Chamber of Commerce looks to prop up candidates
DOWNTOWN — City Council candidates who run on a platform that includes ridding the city of its homeless population, bringing more parking downtown, easing traffic congestion and making City Hall more efficient will likely get an endorsement from the Chamber of Commerce.
In response to what they perceive as an unresponsive government, chamber officials hope to influence city policy by electing their own candidates into office. Chamber officials met last week with hoteliers and restaurateurs to find out what they want addressed by potential City Council candidates. And not surprisingly, the issues that have been top concerns for years — the increasing homeless population, a lack of parking, too much traffic and the bureaucracies of City Hall — are what business owners say make their lives difficult here.
The chamber, which has never endorsed City Council candidates, established a political action committee last year to find office seekers to run this fall who will advocate for business owner’s interests.
The chamber has for years attempted to protect businesses, but its members frequently butt heads with policy makers in City Hall. The majority of the City Council are members of Santa Monicans For Renters Rights, a liberal and well-supported political party in the city.
As a result, the chamber’s interests aren’t priority and are in the minority when it comes to local politics, business owners say. However, if candidates can be propped up with the help of the chamber’s endorsement and fundraising, the organization might be able to put some of its own in office and make some changes in Santa Monica, business owners hope.
At the very least, business officials want to feel as though their concerns aren’t falling on deaf ears.
Tim Dubois, who represents two beachfront hotels — Casa Del Mar and Shutters on the Beach — said in the 11 years of working in Santa Monica and being one of the larger employers, no City Council members have asked him what he thought about potential laws they were considering and how they would impact his business.
“All I ask is that I have some access and someone who will listen to me,” he told the committee. “ I don’t want any special favors or any special treatment... I just want someone to ask my opinion.”
“All I ask is that I have some access and someone who will listen to me.” — — TIM DUBOIS Casa Del Mar and Shutters on the Beach
And while Dubois and others feel their government is unresponsive, the City Council would say its primary goal is to respond to residents and businesses, who often have conflicting desires.
“The council views itself as responsive to their constituency,” said Tom Larmore, a local property rights attorney who heads the committee.
“And that’s not us,” Dubois responded. Larmore believes — as do many other people — that City Hall could be more responsive to businesses.
But the face of the City Council’s constituency might be changing — the Santa Monica population is becoming more affluent and perhaps not as liberal as it once was, chamber officials said.
“I think there is a lot of discontent in this city,” said Dr. Mike Gruning, the chairman of the chamber board of directors.
“I think there is a lot of discontent in this city.” — — MIKE GRUNING Chairman, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce
Last week’s meeting was the third of its kind held by the committee, which is asking different business groups what issues need to be addressed by candidates. The committee has previously met with nonprofit organizations, retailers and car dealers.
Hotel managers and restaurant owners told war stories of how homeless people have negatively impacted their business. They also expressed their frustration over City Hall’s willingness to bear the brunt of providing social services while surrounding cities ignore the problem.
Seth Horowitz, who runs the Oceana Hotel on Ocean Avenue, said it’s hurting his business. He told the story of an Australian family who stayed at the hotel and were “flabbergasted” at the food lines set up in Palisades Park by private church groups which attract hundreds of homeless people.
“It’s a subject we feel very clearly in our pockets,” he said. “It affects our business, the city and the image of Santa Monica.”
And despite that City Hall last year passed two laws aimed at curbing the food lines and reducing the homeless population downtown, most merchants say the situation hasn’t improved.
“I was hoping that it would improve but nothing is happening,” Horowitz said. “I think it’s the same.”
Dubois said it’s his hotels’ policy to warn guests about safety issues downtown.
“We advise people not to walk from our hotel to the Third Street Promenade and that was not the case a few years ago... we started that reluctantly and I wish it wasn’t that way,” he said, adding he feels like City Hall puts up barriers for businesses. “Tourism is so important to Santa Monica yet there is an unfriendly atmosphere.”
Sterling Meredith, who recently opened Good To Eat at 313 Wilshire Blvd., rhetorically asked whether City Hall operates in a vacuum since it appears there is growing discontent within the business community and the community at large.
“It seems so counter intuitive to what the residents want,” he said.
Chamber officials are establishing a process to select City Council candidates. In the next few months, the committee will begin looking at other chambers to see how they endorse and raise money for candidates. The committee will then develop its own guidelines about campaigning, raising money and identifying candidates.
Residents who decide to run for City Council are expected to announce their candidacy in July, when papers are officially taken out. Four council seats will be open this fall. City Councilmen Mike Feinstein, Herb Katz and Ken Genser, as well as Mayor Richard Bloom, are up for re-election. None of them have officially said they will seek another term.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 24, 2004. Read the original PDF.