> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Kids want voice in City Hall
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/kids-want-voice-in-city-hall/
- Published: 2002-10-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:48:32.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Government & Politics, Malibu, #archive-import

*Youth commission is planned*

Young people want a voice in City Hall so decisions that affect them aren’t made in a vacuum.

There is growing support for a commission of Santa Monica youth that would advise the city council on issues affecting residents that are too young to vote.

Los Angeles, Malibu and Huntington Beach, among other municipalities, have created similar commissions to advocate on behalf of youth, and also to design programs and services for younger residents. The commissions also get students involved in the governmental process, officials said.

The Santa Monica Unified School District has student representatives from its two high schools — Santa Monica and Malibu — serving as alternate school board members. And with the exception of voting on personnel and student expulsion decisions, the students are given full voting rights.

Supporters say now it’s time for Santa Monica’s youth to have a stronger voice at City Hall.

34C,“I don’t feel like a lot of students feel their voices are being heard and they don’t feel a connection to the city now, at the present time,” said Cynthia Santiago, Santa Monica High School student body president. “I see a commission as both making sure our voices are heard and making sure our input is given when council members are making decisions.”

Neil Carrey, a city Recreation and Parks Commissioner, said the city should have input from the youth on many decisions being made in City Hall. Without youth involvement, he said officials risk making poor decisions.

“Right now you’ve got a group of adults sitting there deciding what’s good for kids,” he said. “Unless the kids are there to give input, what do we know?”

Superintendent John Deasy said he intends to eventually raise the issue of creating a youth commission in the city.

3FE,“It strikes me as a critical part of our community that would be well served with a commission,” he said. “It’s not that youth aren’t being served but that they get fractioned off into other issues.

“The youth, especially in Santa Monica, are a very active people, and I would assume the youth would really welcome this,” Deasy added.

Some people have said young adults should have played a larger role in designing the $120 million civic center redevelopment plan to include athletic fields, and they should have been more involved when city officials designed a new skate facility at Olympic Park.

Santiago — whose older sister is city council candidate Josefina Santiago Aranda — said city officials do reach out for help. She is currently helping plan the city’s new youth center as part of the Virginia Avenue Park Expansion Project, which is scheduled to be completed this year.

But she said that doesn’t mean the city’s young adults don’t deserve a constant voice to air their concerns from within city government.

5E1,“They can always make room for the youth, especially if they value our voice like they say they do,” Santiago said.

> “They can always make room for the youth, especially if they value our voice like they say they do.” — — CYNTHIA SANTIAGO Santa Monica High School, student body president

Carrey said if the city is going to have commissions representing women, older Americans and the disabled, then there is no reason the youth shouldn’t have one too.

“If you don’t feel there is a need for one, then there shouldn’t be a need for the others,” he said.

As the city council’s youngest member, Mayor Mike Feinstein, 43, said he believes there is a lack of youth input.

“I believe we need both more youth on the council and more youth advising the council," he said.

However, while city council members have been expressing support individually for a youth commission, the city manager’s office has not been instructed to begin the process of creating one, said Santa Monica spokeswoman Judy Rambeau.

But Santiago said that doesn’t mean something couldn’t begin happening within the year. While she said students weren’t organizing over the issue right now, they have been talking with city council members and city council candidates about the issue.

“I would ask different people, on the city council and others, to make these efforts and help establish a youth commission soon,” she said. “We need some place connected to the city where we can hold officials accountable.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 23, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102302.pdf?ref=smdp.com)