1 Vernice Hankins
From: Peter DiChellis <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2022 3:18 PM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Item 8A Brown Act Discussion
EXTERNAL
Summary: Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Opposed.
Better idea: Council members make a pinky‐swear to never again pre‐empt a City press release, and then allocate resources to issues of actual importance to those who live and work here, such as a) shutting down any conceivable remaining loophole that might allow another shameful obscenity like the Lincoln/Ocean Park/Gelson’s project and b) clearing out crime and filthiness from the Downtown, Promenade, and Beach/Pier areas to begin mending the City’s quality‐of‐life, overall reputation, and revenue formerly generated by higher retail sales and tourism.
Peter DiChellis, unaffiliated moderate
Santa Monica ‐ 90403
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1 Vernice Hankins
From: Jason Mastbaum <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2022 11:09 PM
To: councilmtgitems; councilmtgitems
Cc: Gleam Davis; Phil Brock; Christine Parra; Lana Negrete; Sue Himmelrich; Kristin McCowan; Oscar de la Torre
Subject: 2/22/2022 city council meeting items 8A and 13G
EXTERNAL
Councilmembers,
The number one issue on Councilmember Brock's campaign website is "the Santa Monica City Council owes you an apology!" I could not agree with Councilmember Brock more: three‐sevenths of the Santa Monica City Council absolutely owes the residents an apology for dragging our city's reputation through the mud.
At the most recent city council meeting on February 8, Councilmember Davis placed an item on the council agenda to investigate how information repeatedly leaked out of closed session. As was repeatedly mentioned during this session, we KNOW FOR A FACT that the law was broken because the information about the selection of the city manager and city attorney could not have leaked without someone violating the law. Yet when presented with the unambiguous fact of the commission of a crime, Councilmembers Brock, de la Torre, and Parra responded by voting in favor of lawlessness and against finding out how the law was broken. What's more, watching the session, it was absolutely incredible to see Councilmembers Brock and de la Torre apparently not seem to understand that their preemptive Trumpian cries of WITCH HUNT! made it impossible as a resident and a voter to conclude anything other than that they were desperately trying to cover up their own violations of the law, and that Councilmember Parra was joining them in voting for the coverup.
As was also discussed in the February 8 meeting, the sadly not‐unearned perception of the Santa Monica city government as a lawless clown show has already resulted in us losing the consideration of multiple qualified would‐be candidates who rightly did not want to tarnish their own reputations by shackling their reputation to that of the Santa Monica city government. And now, the same three candidates who voted to protect this new culture of lawlessness surrounding the selection of city employees have presented an agenda item which, ironically, sure looks like the start of their own witch hunt against anyone in the Santa Monica city government who commits the high crime of having policy disagreements with them, starting with Commissioner Camner. From our hired city staff to our volunteer city commissioners, these three councilmembers are clearly hellbent on creating a Santa Monica city government that consists solely of their handpicked sycophants.
Councilmembers Brock, de la Torre, and Parra have now made a pattern of disgracing both themselves and the city. If they're interested in reversing course on this pattern and doing right by the city and its residents, a great place to start would be voting for agenda item 8A, which, again, is about investigating not WHETHER a crime occurred but the specifics of a crime that 100% incontrovertibly DID occur, and pulling their agenda item 13G, which if passed would only further chill the ability of the city to find qualified employees and commissioners. If we don't get a lid on this lawlessness now with a 7‐0 vote in favor of 8A and the retraction of 13G, the city council and the city as a whole cannot and will never have the unity that Councilmembers Brock and de la Torre kept insisting they so strongly desire.
Thank you for your time,
Jason Mastbaum
Item 8.A
02/22/22
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1 Vernice Hankins
From: Natalya Zernitskaya <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 9:50 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Cc: Lana Negrete; Gleam Davis; Sue Himmelrich; Christine Parra; Oscar de la Torre; Kristin McCowan; Phil Brock; David White; Attorney Mailbox
Subject: City Council Agenda 2/22/22 Item 8A - LWV Santa Monica Public Comments Attachments: LWVSM CC Item 8A Public Comments 2.22.2022.pdf
EXTERNAL
Good Morning,
Please see the attached public comments and enclosure submitted on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica regarding Item 8A on the Santa Monica City Council Agenda for February 22, 2022. For your convenience, I have included the text of our public comments below:
~~~~~~~~~~~
February 22, 2022
Re: City Council Agenda Item 8A
Dear Mayor Himmelrich, Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, and City Councilmembers, The League of Women Voters of Santa Monica believes that democratic government depends upon informed and active participation in government. For people to be both informed and to participate in a meaningful way, the government must protect the citizen’s right to know. Support for open government is a basic principle for the League.
We urge the Council to vote yes on Agenda Item 8A, the approval of a proposal for an independent investigation of possible violations of the Brown Act and confidentiality agreements, including the authorization to issue subpoenas in the name of the City under Section 614 of the City Charter in conducting the investigation. Independent investigations are necessary to prevent potential real or perceived conflicts of interest from negatively impacting the public’s trust in government.
We believe that governmental bodies must protect the citizen’s right to know by giving adequate notice of proposed actions, holding open meetings and making public records accessible. Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of good government.
It is vital to the health of our democracy that potential violations of laws and the public trust are investigated to the fullest extent appropriate to ensure transparency and accountability in government.
Sincerely,
Natalya Zernitskaya
President
League of Women Voters of Santa Monica
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank You,
Natalya
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2 Natalya Zernitskaya (she/her)
President
League of Women Voters of Santa Monica
[email protected]
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From: Bradley Ewing <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 11:13 AM
To: councilmtgitems; Gleam Davis; Sue Himmelrich; Lana Negrete; Kristin McCowan Subject: 8A - Support
EXTERNAL
Council,
I urge you all to vote YES on this item to investigate who violated the Brown Act. As Councilmember Davis made clear during the previous discussion: we know the law was broken, now we have to figure out who did it.
As a long term resident and citizen, I am concerned that this wasn't an open and shut item during the last meeting. If an employer I was interviewing with publicly leaked my candidacy, I would immediately pull out of the process and publicly blast this employer to my network and relevant forums. It is imperative that the council and city has impeccable integrity, and this will be lost until justice is served.
Best,
Brad Ewing
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1 Vernice Hankins
From: Jason Mastbaum <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 2:24 PM
To: councilmtgitems; councilmtgitems
Cc: Gleam Davis; Phil Brock; Christine Parra; Lana Negrete; Sue Himmelrich; Kristin McCowan; Oscar de la Torre
Subject: Re: 2/22/2022 city council meeting items 8A and 13G
EXTERNAL
To add to my comment from last night, Councilmember Brock appeared at a session held by Commissioner Camner in Tongva Park this afternoon claiming to be seeking to participate in a civil dialog. When I asked him why his starting point was placing item 13G on tonight's agenda if he was interested in having a civil dialog with Commissioner Camner, he would not respond beyond saying the agenda item wasn't necessarily his idea. I already thought he was lying to my face considering his name is listed first on the list of councilmembers placing the item on tonight's agenda, and a Santa Monica Observer article on this confirms it: "Tonight the Santa Monica City Council will meet and consider a request from Councilmember Phil Brock to remove Leonora Camner from the Santa Monica City Housing Commission, on account of her employment by Abundant Housing Los Angeles." https://www.smobserved.com/story/2022/02/23/news/housing‐commissioner‐leonora‐camner‐stands‐her‐ground‐ insists‐theres‐no‐conflict‐of‐interest/6482.html
What kind of councilmember casually lies to their constituents like this? What else has Councilmember Brock been lying about, both to the public and to other councilmembers?
On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 11:09 PM Jason Mastbaum <[email protected]> wrote:
Councilmembers,
The number one issue on Councilmember Brock's campaign website is "the Santa Monica City Council owes you an apology!" I could not agree with Councilmember Brock more: three‐sevenths of the Santa Monica City Council absolutely owes the residents an apology for dragging our city's reputation through the mud.
At the most recent city council meeting on February 8, Councilmember Davis placed an item on the council agenda to investigate how information repeatedly leaked out of closed session. As was repeatedly mentioned during this session, we KNOW FOR A FACT that the law was broken because the information about the selection of the city manager and city attorney could not have leaked without someone violating the law. Yet when presented with the unambiguous fact of the commission of a crime, Councilmembers Brock, de la Torre, and Parra responded by voting in favor of lawlessness and against finding out how the law was broken. What's more, watching the session, it was absolutely incredible to see Councilmembers Brock and de la Torre apparently not seem to understand that their preemptive Trumpian cries of WITCH HUNT! made it impossible as a resident and a voter to conclude anything other than that they were desperately trying to cover up their own violations of the law, and that Councilmember Parra was joining them in voting for the coverup.
As was also discussed in the February 8 meeting, the sadly not‐unearned perception of the Santa Monica city government as a lawless clown show has already resulted in us losing the consideration of multiple qualified would‐be candidates who rightly did not want to tarnish their own reputations by shackling their reputation to that of the Santa Monica city government. And now, the same three candidates who voted to protect this new culture of lawlessness surrounding the selection of city employees have presented an agenda item which, ironically, sure looks like the start of their own witch hunt against anyone in the Santa Monica city government who commits the high crime of having policy disagreements with them, starting with Commissioner Camner. From our hired city staff to our volunteer city Item 8.A
02/22/22
6 of 7 Item 8.A
02/22/22
2 commissioners, these three councilmembers are clearly hellbent on creating a Santa Monica city government that consists solely of their handpicked sycophants.
Councilmembers Brock, de la Torre, and Parra have now made a pattern of disgracing both themselves and the city. If they're interested in reversing course on this pattern and doing right by the city and its residents, a great place to start would be voting for agenda item 8A, which, again, is about investigating not WHETHER a crime occurred but the specifics of a crime that 100% incontrovertibly DID occur, and pulling their agenda item 13G, which if passed would only further chill the ability of the city to find qualified employees and commissioners. If we don't get a lid on this lawlessness now with a 7‐0 vote in favor of 8A and the retraction of 13G, the city council and the city as a whole cannot and will never have the unity that Councilmembers Brock and de la Torre kept insisting they so strongly desire.
Thank you for your time,
Jason Mastbaum
Item 8.A
02/22/22
7 of 7 Item 8.A
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