By Ellen Brennan Santa Monica
When I moved to Santa Monica in l995 and was a stranger to city politics, I attended a candidates’ forum to get a sense of the City Council candidates and their positions. It was a interesting evening. As it progressed, some of the candidates, instead of talking about their qualifications for City Council, started taking potshots at another candidate. This seemed strange because the candidate being attacked seemed to be bright, knowledgeable and experienced. He seemed to have a clear grasp of the issues and a kind of stand-up integrity that I found appealing. His name was Kelly Olsen.
I later learned that he, and a video he made, had been largely responsible for the city’s moving the homeless campers out of Palisades Park, giving the park back to the residents. And for this, some people in town still hated him, I was told. Thus I was introduced to the polarization of viewpoints in Santa Monica and to what it took to stand up to the powers that be in defense of what you believe is right.
Kelly Olsen has continued to do just that. And I have continued to admire him for doing so. I don’t always agree with him. In fact, sometimes I disagree vociferously. But I continue to admire his integrity, his forthrightness and his willingness to question.
Kelly is finishing a four-year term on the Planning Commission, having served as chair for part of that time. I was an appellant in three appeals before the Commission and I’ve found him to be fair, reasonable, creative, a very knowledgeable Commissioner and very concerned about the direction the city is taking. He has continued to question the way things are done and to stand as champion of residents’ rights to code enforcement, reasonable development and accountability from the city. He questions those who don’t like to be questioned, ignores those who try to derail him and tends not to honor sacred cows.
He is up for reappointment. His fellow Commissioners and those who want resident-oriented development, very much want him reappointed. Those who don’t like having their authority challenged and those who have agendas for city development, want him gone.
The Planning Commission under Kelly’s chairmanship (and the present Commission with Kelly as a member) has been a breath of fresh air for those of us who have concerns. We’ve been heard, listened to and taken seriously, instead of being dismissed as antithetical to developer’s interests or staff’s directions.
If you care, as I do, about having the City of Santa Monica be accountable to the residents, I suggest that each reader follow Kelly Olsen’s reappointment closely. Kelly is one of the few people in town who is willing to stand up for residents in circles where doing so is risky. You may not always agree with him, but you have to admire his courage. He stands as a role model for the rest of us. I hope the Councilmembers will have the wisdom to reappoint Kelly Olsen to another term on the Planning Commission. We sorely need him there to continue to represent our interests as residents of Santa Monica.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 24, 2003. Read the original PDF.