For the fifth consecutive election, the City of Santa Monica will partner with the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica on informative election coverage on CityTV Channel 16 and, for the first time, on-line at www.smvote.org for the Nov. 5, 2002 election. “As always, CityTV will be full partners with the league for school board and college board of trustees candidate forums,” said City Manager Susan McCarthy. “But a special circumstance this year and a desire by both the city and the league to be seen as completely impartial require us to take a different approach to cablecasting City Council candidate forums and local ballot initiative programs.”
The special circumstance referred to by McCarthy is the league’s action/advocacy arm, which has taken a position in opposition to the qualified ballot measure commonly referred to as “Veritas,” which would change the governance structure in the city.
“We recognize and agree that the city’s governance structure is an issue that will be discussed at length by candidates for City Council,” noted Karen Carrey, president of the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica. “Because there is a high probability of the league’s position being mentioned frequently during the forums, and because CityTV-produced election programming is funded with public money allocated by the City Council, we will not be involved with either the live, interactive city council candidates forum or the taped local ballot issues forum.”
McCarthy said the city and the league agree that the public could perceive a conflict, which could prove confusing as election activities proceed this year.
CityTV is working with the Center for Governmental Studies to produce this year’s City Council and Rent Control Board candidate forums and local ballot initiative programming. The Center, established in 1983, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that studies and helps implement innovative approaches to civic involvement, including improving communication with voters. City officials expect to partner fully with the League for future elections.
A full slate of election programming on CityTV and additional educational events planned by the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica will be announced in the near future and posted on www.smvote.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 14, 2002. Read the original PDF.