Another special interest group is challenging Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) for political dominance in our “City by the Sea.”
Santa Monica Citizens for Sensible Priorities (SMCFSP) popped up last September — just in time for the local elections. Remember all those City Hall horror stories mailers signed by “well-known” community activists nobody heard of?
Distributed during the campaign, their mailers criticized City Hall — and SMRR-backed council incumbents — for downplaying citizen needs and ignoring city problems. The group also was behind cityhallstories.com, a Web site that encouraged Santa Monicans to share their own City Hall misadventures.
If you think this is a group you’d like to join, think again. Beware: Nefarious activities and strange bedfellows await.
SMCFSP was originally a non-political “issues” group and wasn’t required to file as an election committee or produce financial disclosure statements. A front page article in the Daily Press (Oct. 16, 2004) disclosed the organization “has yet to disclose its members and finances.” Nevertheless, according to other campaign reporting documents, ET Whitehall Seascape, LLC and Edward Thomas Management Co. (Casa Del Mar and the Shutters hotels) made payments last year to “Sensible Priorities” for public relations and consulting work, and is currently funding the group.
In October, a sister group, “Santa Monicans for Change,” was formed to directly support City Council candidates. SMFC was funded by the same hospitality industry and business interests. The group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of Chamber of Commerce-backed City Council candidates Bobby Shriver and Herb Katz although former chamber officials categorically denied the chamber was involved with the group.
It appears that SMCFSP is a secretive group manipulated by business interests whose agenda is known only to their own inner circle. It’s obvious that Tim Dubois, CEO and president of Edward Thomas Management Co., is involved. Local businessman Brent Cohen is also aboard. So is Marathon Communications Inc. lobbyist Kim Karie, who has close ties to Dubois, worked on the Katz campaign and is currently consulting on Macerich’s Santa Monica Place redevelopment.
SMCFSP’s paid spokesperson, Seth Jacobson, also was the publicist for Fighting Against Irresponsible Regulations (FAIR), the group that opposed the Living Wage movement in 2001/2002. FAIR’s backers were — guess who? The usual assortment of business interests, the same hospitality industry now behind SMCFSP and SMFC.
FAIR campaigned against Proposition JJ, the failed November 2002 ballot measure that mandated a “living wage” for businesses in the city’s coastal zone. You may remember that FAIR was solidly criticized for producing misleading election mailers falsely implying the Democratic party and others had endorsed “No on JJ.”
During last fall’s campaign, I received a “Sensible Priorities” flyer whose wording was lifted virtually verbatim from our David Cole and Bill Bauer for Council Web site, NewCouncilSM.com. Real-life neighborhood activist Peter Tigler produced our Web site and co-wrote most of our literature. Late in the campaign, Jacobson and Cohen asked if they could use Tigler’s writing, but when Jacobson insisted on changing “the incumbents” to “SMRR incumbents” to protect Herb Katz, Tigler told them he was out and not to use it.
They used it anyway, only with a phony pen name: Veronica Martinez. Numerous demands for payment “for unauthorized use of stolen intellectual property” have been ignored. Tigler’s now considering litigation.
All this shows an ongoing pattern of underhandedness and deceit. While most of us are dissatisfied with the way City Hall operates, SMCFSP and SMFC has no credibility. I just don’t believe any of them really care about “fed-up residents.” I don’t believe they have “hundreds of members” or they are “recruiting a broad-based network of citizens” as reported in this newspaper on page one, May 31, 2005.
Lastly, all their talk about solving City Hall problems and addressing “community needs” gleaned from their recent $20,000 public opinion survey is just so much hooey. According to Jacobson, next year SMCFSP will “find three potential candidates” for council and “get them elected.” Hmm. I smell the stench of a hidden agenda.
The powers behind “Sensible Priorities” are obviously desperate to wrest control of City Hall from SMRR. With all the scamming and chicanery already, I wonder about the caliber of any candidate they’d back. You can bet SMCFSP will control their “boys” who will willingly do their bidding. That could be very bad for the rest of us. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 11, 2005. Read the original PDF.