Tuesday’s City Council meeting was the last one before Santa Monica votes on who will represent them on four of the seven seats on the City Council. With two incumbent candidates on the dais, one of whom has been mired in a scandal on his alleged actions from over a dozen years ago and alleged anti-semitic comments made five years ago, it was no surprise that local politics dominated the meeting.
The rhetorical fireworks came twice during the meeting. During open comment a back and forth between the two incumbent councilmembers and two people testifying in open comment. Later in the meeting, a heated and personal exchange between Councilmember Oscar de la Torre, who is accused in the aforementioned scandal, and Councilmembers Gleam Davis and Jesse Zwick took over a debate on a motion de la Torre brought. The Santa Monica Lookout transcribed the exchange, it can be read here.
While accusations made in the letters page of a local newspaper are not generally considered relevant for public comment, de la Torre introduced item 16 b for the meeting, a motion that directly addressed anti-semitism which led to several members of the public bringing up the allegations during public comment.
The biggest news of these portions of the meeting was when Davis both recounted hearing of the alleged remarks by de la Torre in 2019 and when she recounted her own conversation with de la Torre “seven or eight years ago” when she claims de la Torre made a similarly anti-semitic remark.
Davis also claimed that de la Torre has regularly called her racist after de la Torre lamented the personal impact that the accusations of anti-semitism have had on him. De la Torre responded that he was responding to what he saw as racist acts but that he doesn’t believe she’s a racist person at heart.
The following article is long, and given the involvement of Next as an organization, and one of our contributors in the story, I (Damien) have included video embeds that start at the moment the part of the meeting referenced is. We quote the councilmembers pretty extensively in this piece, but also feel it’s important to provide easy access to transcripts and the video so people can double check us if they choose.
Also, here are links to the three pieces that have revealed portions of the scandal:
In Unearthed 2013 City Staff Report, Oscar de la Torre Accused of “Attempting to Instigate Racial Unrest”, Using Racial and Religious Slurs, by Jason Mastbaum on September 24
Timeline of a scandal : Accusations of anti-semitism and racism against Councilmember Oscar de la Torre, by Damien Newton on October 12
Lieberman Public Letter Backs Accusations by Kean and Tahvildaran-Jesswein Against de la Torre, by Laurie Lieberman, October 12
The scandal began in earnest when SMMUSD Board of Education Chair Jon Kean was published in the Daily Press accusing de la Torre of making anti-semitic remarks on Friday, October 11. If you’d like a more complete timeline before reading on, read “Timeline of a scandal” that was written before Tuesday’s meeting.
During public comment at Tuesday’s meeting, de la Torre and two members of the public, Santa Monica Next contributor (title for identification only, he was not acting as a representative of Next) Jason Mastbaum and Santa Monica Democrats Club President Jon Katz, got into a heated argument after the two commenters used their time to attack de la Torre over the ongoing scandal surrounding alleged remarks that de la Torre made while a member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Directors.
De la Torre had placed an item on the agenda about combating anti-semitism by sponsoring a conference on anti-semitism being held in Beverly Hills and asking the City Manager to reach out to SMMUSD about using an experience de la Torre and other Latinos in Santa Monica had receiving a hateful letter in 1991 when he was a student at Samohi.
The fireworks began when Mastbaum played a video of de la Torre from a recent Northeast Neighbors “meet the candidates” event for his slate where the Councilmember joked about how he doesn’t know how to pronounce Natalya Zernitskaya’s name. De la Torre accused her of being a “carpetbagger” (not considered an anti-semitic term, but certainly a pejorative) and that he would have learned her name had she been more involved in the city’s public life. Next covered the meeting, and you can see the full video of it, here.
Zernitskaya is one of de la Torre’s opponents in this year’s election, finished just a couple of hundred votes shy in the last election of being on the dais with de la Torre, has lived in Santa Monica for over a decade, currently lives in the same Pico Neighborhood as de la Torre where she serves as a member of the Virginia Avenue Park Advisory Board, and has commented at dozens of City Council meetings, often directly addressing de la Torre over issues related to a lawsuit against the city, the “CVRA Case.”
Mastbaum then brought up the history of racist and anti-semitic allegations made against de al Torre (again, read Timeline of a scandal) and accused him of playing politics for bringing an item to the Council to send a $2,500 scholarship to a conference against anti-semitism that will be held in Beverly Hills.
In short, Mastbaum called the item an “offensive attempt by Oscar to prove he’s not anti-semitic.”
Councilmember Christine Parra, an ally of de la Torre who is not seeking re-election, asked Brock to rule the comments out of order after Mastbaum went into accusations made against de la Torre by resigning members of the Pico Youth and Family Center which de la Torre overseas in 2013.
Brock was initially looking to city staff to help him make a ruling, but eventually took away the rest of Mastbaum’s allotted speaking time. Councilmember Jesse Zwick tried to argue that Mastbaum’s comments were more germane than those made by a previous speaker who was speaking on an item that had been removed from the agenda, but he was overruled.
From the podium Mastbaum continued to berate de la Torre and Brock, arguing that accusations of anti-semitism are germane to a discussion of sponsoring a conference against anti-semitism. Eventually, Brock summoned the SMPD and Mastbaum peacefully left the podium.
During the exchange, de la Torre thought it was a good time to make faces at Mastbaum while gesturing for him to leave the podium.
After Brock chastised the Council for losing decorum. De la Torre took a moment of “personal privilege” to respond to the accusations. De la Torre claimed that he put this item on the agenda before the Kean letter was published in the Daily Press publicly accusing him of making anti-semitic comments and that the timing of the motion is just a huge coincidence.
He also admitted to sending Mastbaum an email that included the line, “The negativity you focus on can affect your health. Try being more positive,” but said he was not making a threat against Mastbaum but was just trying to be nice.
The next public speaker had terrible luck in where she was placed, but made a plea for the Council to adjust its laws on what signs businesses can have and not have on their property.
Then Santa Monica Democratic Club President Katz took to the podium to pick up where Mastbaum left off.
“We have long known Oscar de la Torre to be divisive, and long known he’s done this along racial lines,” Katz testified. “…Oscar you know you said it, I know you said it, everyone that’s watching at home knows you said it.”
Katz went on to point out that Jewish public officials, especially Kean who is literally a holocaust documentary filmmaker, are unlikely to make false allegations of anti-semitism for political purposes.
De la Torre tried to raise a point of personal privilege to respond, but Brock disallowed it saying, “we can’t do this after every speaker.” Then Brock returned one minute and forty seconds of time to Mastbaum so he could complete the comments he was making earlier.
Mastbaum continued his comment where he left off, and was nearly immediately cut off by de la Torre. Brock looked for help from the city attorney who urged the mayor to allow Mastbaum to continue, which he did.
Mastbaum attempted to connect de la Torre’s alleged behavior making anti-semitic comments to comments made during the debate on the gender neutral bathroom bill last year. De la Torre initially argued against mandating gender neutral bathrooms on the basis that being transgender should not be a protected class because someone can hide it unlike their race. In his response, de la Torre noted his change of heart on the issue, and ultimately voted for the legislation.
He also gave his own account for the first time of his discussion with an SMMUSD consultant where he allegedly made the anti-semitic comments that were reported on by three SMMUSD Board Members in the Daily Press’ letters page (one more time: Timeline of a scandal).
De la Torre claims that the actual exchange was over the consultant not going through the public process to apply for the contract and that her firm was brought in because of a connection to Kean. Later in the meeting, he claimed that the consultant was confused because he did complain about the political makeup of the board being from “North of Wilshire” and wasn’t representative of the makeup of the city.
He also took offense that Mastbaum called de la Torre’s efforts to secure funding for the meeting a political stunt.
“I had no way of knowing that the letter was going to hit,” said de la Torre, who placed the item on the agenda on Thursday, October 10. The “Kean letter,” the first of three to accuse de la Torre of anti-semitism was published on Friday, October 11.
When Brock attempted to get de la Torre to yield so the meeting could continue, de la Torre pushed back that he would “stay here until 4 a.m. to defend his reputation.” When Brock continued that “this wasn’t a press conference,” de la Torre got more aggressive with his slate-mate.
“I need you to calm down and relax and let me finish,” de la Torre said to Brock before getting clarification from the City Attorney there was no time limit on a point of personal privilege, but they should try and keep their comments brief.
“It is not anti-semitic to call out carpetbaggers,” de la Torre began before Mastbaum and Katz could be heard shouting from the audience that the anti-semitism was when he said he couldn’t pronounce Zernitskaya’s last name.
Brock ordered Katz to leave the meeting. “You’re done” the Mayor said as Katz could be heard shouting back, “You’ll be done on election day.” Other than that, Katz left the meeting peacefully followed by Mastbaum. They were not “escorted out by police” as was reported and as of the time of this post is uncorrected, at the Lookout.
The next speaker asked for clarification about, “which item is about the hate mail?” Brock weerily began to respond that, “it’s not about hate mail,” until he was reminded that the first half of motion 16 b, the item that was being used as the way to discuss the de la Torre scandal at the meeting, is literally about a piece of hate mail that de la Torre received in 1991
Later, Northeast Neighbors President Tricia Crane spoke in defense of de la Torre. “I’ve known Oscar de la Torre for decades…you are heroic, Oscar, and you continue doing it. I need to be here to say that to you.” Crane went on to praise de la Torre’s work advocating for disabled students as a member of the Board of Education.
Several hours later, it was finally time for the Council to take up de la Torre’s proposed Item 16 b.
De la Torre kicked off discussion of the proposal by immediately referencing how he felt reading Jon Kean’s letter in the Daily Press and how it moved him to amend his original motion to include the possibility of using the 1991 Hate Mail Incident as a teachable moment. While the letter targeted members of Samohi’s Latino community, it included the line, “we should gas you like Hitler gassed the Jews” which is why Kean’s letter sparked his renewed interest.
Samohi now has the types of classes that de la Torre was advocating for in the 1990’s that prompted someone to write and distribute a racist diatribe to Latino families in the SMMUSD district. Students are now required to take classes on multi-cultural awareness. De la Torre stated that he doesn’t want the history of the “largest targeted hate crime” in Santa Monica’s history to be neglected when courses such as this are being taught.
De la Torre added that the $2,500 sponsorship of the conference that he proposed would allow a mayor who couldn’t afford to attend the conference to attend.
Brock then spoke, asking de la Torre to either remove the portion about funding the conference or split the motion in two so it could be voted on separately.
Brock, who is attending the conference, stated that the conference is funded and does not need support from Santa Monica. Brock and Davis both noted that allocating funding for another mayor to attend when the city is facing massive budget cuts is not appropriate at this time.
“Regardless of who allegedly makes anti-semitic remarks, we need to stand united against anti-semitism,” Davis continued.
Davis also voiced concern from some SMMUSD staff that the city suggesting curriculum changes, “feels like the city dictating curriculum to the schools.”
Torosis went a step farther arguing against finding, or even supporting, the conference. Torosis stated that she received letters claiming that the conference is sponsored by an organization with a board of directors that includes people who are homophobic and Trump mega-donors.
“I can’t support us sponsoring the event, but am always in favor of supporting education and want to do it in a way that supports the school district,” she concluded.
In June 2022, Brock and Davis remembered that the Council discussed the 1991 hate crime incident and asked the SMPD to re-open the case. The SMPD eventually responded that there was no new evidence and the case remains unsolved.
Davis asked de la Torre why he doesn’t just go directly to the school board, and de la Torre responded by noting that he doesn’t believe the school board isn’t a welcome place for him to go.
Councilmember Zwick spoke about the allegations against de la Torre, speaking as the “only Jewish member of the Council.”
“Councilmember de la Torre, are you denying saying these words?” Zwick asked of the accusations made by the School Board Members.
“I never said that. I deny making those comments,” de la Torre asked. He then went on to say that what he did say was that “the majority of the school board members live North of Wilshire.”
“The lack of political representation of southside families is detrimental to their children…I’ve always talked about class and race, but never brought up religion,” he continued.
After going into the political differences between himself and his three accusers, de la Torrie turned the question around on Zwick.
“Do you believe I’m anti-semitic?…Have I ever treated you in a way that made you feel that your religion or your culture is a reason I’ve treated you badly?” de la Torre continued.
Zwick responded that he has never had issue with how de la Torre has treated him.
“But your interactions with me don’t represent the totality of who you are,” Zwick said, clear that he was not minimizing the accusations against him.
De la Torre continued that facing these accusations would be similar to if he accused Zwick of being racist. Despite their political opposition and the reality that “we probably don’t like each other,” de la Torre argued that such an accusation would be out of bounds.
“You have called me racist, on numerous occasions, on this dais,” said Davis moments later to de la Torre. “To say ‘I’m really hurt,’ about being called anti-semitic…apparently you give better than you take.”
Davis continued that she had heard of the allegations made by the school board members at the time, and she believes de la Torre’s accusers. She says she didn’t bring the issue up at the time because it wasn’t her story to tell, and gave space that de la Torre’s explanation that it was a misinterpretation by the consultant is accurate.
However, she then went on to bring up another time where de la Torre said things to her that could be interpreted as anti-semitic.
The first was at least seven years earlier, but Davis never brought it up because it might have been “just an awkward statement.”
In her telling, after de la Torre complained to her about the difficulty getting some of the youth he served job opportunities because of their criminal records, Davis recommended working with Jewish Vocational Services, a legal non-profit that has experience getting records expunged and working with employers that give “second chance” jobs to youth with records.
“What do Jews know about getting jobs for Mexicans,” de la Torre allegedly said at the time.
De la Torre responded that he didn’t remember the comment and that Pico Youth and Family Center, the non-profit he helmed at the time, had an ongoing contract with Jewish Vocational Services.
When Brock again tried to maintain order, de la Torre angrily responded that he couldn’t keep quiet while Davis lied about him. Brock then oddly blamed the discussion going back to this issue on Zwick for asking de la Torre about the statement before Davis continued.
After noting that de la Torre just called her a liar, she explained that she wasn’t going to bring up her conversation until de la Torre “attacked people for telling their truth” in his comments about the motivations of the three SMMUSD Board Members that have accused him of anti-semitic remarks.
“You have the right to call other people liars…but you need to confront the fact that you call people racists without empirical evidence that they are racists. You’ve said some pretty hurtful things about me on social media. That’s ok. That’s your right…but I believe it’s important to defend people who are speaking the truth,” she concluded.
De la Torre said that he may never have called Davis racist per say, the vote she made years ago to defund the Pico Youth and Family Center and fund the Police Athletic League was a “racist decision.” He also felt that when Davis identified as a “genetic Latina” after never broaching the issue before, it was also a racist decision.
“I want to apologize to you if I said something that personally hurt you. It’s not my intention to personalize it.” de la Torre continued. “I’ve seen you make decisions that support systemic racism that support institutionalized racism.”
At the end of de la Torre’s comments, which was a mix of his proud defense of his advocacy on behalf of Latino communities and the Pico neighborhood and accusations against Davis and other political opponents including Katz, Mastbaum, former Mayor Ted Winterer, attorney Chris Harding, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights; Davis recounted another story from the same meeting.
“…You did say something that was quite nice to me. It was when I told you my birth father was Mexican and my birth mother was Irish, long before you filed the CVRA lawsuit. I did not become “Latina”, it did not have anything to do with it. I said it was uncommon (to have parents with that background.) You said it was not uncommon, and I should be proud of it,” she said.
Davis also countered that when de la Torre ran against her in 2020, many of his allies made hurtful comments against her too.
In the end, the Council took a vote on how it could create more programs to combat anti-semitism and direct the city manager to discuss with SMMUSD staff how the 1991 hate mail incident could be used as an educational tool. The motion passed 7-0.
