ACTION Apartment Association

SMa.r.t. Column: Honey, We Shrunk the City!

05/08/2020 10:09 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica is shrinking. The city has felt more intimate to our residents over the past seven weeks. Streets that feel safer and walkable sidewalks are the norm. Traffic is now a distant purr instead of a constant cacophony of congestion and noise. The silence between sirens much longer. The roses are blooming, and the poppies open. Yet we are unsettled. The pandemic brings constant uneasiness to each of us.

The final budget adoption will be in mid-June. There are some in the city who are happy a day of reckoning is here. Santa Monica has overspent and overreached for decades. Can the same people who got us into this pickle be trusted to get us out?

SMRR Proposes Business Tax Hikes

05/08/2020 10:05 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR) on Monday proposed hiking taxes on select businesses to help the city recover from the steepest and swiftest economic downturn in its 145-year history.

Representatives of Santa Monica's crippled business sector, which already faces a daunting path to recovery, called the proposal "mystifying" and "unreal."

Temporary Eviction Moratorium has been extended through June 30

05/07/2020 2:22 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

On April 30, 2020, the City of Santa Monica issued a revised supplemental emergency order that extends the City’s eviction moratorium to June 30, 2020. The supplemental order also extends from six to twelve months the time for tenants to pay rent they were unable to pay because of financial impacts related to COVID-19.

Thumbs up or down for City Council’s budget deliberations

05/07/2020 10:28 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Tuesday City Council meeting was what we in the business call a doozy, but after watching eight hours worth of debate a few highlights and low-lights are readily apparent.

New law allows tenants to sue landlords over violating L.A. restrictions on evictions

05/07/2020 10:02 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Tenants will soon have the right to sue landlords who violate restrictions that Los Angeles has placed on evicting renters during the coronavirus crisis, under a law passed Wednesday by the City Council.

Santa Monica City Council Approves Sweeping Cuts, Layoffs

05/06/2020 9:44 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Over 400 city employees set to lose jobs, $203.2 million in budget cuts approved

At an over seven-hour meeting Tuesday, City Council authorized the abolition of 337 permanent positions and 144 part-time positions while approving $203.2 million in budget cuts.

The plan approved Tuesday frees up $117 million in one-time funds while slashing $86.2 million in ongoing expenses via cuts to city services, programing and staffing.

AND: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-budget-cuts/190547

Letter to the Editor – Task Force Transparency

05/06/2020 9:43 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Revised City Budget NOW includes $1 Million for a new Task Force to speed economic recovery in Santa Monica. $1 million to a committee that has had no public process or public vetting.

The Santa Monica Transparency Project was formed in 2010 to assure openness and accountability in city government. We are concerned about the pro-developer bias on this committee as announced. It’s important for the public to understand who the city has invited to serve as task force members and whether reasonable growth members will also be included.

What to keep in a world of cuts

05/05/2020 7:27 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica is in the midst of an economic crisis and despite the headlines surrounding budget cuts, we don’t think the magnitude of the problem has fully permeated the public consciousness yet.

While we are going to lose a lot, there are services that will remain and some concepts should be put at the top of the list.

Housing Fund Mostly Off Limits to Budget Cuts

05/05/2020 7:18 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City of Monica has enough money available in its Housing Trust Fund to avert many of the budget cuts the City Council is expected to make Tuesday.

But it would have to sacrifice one of its top funding priorities -- the creation of affordable housing -- to help bridge the massive budget gap caused by the coronavirus shutdown.

Under a proposal hammered out by staff over the past two weeks, only $5.6 million of the nearly $58 million available in the Housing Fund would be used to help fill a $150 million budget gap by next July.

The $1 Million Question: Who Sits on City's New Economic Recovery Task Force?

05/05/2020 7:16 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

By Mary Marlow

The Revised City Budget NOW includes $1 million for a new Task Force to speed economic recovery in Santa Monica. $1 million to a committee that has had no public process or public vetting.

The Santa Monica Transparency Project was formed in 2010 to assure openness and accountability in City government. We are concerned about the pro-developer bias on this committee as announced.