March 1973 was a time of disarray. The Watergate scandal was engulfing the Nixon Administration and the last American troops were about to leave Vietnam. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon had just been released, speaking to the sense of desolation taking hold of society. Meanwhile, the Russian lunar rover Lunokhod 2 began its third round of exploration around the actual moon’s surface, just as NASA ended its own manned missions, which had once seemed to signify the endless possibilities of America, itself. Meanwhile, on March 12, a tall, dapper young man arrived at Manhattan Beach City Hall. The city was in the midst of pulling itself out of the rubble of the 1971 earthquake, so City Hall was housed in a collection of trailers. Henry Mitzner had just left a short career as an engineer in the aerospace industry, which was in a tailspin. He had worked odd jobs, gone to night school to become an accountant, and come to Manhattan Beach to begin a second career in municipal finance.