Councilmen not pleased with Bayside decision to publish
The presses have rolled on a controversial publicly-funded newsletter that will contain the results of a city council candidate questionnaire.
City Attorney Marsha Moutrie has found that no laws or rules prevent the Bayside District Corp., a publicly-funded, non-profit organization that manages the downtown in partnership with the city, from publishing its September newsletter.
“I was asked to take a look at several things,” Moutrie said. “But given what they are doing, I didn’t find anything (wrong).”
Moutrie was asked to look into the legality of including the candidate questionnaire in the newsletter after a divided Bayside board voted 5-3 on Sept. 3 to send the issue to the presses. The newsletter, distributed to about 2,000 downtown residents and businesses, will be mailed out next week.
Some board members argued that publishing the questionnaire may violate state and federal laws because it uses public funds to promote city council candidates. They also said it may violate the city’s and state’s mass-mailing laws during elections, as well as the organizations own bylaws.
However, Moutrie found that Bayside is completely within its legal rights to collect and publish the unedited information.
Even though critics of the questionnaire have seized upon a phrase within the organization’s bylaws that prohibits Bayside from engaging in any “political activity,” Moutrie said part of the organization’s job is to advise the city council on matters that affect downtown. Its role by nature makes it a political entity within the city, she said.
“Whatever the bylaws say, it’s not to (strictly) prohibit political activity because that is what they do,” Moutrie said. “If there was a limitation on what they could do, that sentence could be held up.
“We told them why we didn’t see it as a limitation, but others could argue otherwise.”
Kathleen Rawson, Bayside’s executive director, agrees with Moutrie that the organization must take political positions frequently.
“We are mandated to advise the city on a number of issues downtown,” she said. “It’s almost impossible to do anything without getting involved politically in this town.”
Councilmen Richard Bloom and Ken Genser said while they agree the questionnaire is legal, they believe it sets a bad precedent for Bayside.
“I am keeping a watchful eye on it,” Bloom said. “I think the fact that it may be legal doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the right direction for an entity like Bayside to go, but ultimately they have to make that decision.”
Genser said publishing the questionnaire will inject the group into electoral politics in the city, which he said is inappropriate.
“I don’t like when public dollars are used to circulate a questionnaire about candidates’ positions,” he said. “It’s wrong and it’s unwise.”
“I don’t like when public dollars are used to circulate a questionnaire about candidates’ positions. It’s wrong and it’s unwise.” — — KEN GENSER Santa Monica city councilman
“It has the potential of doing harm to Bayside in the long-term if people start to look at Bayside as a political institution opposed to the public institution that is there for the public good,” he added.
Rawson said the questionnaire was not intended to influence readers but rather to educate them.
“It was our straightforward intent to inform our readership not on the candidates, but their opinions that affect us,” Rawson said.
All nine city council candidates were given six days to respond to five questions, which were limited to 15-word responses. None of the answers will be edited by Bayside’s newsletter staff.
Only one city council candidate, Abby Arnold, opted out of answering the questionnaire. She said she feels 15 words is not enough space to give proper answers.
“I think everything becomes sensitive during an election year,” she said. “Certainly the intent of the article was to inform our public, those in the downtown, of candidates’ specific views on issues that affect the downtown.”
The decision to allow Bayside to publish a candidate questionnaire could have a broader impact.
Similar institutions to Bayside, like the Pier Restoration Corp., which manages the Santa Monica Pier in partnership with the city, could circulate a questionnaire of its own. However, PRC officials have said they don’t believe the board would ever distribute a candidate questionnaire. Black clergy members take role in living wage movement
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 13, 2002. Read the original PDF.