Change is difficult but inevitable. And once it’s embraced, it should be used as an opportunity.
And that is exactly what City Manager Lamont Ewell is doing. New to the job himself, Ewell is dealing with several key positions within city government that have become vacant. Filling them with the right people while trying to get up to speed on the city’s pressing issues is certainly a daunting task. But Ewell is up for the challenge and believes it’s a great opportunity to be able to hire a new planning director, a new finance director, a new spokesperson at City Hall and a chief of police.
Not many managers are able in their first year to assemble their own team and Ewell recognizes that and feels fortunate that he can. Ewell has embraced the changing of the guard and we are confident he will hire the right people. Why? Because he is reaching out to the community to help him. Three panels comprised of residents, business leaders and high-ranking city officials will be assembled to help select a new police chief. A similar method was done in selecting a new assistant to the city manager, a key person in relating information to the public.
Change isn’t just occurring at City Hall. The leadership at Santa Monica College and at the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District has recently changed as well. A new college president was hired earlier this year and a new schools superintendent was hired last month.
There is great opportunity in this community right now to harness the new energy from those who have recently come to Santa Monica and those who will be coming here soon. It’s an opportunity to start fresh — to let go of some of the old baggage and resentment between City Hall and the schools on issues of funding and development here.
So our suggestions to the incoming regime... To the new president at SMC: Do a better job of following up with the community regarding the institution’s growth and traffic plans. To the superintendent of schools: Her staff and school board need to provide more readily available information to the public and be upfront about the content of that information. To the new planning director: The rewriting of the general plan that is currently underway should not lose steam and needs to focus on how Santa Monica can be more creative in development while not losing our small-town character. Future development also needs to address the loss of the middle class in Santa Monica. To the police chief: While Santa Monica is experiencing a record low crime rate, quality-of-life issues pertaining to our vagrant population are serious and need to be addressed.
We look forward to seeing what these newcomers have up their sleeves and how they will make Santa Monica an even better place to live, play and work.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 25, 2006. Read the original PDF.