Observer Recommendations for Santa Monica Election Nov. 6th: Time for a Change

At the Santa Monica Observer, we received not one dollar in city funds for advertising the last two years. No candidate this year has placed even one ad with us yet. Trust me, we have no friends at City Hall either. Santa Monica officials even try to avoid me when they run into me at Ralphs. The same could be said for most of my old friends. Is this anything to be proud of? Probably not. But at least it's true.

Anyway, with no axe to grind and no dog in the fight, we present our recommendation for the local election November 6th. Please print out this article or clip it out of the newspaper, and bring it to the ballot box with you.

Santa Monica City Council

Newcomer Scott Bellomo says he decided to run for City Council after he and his son went to Vons Market on Lincoln and Broadway, where they were physically threatened by a deranged man.

Bellomo doesn't have a status quo addiction. He will not want to stick with things just because they worked in the distant past. We need new thinking for old problems such as crime and homelessness.

It's hard not to like Kevin McKeown, even though he's been on the City Council since George Bush was President. McKeown has historical knowledge, which gives City Hall some institutional memory.

Sue Himmelrich has contributed to the Council during her first 4 years term. She set up the Audit Committee, she has some new ideas in her liberalism.

At Squirm Night, Pam O'Conner wants to talk about the Homeless toolkit. She's had time to solve the problem. It's time to thank her for her service and move on. 20 years is enough.

SMMUSD School Board

If you're happy with the way things are going, vote for incumbents like Laurie Lieberman and Richard Thavilderan-Jesswein. Laurie Lieberman is committed, but her kids are out of school now. Ann Maggio Thanawalla, actually has children in the school district. There's something to be said for that, for representing the traditional resident group. She's outspoken, so she's not afraid to raise issues that are politically sensitive. She was really active in measure LV. Thanawalla is not all about being politically correct, which is the current Board members driving ambition. She's viewed as fringe because she's outspoken, but that would be good for our school district.

Santa Monica College Board of Trustees

Vote for Dr. Sion Roy. He's a physician, someone new, well qualified. Roy has great ideas to bring in medical technology programs, so kids can actually get jobs.

Let's make SMC a community college what it should be instead of a 4 year college, which is what Nancy Greenstein, Louise Jaffe and Barry Snell want to turn it in to. The people who have been on the SMC Board of for the last 20 years have a vision to turn SMC into an international 4 year school. They have reduced the number of SamoHi grads at SMC to 4%. Now they want to build International housing for all the foreign students they actively recruit from abroad. Is this what our community wants or needs?

Rent Control Board

We're recommending Lori Brown for the Santa Monica Rent Control Board. She is the only candidate with both landlord and tenant experience (she rented before she bought a small 3 unit building). She can tell you what will put small landlords out of business.

Lori Brown is the only candidate that is also a landlord. Santa Monica is supposedly all about diversity. Some diversity on the RCB so that both sides of the issue are represented would be nice. If the landlords perspective were represented, we would have a better set of rules and rulings.

Local Measures

Measure SM, Vote Yes. This measure will restrict over development which everyone agrees is the cause of so much congestion, traffic, dirt, noise and other problems in Santa Monica.

Measure SMS School Bond, VOTE NO. On their websites, Palos Verdes, Torrance tell you online just how many toilets they're fixing. SMMUSD has no openness or transparency, the district given "total flexibility" will waste money. Why? For one thing, they don't follow through with plans, which costs money.

SMMUSD historically does not have a proud history of spending public funds. They even screwed up the air conditioning at Edison.And now they want $400 Million open draft to spend on our behalf? Why should we trust these people? They'll put in more sustainable head start preschools, or decide to build an outdoor pool at every school with this much money. Our high school is a total mess from the last bond money, they need more money why?

Come back next time with a detailed plan, maybe we'll say yes. Good luck with that, SMMUSD.

RR - No. Changes eligibility requirements from qualified elector to resident of the City, to allow illegal aliens to vote. Nice try, Dems.