Neighborhood Council - minutes for September 20, 2008

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Santa Monica Neighborhood Council

September 20, 2008 --- 10 AM
Ken Edwards Center

MINUTES

The meeting was chaired by Arlene Hopkins.

1. Minutes - The minutes of the July and August meetings were
approved.

2. Neighborhood updates

a. Wilmont -- Jeanne Dodson announced that their newsletter is
coming out next week, the Wilmont web site update is nearly completed,
and they purchased D & O insurance. Regarding Prop T, the Wilmont
Board voted to support it. However, a woman who doesn't seem to have
an active member of Wilmont for 13 years is describing herself as a
"Wilmont co-founder" in "No on Prop T" literature. Jeanne phoned Terry
O'Day, the co-chair of the "No on Prop T" campaign.

b. PNA -- Catherine Eldridge and Wes Thompson announced that their
annual block party will be held on October 11th on Kansas between
Stewart and Yorkshire. Project Great Futures may participate. It
provides 16-20 year olds with education and jobs options, as
alternatives to military service. Local entertainment companies are
holding a symposium at SMC on what they look for in hiring, how to do
interviews, etc. The proposed streetscape for 20th and Cloverfield is
a current topic.

c. FOSP -- Zina Josephs handed out materials regarding the
election. Crime in the neighborhood (burglaries) and ongoing problems
with SMC are current topics. Regarding Prop T, there was some
discussion about the actual goal of the LUCE. Arlene suggested that
the goals of the LUCE update may be influenced by the fact that many
planners are basing economic development strategies on building
amenity-rich communities attractive to the "creative class." I.e.,
focusing on young people ages 25-34 who are well-educated and have
high levels of disposable income. For more information on this topic,
see the Winter 2005 issue of the American Planning Association "News &
Views" and a review of Richard Florida's book "The Rise of the
Creative Class."

d. OPA -- Arlene stated that the annual OPA beach clean-up day was
going on as we spoke, that OPA president Ted Winterer is running for
City Council, that there are some problems with the Sunday farmers
market on Main Street , and that OPA is still trying to get the city
to install a traffic signal on Ocean Park Blvd. and 5th street, next
to SMASH and Muir Elementary School.

3. Local ballot measures -- Regarding Measure SM, 2014 is the sunset
date for a Congressional measure that prevents taxation of internet
delivery. If it's not renewed and measure SM passes, the city might be
able to tax additional internet services after 2014. It also appears
that the city may have used taxpayer money to send out mailers
advocating the passage of Measure SM, although city staff maintains
that the mailers are informational only. A recent article in the L.A.
Times stated that the district attorney had some material advocating
passage of Measure R taken off the Metro web site. Regarding bond
measures, Arlene stated that the country used to "pay as you go." But
now many more things are paid for with bonds, creating public debt
that will last for years and require reductions in funding for public
services.

4. Local candidates -- Susan Hartley, an FOSP Board member and former
Vice Chair of the Airport Commission, introduced herself as a
candidate for City Council and spoke about her qualifications and her
goals, if elected.

5. Arlene discussed the following topics:

a. Pro forma -- In business, a pro forma document is one provided
in advance of an actual transaction. Such a document serves as a
model for the actual documents of the transaction. For example, when a
new corporation is envisioned, its founders may prepare a business
plan containing pro forma financial statements, such as projected cash
flows and income statements. Regarding development in Santa Monica, a
pro forma document is a spreadsheet that tells developers whether
they'll make money on a project. An example of when this might be used
would be in the LUCE Framework, where it says, "protect neighborhoods
unless not economically feasible."

Because so many of the larger properties in Santa Monica are now owned
by companies based outside the city, development projects end up
extracting money from the community/families and transferring it into
the hands of financiers. This seems to be the opposite of the
philosophy of the New Deal, which tried to build up the assets of
families, which in turn built up the assets of the country. Given
this, the implementation of the LUCE Framework as proposed may
(whether intentionally or not) lead to a speed-up of the
gentrification of the city and extraction of assets from Santa
Monica.

b. Ecological economics -- a transdisciplinary field of academic
research within economics that aims to address the interdependence
between human economies and natural ecosystems. It's distinguished
from environmental economics by its connection to outside disciplines
within the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and its
focus on the "scale" conundrum, or how to operate an economy within
the ecological constraints of earth's natural resources. Ecological
economics is defined by its focus on nature, justice, and time. Issues
of (a) intergenerational equity, (b) irreversibility of environmental
change, (c) uncertainty of long-term outcomes, and (d) sustainable
development guide ecological economic analysis and valuation. Lack of
attention to this has led to degradation of the natural environment
over the years.

c. Information asymmetry -- This has to do primarily with
transactions where one party has more or better information than the
other. This creates an imbalance of power in transactions which can
sometimes cause the transactions to go awry. For example, in Santa
Monica, the city staff has budget information and knows who owns the
various parcels of land, but the residents seem to have neither all
the facts regarding our city budgets nor access to property ownership
records.

d. Framing -- the ways in which conservatives and liberals position
issues to fit their respective world views.

6. Human Relations Council -- Michele Wittig, who is co-chair with
Police Chief Jackman of the local HRC, spoke about Community
Dialogues. She handed out surveys, which will provide a springboard to
find topics for future community dialogues or forums. Lisa Montoya at
SMMUSD emails out announcements of their meetings and events.

7. Transportation impact fees -- An ordinance, adopted in 1991 but
never implemented, to charge developers a transportation impact fee,
will be discussed at the upcoming City Council meeting.