Holbrook will take top spot next winter
CITY HALL — Pam O’Connor, the lone woman currently sitting on the Santa Monica City Council, assumed the city’s top office on Tuesday. The 56-year-old historic preservation consultant was appointed mayor by a slim 4-3 vote; a vote made without discussion.
“It’s a job to be done,” said O’Connor, who also served as mayor in the late 1990s. “The campaign’s over. We have a lot of business. We have a lot of stuff to do, and I want to move us forward as expeditiously as possible.”
O’Connor, who both lives and works in Santa Monica, replaced City Councilman Richard Bloom, the previous mayor who stepped down on Tuesday.
The mayor of Santa Monica possesses no special voting powers, but does make slightly more money and enjoys the name prestige that goes along with the office. The mayor also sets council agendas, along with the mayor pro tempore and the city manager.
Also Tuesday, Herb Katz was named mayor pro tempore, and the City Council voted to appoint Bob Holbrook mayor next winter, with newcomer Bobby Shriver serving as his mayor pro tempore.
City Councilman Kevin McKeown, who served as mayor pro tempore for the last three years and had been hoping to take over the city’s top seat, said after the narrow vote that he still wanted to serve as mayor at some point in the future.
“We found out the handwriting on the wall, so to speak,” said McKeown.
The motion to install O’Connor as mayor, put forward by Shriver, was followed by no discussion. Bloom did suggest an alternative, however. He proposed City Councilman Ken Genser be named mayor for the first two years of his record fifth term, with McKeown serving as mayor pro tempore.
Only Bloom, Genser and McKeown backed that configuration.
The lack of public discussion about the appointments indicated some consensus had been reached before the meeting and, therefore, raised concerns about whether council members violated the Brown Act, which forbids council members to do the city’s business in private. City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said she wouldn’t initiate a complaint, but added she was very concerned about possible violations.
“I’m always concerned... always,” she said.
Under the Brown Act, elected officials are allowed to discuss public items with only two of their colleagues outside of public meetings that are properly noticed. The Brown Act also prohibits council members from discussing an item serially, meaning when one council member speaks with two other council members, if those two then go on to speak with other council members, the law has been violated.
McKeown, who said he spoke to Shriver and Genser before the vote, declined to comment on any possible Brown Act violation, but acknowledged that gossip often surrounds mayoral appointments.
“It gets to be just background noise and you don’t really know,” he said.
O’Connor, who said she spoke to “one or two” council members before the mayor vote but declined to identify them, said her top priority in office would be to oversee an update already underway to the city’s land use element, a document which regulates development projects throughout Santa Monica. The land use element was last updated more than 20 years ago.
Also apparently important to O’Connor is shortening council meetings, an issue championed by Holbrook, Katz and Shriver. Throughout the Tuesday meeting, O’Connor repeatedly referred to the hour, with the goal of finishing by 11 p.m.
In the meantime, O’Connor is still getting over the death of her mother and regular companion Esther Smicklas, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 93. During a break in Tuesday’s meeting, O’Connor was approached by friends and colleagues, many of whom gave her mixed greetings — condolences regarding her mother’s death and congratulations over her mayoral appointment.
At one point, O’Connor began to cry. “It comes in waves,” she said through tears.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 15, 2004. Read the original PDF.