Santa Monica City Council Unanimously Votes to Send Two (Wealthy) Members to Vienna, Austria at Taxpayer Expense

To the Residents of Santa Monica:

Remember the names of our City Council members:

Gleam Davis

Lana Negrete

Phil Brock

Christine Parra

Jesse Zwick

Caroline Torosis

Oscar de la Torre

The City of Santa Monica has many problems. Ample and affordable housing. Public safety. Commerce. Education. Traffic. The homeless. Infrastructure. Taxes. A limited budget.

There are many ways to learn about housing and other planning issues and solutions. We have many world class universities in this state alone, many within an hour's drive. Stanford. Berkeley. Occidental. Claremont. USC. UCLA to name a few. There are books. Conferences. The internet. Political parties, organizations, scholars, educators, federal, state and local officials and agencies who study and address these issues. The Santa Monica Planning Department employs experts in these fields.

At the very end of Tuesday's City Council meeting, when attendance, viewership and attention were waning, and people were tired, a motion was made to send Councilmember Gleam Davis - an attorney for the phone company, whose term of office ends this year - more than 6,000 miles to Vienna, Austria for a week to attend a conference on urban planning, at many thousands of dollars of Santa Monica taxpayer expense. Not a professional from the Planning Department who is educated, experienced and works every day on our City's planning.

And if one Councilmember were not enough, they added to this junket a second Councilmember, Caroline Torosis, too. one Councilmember was inadequate? More money wasted.

Who made this motion? Gleam Davis and Caroline Torosis. Neither of them speak or understand German. Both are well paid attorneys who live in million dollar homes and have high-paying jobs. Caroline takes fancy vacations in Aspen, Europe and Asia with her husband who is also a high paid attorney.

And there was no discussion that they report to the City what they learned upon their return.

The motion passed unanimously with little discussion and no opposition. More than a quarter of our City Council will soon be traveling to Vienna. And the residents of Santa Monica will be paying for it.

Rumor has it that the City will next be sending Jesse Zwick to Amsterdam to learn firsthand the benefits of marijuana use and prostitution in our community. Let’s all hope the City properly equips Jesse for this trip by providing him at taxpayer expense with ample supplies of wrapping papers and condoms. (Editor’s note: This is sarcasm).

Remember this shameful self-dealing with taxpayers' funds when these people run for public office again. Funds that could have been used to help solve important problems affecting all of us. Like better keeping our homes, businesses and streets safe from crime. Or housing the homeless. Tell them what you think. And make them feel as welcome to live, work and hold public office in Santa Monica as you think they deserve.

The citizens of Santa Monica deserve much better than this loathsome cast of characters who so blatantly betray the public trust.

Sid Baker