By MY WRITE By Bill Bauer
There’s always a question that comes up when community activists talk about our City Council: How many people will it take to show up at a council meeting and possibly change their minds on an issue?
Through experience, we all know cards and letters mean little. I’ve seen previous City Councils ignore petitions with thousands of signatures. And those e-mails you send? They don’t make much of an impact, either — unless you agree with them, I’ve been told.
It seems as though the City Council votes pretty much the way it wants. While council members deny that deals are cobbled out behind the scenes, five out of seven council members also are members of the same political organization — Santa Monicans for Renters Rights — and have the same political agenda.
Here, the emphasis is on social services, affordable housing, traffic calming, hotel workers’ rights, “green” development and sustainable cities.
In the SMRR age, Santa Monica is one big social engineering experiment and a model for future utopias. Feeding and housing the world’s poor in a manner “friendly to the earth” has replaced serving residents.
So how many people does it take to move this City Council? Apparently a lot more than a thousand, angry, marching parents and school kids who want the city to come up with about $7 million to tide over this year’s school deficit.
Councilman Michael Feinstein passed the buck back to the schools, urging them to pass their new parcel tax proposal first, then come back to the city for “complementary” funding. What? If the parcel tax wins, you’ll give ‘em even more money? What happens if it loses?
Unfortunately, the Save Our Schools parcel tax committee’s own poll shows opposition to a school tax increase. Already the various parcel tax increase plans under consideration are meeting with more criticism and opposition than Measure EE did.
And with a possible increase in the state sales tax, increased vehicle registration fees and a host of other taxes, voters aren’t in the mood to add higher school taxes to their woes.
Based on public opinion now, the passage of a new parcel tax increase looks to be one big gamble. Nevertheless, Feinstein wants to see residents pay up first, in hope of saving his favorite social programs later.
Councilwoman Pam O’Connor suggested waiting when she mused, “We can’t say ‘yes’ to one thing unless we know what the impact would be.” Commenting on suggested cuts in affordable housing, she stated, “Our young children will need a place to live when they start out and get a first job. We are trying to create the future for them.”
Would someone inform O’Connor that most of the city’s affordable housing stock has gone to Russian and other foreign nationals of late and that Santa Monicans don’t do well when it comes to city housing programs. And, futuristically speaking, doesn’t education come before jobs and an apartment?
Mayor Richard Bloom’s big concern was “to preserve funding for social services and housing and make cuts where it will least be felt by low-income residents.”
Councilman Bob Holbrook carped about the city’s budget deficit ballooning to $18 million if the city gave in to parents’ demands. He wanted to “wait and see.” Only Councilman Herb Katz asked for immediate support while his colleague, Ken Genser, cautiously suggested, “We could do more.”
Councilman Kevin McKeown, a school district technology consultant, recused himself.
The cynic in me wonders if these were a thousand hotel workers, wouldn’t our elected leaders be standing on their heads to oblige? Santa Monica shows how unique it really is when it places our children behind the homeless, low-wage workers, union workers and non-resident housing projects.
However, I don’t see many angry PTSA types writing nasty letters to the editor or flooding the Samohi-PALS Internet site with invectives. I don’t see upset school supporters raising hell. And, no one is threatening, “We’ll remember come re-election time.”
It’s almost like a thousand angry parents have turned into paper tigers while the City Council plays a “wait and see” game.
That’s why things are the way they are in this town. It’s because we let them get away with protecting their special interests and gamble on our children’s future. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 24, 2003. Read the original PDF.