ONE MAN’S TAKE ON CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
CITY HALL Sitting through another seemingly ceaseless City Council meeting, I couldn’t help but hum some Steve Miller Band: “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slip-pin’ into the future.”
Once again, the council yanked several items off of the agenda Tuesday night, due primarily to the parade of people who came out to speak on two items — the city’s new cultural master plan and an update on runway safety enhancements at the Santa Monica Airport.
The agenda was stacked to begin with, so much so that I was reluctant to write about the public financing of City Council campaigns earlier this week out of fear that it would be jerked, and I was right, which leads me back to a notebook I wrote a few weeks ago where I questioned the thought process that goes into formulating the agendas.
Yeah, I’ve heard it before. The council doesn’t know how many people are going to show up for any one item, but it doesn’t take a City Hall insider to figure out which issues are going to cause a stir, especially when council members receive a glut of e-mails and phone calls from the public beforehand.
Something needs to be done when it comes to agenda management, and that something needs to happen now because there were plenty of irate people who were upset that the public financing piece was pulled very late in the evening, including Councilman Kevin McKeown, a big supporter of “clean money” campaigns.
“To not hear it (brings) a level of disappointment,” said McKeown, who pointed to the contingent of experts on campaign finance reform waiting to speak. “Sometimes, I think it will be necessary for the council to buckle down and realize we can’t always go home at 11 o’clock.”
For the record, the council adjourned at 11:56 p.m. Councilmember Pam O’Connor said the council cannot control the number of people who speak on items, and with more than 100 lined up on Tuesday, something needed to be done to end the meeting at a reasonable hour.
“We can’t always get to everything,” O’Connor said. “We will always have struggles. There will be winners and losers in that.”
Mayor Richard Bloom, who is partly responsible for formulating the agendas, said he did not think it would be good policy to go late into the evening when people are tired, hungry and not thinking clearly. Bloom has made it a practice of setting an 11 p.m. deadline for the council to finish its business, which I appreciate, because it means I can go home early, but if that is going to be the norm, the agendas need to be shorter or better planned.
In the end, the public financing piece was put on hold, as was the issue of expanding access to the airport from Santa Monica College’s Bundy Campus (a hot-button issue to be sure) and expedited permitting for solar electric and solar thermal systems.
Ironically, agenda management was also pulled off the table.
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER So what did the council do Tuesday night? A lot, actually.
In addition to approving several construction and consulting contracts, including one for a new Big Blue Bus customer service center that Mayor Pro Tem Herb Katz opposed because of the $650,000 price tag, the council settled a couple of suits — $75,000 for a sewer backup in a home that forced a family to relocate and $1.3 million for bus accident that killed a pedestrian. City Hall will pay $965,000, with its insurer picking up the rest.
From there, the council received an update on the Exposition Light Rail line and efforts to bring it to Santa Monica. It was nice to hear from county transportation officials they are still committed to doing so, despite rumblings that it would be put on hold in favor of other Westside projects — namely, Green Line extension and carpool lanes. Keep an eye out for an upcoming article on the Expo Line’s progress.
Next, the council heard from some residents who were appealing a Landmarks Commission decision that denied them the chance to build a new home in the Third Street Historic District.
That took up nearly an hour of our lives. From there, the council jumped into a few ordinances dealing with hedges and product sampling on the pier and promenade, and then ordered the city manager to purchase some downtown properties to the tune of $30.9 million as part of the Downtown Parking Strategy Plan.
“See, we passed three items in five minutes,” Bloom said. “Now we are really moving along.”
Not so fast, close to two dozen people came out to show their support for the city’s cultural master plan, called “Creative Capital.”
I’ve already written several stories on this so, I won’t elaborate. However, I will say that it wasn’t necessary for so many people to say what amounted to the same thing. I know it’s big and people spent more than a year working on it, but at the end of the day, keep it brief and keep it interesting. Now that would be creative.
The same applies to runway safety. Sentiments not only become redundant, but sameness only dilutes the impact of the statements made. I’m all for the public process, but let’s be smart about it and the two or three best speakers and let’s get on with it.
And with that, I should take my own advice and end this rant. Time is running out and I still have another story to write before deadline.
But before I go, I have to mention the passing of two fixtures in the community — Beth Feinstein, mother of former Mayor Michael Feinstein, and Steven Alpert, a long-time activist and key member of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights.
The council paid tribute to both individuals, adjourning the meeting in their honor.
Feinstein was remembered for being very supportive of her son, often attending council meetings and other functions with him, always beaming with pride.
Alpert was a member of the SMRR steering committee and an active member of the Democratic Party, who may have come off as a curmudgeon, Councilmen Ken Genser said, but underneath it all he had a warm heart and cared deeply about Santa Monica.
Both will be missed.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2007. Read the original PDF.