More than 600 volunteer for charter amendment
By Daily Press staff
School supporters are crediting hundreds of volunteers stationed at “every corner of the city” on Saturday for gathering the last of more than 8,000 signatures needed to place a controversial and unprecedented charter amendment on the November ballot.
The charter amendment would force City Hall to hand over at least $6 million to the local school district each year, and more when the city’s budget grows. City Hall oversees a $350 million budget and about half of it is unrestricted, meaning it isn’t mandated for one particular project or use.
Local politicians have criticized the proposal, calling it government at its worst because it doesn’t identify a new revenue source. Leaders from Community for Excellent Public Schools, the organization pushing the charter amendment, counter the proposal is a modest request for a most valued resource — children.
In a Monday announcement, CEPS co-chair Shari Davis said more than 600 people have volunteered to gather signatures for the proposal in the past 10 weeks.
“The volunteer response has been amazing,” she said. “And we’ve been very encouraged by the financial contributions to this effort as well... This is clearly a community that will do what it takes to maintain the excellence of its public education.”
Alan Toy, commissioner of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, and Dr. Mike Gruning, chairman of the local chamber of commerce, were among the volunteers who pitched in to gather signatures over the weekend.
“If we are going to commit government funds to anything, it should be education,” Toy said in a prepared statement. “What better way to create a sustainable community than to make sure our schools have the resources they need?”
Though CEPS leaders feel confident they have the signatures necessary to qualify the charter amendment for the ballot, they likely will continue in their signature drive. That’s because all of the signatures have to be from registered Santa Monica voters. Though it needs only 8,640 signatures — or 15 percent of Santa Monica’s 57,596 registered voters — to qualify its measure for the ballot, CEPS hoped to gather 11,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, a group of leaders from City Hall, the local school district and Santa Monica College are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss possible school funding options. The ongoing talks don’t specifically include CEPS, but are widely viewed as the key forum in which a compromise could be reached.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 27, 2004. Read the original PDF.