ACTION Apartment Association

Former Obama Staffer Who Worked for Garcetti, Hired as Deputy City Manager and Director of Policy

09/06/2017 7:45 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Anuj Gupta's primary qualification seems to be that he worked for Democrat such as Gil Garcetti and Barack Obama. And as they usually do, the City of Santa Monica has awarded him with a quarter million dollars a year. Way to go, guys!

City Manager Rick Cole has selected Anuj Gupta as Deputy City Manager and Director of Policy. Gupta, a Santa Monica resident, currently serves as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's General Counsel in the Office of Immigrant Affairs. He previously worked for the Obama White House and with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Gupta will be paid $266,000 a year to start, about three times the average salary of a Santa Monica resident.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: NEEDED, BUT IN WHAT FORM?

09/05/2017 1:00 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

One response has been a state mandate for ever-increasing numbers of affordable units in most cities and many unincorporated areas. It’s common in many places for new apartment and condominium structures to contain as up to 35 percent affordable units, available to families who qualify under various income standards based on whatever the federal poverty standard is at the moment.

One problem is that having to build so many affordable units into their new projects forces developers to raise the price of market-rate housing. Another is that affordable units sometimes lack commonplace amenities like air conditioning. And when those units are built near light rail lines like the expanding Metro system in and around Los Angeles, required numbers of parking spaces are sometimes cut. The presumption – often false – is that residents of those buildings will not need to drive as much as others because public transit is readily available.

Homelessness on the minds of City leaders

09/05/2017 8:08 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Hall wants to tackle the city’s homeless problem and while a specific plan has yet to be unveiled, the recent Downtown Santa Monica Inc. meeting provided an opportunity for civic leaders to preview their thinking.

Mayor Ted Winterer and City Manager Rick Cole both spoke at the annual meeting and both issued strong statements regarding the state of homelessness in Santa Monica.

After briefly addressing topics like transportation, tenant protections, climate change, immigration and fiscal responsibility, Winterer issued a call to action on homelessness.

Santa Monica City Manager Selects Anuj Gupta as Deputy City Manager

08/31/2017 8:24 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Manager Rick Cole has selected Anuj Gupta to join the City of Santa Monica as Deputy City Manager and Director of Policy. Gupta, a Santa Monica resident, currently serves as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s General Counsel in the Office of Immigrant Affairs. He previously worked for the Obama White House and with the U.S. Department of Justice.

As Deputy City Manager, Gupta will spearhead the development and implementation of policy initiatives to achieve greater community wellbeing, environmental sustainability, economic vitality, and social equity. He will manage special projects requiring multi-stakeholder coordination as well as efforts to promote, measure, and achieve the City Council’s five strategic goals.

His start date is September 25, 2017 with a salary of $176,004.

AND

https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/August-2017/08_31_2017_Santa_Monica_Taps_Former_White_House_Aid_for_Deputy_City_Manager_Post.html

Citizen’s Group Reviewing Santa Monica City Hall Compensation Holds First Session

08/29/2017 7:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

August 28, 2017 -- Members of a citizen’s panel formed to help review Santa Monica City Hall compensation met last week, providing the first glimpse of the role it will play in a heated debate over employee pay and pension costs.

The panel was convened Wednesday in the first of three joint meetings of the City Audit Subcommittee, the council-controlled panel with which the temporary compensation panel is to work ("Santa Monica Citizens’ Panel on City Hall Salaries Set to Get to Work," August 22, 2017 ).

List of Buildings...Earthquake strengthening...

08/28/2017 11:43 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A list of buildings identified by building permit records and/or visual identification as buildings that may require strengthening to increase safety during an earthquake. Inclusion of a building on this list is not confirmation that the building is structurally deficient, hazardous or unsafe.

New City Attorney begins work

08/28/2017 8:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Lane Dilg has officially begun her tenure as City Attorney and the Santa Monica resident said she is ready for the challenges of working in a city like Santa Monica.

Dilg was hired in June following the retirement of longtime City Attorney Marsha Moutrie. She formerly served as Senior Counsel to UCLA, spent four years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Central District Office in California and served as Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Her experience also includes time as a civil litigator at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Susman Godfrey, LLP.

SMA.R.T.-IN THE SPOT… LIGHT: CREATIVE ZONING IN SANTA MONICA

08/28/2017 8:20 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica’s new DCP (Downtown Community Plan) identifies three sites as “Established Opportunity Sites,” although the addition of the word “established” seemed to have appeared from nowhere in the final version presented to the Council for approval. The phrase “Opportunity Site” only appears once in the Land Use Circulation Element (LUCE) of the General Plan – the supposed guide to how the city is to be planned and developed, and that referenced a location for a super market at Lincoln and Broadway.

There is a zoning issue commonly referred to as “spot zoning,” and Councilmember Tony Vazquez had expressed concern about spot zoning when these sites were before the council. It generally refers to a situation where a parcel of land is given special conditions, such as additional height, use, or floor area that is not given to other properties within the same zone. Spot zoning is not considered legal in California, though a recent court case described a new definition identified as “permissible” spot zoning.

Santa Monica Rent Control Housing Stock Likely to Show Tiny Increase this Year

08/25/2017 2:45 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

August 25, 2017 -- Santa Monica's struggling rent-controlled housing supply is likely to post a tiny gain this year as enough once-emptied units re-enter the market to offset the apartments dropping out, a rent board official said Thursday.

Dan Costello, a spokesperson for the City’s Rent Control Board, said the agency expects to finish the year with about 50 more units re-opened and added to the rent-controlled housing market, which now has 27,594 multifamily units.

It would mark the second consecutive year the rent-controlled market has expanded more than it contracted, Costello said. Last year, 52 units were added.

City wins extended restrictions on landlord in tenant harassment case

08/25/2017 9:00 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Hall has obtained an injunction against a local property manager accused of harassing a disabled tenant.

The City Attorney’s Office filed the tenant harassment suit in 2016 against the owners of a local property and their property manager Kathy Golshani.

The lawsuit alleges that landlords Cecil McNabb and Golshani tried to disrupt the already-challenging daily routine of a mother taking care of her severely developmentally disabled daughter.