Written Comments — Santa Monica City Council, April 22, 2025

1 David Yakobson
From: Arthur Jeon <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2025 5:09 PM
To: Lana Negrete; Caroline Torosis; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya; Jesse Zwick; councilmtgitems
Cc: Phil Brock; Douglas Sloan; City of Santa Monica; Clerk Mailbox; Jeanette Gant; Micah Akerson; Erika Aklufi; Danielle Noble; Ramon Batista; [email protected]; Roberto Lucio; Thomas McLaughlin; Jose Rodriguez; Annette Farmer; Maryanne LaGuardia; Albin Gielicz; Alisha Brady; [email protected]; Arati Desai Wagabaza; Lori Brown; John Smith; John E. Alle; Evan Meyer; [email protected]; Luke Cain; Peter Bosen; [email protected]; Elaine Golden-Gealer; Eric Sedman; Michele Aronson; Aisling Winders; Julia Ladd; Peter TRINH; Anuj Gupta; [email protected]; dominic gomez; Jenna Grigsby; Attorney Mailbox; Shawn R. Kehoe; Andrew Thomas (Downtown Santa Monica); SMDP Editor; Susan Cline; Third District; Michele A Wittig; [email protected]; Attorney Mailbox; Joe; Jenny Rush; Stan Epstein; Gary Tsai; [email protected]; Zina Josephs; Leah; Lauren Howland; [email protected]; Matthew Hall; Richard Drapkin; [email protected]; Planning Commission Comments; Dawn Fairchild; [email protected]; councilmtgitems; [email protected]; Dan Charn.; [email protected]; Gerardo Leyva; Carlos Jaen; Brandon Capiro; Kelly Simon; Mario Fonda-Bonardi; Jing Yeo; Albin Gielicz; Scott McGee; Gerardo Leyva; Ryan Gradle; Roy Brown; Frank Marnell; SM Observer; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Kim Pieper; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Robert Coleman; [email protected]; [email protected]; Alyssa G; [email protected]; Lewis Gilmour
Subject: Last Weekend in Santa Monica--what is your vision Council?

EXTERNAL
Dear Council,
The sad part about this letter is I’ve written some version of it every year for the last 8 years. It is a lesson in failure at every level. Or maybe a lesson in my own insanity expecting something might change. I’m going to tie several things together here, so excuse the length. First, last weekend:

FRIDAY NIGHT: After dinner out my wife and I went to the CVS on Wilshire where we encountered a deranged shirtless man threatening CVS staff with a skateboard, trying to get in the store. Three employees fended him off. In the parking lot were two DTSM security guards who had pushed this person out of the promenade. Screaming gibberish, the man sprinted into traffic and disappeared, heading north toward Reed Park. The security guards didn’t call the police, all they did was push him into my neighborhood. We walked home in the dark on Wilshire, with addicts in front of us, to the side, and behind us. The couple in front pushing shopping carts, arguing, turned down the alley before our street to shoot up. It was as dystopian as it gets anywhere I’ve lived, including Manhattan during the crack epidemic.

SATURDAY MORNING: One thing that still feels somewhat normal, albeit not nearly as busy, in Santa Monica, is the farmer’s market. Walking to it, I saw two men wrestling with a third man with the scratched Item 1
April 22, 2025
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2 arms of an addict over a bag. They were undercover security at TJ MAX and the man’s bag was full of clothes, multiple hats of the same kind, obviously stolen for resale. And a foil-wrapped tube for smoking Fentanyl or Meth. I called 911 and got an indifferent dispatcher who told me “There has to be a victim." The man grabbed his empty bag and ran off. I told the guards that they, and everybody else, should call the police because no doubt this person has a warrant, or might be wanted for something worse, and it will give the police a reason to detain. But I understand why they don’t. Earlier last week I walked by the side-door cubbyhole to the same TJ Max and saw a fully naked man doing drugs. When I went to report it to the store, the manager shrugged and said it wasn’t their property. It is literally on their property, but I just gave up. I didn’t have time. And it’s everywhere all the time, so what’s the point? SUNDAY MORNING: My neighbor in my small condo complex told me their clicker to get in the main garage wasn’t working. The gate was half open, which is deeply disturbing because we’ve had our bikes stolen from our own garage after the main gate was broken into. We’ve also found deranged people smoking meth. It turns out thieves had broken in overnight and stolen the transponder. In a scramble, I got our gate person (Eli at LA GATES, who is excellent), to come out Monday morning. I locked the main gate manually and everybody had to park on the street Sunday night because we dare not leave it open, as breaking into individual garages is often the second part of a two day planned heist, the first of which is breaking the main gate. I wrote a check to Eli for $400, and darkly joked we’re putting his kids through college, that’s how often we’ve had addicts and criminals break the gate.

SUNDAY NIGHT: My wife and I drove to a friend's house for dinner. A couple blocks out from our house, at Santa Monica and Lincoln, a man was screaming and wrestling with another man on the street and then suddenly, smashing up against the hood of our car. It turns out the transient addict tried to steal the man’s bike and the other guy caught him. It was a brawl, and luckily the police pulled up as we fled the scene.

Santa Monica is in free fall. Businesses can't get traction downtown because of the disorder and danger—they open and close within months. All local residents like us who moved near downtown to be in the once thriving scene, and to live the “15 minute city” lifestyle so supported by our council, now go (drive) elsewhere for dining and shopping. The Osteria, a restaurant that opened on 4th and Wilshire has closed, the two new sushi places will not survive. There isn’t enough foot traffic because it’s dangerous to walk anywhere after dark.

To be clear, as a moderate Democrat, I lost twice in last year’s election: I voted against Trump, and against our current city council. What I got was Trump, who seems intent on dismantling the world economy and our constitution for kicks, and a council that I fear is too far left, and paying no attention to the fact that the majority of Santa Monicans voted for Prop 36 and dumping Gascon. They seem to care more about the criminals and addicts than their victims. And of course every fringe virtue signaling issue you can dream up. This is the result of single party rule in a city that’s essentially gerrymandered, that’s how much of a strangle-hold SMRR has on Santa Monica, minus a brief interregnum. They’ve got a lock on those rent-control emails and they work them with a relentless flow of disinformation and fearmongering around rent control (permanently in the city charter).

I hear no bold solutions to this crisis that keeps our downtown an outdoor mental ward and drug shooting gallery (with occasional actual bullets). The streets, alleys, and sidewalks are filthy with litter.

You can’t go into our alley without seeing an addict stumbling around, passed out, tossing garbage around, or scoping for any lapse in security. I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and see no sense of Item 1
April 22, 2025
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3 emergency at the crisis, no daring proposals. SMRR and the far left fully owns this decline; they have been in power for 40 years:
 SMRR (and Danny Zane) own bringing the train here, and its steady stream of addicts, mentally ill, and criminals. Unless the 30-60 people a day stumbling off the train can be addressed, everything we do is treading water. Now the plan is to curfew the beaches at night, which is another blinking red sign of emergency. Makes sense given the mayhem and murder happening down there, but those criminals will surely end up in my neighborhood, in my carport, or attacking me or my wife.

What needs to have a curfew is the train. Vans and buses need to take the people back downtown, because many get woken up by sheriff deputies and have no idea they are in Santa Monica as they stumble off the train at midnight. Then they get dumped into the city and become our problem. They are not our problem, but they are overwhelming our services.  SMRR owns the decision to put “The People’s Concern” downtown, which is as clueless as you can get, and shows no concern for residents, or its downtown. Like the train, we will never recover with it there, operating as it does—as an outdoor drug market and magnet for the most sick amongst us, blocks from the high school (and Pali now too), and downtown. It should be closed immediately. Visitors to the city are owed a better welcome than the addicts populating the onramp from the 10 to Lincoln Blvd, drifting over from the ineffective non-profit. The trash on the onramp looks like a bomb went off.
 SMRR owns the idea of “supportive housing” in one of the most geographically beautiful cities in the world. So come here all the mad, the indigent, the addicted, the criminal, the deranged, come and commit crimes, indulge every addiction with impunity with free needles, and be given lifelong free housing at a million dollars a pop, destroying the neighborhoods into which it's put. Brilliant.

Ground was broken a few blocks from my house on a large new one—and it will embed permanently disturbed people in my neighborhood. Caroline Torosis mumbled some words about abundance, but not in her neighborhood! Another is planned on 4th and Arizona downtown.

Serious question, are you trying to destroy the city? Meanwhile, the Rite Aid on Wilshire in my neighborhood is closing, no doubt throwing in the towel on daily disorder and shoplifting.  SMRR believes Vancouver is a model for Santa Monica (a direct quote from a new council member), so rental housing is heedlessly pumped into the city, destroying what makes us charming. The same crowd have big plans for the airport, last week they sent out a “questionnaire” urging their constituents to vote “housing” throughout the survey. Meanwhile, the stack and packs going up with endlessly vacant street level storefronts create a ghost town effect, the opposite of bustling because they are too large to support small businesses that are the lifeblood of a neighborhood. Their residents drive in and out. The streets are unpopulated. Did nobody take an urban planning class?
 SMRR supports SB79 because they think that the crisis will be solved by fully urbanizing Santa Monica with high-rise apartments everywhere, putting its new residents on a treadmill of lifelong rent payments. Why not build starter condos and help people with the down payment so real generational wealth can be built, as well as a commitment to the city? Never seems to occur to SMRR, who claims to be so for the little guy. But that program would breed independence rather than dependence on SMRR’s “largess,” and make no mistake SMRR is a socialist organization that does not believe in property ownership (except for themselves). Their model is public housing a la Vienna, Austria. Most of the council own their homes, because they believe in the American Dream, even if they cynically don’t envision it for their constituents.

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4 It’s easy to ignore all the mayhem in some parts of Santa Monica. North of Montana and Sunset Park, where council members live, insulated from the danger and disorder, in single-family homes on leafy streets. No paying a fortune for a small one-bedroom in a bland low rise for them, they are building wealth through their property. Council, I promise you, that if you lived where we live, and had the weekend we had (just the norm now), all your luxury beliefs would evaporate. You would gain some empathy and understanding for what residents go through. You would learn at an experiential level that what we are suffering isn’t a “housing issue.” That’s just an excuse you tell yourselves to feel good about your obeisance to developers pushing this agenda, and your own blind ideology. Meanwhile, the rest of LA County slowly recovers, while we flounder, our big mall 70% empty.

But like it or not, you have to solve this becaue the city’s fortunes are tied to downtown. And this is a solvable problem with a few swift actions that boil down to a policy of more stick and less carrot. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, car break-ins in the city have plunged from 28,500 in 2017 to 8,500 last year thanks to a focused police crackdown. So crime and the disorder from which it emerges, can be solved with the right leadership (in this case moderate mayor Daniel Lurie, who’s lowered property crime 45% in one year by arresting the few thousand repeat thieves). You just need to make it a priority because everything waterfalls down from clean and safe streets. Everything. The fact that the council doesn’t see this, and won't act to solve it, breeds contempt and conspiracy theories for our governance because we have more people living on the streets than any area in LA county except Skid Row in downtown. How is that even possible?
I could go on, but I’m exhausted, as I’m sure you are too. My wife, who has wanted to move for years, asked me Sunday night after we got home and parked on the street because our gate was locked: “Why should we live here?” I’ve been arguing and doing my best to change minds, saying that things were going to change. But they haven’t, and I fear they won’t because this council is out of touch with the direction of its own residents, both state and local. I see no sign they see clean and safe streets as the first and only thing that needs to be solved. They claim the crisis is one of housing, when it’s one of addiction and mental illness, that we alone cannot solve. But we can allow our city to be destroyed.

Last night a brother and sister were randomly stabbed on 1700 Ocean Front Avenue. I can no longer come up with a reasonable answer to my wife's question.

Arthur Jeon
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5 David Yakobson
From: Arthur Jeon <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2025 5:09 PM
To: Lana Negrete; Caroline Torosis; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya; Jesse Zwick; councilmtgitems
Cc: Phil Brock; Douglas Sloan; City of Santa Monica; Clerk Mailbox; Jeanette Gant; Micah Akerson; Erika Aklufi; Danielle Noble; Ramon Batista; [email protected]; Roberto Lucio; Thomas McLaughlin; Jose Rodriguez; Annette Farmer; Maryanne LaGuardia; Albin Gielicz; Alisha Brady; [email protected]; Arati Desai Wagabaza; Lori Brown; John Smith; John E. Alle; Evan Meyer; [email protected]; Luke Cain; Peter Bosen; [email protected]; Elaine Golden-Gealer; Eric Sedman; Michele Aronson; Aisling Winders; Julia Ladd; Peter TRINH; Anuj Gupta; [email protected]; dominic gomez; Jenna Grigsby; Attorney Mailbox; Shawn R. Kehoe; Andrew Thomas (Downtown Santa Monica); SMDP Editor; Susan Cline; Third District; Michele A Wittig; [email protected]; Attorney Mailbox; Joe; Jenny Rush; Stan Epstein; Gary Tsai; [email protected]; Zina Josephs; Leah; Lauren Howland; [email protected]; Matthew Hall; Richard Drapkin; [email protected]; Planning Commission Comments; Dawn Fairchild; [email protected]; councilmtgitems; [email protected]; Dan Charn.; [email protected]; Gerardo Leyva; Carlos Jaen; Brandon Capiro; Kelly Simon; Mario Fonda-Bonardi; Jing Yeo; Albin Gielicz; Scott McGee; Gerardo Leyva; Ryan Gradle; Roy Brown; Frank Marnell; SM Observer; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Kim Pieper; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Robert Coleman; [email protected]; [email protected]; Alyssa G; [email protected]; Lewis Gilmour
Subject: Last Weekend in Santa Monica--what is your vision Council?

SATURDAY MORNING: One thing that still feels somewhat normal, albeit not nearly as busy, in Santa Monica, is the farmer’s market. Walking to it, I saw two men wrestling with a third man with the scratched Item 1
April 22, 2025
Item 1
April 22, 2025
6 arms of an addict over a bag. They were undercover security at TJ MAX and the man’s bag was full of clothes, multiple hats of the same kind, obviously stolen for resale. And a foil-wrapped tube for smoking Fentanyl or Meth. I called 911 and got an indifferent dispatcher who told me “There has to be a victim." The man grabbed his empty bag and ran off. I told the guards that they, and everybody else, should call the police because no doubt this person has a warrant, or might be wanted for something worse, and it will give the police a reason to detain. But I understand why they don’t. Earlier last week I walked by the side-door cubbyhole to the same TJ Max and saw a fully naked man doing drugs. When I went to report it to the store, the manager shrugged and said it wasn’t their property. It is literally on their property, but I just gave up. I didn’t have time. And it’s everywhere all the time, so what’s the point? SUNDAY MORNING: My neighbor in my small condo complex told me their clicker to get in the main garage wasn’t working. The gate was half open, which is deeply disturbing because we’ve had our bikes stolen from our own garage after the main gate was broken into. We’ve also found deranged people smoking meth. It turns out thieves had broken in overnight and stolen the transponder. In a scramble, I got our gate person (Eli at LA GATES, who is excellent), to come out Monday morning. I locked the main gate manually and everybody had to park on the street Sunday night because we dare not leave it open, as breaking into individual garages is often the second part of a two day planned heist, the first of which is breaking the main gate. I wrote a check to Eli for $400, and darkly joked we’re putting his kids through college, that’s how often we’ve had addicts and criminals break the gate.

You can’t go into our alley without seeing an addict stumbling around, passed out, tossing garbage around, or scoping for any lapse in security. I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and see no sense of Item 1
April 22, 2025
Item 1
April 22, 2025
7 emergency at the crisis, no daring proposals. SMRR and the far left fully owns this decline; they have been in power for 40 years:
 SMRR (and Danny Zane) own bringing the train here, and its steady stream of addicts, mentally ill, and criminals. Unless the 30-60 people a day stumbling off the train can be addressed, everything we do is treading water. Now the plan is to curfew the beaches at night, which is another blinking red sign of emergency. Makes sense given the mayhem and murder happening down there, but those criminals will surely end up in my neighborhood, in my carport, or attacking me or my wife.

Item 1
April 22, 2025
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8 It’s easy to ignore all the mayhem in some parts of Santa Monica. North of Montana and Sunset Park, where council members live, insulated from the danger and disorder, in single-family homes on leafy streets. No paying a fortune for a small one-bedroom in a bland low rise for them, they are building wealth through their property. Council, I promise you, that if you lived where we live, and had the weekend we had (just the norm now), all your luxury beliefs would evaporate. You would gain some empathy and understanding for what residents go through. You would learn at an experiential level that what we are suffering isn’t a “housing issue.” That’s just an excuse you tell yourselves to feel good about your obeisance to developers pushing this agenda, and your own blind ideology. Meanwhile, the rest of LA County slowly recovers, while we flounder, our big mall 70% empty.

Last night a brother and sister were randomly stabbed on 1700 Ocean Front Avenue. I can no longer come up with a reasonable answer to my wife's question.

Arthur Jeon
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1 David Yakobson
From: Eve Lopez <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2025 9:44 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: 4/22/25 City council meeting - agenda item 1
Attachments: CalDart SMO Apr 26 2025.pdf

EXTERNAL
Attached is a document submitted as a written public comment for Agenda Item #1. We also request that it be displayed during the oral comment period for the same agenda item.

Thank you.

Eve Lopez
Sunset Park resident
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1 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2025 3:55 PM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle
Subject: Sunday

EXTERNAL
Have you ever wondered why Mayor Negrete and the entire City Council refuse to acknowledge even a single problem in Santa Monica? Isn’t it maddening that not one council member seems to notice what’s right in front of us—syringes on the sidewalks, rising crime, aggressive addicts, shuttered storefronts, filthy alleyways, and mountains of trash? All set against a backdrop of a city that provides Taxpayer grant money to The Venice Family Clinic and other nonprofits to freely distribute drug paraphernalia, and practically rolls out the red carpet for public drug use.

Many of us have family members who no longer feel safe visiting—especially not with children. But that’s not something the Council has to worry about. When things get dicey, Councilmember Jesse Zwick simply retreats to his million-dollar home in Colorado and phones it in—literally—during meetings. Meanwhile, Councilmembers like Caroline Torosis won’t hesitate to shame you for voicing concern, deflecting with accusations about your race, religion, or sexuality. And while we brace for another summer of lost tourism, rising assaults, and declining quality of life, the people in charge will keep insisting everything is fine—from the comfort of their vacation homes.

Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIrUBw8CpGR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/TEHSZeT-xrk
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2 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 11:29 AM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle
Subject: The People Concern

EXTERNAL
SANTA MONICA'S largest nonprofit recipient of TAXPAYER-FUNDED annual grants. Also funded by US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development. Unreconciled accounting and missing funds. Huge unexplained costs for "Food and Travel." More transients and needles outside than inside.

Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIgz80dCq5W/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/Ru-fxkC2rZ8
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3 David Yakobson
From: Akiva Bamberger <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 5:56 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Lana Negrete; Caroline Torosis; Jesse Zwick; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya; councilmtgitems
Subject: Disappointed by Front Plate Citation—Reconsidering My Business Presence in Santa Monica

EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor Negrete and Santa Monica City Council Members, I’m writing out of frustration and disappointment. I founded and run a company that recently chose to base its operations at the WeWork in Santa Monica. Part of the reason I made that decision was because I valued what the city represented—vibrancy, innovation, and a sense of community that felt aligned with how I wanted to work and live.

Today, I received a parking citation for not having a front license plate, despite having paid the meter. The car is legally registered and well-maintained, but it—like many modern vehicles—was not designed with a front plate mount. Receiving a ticket for something so technical, especially while contributing economically to the city as a local employer and tenant, makes me feel more penalized than welcomed.

It’s pushing me to reconsider why I work from Santa Monica at all. Remote work is easy. I chose Santa Monica because I believed in it. But experiences like this make me want to avoid the area entirely—why should I keep spending money and time here if I feel extorted over an outdated rule? I respectfully ask the city to reexamine how it enforces front plate laws—especially when applied to parked vehicles. Other cities and states have found more reasonable solutions: decal-based alternatives, exemptions, or simply deprioritizing enforcement when there's no safety issue.

Citation Number: 941830142
Thanks for hearing me out.

Sincerely,
Alex “Akiva” Bamberger
Mayk
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4 David Yakobson
From: Andrew Hartman <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 10:51 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Cc: [email protected]; Lana Negrete; Caroline Torosis; Jesse Zwick; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya
Subject: Proposal to Transform Vacant Storefronts into Comedy, Music & Improv Spaces in Santa Monica

EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor Negrete, Mayor Pro Tem Torosis, and Honorable Councilmembers, My name is Andrew Hartman, and I’m a Santa Monica resident as well as an actor in the Sunday Company at The Groundlings—one of the country’s most iconic training grounds for comedy and improv.

I’m writing today with both a concern and a hopeful proposal. For the past five years, it’s been genuinely disheartening to walk down Main Street and see so many storefronts still sitting empty— some that have never been filled. These aren’t just vacancies. They’re reminders of opportunity lost and potential unrealized.

But they don’t have to stay that way.

I propose a pilot program that turns Santa Monica’s vacant storefronts into live performance venues for stand-up comedy, music, and improv. These small-scale, flexible stages could inject life into quiet corridors, offer affordable venues to local artists, and drive consistent foot traffic that benefits neighboring businesses.

Here are three actionable steps the City could take to support this:

1. Launch a city-sponsored pilot to repurpose commercial vacancies into pop-up venues for live performance.

2. Simplify the permitting process for temporary performance spaces and creative activations.

3. Incentivize landlords to lease their vacant spaces to local artists or producers—through tax credits, rent subsidies, or public promotion.

Santa Monica is a city that champions creativity, but right now we’re letting valuable square footage sit unused while artists scramble for space and neighborhoods lose momentum.

As someone who works in comedy and community storytelling every week, I see firsthand the power of live performance to uplift, connect, and inspire. Santa Monica has the chance to be a national leader in creatively reimagining vacant commercial space—and I would love to help in any way I can. I’d be happy to provide more details of a business proposal if the Council is willing to work with me on this.

Thank you for your time and for your service to this city we all care about so deeply.

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5 Warmly,
Andrew Hartman
Actor, Sunday Company – The Groundlings
[email protected]
240.447.6810
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6 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 8:46 AM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle
Subject: Safe and Clean

EXTERNAL
Santa Monica's Mayor Lana Negrete and LA's Mayor Karen Bass, both "environmentalists," falsely profess their city is safe and clean. They are neither. From the Santa Monica Pier to MacArthur Park and LA, there are some 55,000 street vendors, 10,000 of them selling food. But only a combined 365 food vendors have been issued permits, according to city records. Local leaders treat their residents like those in Third World developing cities.

Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIeKN2oCSsP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/aC5JLU-MN4E
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7 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2025 7:03 PM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle

EXTERNAL
"Enriching lives through effective and caring service." FREE (for whom?) NEEDLES, FOIL and METH PIPES. Originally rolled out in secrecy, then and now using FEDERAL and COUNTY FUNDS by LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer, and endorsed by LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Santa Monica's City Council. Visit Santa Monica's public parks, sidewalks and alleyways alongside the 3rd Street Promenade and 7-Eleven. Venice Family Clinic CEO Mitesh Popat is in charge of distribution. Follow the money (our tax dollars).

Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIbsY-sCy03/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/edc60R-T4Wo
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8 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2025 3:40 PM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle
Subject: Travel Advisory for Santa Monica

EXTERNAL
Why do you think Santa Monica's City Council backed out of hosting Beach Volleyball in the 2028 LA Olympics? Upfront financial cost to a city that's broke? Or, increased crime due to its unwillingness to address and eliminate homelessness, drug dealers and open use of drugs in our public spaces, parks and 3rd Street Promenade? Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIWijF4C2B4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/EuCNNeObmCs
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9 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 9, 2025 1:16 PM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle
Subject: Please select a motto

EXTERNAL
The mottos of Santa Monica are "Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land," "Happy People in a Happy City" and, "Pearl of the Pacific." Which one works best for you?
Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIPO_MoCnYX/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/DBz3TtImxQ4
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10 David Yakobson
From: John Alle <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2025 8:22 AM
To: The Santa Monica Coalition
Cc: John Alle
Subject: Federal Audits

EXTERNAL
Lots of Federal and HUD funds transferred, misspent and in someone's purse, pocket or family cookie jars. In 2014 the LA County Grand Jury investigated and found Santa Monica to be one of the "most financially mismanaged cities in all of LA County's 88 cities." It recommended a "City Audit Committee" to prevent corruption and protect Taxpayer funds. 11 years later, it's worse. Organized crime with actual bosses and money launderers who include mayors, councilmembers, city managers and executives of so called "nonprofits." Even the same "independent" auditors the entire time whose reports are reviewed, edited and revised by the City Manager and Staff before being released to the public. SM Mayor Lana Negrete publicly laughs and calls this "fear mongering." LA Mayor Karen Bass calls the audits a distraction. investigations "a distraction." Neither wants to discuss the missing money. The Feds will.

Insta
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIROAgjC_pG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== YouTube
https://youtu.be/1OObKM8y5kY
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Santa Monica City CouncilApril 22, 2025

Santa Monica City Council
April 22, 2025