Thirteen times in the last 30 years, Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) has won a majority of seats on the City Council.

The leading members of the first wave — Ruth Goldway, Dolores Press, Jim Conn, Ken Edwards and David Finkel — were classic American radicals, meaning they were dedicated to the Bill of Rights and the American promise of justice and equality for all. If that classic radical spirit had prevailed, Santa Monica might not be as bruised, battered and beset as it is today.
But the SMRRs lost their majority in 1984, and when they took it back in 1988. that fine spirit had been replaced by  ordinary opportunism, personified by Denny Zane,  Judy Abdo, Ken Genser, then, Pam O’Connor, Richard Bloom and Ian Kevin Mckeown, and, now, Gleam Davis and Terry O’Day, and, if he tops Bob Holbrook in the final vote count,  Ted Winterer.

If Winterer is ultimately victorous, it’ll be another first: Six SMRRs vs. The Other.

As McKeown has done, Winterer would probably break with the SMRR cohort on crucial issues and vote with the sole non-SMRR Bobby Shriver. But 4 beats 3
every time. And that is very bad news for those of us who see Santa Monica not as an opportunity or merchandise, but as our home.

In 1979, voters approved SMMRR’s rent control ordinance. Subsequently, they oversaw the creation of some first-rate social programs and the Farmers’ Market, And then they got down to business. In less than three decades, over nine million square feet of new commercial development were imposed on a beach town full of people who believe less is more aesthetically.

Though Santa Monica has been a world-famous beach town for decades, the City has spent thousands of dollars on “brand” consultants in order to develop a “marketing strategy” in order to “sell the product” more effectively.

At the same time, the City has spent tens of millions of dollars attempting to reduce this gloriously idiosyncratic beach town to a “regional commercial hub.”
And it spends over $3 million annually to promote it and maintain its
“competitive edge.”

The population of Santa Monica hasn’t increased in decades. The town is still just eight square miles. But the daily transient population now tops 300,000. Traffic congestion overflows the boulevards and spreads through once-serene neighborhoods.

The “population” of City Hall has doubled in ten years. The current City budget is $500,000,000. Our City manager makes more money than the mayor of Los  Angeles and our City Attorney makes more money than the state attorney general. But residents’ quality of life continues to deteriorate.

In 2008, Santa Monica Coalition for A Livable City (SMCLC), a small residents’ group, put a measure on the ballot that would have limited commercial growth. SMRR was so outraged by what it saw as a challenge to its hegemony that it collected $740,000 from developers and launched a tsunami of lies about the measure: limiting commercial growth would destroy our schools. There was no  factual basis for the claim, but a majority of voters believed it, and the measure was defeated.

Another 2 million square feet of new commercial development is now nearing approval.  O’Day was the campaign’s  chief  spokesman. The SMRRs rewarded him by giving him the late Ken Genser’s Council seat and a place on the 2010 SMRR ticket.

On election night. he told the Daily Press, his victory was “a nice validation of the things I’ve been doing…I had to distinguish myself in six months knowing there would be an election. I did some good things along the way.”

In fact, there was no “validation.” He didn’t do any “good things” nor “distinguish” himself. All he did was slander a good measure in 2008, win a place on the SMRR ticket in 2010 and appear in bogus campaign mailers.  The election was chiefly notable for the
deluge of misinformation that was inflicted on voters during the campaign by City Hall and SMRR and their co-conspirators, who ranged from police officers, firefighters, teachers, PTAs, parents’ groups, several regional permutations of the Democratic party, environmental groups, and several political operatives who specialize in deception.

Well over 15,000 people voted for Y, a sales tax increase, because they were told that without the additional revenue vital school  programs and emergency City services could be lost.
It wasn’t true. As Mayor Bobby Shriver said, “The City is rich…and to say the City is in some sort of financial extremes is just not borne out by the facts. In the conduct of the campaign, we don’t want there to be a fear that services will be lost if this measure does not pass.”

As we noted the City budget currently tops $500,000,000. The City Council could have allocated the requisite funds two months ago, but
obviously it preferred to hold our children hostage in order to secure our votes for the SMRR slate on election day, and, not incidentally, maintain the developers’ Council majority.

If you voted for the SMRR City Council slate because SMRR has prevented the powerful real estate lobby and developers from having their way with us, you were, at least, misled. The proof  is all around us.  Further, at the last minute, the SMRR Council majority sabotaged six years of community effort on the revised land use and circulation elements (LUCE) by increasing project height and density limits, having killed the residents’ measure that would have limited commercial growth.

To paraphrase that immortal line from “Cool Hand Luke.” what we have here is an urgent need for truth.

Pam O’Connor claims that she “puts the brakes on out-of-control development…(and) fights to ensure that development and complacency don’t undermine our incredible city.  That’s why she’s taken the lead to craft one of our nation’s toughest general plans…which curtails development and provides viable traffic solutions.”

Pure blather. O’Connor doesn’t just take money from developers, she asks for it.  She has not “put the brakes on out-of-control” development, No one has, and when SMCLC tried, SMRR ambushed it. And  LUCE is tough on residents, easy on developers.

And so it has  gone for far too long. Every two years, the SMRR bosses turn off the bulldozers and spread the word: they have, once again, held the barbarians who would  rape and ruin our beautiful town at bay, and have once again saved the “little people,” i.e., renters, from eviction and exile. When the votes are in and their majority is intact, the ‘dozers roll on and the deconstruction proceeds.

Since its inception, SMRR has had a large captive constituency. In 1979, when the rent control ordinance was approved, 70 percent of the registered voters were renters. According to the “latest” figures, they still are. Many of them are clearly under the misapprehension, thanks to SMRR, that their fate is in SMRR’s hands. In fact, SMRR’s fate is in their hands. Just as rent control was approved by voters, it can only be repealed by voters…much like the SMRR bosses themselves who, while accusing home owners of perfidy, are consorting with landlords. Stay tuned.