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# Some residents say civil servants need civility This past week, Q-line asked
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/some-residents-say-civil-servants-need-civility-this-past-week-q-line-asked/
- Published: 2003-09-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:00:28.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

“What should be done, if anything, to improve customer service in City Hall.” Here are your responses: ■ “It would seem that the city of Santa Monica and its bureaucracy have lost sight of the fact that they should assist rather than resist when it comes to Planning and Building Department matters. It is quite apparent to those who have to utilize both the Planning Department and Building Department that there is no consistency between one planning authority and another. That is, there is a multitude of interpretations to the code, no level playing field in which one can make a determination as to which planner you should listen to, and accordingly, you must return time and time again until you’re able to get at least a consistent opinion as to what the approach is to your particular Planning or Building Department problem. It would be nice if they would understand that they serve the community, as opposed to being proactively against the community.” ■ “To improve customer service in City Hall, the City Hall needs to hire some intelligent people.” ■ “The problem with City Hall is indicative of the problem with the seven-member council. They’re not interested in the residents’ concerns about the things in the city. They’re just involved in their own projects.” ■ “I think we have a very, very, nice City Hall with a lot of information and services. But there is only thing that is missing, and it’s not only in ours, it’s in every place that is a government office. People are very unfriendly and also they never smile and that is the most important thing for a person to see when you come to a public office, or any office. But for some reason government offices have the meanest people you see, starting with the DMV and going on, and on, and on. So that is what is missing in the City Hall in Santa Monica.” ■ “The Santa Monica City Council, Building and Safety in particular, are arrogant and power hungry. They love control and always want more. They have lost perspective regarding common sense. I think if they just get back to common sense and show respect for those who elected them, and/or pay their salaries, we’d be a lot better off. It’s a shame they need to be audited; it just shows their arrogance. They know what living hell they cause people and they refuse to change on their own. I think they actually probably enjoy it. Come down from your ivory towers and get a reality check on what your jobs are: to assist those who live and work here and to make Santa Monica a better place. It is not to make people’s lives slow, bureaucratic nightmares.” ■ “To start with, we can get a new city manager and new heads of departments. They could set the tone for the rest of the departments to follow. What we have now is a runaway City Hall that is following its own muse and is not responding to the people they work for.” ■ “Considering the diversity of the residents of Santa Monica, some are rich-er than rich, others are poorer than poor, and the influx of daily visitors to the city of Santa Monica, I believe the police and city employees do a very good job. My only personal gripe would be the lack of cleanliness of the city sidewalks along Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards. I feel that they should be steam cleaned, at night, on a regular basis for a healthier environment. Steam does not require, like swimming pools do, the use of a great deal of water.” ■ “All you have to do to realize the fiasco that’s down there is look at page 1 of Monday 22, 2003, the article about the boy’s playhouse. In it I believe the City Hall was going to have this boy’s playhouse torn down because it was considered a two-story residence. It really is a fiasco, isn’t it?”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 26, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092603.pdf?ref=smdp.com)