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# Santa Monica’s leaders say the darndest things
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monicas-leaders-say-the-darndest-things/
- Published: 2004-02-06T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:44:22.000Z
- Author: Bill Bauer
- Tags: Opinion, Ocean Park, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

Is it the full moon that makes our community leaders say outlandish things?

At a “Bring LA Home” community forum on homelessness organized by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the LA Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness last week, Ocean Park Community Center Executive Director John Maceri said “elected officials must have the political will to resist giving into opposition from residents and businesses near proposed projects.”

This is the man who runs an organization that is funded annually with hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to provide services to our homeless population. And OPCC received $7.4 million in one-time city housing funds to buy and renovate a building at 1751 Cloverfield Blvd. for a homeless shelter — despite extensive opposition by neighboring residents and businesses.

Apparently, it looks as if our City Council is taking Maceri’s advice. As a Northridge resident, Maceri has a lot of chutzpah telling our politicians to ignore the will voters who elect them to office — especially when the bulk of salary is paid for by taxpayers. Of course, we’ll see how well the generous funding of homeless services at the expense of resident’s needs — such as schools — will play this fall when three council seats are up for reelection.

By the way, “Bring LA Home” co-sponsor, LACEH&H, is the co-plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in April 2002, against the city and three of our police officers. I always find it interesting when the city of Santa Monica feels so compelled to promote its social agenda that it willingly partners with entities who are suing it.

Most regular readers of the Daily Press are aware of problems between Councilman Michael Feinstein and the Green Party. The Greens allege that Feinstein misappropriated a $10,0000 donation.

After a criminal complaint against Feinstein went nowhere because of insufficient evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, the Green Party decided to sue him in Santa Monica Small Claims Court to recover some of the money. After three attempts to serve him failed, he was personally served in Council Chambers on Jan. 27 by local resident Chuck Allord. The case is scheduled to be heard Feb. 25.

The serving of the subpoena was posted as a news item on the ocean-parkgazette.org Web site. Feinstein then told the OPG he’d not been served, which contradicted the news coverage, process server and numerous witnesses.

It’s unfortunate that Feinstein is denying the obvious. His spin on this does nothing to improve what many now look at as an increasingly flaky image.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy is another community leader who has come up with some inexplicable comments of late. A Daily Press reader e-mailed me a sound bite by Deasy from a recent Public Broadcasting System television documentary, “First to Worst,” about California’s school funding crisis.

“At one school, I was stuck behind a series of limousines as parents were arriving at the open house,” Deasy said. “And when I finished welcoming those parents back, I scooted as fast as I could across town to another school. And there I saw parents walking to school and one of their children did not have shoes on their feet.”

Surely, Deasy exaggerates. But isn’t he promoting a controversial “Robin Hood” plan that mandates a 15 percent “tax” on all school donations go into a pot to be shared by “shoeless children” at poorer schools? This is just one more reason why it looks to me as if he was hired because of his political agenda, not his public relations skills.

Speaking of schools, new Pico Neighborhood Association director, local elementary teacher and teachers union vice-president, Marc Sanschagrin, was quoted in Monday’s Daily Press as saying the previous PNA leadership was “out of touch with its constituents” and “were swept out because of their vocal and outspoken attempts to defeat various school bond measures.”

Could Sanschagrin be rewriting history? Wasn’t the former PNA leadership voted out in a well organized coup-d’etat by 80-plus individuals with their own “social justice” agenda who joined the PNA literally within hours of the annual meeting and election of officers?

When asked about neighborhood concerns, Sanschagrin answered, “Oh the same litany — traffic flow, green space... and graffiti.” Strange. Weren’t those the issues the former “out of touch” leadership was working on when they were deposed? What happened to education?

Keep reading. More quotable quotes are sure to come. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer).

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 6, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/020604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)