1 David Yakobson
From: Nikki Kolhoff <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 11:58 AM
To: councilmtgitems
Cc: [email protected]; Jesse Zwick; Lana Negrete; Dan Hall; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya; Oliver Chi; Heidi von Tongeln Subject: 1/27/26 City Council - Items 5G, 5H, 5I, 5J - OPPOSE & Brown Act Violation
EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor and City Council,
I am writing to oppose Items 5G, 5H, 5I, 5J as Brown Act violations. The Brown Act allows for narrow exceptions of price and terms of real estate transactions to be discussed in closed session. However, how we use our public funds and public land, to what goals and policies, and with which counterparties, should all be discussed publicly BEFORE working out a deal.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding pier leases and we need to know what you are doing with this unique asset.
Furthermore, regarding the other 3 properties, residents have raised myriad issues relating to programs and services being offered in Santa Monica, many by the county and with insufficient city and resident transparency and engagement. You have recently unanimously approved several 16 items requiring more transparency. Yet we have at least 3 more items on today's closed session that appear to fall in this category and have no public outreach component.
In addition, Item 5G appears to be contemplating a sale of city property and that should NEVER be done. Once you sell OUR LAND, we can never get it back. Selling public land is a short term solution lacking vision and leadership. You also shouldn't be saddling us with a lease of OUR LAND that we didn't have the opportunity to review and comment on.
Please stop working on these items until we have a transparent public discussion, making use of all the information required by recent 16 items, regarding the use of our public land and the services being provided in our city.
Regards,
Nikki Kolhoff
Santa Monica Resident and Voter
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
1 David Yakobson
From: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 11:47 AM
To: councilmtgitems; Caroline Torosis; Dan Hall; Lana Negrete; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya; Jesse Zwick; Oliver Chi; [email protected] Subject: 1/27/26 agenda item 5-J -- Leasing the Palm Motel on 14th just south of Pico Blvd.
EXTERNAL
From retired SMC Professor William Selby:
November 7, 2025
Our neighborhood needs your help.
You may have noticed that city and county officials seem to be concentrating transitional and homeless shelters, including housing for the mentally ill, in our neighborhood around Santa Monica College and the cemetery (surrounding both sides of Pico Blvd, roughly from Lincoln to Cloverfield Blvd. and Virginia Avenue Park).
We want to build partnerships with government officials and organizations to help solve problems that include caring for the unhoused, but fairness and social justice issues become evident when most of these new facilities are being located in one small neighborhood, especially when residents, businesses, schools, the college, and others who are impacted are kept in the dark about these changes.
As examples, the Palm Motel (at 2020 14th Street) was converted last year without any notification to the impacted community, and the Holiday Motel at 11th and Pico may be the latest. (Apparently, Santa Monica College Police were not even notified or aware after The Palm was converted, though it is across the street from their new Art Complex.)
We have evidence that severely mentally ill people are being housed there. And there have been consequences that include neighbors’ frustrations: disturbances that include “a parade of first responders at the hotel next door”; “screaming in the middle of the night in the hotel next door”; “I don’t feel safe going out during certain times of day in my own neighborhood”;” I can’t let my daughter out any more”; “I can’t even leave my windows open”; “I don’t even feel safe walking my dog.”
These new homeless shelters have recently been added to the long-existing Clare Foundation on Pico (“substance abuse services, residential treatment for substance abuse, and sober living for adults who live in Los Angeles”) and The Manor Board and Care Facility across from the college, “which has provided room, board, care and supervision since the 1960’s for persons with mental illness, and for those with developmental disabilities.”
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
2 We are not NIMBY’s. We all know there is a housing crisis in the region, and we have been proud to help solve it. But our diverse neighborhood (particularly around 14th Street near Pico) was already a leader in helping to create affordable housing, cure substance abuse, and care for the unhoused. (Note the cluster of Community Corporation and Section 8 rentals along 14th Street.)
We are concerned about rumors that are becoming troubling trends: that city officials are encouraging the county and regional organizations to concentrate mentally ill and unhoused people who are arriving in our region (the majority from other states and countries) into additional shelters that threaten to transform our neighborhood into Southern California’s latest Skid Row. (As example, according to the latest count, homelessness in the City and County of Los Angeles substantially decreased in 2024.
Homelessness in our surrounding Service Planning Area 5 dropped my more than 6%, including a nearly 9% drop in Culver City, 22% decline in Venice, and a record low recorded in Malibu. But the glaring exception was Santa Monica, which experienced a 5% INCREASE in homelessness in 2024, all according to LA Homeless Services Authority as reported in local media such as the SMDP.)
And so, as we expect that the burden of these decisions be spread more equally across the city and region, this has become a fairness and social justice issue that involves every one of Santa Monica’s stated Strategic Priorities:
addressing homelessness; justice, equity, and diversity; clean and safe; sustainable and connected; and economic growth and cultural vitality.
Converting our spaces to new homeless facilities for people who have just arrived in our region from Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Massachusetts, the Philippines, Russia, and France (as just a few recent examples), is taking up valuable spaces and placing more pressure on local residents and workers who already can’t afford to live here, which makes our housing affordability crisis worse. These policies are now threatening the economy of our city and the very nature of our neighborhoods.
It could be that our neighborhood has been ignored and our voices and concerns haven’t been heard because we are sandwiched between the Sunset Park and Pico Neighborhoods. But why are these decisions being kept as secrets from our neighborhood and why do some city and county officials insist on continuing to keep such secrets?
Regardless, it is time to clear the air of the rumors and shine some light on what the city and county (working with regional social services agencies such as The People Concern) are doing, and their plans for the future of our neighborhood.
Since city and county officials have failed to bring transparency to this process, we must insist on a community meeting where they can share their specific plans for us and that includes current and new facilities. The very future of our little neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods depends on it. We must ask for this meeting ASAP; the college would be the perfect place for it.
We request that meeting be scheduled ASAP with notifications to all residents, businesses, and organizations located in the corridor that roughly extends within a block wide along each side of Pico, from Lincoln to Virginia Avenue Park, targeting neighborhoods around recently converted motels and other service facilities so that all neighbors are notified.
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
3 Here are some of our questions that should be addressed:
What is your procedure to notify residents, businesses, schools, and organizations when transitional housing, homeless shelters, or related facilities are located in a neighborhood?
Is there an updated map that shows the distribution of all current and planned transitional housing and homeless shelters in Santa Monica? If so, why is it not shared openly, since this would be a great benefit to planning and the impacted communities?
Are you caring to locate transitional and homeless shelters evenly across the city and region so that some neighborhoods are not unfairly impacted more than others?
What steps are city officials taking to guarantee safety and security around these facilities? For instance, we assume there is a 24/7 security guard on each site, but security and safety for residences and businesses adjacent to and just beyond those sites has become problematic.
Who is held accountable should there be gaps in oversight and accountability in neighborhoods impacted by homeless shelters, especially due to ongoing and future funding cuts and/or labor shortages?
Because our neighborhood is inordinately impacted and remains uninformed about officials’ decisions, we have also earned specific answers to more general questions about your policies:
Evidence suggests that the vast majority of unhoused people we are now serving have arrived from distant regions and other states and countries. A few rumored examples of recently homeless people currently being served in our immediate neighborhood include people from Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, the Philippines, Russia, Great Britain, and France.
What does your data show? Are you and the county prioritizing contacting family, friends, and organizations in their home towns so that the unhoused may return home to seek help? Are you also prioritizing help and services for long-time local residents and workers who have been struggling to stay in Santa Monica?
As you are converting more hotels and other spaces to shelters, doesn’t that mean that we will attract and house larger numbers of unhoused people from distant regions? Does this explain why Santa Monica experienced a 5% increase in its homeless count in 2024 while cities in the surrounding region were experiencing substantial drops in their homeless populations?
What is the expected overall impact on city budgets and our quality of life, our community economies, and our cultures as we lose tourist, service industry, and other income due to these policies? Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
4 How many unhoused people are expected to arrive during the next year and how many are you capable of serving?
Are you prioritizing, requiring, and monitoring substance abuse/addiction programs for those who desperately need them? Who is accountable for these programs?
Since it is reported that homeless suspects now account for at least 70% of all arrests in the city, what impacts are your policies having on our already challenged police and other emergency services?
Recognizing that outside funding (especially state and federal money) that could support our efforts to serve the unhoused is drying up, how are these developments changing your plans for our future?
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
1 David Yakobson
From: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 11:33 AM
To: councilmtgitems; Caroline Torosis; Dan Hall; Lana Negrete; Ellis Raskin; Barry Snell; Natalya Zernitskaya; Jesse Zwick; Oliver Chi
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: 1/27/26 items 5-I and 5-J-- Is the city planning to run both The Manor and the Palm Motel?
EXTERNAL
I. Conference with real estate negotiator - Gov. Code § 54956.8; property: 2019 and 1905 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, California; City negotiator: Oliver Chi, City Manager; owner of record: Dennis Wylder; persons to be negotiated with: Dennis Wylder; under negotiation: price and terms of payment of lease
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Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
6 1905 Pico Blvd. and 2019 Pico Blvd. are both "The Manor" -- licensed by by the State of California to California Care Centers. https://themanoronline.com/ -- They're both on the north side of Pico Blvd. and have been there for many years. It is described as a residential facility for mentally ill and developmentally disabled adults (board & care).
We discussed it at the last Neighborhood Council meeting. A Wilmont Board member said that it was a wonderful facility for his relative, but a PNA Board member said that PNA gets lots of complaints. If you Google "the Manor Santa Monica + reviews" the reviews run the gamut.
The Pico Neighborhood is only four blocks wide and 1.4 miles long, yet it is apparently home to 22 low-income and/or assisted living projects.
According to AI: The Manor is a licensed residential care facility in West Los Angeles/Santa Monica serving adults with mental illness and developmental disabilities, offering services such as, but not limited to, 24-hour care, meals, and assistance with daily living, as reported on the website. It has faced challenges related to the financial strain on the broader Board and Care system in L.A. County.
In driving by, you can see that the outside of the buildings are deteriorating. If you drive up the alley north of Pico between 19th and 20th, you can see Manor residents hanging out in the alley.
Fatal stabbing in 2010: https://www.smdp.com/stabbing-called-random-attack/
Former resident with knife in 2021: https://www.smdp.com/smpd-arrest-man-with-knife-on-pico-blvd/
Dennis Wilder is the Executive Director of The Manor: https://themanoronline.com/contact_us.html
"Dennis Wylder" is listed in the Closed Session item.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-19-mn-9230-story.html -- This article from 1985 explains the finances and the differences in government funding and programs for mentally ill vs. developmentally disabled. Dennis Wilder is quoted.
https://homeless.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/FY-2022-23-Measure-H-Contractor-Directory.pdf -- Funding from L.A. County Measure H -- See pages 12, 21, 29, 33, 34, 38, 58, and 59 for various organizations in Santa Monica that received funding. The Manor (California Care Centers) is listed on p. 33. ********************************************************************************* Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
7 From retired SMC Professor William Selby, who lives near the Palm Motel:
November 11, 2025
Hello City and County Officials:
Please find the attached letter that summarizes experiences from our neighbors (around SMC and 14th and Pico) who have become worried about the future of our community. This letter has evolved during the last year, reflecting accumulated comments from local homeowners, businesses, and numerous frightened tenants living in surrounding apartment buildings, some who fear retaliation from officials for speaking out.
We appreciate that you have been struggling to solve these problems and we hope you don’t see this letter or us as a problem, since we wish to support your efforts to find solutions to these growing challenges. But we were once an eclectic neighborhood with a diverse population of hardworking people from many different backgrounds and income levels who helped form the backbone of Santa Monica.
Now, our neighborhood is gradually and too often becoming known for human feces left in our streets, lifeless people passed out on our sidewalks, flailing mentally ill screaming obscenities and intimidating residents, and as a dangerous place to take kids or walk at night.
I’m sure you agree that this is not the future we want for our neighborhood or our city. So, we issue this letter as support for you and as a wakeup call for those who continue to champion failed policies that may be destroying our neighborhood and victimizing its residents.
I have lived and worked in Santa Monica since 1981 and in this neighborhood since 2001 and have contributed and volunteered to help improve the quality of our communities and our city. I am sending this on to you because it would be irresponsible for me to stand by in silence any longer while my worried neighbors continue to share their fears and frustrations ... and their feelings of helplessness.
Respectfully,
William Selby
310 463-8636
wselby9msn.com
1402 Bay Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026
Item 5-J
January 27, 2026