Santa Monica Mayor Brock held a Town Hall meeting last Wednesday. If you didn’t hear about it, that may be because it was called only 49 hours in advance of the meeting, the location changed, and the venue prohibited attendees from recording the meeting.
Wikipedia’s entry on Town Hall Meeting states that “Despite their name, town hall meetings do not necessarily take place in a town hall” and “Historically, no specific rules or guidelines have defined a town hall meeting.” Mayor Brock’s Secret Town Hall seems to have leaned into this rather loose definition of town hall. The Town Hall had no agenda, other than that there would be free parking.
On the afternoon of Monday, July 15th, Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock invited his Facebook followers and those who follow some Santa Monica Facebook groups to a Town Hall Meeting at City Hall for Wednesday, July 17th at 6:00 PM.
While the Mayor can host a Town Hall at City Hall, no city official may use city facilities for a political rally. Mayor Brock is nearing the end of his first term on the Santa Monica City Council. Mayor Brock, and Councilmembers Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre all attended. If any of these council members wishes to continue on the council, they must run for re-election. Because the Town Hall had no stated agenda, other than the availability of free parking, it may have ventured into campaign rally territory.
So, few Santa Monica Political observers were surprised when on Tuesday afternoon (July 16), Mayor Brock changed the venue for the Town Hall to the offices of Headspace, the mindfulness app, in Bergamot Station.
The Red Carpet
My wife and I had arranged childcare for the evening in order to have dinner with a friend who was visiting from out of town. When her plans changed, we kept ours to go out to dinner, at Birdie G’s, where we had a view of attendees arriving.
When Mayor Phil Brock arrived, I did not blurt out “Phil, Who are you wearing?” Because I already knew that he would be wearing one of the button-up shirts he designed with the City Seal in violation of a local law that specifies where (not on a shirt) and how (not for campaigning) the city seal can be used. Props to Mayor Brock for designing his own clothes!
Councilmember Oscar de la Torre (black shirt) arrived in a group with attorney Kevin Shenkman (blue shirt), who is representing Oscar’s wife, Maria Loya and the Pico Neighborhood Association, in a lawsuit against the City of Santa Monica. The lawsuit aims to require the city to hold district-based elections in order to create a district where Latino voters would have a greater chance at winning. It is not possible to draw seven districts in Santa Monica of equal population and have a majority Latino district. However, four of the seven current council members identify as Latino or Latina.
A Secret Meeting
The Headspace staff told those gathered that those found to be recording would be removed from the venue.
Despite the ban on recording, an SMDP article offers several direct quotes from the meeting. According to the article, “a long line of confused locals stood in place for roughly 45 minutes as a lone Headspace tablet served as a dense sign-in sheet.”
I did not attend but discussed the event with two people who did. What follows is their account of the meeting.
Attendees at the meeting mostly asked questions about run-of-the-mill concerns that people have in Santa Monica. Attendees asked questions about neighborhood street lighting, repainting crosswalks, stop signs and traffic safety, housing construction targets, and protected bike lanes.
At one point, Maria Loya, plaintiff against the city in a districts, asked a question about district based elections, prompting a short discussion of the lawsuit on district-based voting that has cost the city more than $10 million to defend.
Maria’s husband, Councilmember Oscar de la Torre, said he would vote to settle the lawsuit and move to district-based elections, but that there’s not a majority on the city council to vote to settle the lawsuit.
A Word from the Police Officers Association
It was an hour into the meeting before an attendee asked a question about Public Safety. At this point Mayor Brock turned the meeting over to Cody Green, Chairman of the Santa Monica Police Officers Association. According to Green, there are two factions on Santa Monica City council – The “Far Left” and the “Pragmatic Middle.” Green said that the “Far Left” doesn’t talk about public safety. Green also mentioned that while the Police Officers Association has not endorsed yet, he suggested that if public safety is a voter’s most important priority, then they must vote for candidates who say that public safety is their top priority. Green also outlined the Police Officers Association’s Strategy that residents should put pressure on their neighbors and council to ensure that the city allocated funding to additional police officers over other other expenditures
Mayor Brock said that the city has 212 police officers now, but he has a goal of 278 police officers. A little over 25% discretionary dollars (general fund dollars) in the City currently go to the Police Department. As a comparison, the Library department and Recreation and Arts are each about 2% of the city’s budget.
As part of the discussion about public safety, Councilmember Oscar de la Torre brought up the need for mental health services and drug treatment.
Not a Campaign Event?
According to Mayor Brock, no one appearing on stage at the event ( Mayor Brock, Councilmembers Christine Parra, and Oscar de la Torre all attended) are currently running for re-election.
Phil stated that wants to make Santa Monica more like Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach, which he said “Is like Disneyland to me.” If he doesn’t continue on the council, then he can spend more time at what he and USC fraternity brothers may think is the happiest place on earth: Baja Sharkeez on Pier Avenue.
