City of Santa Monica Awards Awards $5M for 13-Unit Community Corp. Development

08/01/2022 9:47 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

342 Berkeley Street project will bring 13 affordable housing units to Santa Monica

As per the letter sent by the City of Santa Monica, the money will be a loan dependent on the “Borrower’s execution of final documents and is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in this letter.” and the construction of 13 affordable housing units in a four-story building that the address.

SMa.r.t.: Fantasyland Is Not Limited to Theme Parks

08/01/2022 9:46 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Policy evaluation using the bumper car methodology

As with most top-down command economy approaches, the thorny problems created by objectives that are incompatible with fundamental economics are ignored until failure is either plainly evident or comprehensively created.

11-Unit Santa Monica Apartment Building Sells For $5.5M

08/01/2022 9:33 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica Real Estate Report

See More: https://smmirror.com/2022/07/11-unit-santa-monica-apartment-building-sells-for-5-5m-santa-monica-real-estate-report-july-31st-2022/

No elected incumbents to run for Rent Control Board

07/29/2022 5:26 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

With three seats up for election on Santa Monica’s Rent Control Board (RCB) this year, none will be contested by an elected incumbent.

The seats of Steve Duron, Naomi Sultan and Nicole Phillis are up this year but Duron cannot run again due to term limits and the other two have recently resigned due to the Commissioners moving out of town.

Phillis resigned last month and her seat has already been filled with an appointed successor despite her wish the seat remain vacant until the upcoming election.

Last Minute Rent Proposal Triggers Political Firestorm

07/29/2022 8:56 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A plan by Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMMR) to lower the annual rent increase at the ballot box was torpedoed at the final hour by Councilmember Lana Negrete early Wednesday morning.

With the Council poised to vote to place SMRR's proposal to decrease the annual rent adjustment from 6 to 3 percent on the November ballot, Negrete floated a radically different plan that had been leaked shortly before the meeting, causing consternation among tenant leaders.

Negrete's "Tenant Income Inequality Relief Plan" intends to spare lower income tenants a rent increase while imposing the Rent Board's mandated 6 percent hike for higher income tenants.

Local Measures Crowd November Ballot

07/28/2022 11:00 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica voters will face an alphabet soup of measures on the November ballot -- from rival transfer taxes to a cannabis tax and Charter Amendment to change qualifications to the Personnel Board.

Those four measures were placed by the City Council Tuesday night on a ballot that already includes a college bond measure and a hotel bed tax.

The Council is also scheduled to hold a special meeting August 5 to consider two additional ballot measures that failed to win majority support.

Council fills out boards and commissions roster for 2022-23

07/26/2022 11:45 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

During a special city council meeting last week, council members combed through a long list of candidates for various positions, filling out the roster of volunteer positions through summer 2023.

Planning Commission advances gas-less future

07/26/2022 11:43 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City of Santa Monica is considering an electric future with a series of proposed code revisions that would eliminate natural gas from homes and encourage adoption of electric vehicles.

De la Torre cleared to participate in voting rights discussion

07/26/2022 11:38 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

As the issue of whether or not Santa Monica should be divided into voting districts — where each neighborhood elects one official to represent them on council, rather than electing seven at-large candidates from across the city — awaits judgment before the California Supreme Court, Councilmember Oscar de la Torre, who has close ties to advocates of by-district elections, has been granted the right to weigh in on how Santa Monica handles the case.

On July 18, de la Torre and the City of Santa Monica reached a settlement.

Consultant Gives Mayor's Transfer Tax Measure Mixed Review

07/26/2022 11:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

"There are reasons to be cautious about whether the scale of estimated new tax revenue predicated on previous sales over the past 10 years would materialize to the same degree year over year in the future," the report found.

That presents a problem because administering the programs will require hiring additional staff (paid for by the measure) on an ongoing basis with an "uneven flow of new annual revenues."