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# SM election process will go to voters
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sm-election-process-will-go-to-voters/
- Published: 2001-12-28T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T22:34:43.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*County officials confirm group has enough signatures for ballot*

It was confirmed last week that Santa Monica voters will be able to change the way people are elected into office, if they so choose.

Los Angeles County officially announced that “Voters Election Reform Initiative for a True Accountability System,” also known as VERITAS, has collected the necessary 9,000 signatures in its attempt to change the city’s election charter. The change would allow citizens to vote for their own mayor and one council member from their respective neighborhoods. The group submitted 13,000 signatures, but just more than 9,000 were actually legal.

But some city council representatives think deceptive tactics were used to gather the signatures and not all the information was presented to those who signed the initiative to get it on the ballot next year.

“Gathering signatures is not that hard,” said Santa Monica City Councilwoman Pam O’Connor.

The current law allows the mayor to be elected by the seven city council members. City council candidates run at-large throughout the eight square miles of Santa Cops out in full force Monica’s city limits.

The system, which has been in place for more than 60 years here, works just fine for a city of 84,000 people, according to O’Connor. She’s afraid politics in Santa Monica would become too disconnected if council members were elected by districts.

“I think it would result in the balkanization of Santa Monica,” she said. “It would start pitting district against district.”

She also thinks it would create career politicians for the mayor’s seat.

“I think it would institutionalize the position of the mayor in a political fashion,” she said.

But Paul DeSantis, who helped spearhead the VERITAS effort, thinks Santa Monica’s election process makes it unattainable for the average person to run for office and it is not a representative government. Currently, it allows for slate-financed campaigns dominated by huge special interest money, he said. What’s more, if people could vote for their mayor, it “politically legitimizes” the position, DeSantis said.

“This would reduce the power slates,” he said. “The only criterion is loyalty to the slate. The supporters of VERITAS, on the other hand, believe in ‘meritocracy.’”

The VERITAS initiative would give citizens a direct line to City Hall by electing one representative from each district, making their politicians accountable to those who elected them, supporters argue.

“People should be elected not because they have a loyalty bought and paid for by organizations that are essentially political machines but because of their merit demonstrated in face to face relationships with their neighbors,” DeSantis said. “Sadly, instead of an open political process we have degenerated into government by lawsuit, confrontation and polarization. Santa Monica’s economy has suffered as long established business loyal to our community have been pushed out and new ones are reluctant to locate here.”

VERITAS hopes to have a special election for the initiative in the early part of next year, however costly it may be.

“If this was about dog leashes, that would not be an appropriate measure,” DeSantis said. “But you have 9,000 people signing a petition for an election and that’s serious.”

O’Connor would rather see the initiative come during the regular November election.

“I’m somewhat of a fiscal conservative,” she said. “I want to get the most bang for your buck and the cost of a special election is high.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 28, 2001.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122801.pdf?ref=smdp.com)