Santa Monica Next is a party of a 501c(3) and as such cannot make candidate endorsements. However, we can weigh in on ballot measures and have already urged voters to vote Yes on QS, the SMMUSD School Bond, and Yes on Measure K, the tax increase on private short-term parking lots.
Measure PSK is a companion piece to Measure K that advises the city council to spend the money collected from the proposed tax increase on private short-term parking lots for “public safety” should the measure pass. As an advisory measure, its passage doesn’t force the city or city council to do anything on its own, it is merely a strong suggestion.
Even though it’s a non-binding measure, and even though we’ve previously encouraged you to vote Yes on Measure K, we urge a NO VOTE ON MEASURE PSK.
If the City Council wanted a ballot measure to fund, as PSK urges, “attracting and retaining well-trained police officers and firefighters, improving crime and homelessness prevention services, and increasing police patrols and enhancing emergency medical response in neighborhoods and public areas, including downtown, the pier, and the beach,” then they should have written a ballot measure that does that.
As written Measure K might do that, but it also might do some other things.
In the “arguments for Measure K” that are printed on the city’s official website and mailed to voters, it implies that funding from the proposed tax increase could be used to reinvigorate the underfunded but popular Safe Routes to Schools program and lower the risk of traffic crashes. If Measure PSK and Measure K both pass, it’s unlikely that funds will be spent to fulfill either of those wishes.
Let’s not pretend that increasing the number of police will stem the city’s traffic safety crisis. Santa Monica has a record number of sworn officer positions in the budget and still is producing an inflated number of crashes and fatalities. In just the past week, there have been FOUR serious crashes in the city. (Note, an earlier version of this story said the crashes were fatal. They were not. We regret this error.)
We understand that when Councilmember Jesse Zwick first proposed raising the parking tax on privately owned short-term lots; it was met with opposition by a majority of the City Council with Mayor Phil Brock, Vice-Mayor Lana Negrete and Councilmembers Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre all opposed. Their support was needed to get the tax on the ballot. Measure PSK was the compromise between the Council majority and the progressive minority needed to get Measure K on the ballot and make sure that it passed.
Councilmembers Zwick, Caroline Torosis and Gleam Davis may have made a compromise to get Measure K on the ballot and we can appreciate the need to do so. But we did not make that compromise and aren’t bound by it. We join the Santa Monica Democratic Club in urging voters to Vote “No” on Measure PSK.
If Measure K passes, the Council can and should decide for itself how to spend that money. We’ll say it again…if the city council wanted to place a measure on the ballot that would fund more police and firefighter positions; then the measure they placed on the ballot should have done that.
