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# Letter: Correcting claims about RIFT's development cap and its exemptions
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/for-the-record-editor/
- Published: 2008-08-07T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:34:54.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import

*By Jeff Segal Santa Monica*

I am writing to respond to the “LEADing the way” letter in your Aug. 5 paper. I have tremendous respect for Debbie Mulvaney as a caring member of our community, and major advocate for our public school. However, as a co-author of RIFT, who specifically worked on the exemptions, I felt it important to correct numerous factual errors in her editorial. She stated that development by the Boys and Girls Club, the Pico Youth and Family Center, and medical centers that support hospitals, would be impaired by RIFT. Section 2(A), excluded the following from the cap: All child and adult day care facilities, all schools, all places of worship, all hospitals, and all government facilities. Per the plain language of RIFT, there is no limit to development by the Boys and Girls Club, the Pico Youth and Family Center, or any medical building on property owned by UCLA or any other government agency.

In addition, she stated that RIFT was developed by a small private group. This assertion is false. RIFT was created by the combined efforts of Friends of Sunset Park, North of Montana Association, Ocean Park Association, Pico Neighborhood Association, Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, and Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Coalition. The language was than reviewed and endorsed by 10,295 Santa Monica residents, who provided the signatures to put RIFT on the ballot. I agree with Debbie that public schools need more help from the city, but the 1/13th of 1 percent, in increases in the city’s budget, that RIFT will allegedly take away, is not the problem. The cause of the school funding shortage is that helping public schools is not a priority for the city. Our city has a budget of almost $6,000 per resident. There is plenty of money to share. However, government entities do not like to share with other government entities, and it will probably take a new CEPS initiative to get our city’s public schools the funding that it needs.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 7, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080708.pdf?ref=smdp.com)