Sunday, the Santa Monica Coalition to Protect the Living Wage is kicking off their campaign “to protect Santa Monica’s living wage law” at City Hall.
The coalition is the political arm of Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, which is an appendage of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employee’s union. Vivian Rothstein is a paid HERE organizer and chair of SMART. SMART and the coalition are both headquartered at 525 Colorado — HERE’s union hall.
Lest you think that all this is a coincidence and that the coalition and SMART are not HERE clones, check out the guest speaker for the kick off. It’s Maria Elena Durazo, president of HERE, Local 11.
Isn’t it incongruous that the president of HERE is a keynote speaker at a living wage kickoff? A HERE contract allows unionized hotels to pay employees a basic hourly wage less than that required for non-union hotels under the city’s “living” wage requirement. Whoops, I forgot. It’s not about wages, it’s not about justice. It’s about unionizing hotels.
In SMART talk, SMART’s summer 2002 newsletter, Loew’s Hotel housekeeper, Edith Garcia is quoted as saying, “I’m making more than the living wage now, but it could be all taken away so easily.” Edith is so right. If Loews unionizes, her pay could drop by $2 or $3 an hour, or even more. Edith better think again about whether she really wants the union.
On Sunday, the Santa Monica Police Officers Association interviews city council candidates. The POA is the bargaining unit for our sworn police personnel, so wages and benefits are their major concerns.
The POA likes to back front runners so the individuals they endorse are odds-on favorites to win seats. With a sizable war chest and lots of political savvy, they are very successful at getting their favorite politicians elected.
POA endorsees usually portray themselves as championing “law and order” and pro-police. However, the POA has frequently backed candidates who, after being elected, have been slow to approve budgets to expand much needed resources such as additional officers for vice or traffic enforcement or to expand the homeless team or to hire additional patrol officers, for example.
In previous elections, the POA has endorsed numerous candidates who favor an open door homeless policy even though transients — who comprise less than 2 percent of our city population — account for over one-third of the SMPD’s arrests and bookings.
It seems everyone benefits in this special interest political game but the residents.
On Tuesday evening, the Santa Monica City Council will deal with the 2001/2002 Annual Review of the City’s Coordinated Plan for Homeless Services and Related Issues.
The annual report, produced by the community and cultural affairs department, analyzes the state of homelessness in Santa Monica and reports on the effectiveness of the 10 city supported homeless service agencies.
Also on the agenda are first readings of two proposed municipal ordinances. Section 4.08.097 prohibits sleeping in downtown doorways at night. Chapter 5.06 has two sections: 5.06.010: Restrictions on food distribution in public parks and on the lawn in front of City Hall and 5.06.020: Food distribution on public streets and sidewalks prohibited without city authorization.
To date, a pro-homeless city council has vigorously resisted taking steps to stop the homeless influx, limit services or establish goals to reduce the number of vagrants here.
However, with the ever-louder chorus of complaints now coming from all segments of the community about the number of — and behavior of — the ballooning army of vagrants, transients and inebriates, our leadership has to act.
The proposed ordinances are a beginning for taking back our streets and parks. As such, they should be fully supported. So, it’s going to be interesting to see if city leaders will finally and grudgingly take these small steps to help mitigate problems or continue to look the other way, obfuscate and whine.
Will they make-up excuses for why they can’t initiate controls on the public feedings? Or, will they vote to squander even more taxpayer money on services that seem to enable even more souls to exist in misery on our streets?
Tune in Tuesday night or read all about it in the Daily Press next week.
Bill Bauer is a freelance writer and longtime resident of Santa Monica.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 20, 2002. Read the original PDF.