By Maya Li Meinert
Special to the Daily Press

MID-CITY — The No on Prop. W campaign put up a billboard Thursday that changes the famous Santa Monica Pier sign to read: “Santa Monica: For Sale by City Council.”

The billboard, located on Olympic Boulevard between Cloverfield Boulevard and 26th Street, directs voters to the group’s web site in efforts to sway them from supporting a council-generated proposal to overturn a law limiting kickbacks from those doing business with City Hall.

The No on Prop. W campaign is being waged by Election Watchdog, a political action committee sponsored by the Campaign for Consumer Rights, a nonprofit group. Carmen Balber, spokesperson for the campaign, said the billboard will run through the election at a cost of $2,000.

As of 1999, there were 27

billboards throughout Santa Monica, according to city officials.

If Proposition W passes this November, it would overturn the 2000 Taxpayer Protection Amendment to the city charter, a voter-approved, anti-corruption law that prohibits city council members and other public officials from accepting kickbacks from anyone whose business dealings involve work with City Hall. The law bars public officials from taking campaign contributions, gifts over $50, or employment from any person or company awarded a city contract, special tax break or other public benefit.

Prop W, also known as the Good Government Act, would not apply provisions for campaign contributions nor prohibit public officials from accepting employment from anyone doing business with City Hall. It would prohibit the receipt of gifts, but only during pending business negotiations; once a contract is complete, the new law would allow public officials to accept gifts from a person or company with which the city has just made an agreement. Proposition W would still set limits on the dollar value of gifts accepted.

“Proposition W does nothing to prevent political kickbacks as voters intended when they passed this strong conflict-of-interest law in 2000,” said Balber. “It will lead to increased political corruption in Santa Monica.”

But according to Mayor Robert Holbrook, there was no corruption to begin with.

“They tried to clean up a problem that doesn’t exist,” he said. “The city of Santa Monica has the lowest contribution limits in California. It’s hard to make a case that someone is corrupt over a $250 donation.”

Holbrook said the existing law is “massively screwed up” and is “impossible” for elected officials to follow.

“If you vote yes on one thing, you’re benefiting one group. If you vote no, you’re benefiting another,” he said Thursday. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Holbrook hasn’t seen the billboard, but he doesn’t think it will persuade voters.

“We have very savvy, intelligent voters in Santa Monica,” he said.

City Councilmember Richard Bloom agrees.

“They are free to campaign in any way they want, but they’re still focusing on the same thing as before, something that their own leadership acknowledges doesn’t exist in Santa Monica — corruption,” argued Bloom during a televised debate last month that focused on Proposition W. “We just have to agree to disagree that the measure on the ballot is a good measure, a strong measure, that replaces an unconstitutional law we will do well to get rid of.”

Meanwhile, Balber hopes the billboard will get voters to visit the No On Prop. W web site to learn what she said is the “truth” about the ballot measure.

“It’s too early to tell, but I think the major thrust is to make sure people know this is on the ballot and that people know it’s not what it says it is — the ‘Good Government Act,’” she said.