Candidate for
Councilmember; City of Santa Monica

My vision is for a City government which serves the needs of the people of Santa Monica, a city that is safe, attractive, with good schools and adequate resources for all of our citizens. A City Hall in touch and accountable to the people.

A. Growth must be intelligently managed.

B. Social service programs must have goals. Enabling handouts and services that never cease must give way for lifestyle changing programs that reward progress. Lawbreakers, parolees, criminals and malingerers must be dealt with to the full extent of the law, and if necessary, told to move on. The free ride must come to an end and common sense must prevail.

C. i want to enrich life in the Pico neighborhood. We must end the violence and provide resources for youth. Pico is the only neighborhood that does not have a branch library, The powers to be even turned down a "reading room" in the newly remodeled Virginia Park.

D. Parks are also vital. The City charges our youth leagues and athletic teams for the use of public parks. How shameful is that?

Those who advocate for park space and open space constantly vote to build low income housing on every available piece of ground in town + including taxpaying commercial properties and in the new Civic Center -- where they want to build 350 units of market rate and low income housing in high rise towers.

E. The City spends tens of million of dollars on low income rental housing. Virtually none of the City subsidized housing is for middle income families -- the category in which most City employees and public safety people fall. This is unfortunate. Ownership housing is virtually non-existent because the Renter's Rights are chiefly interested in building voter based rental units to help maintain their power base.

F. We are a wealthy City with many resources, therefore the City should play a roll in supporting education as well as helping our schools identify, source and acquire outside revenue streams such as grants and fellowships (as it now does for non-resident services providers.) In return, I would require periodic audits of School District books and meaningful financial oversight.

G. Independent studies say that the City's Planning Department is a disaster area, inefficient and barely functionable. The Matrix report siad the City has no long term planing capability.

Small projects and home remodels take years and tens of thousands of dollars to complete because of the inefficiency and incompetency. Large municipal projects under their supervision are often way behind schedule and way over budget.

Fixes proposed by the planning director include cutting off public input on development issues to speed up the process. This all needs to be corrected and quickly.

In summary, I hope to get Santa Monica's City government back in touch and on track with the people. I want to set priorities and solve problems that have been ignored or perpetuated by a City Hall that is more interested in creating a Utopian society than the needs of residents, and business. I will bring common sense back to City Hall.