Meeting: July 8, 2025
16 ITEM BY COUNCILMEMBERS DAN HALL, JESSE ZWICK, AND MAYOR PRO
TEMPORE CAROLINE TOROSIS
Request of Councilmembers Hall, Zwick, and Mayor Pro Tempore Torosis that the City Council direct the City Clerk, as part of her quinquennial boards and commissions review, to return with a study session that examines possibilities to reorganize, consolidate, and deprecate where necessary to streamline processes for residents and businesses and reduce duplicative workstreams and additional costs to the taxpayer.
Santa Monica’s boards and commissions (inclusive of formally recognized and informal, Council and Staff-appointed task forces and advisory bodies) are a vital part of our local democracy—giving residents, businesses, and property owners a voice in decision-making, surfacing community expertise, and creating pathways for civic engagement. For decades, these bodies have provided invaluable recommendations to the City Council and oversight to City Staff. But as the needs of our community evolve, so too must the structures that support public participation.
Today, Santa Monica maintains twenty-six standing boards and commissions—some with overlapping missions, uneven workloads, or persistent vacancies. This fragmentation can confuse residents, create unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and delays for businesses, families, and individuals interacting with City processes and services, and ultimately strain City resources and voter patience. In the context of ongoing fiscal challenges and our shared responsibility to govern efficiently and transparently, we have an obligation to periodically assess whether our current commission structure is truly serving the public interest.
Every five years, the City Clerk is tasked with reviewing the City’s boards and commissions, to ensure our public engagement and service opportunities meet the needs of the time. By using this review to remove redundancies, streamline overlapping functions, and examine new opportunities, space is created for deeper public engagement, clearer pathways for service, and more responsive local government. This is not about scarcity—it’s about designing a civic structure that makes participation and engagement easier, not harder; that empowers residents to contribute meaningfully; and that channels our shared resources toward impact, not process.
In order to make government more accessible, efficient, representative, and fiscally responsible,
WE THEREFORE MOVE THAT THE COUNCIL:
1. Direct the City Clerk to return to Council with a study session by September 30, 2025 that presents options based on our commitment to equity, transparency, 16 ITEM BY COUNCILMEMBERS HALL, ZWICK, AND MAYOR PRO TEMPORE TOROSIS Boards and Commissions Reorganization
and representation to create, reduce, or consolidate boards, commissions, task forces, and advisory bodies by examining duplicative purposes, with special consideration to examine areas where:
1.1. Costs to the taxpayer are greater than return on investment,
1.2. Unnecessary steps are added to City processes (e.g. permitting for renovations or constructio) for residents or businesses,
1.3. Staff time to support is escalating,
1.4. The original mission of the board, commission, or task force has expired.
2. Additionally direct the City Clerk to examine best practices from other similarly-situated municipalities and propose changes based on that research.
3. Direct the City Manager and Department Heads to support the City Clerk in identifying bodies that could be created, restructured, re-organized, or deprecated to better serve the public amidst emerging needs.
4. Direct the City Attorney to advise the Clerk on legal barriers and opportunities to such a reorganization, and if any ballot measures or new ordinances might be required to effectuate streamlining to better serve the public. # # #