Starting from
88
$
Parking | Kitchenettes | WiFi Available
1760 Ocean Avenue | Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.393.6711
+ Taxes
BOOK DIRECT AND SAVE SeaviewHotel .com
OpinionCommentary 4
MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2016
My Write Bill Bauer
Home delivery of the Santa Monica Daily Press! Starting from
e 1760 Ocean Avenu 90401 , CA Santa Monica
310.393.671
le ettes | WiFi Availab Parking | Kitchen
SeaviewHot AND SAVE BOOK DIRECT
$
1
88
+ Taxes
el.com
PAGE 2
.. TSIDE ................ WHAT’S UP WES ......PAGE 4 EDITOR ........ LETTER TO THE E PAGE 5 E PERFORMANC PAGE 7 .... TONGVA DANC ........ ........ S CHAMP LABOR DAY ............PAGE 9 TO ................ MYSTERY PHO
WEDNESDAY
9.09.15
258 Volume 14 Issue
smdp.com
Press Santa Monica Daily
@smdailypress
Case against O’Connor forwarded to County District Attorney
creases to explain fare in BBB outreaching
BY MATTHEW HALL Daily Press Editor
against Complaints Pam O’Connor Councilwoman vist organization acti filed by a local Los warded to the y’s have been for ne t A y District tor Angeles Count . office for review Coalition for The Santa Monicacomplaint last a a Livable City filed’Connor alleging O month against City Charter in violations of the the fir ing of ith t connection w at least one par Elizabeth Riel and has been sent to int of that compla the county. a position with Riel was offered onica in 2014, M Santa of y t i C ed the the offer rescind iel only to have day of work. R before her first the case was setsued the city and SEE SMCLC
CHANGES
Bus. the Big Blue increases at impending fare y to discuss goal is to at the Main Librar staff report, the ng on Sept. 10 According to the media and limit the will be a meeti COM ING: There tions to the
ovide connec incentivize prepaidansactions as a means of campaign to pr nt of cash tr Light Rail Line. ently, cash cusupcoming Expo and bring some if its amou efficiency. Curr seconds to To offset costs regional averages, the increasing average of 23 with less than mers take an products inline ease by $0.25 to $1.25 to d while prepaid customers take Blue ig B the incr up for fare will $2.50 boar Prices are going e holding a public base es increase to s use far onds. sec ess 4 Expr es of ar far ide. r als cent customer Bus and offici 10 to preview changes per cent increase), seniors/disabled “Currently, 2 per ent use 13-ride passo t ease c (50 Sept. incr per ll i 2 cent y passes, meeting on d, tokens w ill be unchange ease), day passes are 30-da cent use day passes, and 1 per c feedback. w publi 0 hear 6-7:3 and report. “These to es, 3 per a meeting from Santa $1.25 (25 cent incr ” said the staff prepaid fare ticket increases ns, BBB will host e ide k o t (601 13-r y use the ar d, rent hange ain Libr goes to centages of cur ributable to the p.m. at the M update customers on its unc ($2 increase), a 30-day pass att y pass low per to ser v ice $14 a youth 30-da 30- media use are directly Monica Blvd.) updates and ($10 decrease), ess e pr x $50 e far an d 6 propose ($2 decrease), SEE PRICE PAGE g drops to $38 to $89 ($9 increase). A new changes. BBB will be addin increases e for $14. According to staff,vice over the next 12 day will be availabl e ser lling 7-day pass n of Blue ro 11 percent mor t of the Evolutio months as par
nce Ballaret left fina s career for athletic administration
BY MATTHEW HALL Daily Press Editor
UR PROMOTE YORE! HE BUSINESS very spot! Yes, in this (310) 458-7737 Call for details
PRESIDENT
mjap Gary0)Li 586-0339 (31
In today’s real est
ate climate ...
nts!
Experience cou il.com gar ylimjap@gma .com www.garylimjap
MAN BY JEFFREY I. GOOD Daily Press Staff
Writer
college with a Coming out of et Timothy Ballar business degree, ed into a career immediately jump SEE ATHLETIC
SAMUEL
B. MOSES,
CPA
SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Rose Mann Jenny Medina jenny@smdp.com
Rob Schwenker
Matthew Hall matt@smdp.com
Cocoa Dixon
CIRCULATION schwenker@smdp.com
Jeffrey I. Goodman jeff@smdp.com
Jennifer Maas
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TO ADVERTISE IN THE SANTA MONICA DAILY PRESS IN PRINT OR DIGITAL,
Morgan Genser
PLEASE CALL
jennifer@smdp.com
editor@smdp.com
310-458-7737 or email CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
1640 5th Street, Suite 218 Santa Monica, CA 90401 OFFICE (310) 458-PRESS (7737) FAX (310) 576-9913
ASSISTANT GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Keith Wyatt
STAFF WRITERS
Write SUBSCRIBER in the Subject Line and include your NAME and physical ADDRESS in the Email
100 Wilshire
rose@smdp.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Subscribe@smdp.com
ATIONS
EPING • CORPOR
TAXES • BOOKKE
To be added to the list,
2 5-992 ) 39 Monica 90401 (310Blvd., Suite 1800 Santa
ross@smdp.com
schwenker@smdp.com
PAGE 6
SINESS SMALL BU STARTUP?
Ross Furukawa
PUBLISHER
PAGE 7
New AD pursuing his passions at Samohi
File Photo
We’re currently building a list of interested subscribers.
schwenker@smdp.com
The Santa Monica Daily Press publishes Monday - Saturday with a circulation of 10,000 on weekdays and 11,000 on the weekend. The Daily Press is adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation in the County of Los Angeles and covers news relevant to the City of Santa Monica. The Daily Press is a member of the California Newspaper Publisher’s Association, the National Newspaper Association and the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. The paper you’re reading this on is composed of 100% post consumer content and the ink used to print these words is soy based. We are proud recipients of multiple honors for outstanding news coverage from the California Newspaper Publishers Association as well as a Santa Monica Sustainable Quality Award.
Bill Bauer, David Pisarra,
PUBLISHED BY NEWLON ROUGE, LLC
Charles Andrews, Jack Neworth,
© 2016 Newlon Rouge, LLC, all rights reserved.
Sarah A. Spitz, Cynthia Citron,
Send comments to editor@smdp.com
Just who do they represent? CITY COUNCIL MEETS TOMORROW
Coming Soon!
Visit us online at www.smdp.com
night. More socialism-based policies and the ongoing screwing of Santa Monica residents and taxpayers are on the agenda. Item 7-C continues City Hall's decadeslong agenda of setting minimum wages for anybody and everyone who works within city borders. When low-educated, under qualified, or entry level workers can earn $15 an hour by 2020 ($15.37 for hotel union workers by 2017), then wages for everyone else will also have to be adjusted upward. A few years ago, a local restaurateur said that if he had to pay a dishwasher $15 per hour, he'd have to raise pay for all his employees. It amounted to hundreds of dollars in increased weekly payroll costs across the board. This meant raising prices and risking losing customers or the business, itself. People on fixed incomes, such as social security or fixed pensions, see their buying power diminish and are forced further down the economic scale. We trade one group young, entry level workers (who can probably find a job, but maybe at a lower wage than they'd like) being forced deeper into poverty for another demographic like seniors and the disabled who have no way to reverse their increasingly dire economic circumstances. Why adopt regulations favoring just one elite class of workers? I'm talking about Here Unite, Local 11 hotel workers. This initiative has nothing to do with poverty and everything to do with political payoffs. The Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights political organization that controls City Council depends on the hotel union for campaign workers and other support at election time. SMRR even recently appointed two key Local 11 organizers to its Steering Committee. The union wields clout and SMRR will obviously pander to its demands. Meantime, voters and residents pay through poor governance, higher taxes and fees and less citizen-serving services. Speaking of higher taxes and fees, another item on tomorrow's council agenda is Item 8-A. It asks council to provide direction on a report prepared by the city's Housing Commission regarding potential sources of funding for affordable housing and to review potential financing opportunities for creating it. With the cessation of Redevelopment Agency funding a couple of years ago, City Hall allowed developers with low income apartments in their projects, or that set aside money for a low income housing fund, to build much taller and denser projects than would be normally allowed under code. Developers factor the costs of the lowincome units rents for their market rate units to maximize return. A well-intentioned but failed policy that's driving middle class tenants out of the local rental market and producing a two-tier housing system - one for the wealthy and the other for folks near the bottom of the economic scale.
Economists Benjamin Powell and Edward Stringham conducted a recent study for the Reason Public Policy Institute and determined that housing starts in eight California cities dropped off significantly after inclusionary zoning went into effect. In the seven years before the law was implemented, over 28,000 new homes were built. In the seven years after, only 11,000 were constructed. Of those, only 770 were “affordable.” 17,000 homes were never built, exacerbating the housing shortage at all price levels while driving prices out of the reach of even more buyers. Nevertheless, council is reviewing the following options for raising funds to build more “public” housing as opposed to things like renovating our water infrastructure or giving property owners (and renters) a break on the cost of city services such as water, trash and sewage fees. Council could cut current services paid for through the General Fund to save money that could be used for new low-income housing. Three options would require majority voter approval. Attempt to pass a documentary transfer tax, currently $3 per $1,000 of real estate sale value to generate $2.4 Million for each $1.50 increase. Institute a tax that would equal 5percent of calculated value of all commercial and for-profit multifamily construction with a companion measure requesting that funds be spent on affordable housing. Which could raise up to $7.5 million annually. Increase in the 9.5-percent sales tax on retail goods. A quarter percent increase would raise $7.5 million annually. Keep in mind that there will also likely be a measure on the November ballot asking voters to approve another increase of the County's portion of the sales tax to pay for additional Metro transit projects, and to issue a $100 million general obligation bond, paying for it by imposing a $220/year per property tax for a 30 year period. That requires 2/3 voter approval as would a new parcel tax of $334/year per property to raise $8 million annually. Other options under consideration but not likely to win approval for various reasons (insufficient income, etc.) include increasing the hotel transit occupancy tax, currently at 14-percent, to bring in $3 million for each one percent increase, raising the utility user tax on gas, electric, phone, cable TV, etc. from its current 10-percent. Each one percent increase in the UUT would bring in $3 million for low income housing. Lastly, increase the current 10-percent tax on parking fees, but each percent jump would only raise $1 million, annually. This is another one of these cases where the public be damned. I doubt that the majority of residents will cough up increased taxes/fees to build more large and unattractive developments for out-of-towners who want to but can't afford to live here. The social engineers in City Hall better get ready for a knock down, kick butt fight. BILL can be reached at mr.bilbau@gmail.com
Margarita Roze
CAN’T FIND A DAILY PRESS NEWSTAND IN YOUR AREA? WE’LL TRY TO GET ONE TO YOU! PRODUCTION MANAGER office (310)
Darren Ouellette production@smdp.com
AWARD WINNER
458-7737
WINNER
OPINIONS EXPRESSED are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Santa Monica Daily Press staff. Guest editorials from residents are encouraged, as are letters to the editor. Letters will be published on a space-available basis. It is our intention to publish all letters we receive, except those that are libelous or are unsigned. Preference will be given to those that are e-mailed to editor@smdp.com. All letters must include the author’s name and telephone number for purposes of verification. All letters and guest editorials are subject to editing for space and content.