years. Grgas was a member of the City Council from 1982 to 1990 and was mayor twice. He supported the two-story height limit that became city law in 2008 when voters approved Measure Z. In 2014, Grgas supported Measure EE, which made the city clerk’s position an appointed position rather than an elected office. He is retired now. His late wife Nancy Grgas founded the Leos, the Seal Beach Lions’ youth wing, in 1996. He has been a member of the Seal Beach Lions for more than 25 years.
According to his biography, which Deaton provided to the Sun, Victor Grgas worked for the city of Long Beach as bureau manager for the Property and Economic Development Department, for Montebello as assistant city manager, and for Redondo Beach as the director of Economic Development.
In the private sector, Grgas was president of VSG & Associates, a land use consulting and real estate brokerage firm and he was director of planning and government relations for Forest City Development, a national real estate development company.
