But charter amendment may still land on the November ballot
Santa Monica’s top bureaucrat and the superintendent of the local school district on Wednesday announced an 11th-hour compromise intended to tranquilize the momentum behind a proposed amendment to the city charter that could land on the November ballot.
The deal calls upon City Hall to double for the next five years the $3 million it gives annually to the school district in ongoing funds, with a 2 percent to 4 percent annual adjustment, based on inflation. The details of the agreement also include loopholes for extraordinary circumstances, and options for both sides to reassess and renew the agreement through 2014.
It’s unclear if the deal sets aside enough money for the struggling district to call off a mounting campaign levied by parents that would force City Hall to give schools a minimum of $6 million annually. If passed by voters this November, the unprecedented charter amendment would require City Hall to give 4 percent of a designated portion of the general fund each year, indefinitely. That percentage would grow if the general fund grows by more than 3.5 percent in any given year.
The general fund targeted under the proposal is about $150 million this year, organizers said.
Leaders from the Community for Excellent Public Schools, the group that drafted the amendment and gathered more than 8,000 signatures to support it, will meet Friday to discuss the compromise. CEPS spokeswoman Rebecca Kennerly said the group will decide then whether to hand in their signatures, which would require voters to decide on the charter amendment. Once the signatures are turned in, there’s no way to change course and pull the item off of the ballot.
In a Wednesday memo, schools superintendent John Deasy strongly urged the local school board to support the compromise reached with City Manager Susan McCarthy, even though it might not raise as much money. “... I make this recommendation with the absolute belief that this should be the only solution to our joint work... I personally do not see the need for any charter amendment to adjust or amend the charter of the city of Santa Monica for the purposes of enhancing or adjusting Santa Monica-Malibu Unified school funding, and thus do not support such an action. This must be clearly understood to mean not supporting the action of filing any proposed initiative...,” Deasy wrote.
Deasy later added in a telephone interview, “There’s a lot at stake. A great deal of thought went into my recommendation and it’s based on two parts. The goal, which was a long-term contract with increased revenue — predictable, increased revenue — but the second part was to preserve the relationship with the city, the partnership that we have... I felt that there was a chance that, absent this agreement, CEPS may have jeopardized that relationship. It would have brought more money in, but it would have jeopardized the relationship we have.”
According to the terms negotiated by Deasy and McCarthy, a group of school and city leaders — including the city manager, superintendent of schools, mayor, school board president, and finance officials from City Hall and the school district — will meet in January 2007 to reassess the agreement. That group will decide whether to adjust the base funding by $1 million, at most.
In making that determination, officials will look at the “big eight” revenue generators — property tax, sales tax, utility users tax, transient occupancy tax, business licenses tax, real property transfer tax, parking facilities tax, and fines and forfeitures. If the cumulative growth of the big eight exceeds the inflation growth by 4 percent in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 combined, and exceeds 1.25 percent in both years, the group will discuss adjusting the base payment by an additional three-fourths of 1 percent of big eight revenues, up to $1 million, according to the agreement.
If growth doesn’t meet those levels or declines, the group will discuss whether base payments should be increased anyway, held constant, or reduced by a maximum of $1 million, according to the agreement. They also will consider whether to withhold inflation adjustments. In extraordinary circumstances — where big eight revenue shrinks or grows by at least 7.5 percent two consecutive years — the group will consider increasing payments or suspending the contract altogether.
Deasy said negotiations, which lasted for months, hinged mostly around what scenarios would prompt an increase in the base, and how much that increase would be.
“We both had to begin to narrow the parameters of possibilities for escalators, that probably was the biggest issue, and that took time to get there,” he said. “It was important and, you know, it was hard work, and it required thinking and you had to make assumptions about the future. And it also — it’s one of those things where Susan and I don’t typically negotiate things, so it was a role that was not typical for both of us, very respectful.”
The proposal will go before the school board tonight and the City Council on May 11. Both boards must back the compromise in order for it to become active.
McCarthy declined, through her spokeswoman, to answer questions related to the agreement. In a prepared statement issued to the media, she said, “I believe that the proposed terms represent a fair exchange of value and preserve the ability of the City Council to respond to broader community needs. If the elected officials concur, the city and district staff will work with their legal counsels to develop a formal agreement for execution.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2004. Read the original PDF.