1 David Yakobson
From: Ted Winterer <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2026 12:10 PM
To: Caroline Torosis; Jesse Zwick; Dan Hall; Lana Negrete; Natalya Zernitskaya; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell
Cc: Oliver Chi; councilmtgitems
Subject: 1/13/26 closed session agenda, Perry's lease
EXTERNAL
Mayor Torosis and Councilmembers,
I understand you will be discussing lease negotiations with Perry's tomorrow evening and that the business is seeking some
accommodations due to revenue losses from Covid, the fires and other challenging circumstances.
I encourage you to be flexible with the lease terms with Perry's for a variety of reasons.
1. Perry's has been a beloved business in the Ocean Park neighborhood for many years. If it has to close because its lease terms are too onerous residents in my part of town would be devastated.
2. At my age my memory is not what it used to be, but if I recall correctly during my time on Council we went through a RFP process for these beachfront properties and Perry's was the only entity which responded. That suggests there are a dearth of businesses willing to take on the challenges that come with the beach sites. Consequently, if lease negotiations fail you may wind up with vacancies at the beach, not the best look for the City's realignment plan -- best case scenario you'd get a faceless corporate entity -- let's not forget the fiasco of having McDonald's at the beach decades ago.
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2 3. Just as the City's finances have suffered from Covid, the fires, the decline in international tourism and other factors, so have the revenues of our smaller, independently-owned small businesses.
Lease terms negotiated prior to those multiple economic hits are likely no longer realistic. If the City has been forced by circumstances that were unforeseen six years ago to declare a state of fiscal distress in order to seek relief from certain obligations, then
accommodations are due to businesses facing similar distress.
4. Perry's Richard Chacker has been an engaged member of our business community for years and always eager to contribute to others. I recall in particular his gesture in 2016 when some young cyclists had ridden across the country to promote Hillary Clinton's candidacy for President and arrived in Santa Monica after Election Day exhausted and distraught -- Richard help me set up a "finish line" for them on the bike path in front of one of his cafes and served them food and drink while a modest size crowd feted the cyclists.
Consequently, I urge you to immediately grant Perry's request for short term relief via a rent credit for losses from the fire and a return of its bond funds and to engage constructively on some of its other asks.
Regards,
Ted Winterer
--
Ted Winterer
Realtor @Compass, 2115 Main Street Santa Monica
"Most Loved Real Estate Agent 2025," Santa Monica Daily Press DRE #02047989
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3 To help protect your privacy, Microsoft Office prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
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1 David Yakobson
From: Mike Feinstein <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 10:31 AM
To: Barry Snell; Lana Negrete; Caroline Torosis; Jesse Zwick; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Natalya Zernitskaya; councilmtgitems
Cc: Oliver Chi; Jennifer Taylor
Subject: Closed Session Agenda Item 5F / Conference with real estate negotiator / Perry's Cafe and Rentals at the beach
EXTERNAL
Dear Council members
As an elected official serving our community, the people have entrusted you with the intangible responsibility of determining ‘what are our community values and how do we implement them in City government?’
When money is flowing freely into City coffers, it is easy to stand for progressive values in public policy. When I was on the Council, that was the case. We were flush with cash much of the time; and when there was a downturn, it was manageable and didn’t compel us to abandon our principles.
Today the City’s finances are very different, as you well know. That forces hard choices.
Hard choices sharpen the test of living our values. To this point, the City just released a statement through the voice of our mayor, marking the one-year anniversary of the devastating Pacific Palisades and AltaDena wildfires:
https://www.facebook.com/cityofsantamonica/posts/pfbid0x57QYrDoNDxzQcKb3ZkhY2Qj 2xbRjzuPKiSWJBApsprowP9KS3PGrkS5WatZBRi2l
“Recovery doesn’t end when the fires are out. Rebuilding homes, reopening businesses….takes time and steady support.”
With this ‘time and steady support’ in mind, I am writing in regards to Closed Session item 5F on Tuesday’s agenda, regarding the City’s price and terms of lease with Perry’s Cafe along Ocean Front Walk.
https://santamonicacityca.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Communication.aspx?Frame=&Meeti ngID=1475&MediaPosition=&ID=2381&CssClass=
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When the City enters into a lease (like it has done with Perry’s and countless others), it is based upon some premise of normalcy in the world.
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2 But what happens when wholly unforeseen negative circumstances occur and the world changes in a flash — and the ability of our lessees to perform to the specifications of their lease is unavoidably impaired? Where do we draw the line in such circumstances, between what is the lessee’s responsibility and what is the City’s role in absorbing some of these negative impacts?
If I were on the Council today, I would take the following into consideration. When we lease the use of City property, we have two primary objectives. One is to assure an income stream and provide services to our community. A second is to promote business enterprises that embody community values. In this sense, when we administer the use of public property, we are both lessors and partners with our lessees. Regarding the expected income stream and performance from the lessee, we need to acknowledge the unforeseeable and negative impacts of both the COVID shutdown and the Palisades fires upon the lessee’s ability to fully satisfy all expectations in their lease — unforeseeable negative impacts which they explain in depth in the packet they sent to you. In acknowledging these impacts, it is important to recognize that yes the City is hurting from these same circumstances— and yes the City would lose additional funds by providing some relief to the lessee to account for them. But doesn’t mean the City still doesn’t have a responsibility to do so.
Second, we need to take into account what type of lessee is involved and what intangible community benefits they bring, intangibles that are not easily replicated or replaced.
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Here I need to mention that for 32 years between 1985 and 2017, I lived on the 100 block of Hollister Ave., just steps from the Perry’s at 2400 Ocean Front Walk. During that time I observed an innovative growing small business at Perry’s, that significantly expanded its footprint and services over the years, from what started as a single ‘walk-up-to-the counter with no outdoor seating’ fast food venue in the early 1980s, to the vibrant and beloved destination it is today for locals and visitors alike. Perry’s has done so at 2400 Ocean Front Walk, as well as at their other locations along the beachfront in Santa Monica, which I also pass by on my beach walks, bike rides and time rollerblading.
What I have seen during this time is a small business that gives important employment opportunities to young diverse members of Santa Monica and the greater LA area, helping young people gain a foothold in our local economy. What I see is an efficient food service operation that offers high quality, healthy meals that fit the Santa Monica Sustainable City profile. What I see is a bike and skate rental system that is housed in a structure that Perry’s added over the years, that seems to effortlessly serve a high volume of visitors from all over the world - especially on weekends, holidays and busy summer weekdays, with their bike mechanics maintaining bikes and skates in safe working condition.
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3 I also see an on-site general manager named Aurora, who IMO is a Wise Latina. Aurora has been there for as long as I can remember, and I can see that she has the respect and a positive working relationship with the employees, as she clearly manages the site with grace and fairness. Then there is the proprietor Richard Chacker, who is an highly involved on-site owner, who I watch making numerous judgement calls each day, large and small, on the details of the business’s operation. Rather than being some absentee owner who doesn’t know the community, Richard is not only active in civic affairs with the Chamber and otherwise, but he is at his business day-to-day understanding the realities on the ground.
What is impressive in its entirely with Perry’s is not just how happy customers are sitting in the pleasant, clean and well-maintained outdoor dining area where Perry’s has creatively added sand and couches, or how Perry’s efficiently services its food and rental customers — but how I see the working dynamic between their employees and management. In an environment of managed chaos, where hundreds of members of the public file in and out all day, I see Perry's employees being comfortable coming to management with questions and issues as they arise, and with management taking their input and giving direction in a respectful manner.
In sum, what we have with Perry’s is a unique well-run and innovative small business that fits with and helps define our unique beachfront area — and that embodies a range of community values that we seek from the use of our public property. I share these thoughts with you as an interested community member, and as a former local elected official who understands how the City works. I am not paid by nor do I represent Perry’s in any official capacity.
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In closing, in terms of the specifics of Tuesday’s agenda item before you, I understand that Perry’s is seeking both short term and long term considerations.
I think it is appropriate that City Staff is calling out where they believe that Perry’s has not fulfilled all of the expectations of their lease. Staff is going to go by the book and by the numbers. That is their role and responsibility to the City.
What is not Staff’s role is to decide if and when adjustments should be made, in response to major unforeseeable circumstances like COVID and the Palisades fires. That is your role, the intangible responsibility that we have entrusted in you as residents when we elected you.
A long time ago, an earlier City administration thought that instead of working with this same lessee, that ‘bigger would be better’, and they brought in McDonalds instead to manage the 2400 Ocean Front Walk site before the 1984 Olympics. The community soundly rejected this, McDonald had to leave the site, and the City hurriedly welcomed Perry’s back.
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4 This is not to say that the City should cease issuing RFPs for its properties along Ocean Front Walk — or any of its properties — at regularly scheduled intervals. Clearly, no business has an a priori right to lease and operate on City property forever.
However, that is different than when in the middle of an already signed lease period, major unforeseeable disasters like COVID and the Palisades fire occur. In those instances, that is when the City must especially walk its talk and live its values. Not only is it appropriate in such cases to make compensatory adjustments with a small, family-run business like Perry’s that has served our community for over 40 years. But it sends a signal to other potential applicants for future city leases, about what kind of City Santa Monica is to do business with. Do we interact with our lessees in a reasonable and compassionate manner in keeping with professed City values? Or are we cold-hearted capitalists, for whom extracting maximum income is the sole determinant value? If it is the latter, what kind of future applicants will we attract, and which will we repel? You’ve hired an excellent new City Manager to help the City focus on its finances and the local dynamics that affect it. Making a financial accommodation to a lessee to compensate for special circumstances may seem like a step in the other direction. I hope that in looking at the situation holistically, my comments suggest otherwise.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I hope that on Tuesday evening, you will give City Staff direction to find an accommodation for the disaster circumstances that we were entirely unforeseeable when the current lease was negotiated. In that way you will be walking the talk when the City says ““Recovery doesn’t end when the fires are out.
Rebuilding homes, reopening businesses….takes time and steady support.” Your direction to Staff will be that ‘steady support.’
Sincerely,
Mike Feinstein
Ocean Park Resident since 1985
Santa Monica xCity Council member 1996-2004, Mayor 2000-2002 Item 5-F
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