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Santa Monica City Council to Launch Process to Fill Vacant Seat

01/04/2019 10:05 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council could have a new member as early as January 22 under a process that would be launched with the acceptance of Tony Vazquez's resignation next Tuesday.

Vazquez announced in a letter to the Council that his resignation would become effective Monday when he assumes the seat on the State Board of Equalization he won on November 6.

Once the Council formally accepts the resignation, an online application process for the open seat would be launched no later than noon on Wednesday, according to a staff report by the City Clerk.

Council hopes to boost affordable housing production

01/03/2019 8:45 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica will try to increase the number of lowincome housing units in the city by restricting the affordability levels offered to developers.

Extending the DCP rules could prevent developers from constructing buildings with mostly market-rate units and only a few affordable units.

Judge expands ruling to require seven council districts

01/03/2019 8:42 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Future City Council elections in the City of Santa Monica will be determined by a seven-district map after the judge in the voting rights lawsuit altered her earlier ruling.

In December, Judge Yvette Palazuelos issued an amended tentative ruling, siding with Plaintiffs Maria Loya and the Pico Neighborhood Association (PNA) that the City’s at-large voting system violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). At that time she ordered the city to discontinue at-large elections and adopt a district based system but she only mandated the borders for a Pico neighborhood district.

In a hearing on Jan. 02, Palazuelos changed her initial ruling altering the borders of the initial Pico district slightly and adding borders for six other districts. The now seven-district map is identical to one presented by the Plaintiffs during the trial.

‘It Will Be Gargantuan’: Seven figure estimate given on legal fees City would spend on appeal

01/03/2019 8:17 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Plantiff attorney in voting rights case against the City of Santa Monica gives estimate.

An attorney representing the plaintiffs in a voting rights case against the City of Santa Monica estimates that the City will spend at least $10,000,000 in legal fees if they decide to appeal the judge’s final decision.

“Last I heard Boutrous [Theodore J. Boutrous Jr.], the guy who argued the remedy motion a couple weeks ago, his billing rate is $2,000 an hour and then they have two other lawyers in the room and one of them is a partner so he is going to be over $1,000 an hour.

Judge Orders City to Use Plaintiffs' Map for Special Council Election

01/02/2019 3:03 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The judge in a voting rights lawsuit against the City on Wednesday ordered a special election under the seven districts proposed by the plaintiffs.

The order came during a nearly hour-long hearing requested by the plaintiffs to clarify the court's amended tentative ruling on December 14 that barred any elections under Santa Monica's current at-large system.

See the City's statement: https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2019/01/02/court-changes-tentative-remedy-in-cvra-trial

Affordable Housing: How Jesús is helping build a city with reachable rents

12/26/2018 8:31 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

As Director of Housing Development at Community Corporation of Santa Monica, he firmly believes that people should have the opportunity to live in the same community in which they work.

Scooters Zip By Development as Hot-Button Issue

12/26/2018 8:26 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

With the rise of e-scooters and the decline of jets, transportation grabbed some of the top headlines in 2018, while development remained poised to regain its spot as the hot-button issue of 2019.

Stage Set for New Round of Development Battles

Development may have taken a back seat in 2018, but three major mixed-use projects proposed for the Downtown made major strides in 2018 and are poised to take center stage next year.

A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes

12/24/2018 8:55 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said.

In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldn’t read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan.

“That isn’t as easy as you think,” Brown said. “Because you’re going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And you’re talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high.”

New laws for the New Year

12/24/2018 8:48 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The plaintiffs in the CVRA case are asking that the City hold a special election in April to elect members to the City Council in a district-based system. Last week, a judge banned the City from holding at-large elections and said it must elect councilmembers by district, a decision the City plans to appeal.

Frustrated Residents Call for Crackdown on Homeless Crime

12/21/2018 8:32 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Crime and homelessness were often in the news in 2018, and although City officials were careful to separate the two, residents increasingly drew a connection.

Nowhere was this clearer than in the City's parks, where frustrated residents captured images of homeless individuals engaged in criminal activity and posted them on social media.