Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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1) These meetings started when the LA County Civil Grand Jury judged Santa Monica one of the most financially mismanaged cities in LA County. Today it's worse. 2) The original auditing firm Moss Adams should be replaced. They are still conducting "virtual" audits, and waiting 9 months to a year for answers from City Staff and City-funded non-profits. 3) We need a DIFFERENT firm with NO long term ties to the City, Council, or Staff. Staff should NOT be interviewing the candidates. THIS committee...
Mayor Brock left Reed Park after 45 min. I watched from my car, and did not enter Reed Park. Brock approached me as I was sitting in my car, said he was hungry, and going to lunch. Brock's comments about the Venice Family Clinic in Tongva Park are hearsay, because he was not there. While in Reed Park, Vice Mayor Negrete and a Venice Family Clinic worker were startled by an addict close behind them who began screaming a 4-letter word and waving his hands. They quickly moved on. While in Tongva...
In response to Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock uploading to Instagram a promotional video featuring the Third Street Promenade in rose-colored terms, John Alle wrote the following regrading what he and the Santa Monica Coalition he co-founded see as the ongoing and very real problems in the Santa Monica downtown area. His remarks have been edited for length. He also provided the photos, which were date and time stamped as we have recorded here. What you [Phil Brock] conveyed in your video does not...
April 25, 2024 - The Santa Monica Coalition conducted 3 separate walks and surveys of every ground floor retail business with its owner or store manager in November 2023, January 2024, and February 2024. The purpose was to determine the amount of retail theft and shoplifting. The 3 dates were selected to analyze any difference before and after DTSM, Inc.'s hiring of Legion Corporation, a Fresno-based company selected to patrol the 3rd Street Promenade and Downtown. There was less than a 15%...
Dear City Attorney Sloan, Are all emails sent by constituent residents and business owners to you and/or individual Councilmembers, and our City Manager, received unscreened by a 3rd party or City Staff Member? Are the email addresses listed next to our Santa Monica Mayor and Santa Monica City Council Members, and City Manager, correct, and are their email addresses received and read first by each of them? It is my understanding that over 18,000 letters sent over the last 6 months to individual...
March 12, 2024 - Based on my research on the LA County Registrar's website, and discussions with LA County Election monitors and officials - - 1) Approximately seventy (70%) percent of ALL votes were counted AFTER the March 5th election date. 2) Ten Thousand (10,000) persons registered to vote ON Election Day. 3) Eighty (80%) of ballot votes were received and counted AFTER March 5th (Election Day). 4) One-third (1/3rd) of all ballot votes were RECEIVED BY MAIL. 5) As of 8 pm on Election Day...
Tuesday evening February 20th I attended the Santa Monica City Council's Audit Sub-Committee Meeting. The Audit Subcommittee is not a City commission or board. It is supposed to provide an alternative way for employees, taxpayers or other citizens to confidentially report suspected illegal, improper, wasteful or fraudulent activity and provide periodic review and selection of external auditors. It is supposed to act in an 'advisory' capacity and review all City audit reports, analyze their...
Editor's note: John Alle owns and operates a building on the Third Street Promenade. The grandson of immigrants, he is also a survivor of a violent assault by a homeless man. Based on information received and observation of the situation, the Observer believes the City today actively encourages intolerable conditions in Downtown Santa Monica e.g. runaway homelessness in order to force local landowners to sell their land cheap. The city can then announce that "retail in Santa Monica's core...
John Alle of the Santa Monica Coalition investigated the LA Metro Exposition line at night over summer of 2022. Hear and see what he experienced....
September 22, 2023 - John Alle, the Santa Monica activist, business owner, and founding member of the Santa Monica Coalition who was attacked by a drugged homeless individual on Tuesday, wrote us to clear up some misconceptions that have been circulating in other news outlets. Below is his statement: 1) The attack occurred DURING THE DAY between 2:30 and 3 pm. 2) I was not filming the suspect or anyone in particular. I was taking a break from work and decided to walk the bluffs (at Palisades...
Good morning Police Chief Batista and Fire Chief Alvarez: I wanted to call your attention to an illegal encampment on the Palisades Park bluffs (just south of Montana near the 500 block of Ocean Avenue) on the precipice of the existing walls facing PCH. The president of the Pacific Palisades Homeless Outreach alerted me on April 6th. I drove by on PCH, then walked down partially from Palisades Park. There were two people inside; one stepped out smoking. I called 911 and the Dispatcher said...
Director BARBARA FERRER, Ph.D., and her 4th in command at the County of Los Angeles Public Health, Gary Tsai. M.D., are at it again, this time in Santa Monica. The City has acknowledged that without the knowledge of its Police Department, residents and businesses, it has funded and allowed over a year for the County and the Venice Family Clinic to administer a clandestine needle and synthetic drug distribution program in one of the City's largest parks (Reed Park), adjacent to the Children's...
Dear Chief Batista, I am pointing out the activities shown in the following photos contained in the link below, asking for your help. Since you say you have a full staff at night from 12 midnight to 7 am, would you please authorize your officers to patrol these areas? The photos and video clips are not in order, but tagged with date , time and location. And I have more images showing disgusting and illegal activities. We need your attention Chief, and City Manager David White and our City...
May 13, 2022 - The Ambassador program is a waste, and in the words of Councilmember Phil Brock, DTSM, Inc. itself must be dissolved. We need real law enforcement during the hours of 11 pm and 8 am. Private security has not worked and puts us all at physical and legal risk. The following was witnessed and photographed from this morning. 1) Ambassador following a City Maintenance street sweeper and power washer, with small broom and dustpan in hand (IOW redundancy of effort - editor note) 2)...
I am responding to the Opinion piece co-authored by City Manager David White and Police Chief Ramon Batista. They responded to the "recent local and regional news coverage of a report portraying Santa Monica as unsafe". I have lived, played and/or worked in Santa Monica since the 1970's. My son attended and graduated from from school here in Santa Monica. The City Manager's and Police Chief's only factual statement is that the "messages (from the media) are difficult to listen to...." Their...
April 6, 2022 - The Adidas store on the Third Street Promenade was robbed at around 2:30 am this morning by an individual who smashed the storefront window with a cinderblock, used a fire extinguisher to hide his tracks after he took merchandise, and then exited through the rear door of the building. Six police squad cars responded within 5 minutes of an initial call made by John Alle, a nearby property and business owner, who initially saw and heard the suspects inside the Adidas building. Alle...
2/18/22: Last evening I listened to a City commission zoom meeting, then tuned in 20 minutes late to the "Developer-hosted zoom meeting" regarding the large development proposed for Ocean Park and Lincoln. The meeting was recorded and was scheduled to be made part of the City's public record for presentation to our Council. This was the developers' second attempt at a meeting. The first was sparsely attended and scheduled at the same time as a City Council Meeting. There were just 4 images on...
There are significant and illegal conflicts of interest by two DTSM Board Members, Tara Barauskas and Johannes Van Tilburg, that affect the Stakeholders and further damage the reputation of DTSM. These Board Members must resign immediately. The Political Reform Act "prohibits a public official from using his or her official position to influence a governmental decision in which he or she has a financial interest." (1) It requires every state and local agency to adopt a conflict of interest code...
For the first time in over a quarter century, the organization designated to manage Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade and Downtown, will have a new Director. The DTSM Board and Stakeholders together, need to have an open discussion on what the actual job description should be for a replacement. The Board should not select a search firm until there is basic agreement of the job description. During the interim, a temporary manager can oversee basic operations. What began as a volunteer business...
Early Friday morning I met an unhoused person charging his phone on the 3rd level of Garage 4. He gave me his permission to record our conversation. We spoke for 40 minutes, sitting between one filthy water drain and a phone charging outlet. His answers and information corroborate my other interviews with the homeless in our garages. The following is information he volunteered (that we already know) - - 1) Garages 3, 4 and 6 are the places to charge one's phone. Garage 6 is best because all the...
Good evening City Manager and Council: Your "OUTREACH & HYGIENE SERVICES REPORT" is incorrect with regard to the number of unhoused, number of functioning restrooms, and outreach services. More than half of the toilets and sinks or restrooms in the garages are not functional. The Garages continue to be sleeping quarters and toilets for the unhoused. They serve as places for drug use and sex. Today in the Dumpster Room of Garage 6 there was a pool of blood. Blood stains on the floor remain. I...
The following letter was sent to the entire city council, the city manager, and police chief. Chief Batista and City Manager White both replied with thanks to the author. A. SHORT TERM (IMMEDIATE) Objective: Stabilize safety 1) Update the current requirement of property and/or business owners having to renew the NO SITTING OR LYING IN THE ENTRANCE NOTICE from every 30 to 45 days, to INDEFINITELY. This would immediately create a uniform enforcement environment which would streamline compliance...
Dear Mayor Himmelrich, The future of Parking Structure 3 in Downtown Santa Monica at 1320 4th Street has become a widespread topic of discussion among residents and business owners within our city and throughout the Los Angeles Basin. Residents especially want to know more about the issue. There are compelling reasons for maintaining and demolishing the parking structure. Many have expressed a desire for more discussion and an opportunity to vote on the issue in the next general election in Nove...
