MAIN LIBRARY — Members of the City Council will meet with city staff on Sunday to discuss different ways to select the mayor and decide whether or not to have council members continue to serve as liaisons to city commissions.
Councilman Bobby Shriver has some guts, or could it be he’s so confident in his approval ratings (the member of the Kennedy clan has received the most votes in every council race he’s entered) that he feels like he can ruffle a few feathers.
CITY HALL — While Santa Monica city officials were worried last year that they may have to tap into a “rainy day” fund to help close a projected $13 million budget deficit, it turns out they had nothing to fear after all, ending up with a budget surplus of $7.
CITY HALL — If you like taking a dip at the Santa Monica Swim Center, are an avid lawn bowler or have a kid enrolled in a city-run sports league, be prepared to pay more come July 1.
Three council persons who’ve accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from developers dug in their heels on campaign finance disclosure again at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
CITY HALL — By any measure, Councilman Kevin McKeown’s latest proposal to provide the public with greater access to officials’ campaign disclosure records was a modest one.
CITY HALL — Bracing for a fight with Sacramento, Santa Monica’s City Council joined a raft of other California cities this week by moving to shore up tens of millions of dollars per year in Redevelopment Agency funding that Gov.
CITY HALL — The City Council on Monday decided to do away with a law that few people were following anyway, voting to repeal a long-standing requirement that Santa Monica residents register their bicycles at City Hall.
CITY HALL — There will be no new requirement for members of the City Council to verbally disclose whether a developer has contributed to their campaign before participating in a major decision that affects the developer, the council decided on Tuesday.
CITY HALL — A proposal by Councilman Bobby Shriver to let the people of Santa Monica directly select the mayor got a measure of preliminary support on Tuesday, with five out of the six members who were present voting to send the idea to city staff for further analysis.
DOWNTOWN — Homeless service providers at the Veterans Administration, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and several non-profits including Santa Monica-based OPCC are working on a new initiative aimed at housing the 60 most vulnerable, chronically homeless veterans on the Westside.
It seems selecting Santa Monica’s mayor has become more divisive and potentially damaging to the collegiality on the dais than the mostly-ceremonial position deserves.
