By BILL
IT’S BEEN A MONTH SINCE FORMER Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District, Chief Financial Officer, Winston Braham, addressed the City Council about aspects of the district’s policies that some council members had issues with.
Of particular concern to Mayor Pro Tem, Herb Katz and Council members Bobby Shriver and Robert Holbrook were gag orders with former employees (such as Braham) and parents with children in special education programs. At stake was a nearly $530,000 increase in the City’s annual allocation to the schools — already near $6.7-million.
On June 12, as part of the annual budget approval process, City Council voted to withhold the increase until the district muzzled its gag policy. At least one school board member has threatened turning down the increase rather than give in to Council recommendations. This same school board member also said all the controversy was being stirred up by a half-dozen malcontents (like me?) and the community didn’t see any problem.
This is a fight the school board can’t win. Always desperate for cash, they’re now going to dig in their heels and say, “We don’t want city money if it comes with strings?” Big mistake. However it’s one more bit of arrogance many voters will remember next time these elected bureaucrats seek reelection, increase parcel tax assessments or float another $268-million bond issue.
It’s not just secrecy agreements, it’s the district’s sloppy fiscal practices that’s contributing to the mistrust and disgust. The latest crisis started last Fall when a 5 percent teachers raise (in reality, a 9 percent increase with benefits added) was tentatively approved. Braham claims administrators, the financial oversight committee, school board and other interested parties were clear that he, “Could not and would not support the increase and were further clear as to the impact of said increase.”
All this reveals a district still in chaos. For 10 years, problems have grown and festered. The reason for the ongoing crisis — including gag orders, overspending and waste — are never addressed. School board members, district administrators and school cheerleaders consistently bury their heads in the sand and ignore the ongoing train wreck. There’s no accountability because they all think they’ll always get money they need, one way or another.
The Community for Excellent Public Schools, a school lobbying group, and lifelong learning/education supporters including Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, Co-Chair, Denny Zane (who makes a living running campaigns for school parcel tax propositions and bond proposals), lobbied the city to just “show them the money” without any conditions. In other words, business as usual. Don’t forget, six out of seven school board members were endorsed by Zane’s SMRR.
A renewal or increase in the current parcel tax will surely be on the ballot next year. School cheerleaders better hope they’re right — that parents and the general public don’t care about district mismanagement. But, if they’ve misjudged public sentiment, they’ll get the wake up call they need and maybe real reform will finally come to the SMMUSD.
City Council recently reviewed plans for the new Civic Center “Village." They weren’t 100 percent happy with the proposals, so the council sent them back for design revisions. Cramming 325 units of condominiums and public housing into these three acres is like stuffing a fat woman’s foot into a size five shoe.
Councilman, Ken Genser doesn’t want to reduce the number of units even though its obvious there’s just too much development on the site. Genser suggest “enlivening the project’s walking street” as if that’s going to solve the density issues with this bloated monster.
To make thing worse, both Katz and Genser are open to building one of the housing blocks as high as ten floors to reduce mass and open up more ground for park and play areas. This is also nonsense.
This City Council needs to get back to reality, If they won’t terminate this project outright and leave the space open for use by all the people, they should cut the housing in half. They’d still have a sow’s ear but a salvageable one.
Lastly, Don’t forget the first Santa Monica Fourth of July Parade in decades. It all starts at City Hall, Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. and continues down Main Street. Go! It should be a blast for the entire family. For parade information: www.opa-sm.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 2, 2007. Read the original PDF.