Currently, it appears that we still have lessons to learn if the recent hearings on our Downtown Community Plan (DCP) are any indication. The hearings put on display both a lack of direction and flawed governance. Many residents who came to speak at the public hearing were unable to enter Council Chambers. The hotel workers’ union, most of whom did not identify themselves as residents and were organized by outside groups, arrived early in matching T-shirts with promises of free pizza to fill the auditorium. They placed their “chits” to speak before residents were able to do so and read from sheets provided by those who, in some cases, paid them to come. This process prevented many residents from expressing their comments and concerns due to the limited available time. City Council subsequently approved the DCP, along with its many faults, benefiting from only limited community input. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2017/10/sma-r-t-santa-monica-a-city-searching-for-itself-at-sea/

As Homelessness Mounts, renters are desperate and homeless despair. But will a law solve anything?

A bill before the State Legislature could reverse the Costa Hawkins Law. This 1995 law allows a landlord to get out from under rent control by declaring a kind of bankruptcy, and going out of business. It modified Santa Monica's 1978 Rent Control law.

Costa Hawkins also excludes from rent control single-family homes and apartments built after 1995. The new law would repeal Costa Hawkins through an initiative on the 2018 ballot.

Read More: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2017/10/26/news/rent-control-may-expand-through-vacancy-decontrol-ballot-initiative/3166.html

By Charles Andrews

Obviously corruption will always try to get its way, behind the scenes, but most everything that matters here comes up for a vote before the City Council, and that SMRR-dominated (for decades) Council hasn’t yet seen, since I’ve been paying attention, an outsized development or outlandish expenditure of funds that they didn’t like. And approve. Usually unanimously or maybe 6 to 1. The list is endless.

Read More: http://smdp.com/we-must-not-give-up/163029

Read: Why You Need to Talk with Your Tenants about Renter's Insurance

at: RENTERS INSURANCE PROTECTS YOU.pdf

Request to gather signatures for the ballot initiative: Affordable Housing Act

Section 2. Findings and Declarations. 

1) A major factor in California's housing crisis is a 20-year-old law known as the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Costa-Hawkins gives permission to landlords of residential apartments and houses to raise rents as much as they want in buildings built after 1995; despite local laws that would otherwise prohibit such increases, landlords in Los Angeles can raise rents as much as they want on buildings built after 1978 and in San Francisco, on buildings built after 1979.

m) Costa-Hawkins also allows a landlord to raise the rent in any building built before 1995 to the market value when it becomes vacant, and lets the landlord decide what market value is. 

n) Costa-Hawkins prevents cities from implementing laws that keep rents affordable for their residents. 

Section 3. Purposes and Intent. 

c) To repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. 

Read More: https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/17-0041%20(Affordable%20Housing)_0.pdf

AND

https://la.curbed.com/2017/10/23/16526384/costa-hawkins-rent-control-ballot-measure-initiative

AND 

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-rent-control-in-california-could-expand-1508785237-htmlstory.html

October 23, 2017 -- The California Supreme Court last week denied an appeal by the City of Santa Monica to review the Voting Rights lawsuit filed against it, upholding a lower court ruling that allows the litigation to proceed to trial.

The October 18 ruling from the 2nd District Court of Appeal of the state Supreme Court was praised by Kevin Shenkman, the attorney representing the plaintiffs -- the Pico Neighborhood Association and Latina Activist Maria Loya ("Santa Monica Facing Lawsuit Over At-Large Council Elections," April 13, 2016).

“The California Supreme Court's unanimous decision last week is further affirmation that the city council members' misguided and expensive fight against the voting rights of their own constituents is, at its core, based on a distorted view of the law,” Shenkman said.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/October-2017/10_23_2017_California_Supreme_Court_Denies_Santa_Monica_Request_to_Toss_Voting_Rights_Lawsuit.html

...the City should not count on developers to provide affordable housing downtown. Instead, this housing should be built along our mid-rise boulevards, adjacent to markets and residential neighborhoods rather than high rises. Since low-rise can be built in wood frame rather than steel, this housing would also be less expensive to build and more ecological. Affordable housing should be provided at the developers’ expense but under public scrutiny and in residential areas. If this were the case, it is far more likely that it will be both more affordable and family-oriented.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2017/10/sma-r-t-road-parking-hell-paved/

October 20, 2017 -- The Santa Monica City Council is set to approve a slew of new white-collar employee salaries, all but a few close to, or comfortably in, six-figure earnings brackets.

At the top of the new pay chart, which goes into effect October 29, are jobs for senior advisors to the City Manager on airport matters and on the City’s homeless population, both paying $13,503 a month, or $162,036 annually.

A third job, for a “transit community and government engagement manager,” would earn the same pay, according to a report by Finance Director Gigi Decavalles-Hughes going to the council for its meeting next Tuesday.

In all, 21 positions are included in the new classifications and salary rates.

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/October-2017/10_20_2017_Santa_Monica_City_Council_Set_to_Approve_More_Six_Figure_Salaries.html

October 20, 2017 -- From a turn-of-the-century home gazing at the Pacific from Palisades Park to one of the first Postmodern high-tech designs in Santa Monica, four local landmarks are likely to get preservation contracts with the City.

Staff is recommending the City negotiate “Historic Property Preservation Agreements” (of Mills Act contracts) with the property owners of 401 Ocean Avenue, 927 Ocean Avenue, 909-911 Montana Avenue and 2433 28th Street.

Read More:   https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/October-2017/10_20_2017_Four_Santa_Monica_Landmarks_Slated_for_Conservation_Contracts.html

Supporters of the new laws compare those misbehaving dog owners to people who acquire handicap signs so they can park in spaces intended for disabled people. The laws make it a misdemeanor to represent an untrained dog as a service animal, and usually come with fines of no more than $500 for an incident.

But because there is no certification or official national registry of legitimate service dogs, there is no way to verify whether a dog has undergone rigorous training to become a service animal.

The American with Disabilities Act requires all places open to the public, such as businesses, government agencies and entertainment venues, to give access to service dogs and their owners. And it permits them to ask only two questions: whether the dog is required because of a disability and what tasks the dog is trained to perform. It is illegal to request documentation for the dog or to ask the nature of the owner's disability.

Read More: https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2017/10/18/tightening-the-leash-on-fake-service-dogs/