1 David Yakobson
From: Angela D. Scott <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 12:45 PM
To: Santa Monica City Manager's Office; councilmtgitems; Caroline Torosis; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Natalya Zernitskaya; Jesse Zwick; Lana Negrete; Barry Snell Subject: Item 11E - Establishment of a Santa Monica Restorative Justice Plan
EXTERNAL
To the Honorable Mayor Torosis, and Members of the Santa Monica City Council, I write to urge the City Council to ensure that appointments to the newly established Santa Monica Restorative Justice Commission meaningfully reflect the lived experiences and historical knowledge of the Santa Monica community—particularly those directly impacted by displacement, land loss, and exclusionary city actions.
Santa Monica has taken a necessary and commendable step by issuing the Black Apology and advancing Reparations and Landback work. The City has publicly acknowledged that these harms were not accidental, but the result of policies that reshaped neighborhoods, erased Black institutions, and severed generational ties to land and opportunity. The creation of a Citywide Restorative Justice Program and Commission signals an understanding that accountability must be permanent, structured, and embedded in governance—not symbolic or episodic.
For this Commission to fulfill its purpose, community membership must be intentional and substantive.
Appointing Santa Monica residents with lived experience—longstanding residents, descendants of displaced families, and individuals with deep historical and civic knowledge of the city—is essential to the integrity of this work. These perspectives are not anecdotal; they are a form of expertise grounded in history, continuity, and consequence.
The City’s own analysis emphasizes that restorative justice must move beyond ad hoc responses toward consistent, equitable, and transparent processes that are not driven solely by litigation or administrative convenience. That same principle applies to Commission appointments. Without members who understand Santa Monica’s history from the inside—who can speak to the human impact behind policy decisions—the Commission risks becoming procedural rather than reparative.
Community representation on the Restorative Justice Commission is not about exclusion or tokenism. It is about shared governance—pairing professional, legal, and administrative expertise with lived experience so that decisions are informed, credible, and trusted by the people they are meant to serve.
This balance is what transforms acknowledgment into repair.
Santa Monica now has an opportunity to demonstrate what accountable leadership looks like in practice. By appointing Commission members from within the Santa Monica community—those who carry generational memory, civic commitment, and lived experience—the City can ensure that restorative justice is not only well-designed, but genuinely rooted in the people most affected.
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
2 I respectfully urge the City Council to honor the spirit of the Black Apology and Reparations commitments by making community-centered appointments to the Santa Monica Restorative Justice Commission. This is how trust is built. This is how repair becomes real.
Respectfully,
Angela
Angela D. Scott (she/her), MBA/V, Certified ScrumMaster® Candidate, Doctor of Education, Ed.D.
Organizational Change and Leadership
"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." - Shirley Chisholm
I acknowledge with respect and gratitude the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash Peoples on whose traditional territory I live and work.
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
3 David Yakobson
From: Lydia Ponce <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 4:40 PM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Agenda item 11 E
EXTERNAL
Dear Santa Monica City Council Members,
I ask that we are gentle at this chaotic time and treat this opportunity with great care as we are dealing with healing for generational trauma. We have an heart filled opportunity for healthy restorative justice for 7 generations forward….
I did not make the meeting 1/27/26 however I wanted to share with you - I full heartedly support Gina De Baca’s comments.
I’d like to add: the experienced people who were seated on the original committee and did not live in Santa Monica, should be paid as consultants and not have a vote.
I am very thankful you are moving in a solid direction towards the overall health of our community. No I do not live in Santa Monica - however we share the love of many Santa Monica community members.
There are many residents who are related to each other from the four corners and that makes us a great Westside of Los Angeles!
Sage smoke prayers are sent with gratitude and prayers for your continued successful work with the gentle adjustments required. A new path that includes everyone represented as we have many vibrant relatives of many cultures.
May we always be willing to learn from one another,
to be a better relative.
Lydia Poncé
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
1 David Yakobson
From: Neil Comess-Daniels <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2026 9:20 PM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Restorative justice
EXTERNAL
Please support establishing The Restorative Justice committees It’s only fair and just.
Rabbi Neil ComessDaniels
Rabbi Neil, LA Rabbi Neil: Rabbi
Emeritus Beth Shir Shalom
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Website www.larabbineil.com
Email [email protected]
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Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
1 David Yakobson
From: Ralph Mechur <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 11:41 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: agenda item 11E
EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor and Council,
i'm writing in support of item 11E to establish the Santa Monica Restorative Justice Program and to allocate the $3.5 million to establish a fund payments and programs to be determined through the process of the forthcoming Santa Monica Restorative Justice Commission.
Sincerely,
Ralph Mechur
1109 Centinela Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90403
m: 310-721-1254
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
1 David Yakobson
From: Wittig, Michele A <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 9:00 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Council Agenda Item 11.E
EXTERNAL
Mayor Torosis and Council Members,
I support the proposed Restorative Justice Program.
After it is approved, I hope you will ensure that it’s implemented with attention to inclusive community truth-telling, acknowledging wrongs, taking reparative actions, making restitution and achieving reconciliation.
For it to avoid becoming another wedge that divides us, please include diverse voices from different segments of the community, as long as they agree with the mandate.
Michele Wittig
Santa Monica resident since 1970
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
1 David Yakobson
From: Ann Hoover <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2026 11:27 AM
To: councilmtgitems; Caroline Torosis; Lana Negrete; Barry Snell; Ellis Raskin; Dan Hall; Natalya Zernitskaya; Jesse Zwick; Oliver Chi
Cc: Heidi von Tongeln; Susan Cola
Subject: January 27, 2026 Council Meeting - Item 11.E. - Proposed Restorative Justice Program - SUPPORT with a few quick questions!
EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor Torosis, Mr. Chi, and Councilmembers -
I have just a few questions about the proposed Restorative Justice Program, the establishment of which I commend and support -
Will the program have an end date? - Maybe 10 years from now? - which of course could always be extended if the Council a decade from now sees a need. Without an expiration date, the city could be receiving claims indefinitely as has been the case with the Uller abuse situation. A decade seems like a pretty fair amount of time both to promote the program and give people to recognize, document, and raise issues with the City to potentially be addressed through the Restorative Justice Program. A generous period within which to raise claims but with an end date will both meet the laudable goals of the program and help frame and give closure to the city's exposure.
Will the professional administrator be paid from the Restorative Justice Program $3.5M seed money or from the City's General Fund? From the Staff Report - 3. Independent Administration – Engaging the services of a professional administrator will be critical to support the work of the new Restorative Justice Commission in creating a fair, transparent, and legally defensible claims process.
Annual cost of a professional administrator? About how much will a professional administrator cost per year? And will he/she need a supporting team? Or will the administrator be a business that specializes in this kind of work? What is our City envisioning here? Other expenses? Will the City incur other expenses for this program outside of the $3.5M initial seed money for the program/the program budget and beyond the cost of a professional administrator?
I hope these questions will be raised, discussed and answered on Tuesday evening. Thank you! Best,
Ann Bowman
Resident, 29+ years
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026
Item 11-E
January 27, 2026