School Superintendent John Deasy wants 15 percent of gifts and donations raised by individual schools to be shared by all the schools in the district.
Deasy proposes a 15-percent “tax” to be put in an equity fund which would be doled out as grants to individual schools based on a complicated formula utilizing a number of factors built around school size and need.
It’s a plan that Karl Marx would have loved. A school board-appointed and supervised Robin Hood takes from the rich and gives to the poor.
The question is why should Edison School give up 15 percent of the money it raises at its spring carnival? Should a parent who donates a $1,000 computer to Franklin School pay the $150 tax, or must the school come up with $150 before it accepts the gift?
Despite details that need to be worked out, I think Deasy is on a slippery slope. While there’s a need to compensate for inequities in the district, this ill-advised scheme reeks of political over-correctness and could cost our schools much of the support and goodwill of their most generous contributors.
Then there’s the development agreement City Council just voted on to hammer out with representatives of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel — one of Santa Monica’s three unionized hotels. Hotel developers propose to build a 200-room addition, complete with retail space and lots of public parking on hotel property at Ocean Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.
Although their proposal is vague, developers would be allowed to skirt many zoning restrictions, including an existing 43-foot (three floor) height limit.
The agreement allows city staff and developers to negotiate the conditions of the project — while potentially reducing annoying public input to a few scoping meetings.
In addition to the new building, close to 40 units of affordable rental housing units would be built on another hotel property east of Second Street.
With the affordable housing carrot dangling in front of City Council’s nose, I’m predicting that this project, like the new homeless shelter on Cloverfield Boulevard, is a done deal.
Developers originally proposed a 16-floor tower, but will likely concede to a shorter 10-, 12-or 14-floor building. Then our politicians will brag about how they mitigated size, density, traffic concerns and created a magnificent new addition to downtown — all while saying, “We heard you.” ■ The “What are they smoking?” award goes to Mayor Richard Bloom and the rest of City Council, with the exception of Pam O’Connor, for recently requesting an ordinance that would extend Santa Monica’s “no smoking” bans to the Santa Monica Pier and beach.
I’m not a smoker, but do you get the idea that this City Council is becoming too intrusive in our private lives?
I’m sick and tired of politicians who try to tell me what’s good for me. Next thing, they’ll ban smoking in a car if it’s on a public street or ban smoking within city limits all together, or maybe ban chewing gum. ■ Last month, the City Council finally got around to requiring “officially recognized” neighborhood associations to sign a contract before accepting funding from the city. Groups must state how city funds are spent and certify that grants were not spent on political causes.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press (Dec. 17), since 1999, eight “officially recognized” neighborhood groups received nearly $60,000 in funds, ranging from $1,080 to the maximum $4,000.
Earlier this year, the North of Montana Association and Friends of Sunset Park got into hot water for allegedly using city grant monies to campaign against Proposition A, an initiative that would have permitted single family homeowners to decline historical landmark designations of their homes.
There are other embarrassments. The Ocean Park Community Organization’s chair has refused, or is unwilling, to deliver the organization’s financial data to its members. There are questions about how other groups spend their monies and whether these associations really deal with neighborhood issues or are political platforms to promote the agendas of those who control the groups.
The City Council should quit fooling around and terminate the giveaway. Most neighborhood groups are irrelevant and would immediately collapse without city support. Would anyone would miss ‘em? I don’t think so. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 12, 2003. Read the original PDF.