Santa Monica Next contributor Jason Mastbaum used public comment at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Santa Monica City Council to confront De la Torre about accusations unearthed by Next over de la Torre’s work as executive director of the Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC) in 2011. Below is a transcript of the exchange and above is the video from the meeting beginning with Mastbaum’s testimony. You can read our full story here. Click below to watch this week’s Council meeting starting with Mastbaum’s testimony.
While de la Torre pushed back on any narrative that he’s show racial bias in his actions and promoted the work done by PYFC, he never actually refutes any of the claims made in the article that were based on letters written by board members of the PYFC.
Here’s the transcript:
Jason Mastbaum
I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering why the council majority is so skittish to talk about their own gratuities ordinance. But that’s not why I’m here tonight.
My name is Jason Mastbaum. At the last city council meeting this week was declared “United Against Hate Week.” That work begins at home.
In that light, here’s just a sampling of quotes about one of our city council members from some of his former colleagues contained in the city staff report for consideration by the community.
Amanda Seward’s resignation letter as PYFC board chair, “Oscar claimed the organizational development consultant engaged by the city, did not like PYFC Social Justice Mission and did not like the Malcolm X portrait on the wall because Malcolm was Muslim and she was Jewish. Oscar also said that she wanted PYFC to fail because she was on the board of an organization that would stand to benefit with additional monies if the PYFC went under.”
Jan Brook’s resignation letter, “Oscar verbally insulted several board members with racial, religious and or ethnic slurs.”
Shelly Wood’s letter, “Oscar made threats against the personal safety of the board and attempted to instigate racial unrest.”
And from Darrell Goode, the head of the local NAACP chapter, “Oscar cannot show respect or support or collaboration with African American leadership on his board. Furthermore, this lack of multicultural support that was apparent in how a consultant who happened to be Jewish, was accused of trying to destroy the PYFC and to give the recovery grant funds to the YWCA is counterproductive to what we see as building towards community as inclusive.”
Thank you for your time.
Phil Brock
Thank you very much. Personal point by Councilmember de la Torre.
Oscar de la Torre
Yeah, you know, it’s amazing to hear someone come and say all of this about the Pico, Youth and Family Center. It’s very misleading. You know, the organization we started, our motto is “promoting peace, unity and social justice.” Peace, unity, and social justice.
And we did that. We saved many lives. A lot of people came here. A lot of young people came here. You weren’t here. I don’t know where you were. You probably weren’t in this community. You didn’t witness any of that.
But for more than 20 years, this organization has been in the forefront, saving lives. We had a gang violence problem in the city, 68 homicides since 1982 in an eight block radius in the Pico neighborhood. This city neglected that, and we addressed it, and we don’t have that problem anymore.
So for you to come up here and speak on something that’s old history, and to try to make it sound like I’m anti Jewish…I mean, that’s what you’re trying to allude to in your comments. That’s despicable.
Sandford Berlin, rest in peace, supported the Pico Youth and Family Center we worked in partnership to create this organization. When this organization, all the funding was taken away from this organization…you want to talk about hate and racism, internationalized racism?
Peggy Bergman signed off $1.6 million to keep the organization afloat. Peggy Bergman is a Jewish woman in this community that made that happen. So the history of the Pico Youth and Family Center has been an amazing partnership between people in this community of various different ethnic backgrounds: African American, Latino, Asian, white, Jewish, Christian, Catholic, and we did this, we work together to save lives.
That’s the story of the Pico Youth and Family Center. So I just want to correct the record, because what you’re trying to you’re trying to put out another story for political purposes. That’s offensive to many people in this community, and it’s sad that you would do that for political purposes. Very sad. Thank you. Thank you very much.
