The Los Angeles County Democratic Party announced their endorsements in the City Council election, giving the nod to the United Democratic Slate (United Slate) of Dan Hall, Ellis Raskin, Barry Snell and Natalya Zernitskaya. The County Dems. have followed the lead of the Westside Young Democrats and the Santa Monica Democratic Club in choosing the challenger slate over the Safer Santa Monica Slate (Safer Slate) that includes a pair of incumbents.
In the current political climate, an affiliation with the Republican Party or their chosen candidate for president is a death knell in Santa Monica. For that reason, the endorsements of the Democratic Party clubs and organizations is seen as almost a necessity.
And the United Slate is pushing that advantage. In a statement released yesterday, they accused Safer Slate incumbents Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre of “Trump like tactics” for twice refusing to launch investigations into leaks of closed session meetings and of violations of state laws by City Council Members.
“It is truly disappointing that Mayor Brock and Councilmember de la Torre have repeatedly voted against a transparent investigation into the rampant misconduct at City Council,” stated Snell, Hall, Raskin, and Zernitskaya in a statement. “These Trump-like tactics of ‘rules for thee but not for me’ have no place in Santa Monica and remind us of the bad behavior occurring at the national level.”
The slate went on to demand that the City Attorney bypass Council approval to investigate the repeated violation of closed session discussions being leaked to the public in violation of California state law.
In 2021, a leaked closed session item discussing the contract negotiations with a candidate for City Manager led to the prospective candidate rejecting the offer. Councilmember Gleam Davis put forth a motion calling for an immediate investigation in February of 2022 which was rejected by the Council with both Brock and de la Torre voting against the motion.
De la Torre has claimed repeatedly that the leak had nothing to do with Rene Bobadilla rejecting the city’s offer to take over as City Manager, however in a letter to then Mayor Sue Himmelrich, Bobadilla stated otherwise.
However, in his rejection of the position, Bobadilla stated that he knew of a leak and that it had left him with a poor view of the city.
“I am, however, truly disappointed by the way this matter became public. Unfortunately, this significantly compromised the situation and impacted my ability to have robust, confidential, communications without undue external influence,” he wrote. You can read the letter in its entirety here.
The United Dems also brought up an uninvestigated leak that occurred earlier this year. In, the Attorney’s Office alerted the City Council to a Brown Act violation about information that was leaked from one of their closed session meetings.. When an internal investigation was called for by Davis (again) and Councilmembers Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick, however the incumbent Council majority that includes Phil Brock and de la Torre, kept it from passing by a 3-3 vote (it needed a majority.) De la Torre was absent at the time of the vote, but made it clear in future meetings he would have voted against the motion given the chance.
“Twice now, the incumbent Council majority led by Phil Brock and his running mate Oscar de la Torre have voted to prevent any investigation of these crimes,” stated the slate in their press statement.
“We promise taxpayers that if we are elected, Councilmembers will not be above the rule of law, and our Council will investigate any misconduct.”
The City Council is expected to pass ethics laws that will apply to future City Councils before their term ends later this year.
Neither Brock, de la Torre, nor any member of the City Council has responded to requests for comment for this story. If they do, we will update it as needed.
