Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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Dear Mayor Davis, Councilmembers and City Attorney Sloan, The purpose of this open letter is to express grave concerns regarding the constitutionality of item 5-K agendized for the upcoming September 26, 2023 City Council meeting. The name of the item is "Adoption of a Resolution Amending and Restating the Civility at Public Meetings Policy set forth in Resolution No. 10642 (CCS)." The item seeks the addition of the City's Statement Against Hate to the existing civility policy. The Statement...
City staffer made unilateral decision to affect the composition of policymaking body which is supposed to be comprised of seven councilmembers and two housing voucher holders, including one with lived experience of homelessness To those who follow Santa Monica politics it is no surprise to hear that a city employee took it upon themselves to make a policy decision without direction from a policymaking body like the Council or the Housing Authority Board. City activists refer to such...
The City of Santa Monica violated my civil rights by failing to engage with me in an interactive process after I requested a reasonable accommodation to be able to call in and offer my public comment over the Council phone line as opposed to in person on December 6, 2022. They did not offer any alternative for me to participate in the meeting, as is required by the law. When a friend who went to the City Hall signed me up to speak and was ready to let me call her cell phone and hold it up to...
It seems to me that the neighborhood groups would like to eat the cake (as in receive public funding from the City) and eat it too (as in engage in legislative advocacy), without so much as a disclaimer that public funding is not paying for the group's political activity. I am not OK with that. As a resident of Downtown Santa Monica, where there is no neighborhood group, I do not wish for the City to disburse my tax dollars to the neighborhood groups in other parts of town, (that is special...
It is this Council's responsibility to the voters to demote Sue Himmelrich from the position of Mayor – in order to protect democracy. Himmelrich acts like a dictator who controls, intimidates and manipulates Council proceedings even though she is supposed to act as a neutral meeting facilitator only. Himmelrich is reported to have effectively bought her Council seat in 2014. Himmelrich is an elitist, disconnected, virtue-signaling fauxgressive in a City which overwhelmingly voted for Bernie S...
Amid an affordable housing and homelessness crisis, why would the City want to suspend all meetings of the Housing Commission "until City Council considers its annual appointments in June 2022" (May 10, 2022 agenda item 13C)? And why are the Mayor and Councilmembers insisting that "once the Housing Commission resumes meeting following the appointments, it shall immediately hold elections for Chair and Vice Chair"? Those elections are already compulsory per Council Resolution 11337 (CCS) and Hous...
Urged by Mayor Himmelrich (a supporter of SMRR), and Councilmember Davis (a supporter of Santa Monica Forward), Council attempted to unlawfully reappoint Chair Buchanan to her sixth term, and strategically appointed Ms. Marasco to a seat she did not apply for. The City Council is expected to attempt again on January 11, 2022 the appointments to two seats on the Housing Commission: a 2-year designated seat for a Section 8 program participant with lived experience of homelessness (currently held...
To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to express my concerns regarding the news of the State of California Bar appointing George Cardona as Chief Trial Counsel. Since the California State Bar is currently undergoing much awaited reforms, it is particularly important that the new Chief Trial Counsel is highly skilled and has a history of ethical and professional conduct. This communication is being submitted to the California Bar in the form of an open letter because the Bar has recently been the...
At the July 15, 2021 meeting of the Santa Monica Housing Commission, Chair Michael Soloff proceeded with the selection of the leadership even though commissioners had not yet been appointed by the City Council to the four open seats. Apart from participating on the Housing Commission, Mr. Soloff is also the husband of Mayor Sue Himmelrich and a co-chair of SMRR, an organization which has held power over Santa Monica's politics for decades. It appears that Mr. Soloff acted in violation of the...
The following is a written public comment submitted to the Santa Monica City Council on 6/29/21 This is to request that Mayor Himmelrich refrain from nominating or voting for SMRR-endorsed Council applicant Caroline Torosis due to the appearance of a conflict of interest caused by the fact that Mayor Himmelrich's husband, Michael Soloff, is a co-chair of SMRR. A conflict of interest is a situation in which a person such as a public official has a private or personal interest sufficient to...
If you are wondering how your tax dollars are spent on addressing the homeless crisis in Santa Monica, do not ask the City as they would likely not be able to answer. They would probably even think it is impolite of you to ask. The lack of oversight and accountability in homeless services has been brought up to the City's attention by advocates and former and current clients of homeless services for years now. Such inquiries routinely fell on the City's deaf ears or were met with vague blow...
The main purpose of this letter is to urge the City Council and Councilmember McCowan to reconsider Mr. Cardona's position as stated in his January 6, 2021 response to Olga Zurawska's Demand to Cure and Correct. Mr. Cardona's position invites a dangerous precedent for democracy by normalizing Brown Act violations...
A Demand to Cure and Correct alleges a Brown Act violation regarding the selection of Council leadership, calls for Council to conduct new vote without participation of Councilmember McCowan. Letter sent on December 18, 2020 to Mayor Himmelrich, City Councilmembers, Interim City Attorney Cardona, Interim City Manager Dilg and City Clerk Anderson-Warren reads: Dear Mayor Himmelrich and Santa Monica Councilmembers, Pursuant to California Government Code Section 54960.1, I am writing to call your...
Throughout Santa Monica, about 1,488 residents currently live in subsidized housing known as Section 8, a federal program administered by the Santa Monica Housing Authority (SMHA). These are the extremely low income Santa Monicans – families, seniors, and individuals living with disabilities. One would think that a city which represents itself as a liberal stronghold fully invested in affordable housing would have concern for its most vulnerable residents and their rights. But this is not the...
Over the past two years eight lawsuits have been filed by clients and former employees against the City’s sole provider of homeless services, The People Concern. A current lawsuit by a former employee, a case manager, alleges that her supervisor repeatedly asked her and her co-worker to sign various forms and/or applications on behalf of the organization’s homeless clients. These forms included budgeting forms, low-income housing forms, compliance forms, policy and procedure forms and...
Thanks to community advocacy, City Council approved $669K in funding for improvements to Samoshel - an interim housing facility located on City property, leased and operated by OPCC dba The People Concern. The facility is a tent that has not been improved by the City or by The People Concern for a quarter of a century. During that time, vulnerable homeless individuals - many of them seniors, disabled or with serious health conditions - have been warehoused, sometimes for years, in substandard...
We oppose the extension of funding for OPCC dba The People Concern, unless the City commissions an independent fiscal and performance audit. If the City extends the funding, we propose it should be conditional for the next two years, with specific goals and benchmarks for the provider to meet each quarter, and with citizens' oversight formed within the first six months. This proposal should be welcomed by a City that aspires to be fiscally responsible, and a progressive leader on addressing...
I have serious concerns about the qualifications and performance of the Santa Monica Social Services Commission, and particularly its Chair Mr. Parent, as well as the staff liaison Ms. Yavari, whose job it is to assist the commission in fulfilling its responsibilities under the law. Chair Parent seems to be uninformed about the role of the Commission he is chairing. He stated on social media, "We are a volunteer, independent citizen's commission that works to educate itself and think about...
This Council is about to approve $1.6M in public funding for OPCC dba The People Concern, supposedly for the provision of homeless services. This is despite the City being on notice for at least two years of the provider's unlawful operations which include neglect, abuse and civil rights violations of clients, for example elder abuse and discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Further, OPCC is in violation of the grant agreement they have with the City, which should prevent the...
The homeless count is a cause for celebration for homeless services providers because it gives them an idea of how much public funding they will be receiving to sustain themselves for another year. Every year the City counts its unhoused residents, and based on those numbers and other statistics disburses about $1.6M in taxpayer dollars to its main homeless services provider, OPCC. This is a great deal for OPCC because the public funding flows to them without any accountability measures built...
