S A N TA M O N I C A
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY
smmirror.com
October 23 – October 29, 2020 Volume XLXIX, Issue 64
INSIDE SANTA MONICA MIRROR ENDORSES CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES
PAGE 2
Santa Monica’s Police Chief Retiring SMPD Cynthia Renaud announces retirement, to be replaced by former Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks By Sam Catanzaro
Santa Monica has announced its chief of police Cynthia Renaud is retiring, citing “strained community-police relations” following May 31 civil unrest and looting in the city. On Friday, October 16, City Manager Lane Dilg and Police Chief Renaud jointly announcing the retirement, effective October 25, 2020. “Serving as Chief in Santa Monica has been one of the highlights of my career,” Renaud said. “I am proud of our record over the past two years in times of unprecedented scrutiny and challenge for law enforcement. Chief Renaud came to Santa Monica in April 2018 after serving as Chief of Police in Folsom for seven years. “After successfully reducing crime in her previous community, she applied those skills in Santa Monica, reducing crime by 16% last year,” the City of Santa Monica said in a press release announcing her retirement. Renaud’s leadership came under fire following the Santa Monica Police Department’s (SMPD) May 31 use of tear gas and rubber bullets on a crowd of predominantly peaceful demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd while looters pilfered businesses just blocks away. “Recognizing that recent events both here in Santa Monica and around the nation have strained community-police relations, Chief Renaud has made the decision to step aside
Photo: City of Santa Monica
Santa Monica police chief Cynthia Renaud.
so that the Santa Monica Police Department can continue to move forward,” the City said in response to the question of whether Renaud’s retirement is due to the events of May 31. In the wake of the May 31 events, a petition was launched calling on Renaud to resign. At the time of publishing, the petition has over 66,000 supporters. On October 9, the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office announced the selection
of OIR Group to lead an independent afteraction review for the events of May 31. According to the City, OIR’s goal is to complete the report and evaluation by April 7, 2021. “The Chief’s resignation may leave unanswered questions about May 31st, but we remain committed to a thorough and transparent accounting of that day’s events. We have a contract with the OIR Group, and they are already at work,” said Santa Monica
Mayor Kevin McKeown. Former Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks has been selected to serve as Interim Chief of Police beginning October 26. “No one knows the Santa Monica community and Santa Monica Police Department like our friend and longtime
Police Chief Retiring, see page 5
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October 23 – October 29, 2020
City Council Endorsements: Santa Monica Needs a Change The following are two endorsement articles from Santa Monica Mirror Editor Sam Catanzaro and publisher TJ Montemer. Catanzaro, in endorsing four challengers running for vacant seats touches on policymaking shortcomings under the incumbents’ watch. Montemer, while not endorsing specific candidates, draws on his experience as a business owner and father in Santa Monica in calling for a change.
From the Editor
As a lifelong Santa Monica resident and editor of the Mirror, I am endorsing Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, Mario FondaBonardi and Christine Parra for Santa Monica City Council because the city needs new local perspectives, deeply invested members of the community willing to deviate from city staff policy recommendations. Since becoming editor of the Mirror in 2018 and covering city council meetings regularly, one thing that has stood out to me is how often lawmakers pass agenda items unanimously or near-unanimously. The outcome of a vast majority of legislation– from mundane developer agreements to controversial projects–seems predetermined. It is an anomaly for Council to vote against staff recommendations. This is not to discount anything the city staff does. They work hard and do draft great legislation most of the time. They are not right 100 percent of the time, however, and Santa Monica City Council needs members willing to vote against the status quo if the situation calls for it. The one councilmember who votes against staff recommendation with the most frequency, Sue Himmelrich, is not up for reelection this year. What is the point of having a four-hour debate in which residents come out and express their opposition or concerns on a contentious development or issue when councilmembers will likely just vote along what is recommended by their city staff? Groupthink–making decisions in a way that discourages difference–is not how government should be run and generally does not lead to the best decisions. In addition, for the first time in history, Santa Monica City Council is composed of a majority of Councilmembers who were initially appointed as opposed to elected. While three of the four of these councilmembers have won elections since their appointment, there is no denying the power of incumbency. These four lawmakers–Gleam Davis, Terry O’Day, Ana Maria Jara, Kristin McCowan– did not have to rely on generating a broad range of support in coming to power, something I feel is integral to governing a city like Santa Monica with a wide array of perspectives among residents. Recently appointed McCowan it should be noted, a longtime Santa Monica resident with valuable experience working for FEMA under Obama, is running unopposed for her seat and I will be voting for her. The other three incumbents, however, have not demonstrated a willingness to break away from the course set by city staff–whether on the contentious Miramar development or unanimously approving a $100,000 severance package for departing police Chief Cynthia Renaud. This is why I am voting for Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, Mario Fonda-Bonardi and
Christine Parra. These are all either lifelong Santa Monica residents or longtime Santa Monica stakeholders who will be willing to vote against the status quo if the matter before them is not in the best interest of their constituents. While there is no denying that these four figures can be polarizing, this is exactly what the city needs: new perspectives among its lawmakers to shake things up. Santa Monica City Council needs a change and all four of these candidates care deeply about the future of Santa Monica and will enable to the council to move in the right direction. - Sam Catanzaro
From the Publisher:
As the Publisher, I have been involved in the past with endorsing candidates, but this election, I feel that I personally cannot as I no longer reside in Santa Monica. However, the reasons for me leaving Santa Monica has a lot to do with the leadership and the direction SM had gone in my 12-year residency in the city (from 24–35 years old) ALL while owning the Santa Monica Mirror. In the past, we have endorsed Gleam, Ted, Terry, Kevin…many of the candidates that you see sitting on the dais today. But this is a quite different election because the city of Santa Monica is truly a place that needs help and new leadership. A few years ago, I had my one and only face to face meeting with Rick Cole, our most recent former City Manager (who the City Council hired). The one thing that he said to me that stood out the most was that he compared himself to a CEO and the City of Santa Monica as a business with its employees as the engine that turns the wheels of this business. By default, and the way that decisions are made – this makes the City Council “the board” of this business. Well, if you look at the state of the city today, business is NOT good. In fact, it is far from it. When things are not good in a business, solutions are a bit simpler – you look at who is responsible for putting these pieces together and you remove those people/pieces that have failed that business.
I, therefore, recommend you vote for anyone other than those who are sitting on the City Council today. It is time we essentially remove “the board” of this City of SM business. While the City Council candidates don’t technically “run” the city, they are responsible for both the hiring and direction that the city goes in. Let me elaborate on a few points about this that factor into my “endorsement” decision. The first thing that comes to mind is safety: my main reason for moving my new family out of SM. While many of the incumbents will tell you that SM is a safe place and a good place to raise a family, that is simply not true. The City of SM has fallen into a city of crime, maybe not murder and the worse aspects of crime, but small and petty crime that just makes both living and doing business in SM not only burdensome but extremely difficult – any business owner will tell you this. My wife did not feel safe walking from the 2nd Street parking lot to the “Salon Republic” (which is right next door to the parking structure) and stopped going to her facialist for that reason. Sure enough, MOST of this facialist’s clients felt the same way and she moved OUT of SM to retain her clientele. Another reason is the loss of small businesses. The theory for a long time (especially for DTSM) was if your business left, that is fine, someone with a dream and ambition would come to fill your spot – well not anymore. You can see this with roughly 30 business shuttered just on the Promenade. Yes, COVID has hit the local business scene hard, but this issue was apparent way before COVID. The worst part, these aren’t just “small businesses” that aren’t cutting it, it’s major businesses as well. In total, SM has lost over 150 businesses since May 31 when riots broke out and businesses across the city experienced looting. This does not even include all the businesses who had closed up shop due to COVID before May 31 and all the businesses who closed prior to the pandemic due to high rents and other quality of life obstacles. Obviously, these 150+ businesses did not just shut down, many of them moved. My company, Mirror
Media Group, also left SM in November and relocated to West Los Angeles due to the high rent and the fact we had to deal with some sort of homeless/crime issue in or around our building almost every week…which our rent did not reflect this downturn in quality of life. Lastly, and on a more “personal” note for our business, the game of dirty politics and money that is present in Santa Monica governing is concerning, as illustrated in this personal and recent experience. As many may know reading, we recently had an FPCC complaint filed against us by a local attorney, Joel Koury, alleging that a column we have been running weekly for the last 5 years was “free advertising” for Phil and Mario, who are running for city council as well (The Santa Monica Daily Press covered this and we thank them for running the follow up). Mr. Koury actively pursued our sales team up until October 12, discussing advertising and told our sales staff he was representing the “incumbents” while also filing this FPCC claim, which if he won would have hurt the Mirror financially (as we would have to lawyer up and possibly pay a fine) and would have absolutely benefited the incumbents if he won. To be clear there is no actual connection between Koury and any of the incumbents, but it is most likely not a coincidence. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…well then…you know the rest. This action by Joel Koury is disgusting, disrespectful and uncalled for. Even though this complaint was rejected, is this the type of games and politics you want played here in Santa Monica…just to keep the status quo? So this election, you have lots of options – you have the “slate of 8” you see all the lawn signs for, you have the usual suspects that always come in to play during this time and a handful of new faces. The one thing you should remember when voting this year is, are you happy with your life in Santa Monica and the direction of the city? If the answer is “no”, your choice is simple and you have many. It’s time for a change, it’s time for new leadership. The business of the “City of Santa Monica” is failing and it must get back on track. -TJ Montemer
October 23 – October 29, 2020
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October 23 – October 29, 2020
California Supreme Court to Hear Santa Monica Voting Rights Case Court to rule on future of at-large elections in Santa Monica By Sam Catanzaro
The California Supreme Court will determine the future of elections in Santa Monica after taking up a voting rights case alleging the current at-large system dilutes the Latino vote. The case filed by plaintiffs Pico Neighborhood Association, Maria Loya and Advocates for Malibu Public Schools alleges that Santa Monica’s at-large election system dilutes Latino voting power in violation of the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) and discriminates against Latino voters in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution. In a ruling released February 15, 2019, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos ordered that all future elections for seats on the Santa Monica City Council be based on a seven-district map drawn by an expert for the plaintiffs, including a 30 percent Latino district. The City then appealed this decision. On July 9 2020, a three-judge panel from
the California 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the city saying that Latinos, who account for 14 percent of Santa Monica’s electorate, lack the numbers to win an election in the 30 percent Latino district ordered by Judge Palazuelos. After the Appeals Court rejected a petition for a hearing, the plaintiffs filed their case with the California Supreme Court. Kevin Shenkman, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, noted in July that is was unlikely the Appeals court would rehearing the case but the filing laid the groundwork for a Supreme Court case. “The Opinion’s holding that the inability to create a hypothetical majority minority district in Santa Monica is fatal to the CVRA claim contravenes the plain language of the statute,” Shenkman wrote. “The Opinion also errs in ignoring the trial court’s factual finding, based on contested expert testimony and other evidence, that Latino-preferred Latino candidates who lost citywide often would have won election had the contest been limited to the remedial district proposed.” In addition, Shenkman argued that the judges failed to follow clearly established principles governing the evaluation of factual evidence for determining the existence of intentional discrimination as protected by the Equal Protection Clause.
Photos: Sam Catanzaro
On October 21 the Supreme Court took up the case, depublishing the Appellate Court ruling. “The petition for review is granted. The parties are ordered to brief the following issue: What must a plaintiff prove in order to establish vote dilution under the California
Voting Rights Act? On the Court’s own motion, the Court of Appeal’s Opinion is ordered depublished,” the California Supreme Court wrote in taking up the case. The Supreme Court has not yet announced a timeline for the case.
The Coalition of Santa Monica City Employees proudly endorse and ask for your vote for
Ana Maria Jara
Terry O'Day
Gleam Davis
Kristin McCowan
Ted Winterer
COUNCILMEMBER 35 year Pico Neighborhood renter
MAYOR PRO TEMPORE 22 Year Pico Neighborhood resident
COUNCILMEMBER 34 year Santa Monica resident
COUNCILMEMBER Third generation Santa Monican
COUNCILMEMBER 28 year Santa Monica resident
committed to:
committed to:
committed to:
committed to:
committed to:
The City's Cradle to Career initiative
Preserving and creating affordable housing
Public Safety
Protecting the City’s partnership with Santa Monica schools – funding playgrounds and classrooms
Promoting a safer and more sustainable Santa Monica that is pedestrian, bike and micro mobility-friendly
Making Santa Monica a better place for young families - regardless of socio-economic status.
Steering our city through a recovery from the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 virus.
Expanding educational opportunities
Providing an independent voice and home grown perspective to council
Addressing our most important challenge: further reducing homelessness, down 8% last year.
Protecting vulnerable youth
Converting Big Blue Bus to zero emission / zero carbon
Ensuring all City decisions support social justice and equity
Paid for by Coalition of Santa Monica City Employees PAC. 1223 Wilshire Blvd., #1423, Santa Monica CA 90403-5400. Not authorized by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.
Guiding our community through recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis and answering the outcry for racial justice
Building on last year’s 16% decrease in crime while reforming our police department to find cost savings and to assure racial justice.
October 23 – October 29, 2020
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Outgoing Santa Monica Police Chief Set to Receive Nearly $100K of Severance Pay Santa Monica City Council approves retirement agreement for outgoing chief Cynthia Renaud By Sam Catanzaro
Santa Monica’s outgoing police chief Cynthia Renaud will collect nearly $100,000 of severance pay as part of a retirement package approved by City Council over the weekend. On Friday, October 16, Santa Monica announced its chief of police Cynthia Renaud is retiring, citing “strained community-police relations” following May 31 civil unrest and looting in the city. Former Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks will serve as Interim Chief of Police beginning October 26. On Saturday, October 17 Santa Monica City Council approved four months of severance pay for Renaud, totaling around $97,000. Renaud’s salary is $290,916 before overtime and benefits. “The City’s executive pay plan provides four months severance in the event of termination that is not based on willful misconduct, conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude, consistent poor performance or voluntary separation,” said Interim City Manager Lane Dilg. “This was a mutually agreed-upon retirement but we nonetheless used that as a benchmark in
Photos: SMPD (Facebook)
Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud.
determining the amount of severance that would be appropriate for a smooth and positive transition of duties in this highly sensitive and very very important role.” Under terms of the retirement agreement approved by Council, severance pay will be conditioned upon Renaud providing the City with the reasonable information and assistance necessary to allow a smooth transition of duties to her successor as well as participating in interviews and providing materials requested by the independent body OIR Group or the City in conjunction with the review of events leading up to, during and following the protests, looting and violence that occurred in Santa Monica on May 31, 2020. In addition, the City must defend and indemnify Renaud in the event she is named in a lawsuit arising from the course and scope of her duties as Chief.
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Police Chief Retiring, From page 1 leader, Jackie Seabrooks,” said Interim City Manager Lane Dilg. “This is a critical moment for Santa Monica. I have every confidence in Chief Seabrooks and look forward to working together to provide for community safety and wellbeing, as well as to advance public safety reform work underway.” Seabrooks retired as Santa Monica’s Chief of Police in September 2017, where she began her career in 1982. Under her leadership, SMPD implemented the bodyworn camera program and implicit bias training. “I am certainly humbled at being asked to once again serve the Santa Monica community,” said Seabrooks. “I am equally excited to begin working alongside the women and men of the Santa Monica Police Department as we continue to focus our
THE BEST CANCER THERAPY
Jacqueline Seabrooks
Photos: City of Santa Monica
attention on all facets of community safety during these unprecedented times.” Chief Renaud will assume the presidency of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) on October 23, according to the City.
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October 23 – October 29, 2020
Santa Monica’s Divine Comedy
Photo: Getty
OPINION
“The focus of our city government seems to always be how to grow the city, how to build it up. No one listens to the neighborhood associations that are the voice of the residents of our city. Wouldn’t it be an act of healing for our city council, our planners and our city staff to take a holistic approach to the city…to listen to all residents and preserve what has made us such an enviable Paradise?” writes SMart in their column.
SMa.r.t. Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow
[SMa.r.t. originally published this article four years ago. We believe it remains current, with slight alterations. The elections, in the next few days, make it especially relevant. We urge our readers to vote as if our city, and our home, depends on it]. Dante Alighieri listed the sins of man in the first part of his epic poem, “Divine Comedy”. There were nine circles of suffering detailed by Dante in the first chapter, or allegory, of this poem, which is titled “The Inferno”. In ancient Christianity the seven deadly sins include Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride and Lust. Dante expanded on the sins to include Treachery, Fraud, Violence, Heresy, Wrath, and Limbo. Scary indeed! Santa Monica residents have always thought that their city was an example of the third and happiest of Dante’s allegories, “Paradise”. However, many are beginning to believe we are teetering on the edge of the second allegory, “Purgatory”, in danger of sliding into “The Inferno”. While the above comparisons are extreme, members of SMa.r.t. and others in our city have identified many continuous problems with planning oversight in Santa Monica. It is appropriate to look at some of our civic problems in relation to the sins set out in the Divine Comedy. Gluttony has been suggested. There seems to be no other way to describe the “carpetbaggers” and “robber barons” intent on taking control of our city’s most precious resources. Our land, our proximity to the
Pacific Ocean, our climate and our skyline all scream profit to those who want to exploit them. While our natural attributes are precious to all of us, just imagine how valuable they are to outsiders who stand to make a tidy profit from blocking our sea breezes and sunny skies with their mid-rise and high-rise buildings. Developers just want to capitalize on our city’s potential. Mix in an element of Greed and they become dangerous. Rather than build within our city’s zoning codes, they set out to create Faustian bargains with city planners and our city council in order to maximize the plunder. Our land and our sky are incomparable commodities. Speculators know it and when Greed raises its head, they become blind to the natural beauty of our city and to the great value of the low-rise, comfortable, beach life style to the residents of Santa Monica. Our city government is supposed to provide the checks and balances to counter Gluttony and Greed. It appears to many that this responsibility to maintain our Paradise has been abrogated. In fact, you might suspect that our city planners, planning commission, architectural review board and city council are practicing card carriers of Sloth. They are not actively defending the residents of our fair city. They seem to be allowing the developers and their lawyers to maneuver around the planning processes of our city for their profit. Laziness has never been considered a virtue. Residents themselves have had to come to the defense of Santa Monica because our paid employees and elected representatives have failed to do so. Lust is evident as developers eye our oneand two-story buildings, our historic stores and our renowned garden and courtyard apartments. They see dollar signs and we feel
their Wrath when they don’t get what they want. We see Busy Bee Hardware begin to slide towards the abyss as landlords fight over a handful of parking spaces. We hear Typhoon begin its death spiral over rent that has been doubled. We witness older apartments approaching destruction and tenants being evicted. As small businesses and restaurants are lost forever, we see Greed, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth consume the leaders we elected. They should be working to protect our existing city. Instead we hear from them about the new “exciting” projects coming down the pipeline – the grandeur of a twelve-story building on city-owned land at Fourth and Arizona. They speak of the need to build more rather than the need to preserve. We hear that we need a new “local coastal plan, a downtown community plan”, and that the Land Use and Circulation Plan is a fine document – that more growth is needed. Perhaps the developers and their acolytes who are embedded in our Chamber Of Commerce and who pervade City Hall have Envy towards the growth they see in downtown Los Angeles or New York City. Santa Monica is a beachside community. To think that our city must become such a metropolis is Heresy. In actuality, residents are not swayed by the bigger is better argument towards building more in our city. We feel pride in our uniqueness and want to fight those who would deprive us of our special sense of place. Many feel that Fraud and Treachery are being committed against them. Developers want more projects because it’s profitable. There is nothing altruistic about their sales pitches. They just want more money, more profit. It’s already dangerous to walk, bicycle or drive in our city. More people moving in create more
traffic, clear and simple. Santa Monicans do not want to see their lifestyle diminish. Growth that is organic and measured, growth that is in line with our city’s existing character, is acceptable. And, no matter how much our city planners and city council try to tell us that there is very little growth, we all can feel it. From maddening traffic to buildings blocking the sunlight on our streets, we know we are being stifled by growth. We are a special place and we must regain our Paradise. These developers with their minds consumed by dollar signs want to come in and “Pave Paradise” – and without putting up the proverbial “Parking Lot”. So the residents are all doomed to be circling around and around in a never-ending voyage within a concrete maze looking for open space – or fresh air – or sunshine – or trees that are no longer there, never finding any peace or beauty again… is that Purgatory or the Inferno? It probably doesn’t matter which Allegory you choose – the point is made. The focus of our city government seems to always be how to grow the city, how to build it up. No one listens to the neighborhood associations that are the voice of the residents of our city. Wouldn’t it be an act of healing for our city council, our planners and our city staff to take a holistic approach to the city… to listen to all residents and preserve what has made us such an enviable Paradise? Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow: Thane Roberts, Architect, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Ron Goldman FAIA, Architect, Dan Jansenson, Architect, Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, Samuel Tolkin Architect, Marc Verville, CPA (inactive).
October 23 – October 29, 2020
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Grand Jury Indicts Former Angel Employee in Tyler Skaggs’ Fatal Overdose Fort Wayne grand jury indicts Eric Prescott Kay on drug distribution and drug conspiracy charges By Sam Catanzaro
A federal grand jury has indicted a former Los Angeles Angels employee on charges for allegedly providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs–a Santa Monica High School graduate–with the drugs that led to his overdose death. Last Thursday Eric Prescott Kay was charged by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth, Texas with drug distribution and drug conspiracy in Skaggs’ death. Kay– who remained free on his own recognizance–faces a maximum of a life sentence and 20 years in prison for each respective charges. Skaggs was born in Woodland Hills and grew up in Santa Monica where he graduated from Santa Monica High School in 2009 when the Angels drafted him in the first round.
Skaggs’ mother Debbie spent more than three decades coaching the softball team at SAMOHI to a string of league titles and a pair of Southern California championships. According to the criminal complaint, filed on July 30 and unsealed Friday, the investigation began on July 1, 2019, when the Southlake Police Department received a 911 call stating that Mr. Skaggs, then just 27 years old, had been found dead in his hotel room at the Southlake Town Square Hilton. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office later determined that Mr. Skaggs had a mixture of ethanol, fentanyl, and oxycodone in his system at the time of his death; it was later ascertained that but for the fentanyl, Mr. Skaggs would not have died. Inside Mr. Skaggs’s hotel room, investigators discovered a number of pills, including a single blue pill with the markings M/30. An analysis of the pill – which closely resembled a 30-milligram oxycodone tablet – revealed it had been laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate. In an initial interview with law enforcement, Mr. Kay allegedly denied knowing whether Mr. Skaggs was a drug user. He claimed the last time he’d seen Mr. Skaggs was at hotel check-in on June 30. However, a search of Mr.
Tyler Skaggs pitching for the Santa Monica High School Vikings in 2009.
Skaggs’s phone revealed text messages from June 30 suggesting that he had asked Mr. Kay to stop by his room with pills late that evening. Hotel key card records indicated that Mr. Kay’s room, no. 367, was opened at 11:29 p.m., and Mr. Skaggs’s room, no. 469, was opened nine minutes later, at 11:38 p.m., according to prosecutors. Investigators later learned that, contrary to what he’d told law enforcement the day Mr.
Photo: Morgan Genser.
Skaggs’s body was discovered, Mr. Kay had allegedly admitted to a colleague that he had, in fact, visited Mr. Skaggs’s room the night of his death. In the course of their investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration determined that Mr. Kay allegedly regularly dealt the blue M/30 pills – dubbed “blue boys” – to Mr. Skaggs and to others, dolling out the pills at the stadium where they worked.
Mario, a fresh vision for safety, sustainability, and economic stewardship
Change is Needed Now! Vote for a new councilperson unencumbered by special interests, willing to make a better and more inclusive Santa Monica!
I will work to improve our quality of life! • Help to reduce crime ensuring the safety for all citizens • Increase affordable housing, and protect rent control • Improve resident services by overhauling financial management • Resist developments exceeding our resource capacities • Expand business development, and job creation
Mario4council.com Paid for by Mario Fonda-Bonardi for City Council 2020. FPPC ID-1430878.
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October 23 – October 29, 2020
FILM REVIEW: Sir Anthony Hopkins Gives an Astonishing Performance in “The Father”
Searching for words or names is a familiar phenomenon affecting many people who struggle to find the descriptive noun for familiar everyday objects and experiences. What was the name of that actor? What is that restaurant that serves vegetable curry? What is that thing I use on my teeth every night? Oh yes, it’s dental floss. The sometimes slow-moving descent into memory loss is fascinatingly unveiled in writer/director Florian Zeller’s film The Father, co-written with Christopher Hampton, based on the director’s 2012 play Le Père, which premiered in Paris, subsequently winning the Molière Award for Best Play. The film begins with opera music, which is part of Ludovico Einaudi’s soundtrack interspersed throughout the film and includes some of the most famous arias such as “Casta Diva” from Bellini’s Norma. The camera moves slowly through a beautiful flat in London settling on Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) seated in a chair wearing headphones listening to opera. His daughter Anne, sensitively played by Olivia Colman, enters with bags of groceries and at first we think she is visiting her dad in his flat. She is kind and solicitous and talks to him about the need for a carer. * Having fired three caretakers he is dug in and insists that he doesn’t want any help and is positive the last one stole his watch. Anne is very patient and tells him she’s going to look for the watch in his favorite hiding place in the bathroom and that is where she finds it. He puts the watch on his wrist without saying a word. His daughter asks him if he’s taken his pills and it becomes clear that there’s something on her mind. Sitting down next to him she takes his hand and tells him she’s moving to Paris with her boyfriend to which he replies, “They don’t speak English in Paris.” This is one of many scenes where Anthony’s reality is fractured into many pieces of a giant puzzle that he is trying to somehow unify. In the kitchen, he unpacks groceries and stops for a moment saying, “Is anybody there?” There is a man sitting in the living room and Anthony thinks it’s Paul, (Mark Gatiss) Anne’s husband. He asks him if he and Anne are divorced and reveals to him that she is moving to Paris with her boyfriend and is worried about what will become of him. Despite his altered reality, Anthony senses that, “There’s something funny going on” and trying to protect himself, emphasizes, “I am absolutely not going to a facility.” A new caretaker by the name of Laura, played by Imogen Poots, is introduced and for just a few minutes we see Anthony as he must have been in his earlier life – happy, playful, funny, and joyful. He tells her that she’s beautiful and that his daughter is trying to steal his flat. Knowing his resistance to having a carer, Laura engages him in conversation asking what he did before
he retired. He does a few dance steps and says, “I was a dancer.” Anne quietly corrects him reminding him that he was an engineer. Having enough, he goes to his room leaving the two women alone. His daughter breaks down in tears at how this once vibrant, successful man is now traveling headlong into senility. Later that evening, she lovingly sits down on his bed but he doesn’t immediately recognize her and once again says he can’t find his watch. There are difficult conversations between Anne and her real husband Paul, well played by Rufus Sewell. He is losing patience with Anthony living in their flat and taking up so much of his wife’s time and energy. He wants to travel and they had to cancel their last trip. Dad gets agitated as he overhears the conversation between Anne and Paul who wants to put him in a facility. There are two scenes that are particularly compelling where no dialogue is necessary: In one scene Anthony is wandering through the flat that is growing more and more unfamiliar as objects like pictures and furniture look differently than he remembers. The other heartbreaking scene is where Anne sees him trying to figure out how to put on his sweater. With the patience of a saint, she quietly helps him and then tenderly touches his cheek. With the now rapid descent into a black hole, he asks his daughter “What about me? Who exactly am I?” And in his profound confusion, he breaks down crying, “I want my mommy.” In closing, I wish to reiterate that The Father is not an easy film and for some it might be too close for comfort. However, despite the difficult subject matter, the performances delivered by Academy Award winners Hopkins and Coleman are absolutely riveting and they should probably make room on their mantles for another Oscar. THE FATHER A French-British Production Director: Florian Zeller Screenplay: Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller Production Company: F comme Film, Trademark Films Cine@ Cinematographer: Ben Smithard Music: Ludovico Einaudi Editor: Yorgos Lamprinos Distributors: Sony Pictures Classics (Domestic) United Kingdom: (Lionsgate) Language: English Running Time: 97 minutes Release Dates: Domestic: December 18, 2020 United Kingdom: January 8, 2021 *British word for caretaker
Photos: Trademark Films, F comme Film and Ciné-@
Olivia Colman as Anne in one of the tender scenes with her father Anthony played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in Florian Zeller’s “The Father.”
Olivia Colman as Anne with her dad Anthony, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Sir Anthony Hopkins’ character of Anthony is slowly descending into a dark abyss.
October 23 – October 29, 2020
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‘Recall Newsom’ Head Hanging From Venice Ballerina Clown Cardboard cutout of Gov. Newsom’s head hanging from iconic Venice art installation By Sam Catanzaro
A cardboard cutout painting of the California governor’s head with the word “Recall” was spotted hanging from the iconic Ballerina Clown art installation in Venice. The cardboard cutout was first spotted Wednesday morning. At 2 p.m. Wednesday the cardboard cutout was still hanging from the sculpture that sits above the CVS on the corner of Main Street and Rose Avenue. The “Recall Newsom” head features the tag of conservative street artist “Sabo”. “THIS WAS FOR CHRISTMAS, THIS WAS FOR THANKSGIVING, THIS WAS FOR CANCELLING THE 4TH OF JULY,”
reads an Instagram post from the artist showing the installation. Sabo could not immediately be reached for comment. The Ballerina Clown, 30 feet tall, made of aluminum, steel, painted fiberglass electric motor Permanent installation was created in 1989 by artist Jonathan Borofsky. “The Venice Boardwalk is full of all kinds of people in all sorts of outfits and the atmosphere is very festive with many live street performances taking place, especially on weekends. This sculpture is an accommodation or resolution of opposites in one. Not only does this image bring the male and female together into one figure, but also, two opposite types of performers are represented: the formal classical ballet dancer and the traditional street performer. Of course, this public sculpture might push the envelope in ‘taste’, but if you have ever walked the Venice Boardwalk on a Sunday afternoon, you might understand why this figure is right at home,” Borofsky says about the culture.
Photo: Sam Catanzaro
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FILM REVIEW: THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
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The trial of the anti-war demonstrators who disrupted the Democratic Convention in the summer of 1968 is a perfect project for the masterful pen of Aaron Sorkin, who has given us some of the most brilliant and thoughtprovoking Film and Television literature of recent history – A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The Newsroom. Many of us alive today did not follow the headlines of that summer in detail, so The Trial of the Chicago 7 is not only great drama, it’s also an impactful history lesson. The year 1968 is used often in song and literature to represent an upheaval in our attitude toward our country’s unique system of government. It was a time of instability in the communal mental state, with currents of different beliefs creating waves and tides, clashing and melting together. 2020 may go down in history as another of those periods. If there had been electronic communication in 1968 this court battle might have been even more powerful. At its heart is the age-old saga of the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, the anguished, those who have the courage to question why. The demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic Convention were from varied backgrounds: the more moderate activists from Students for a Democratic Society, the confrontational Yippies, and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers. Seven of the leaders had been arraigned by the hostile Nixon administration, on charges of conspiracy and inciting a riot outside the Convention. Strangely, Seale was included even though he had not been involved in the incident at all. Judge Julius Hoffman seemed disconnected and irritated. The result was chaos in the courtroom. Sorkin’s ability to mold dialogue into poetry makes these court proceedings sing. The one trial transcript that he left as-is was Seale’s, performed stunningly by Yahya Abdul-Mateen. The project took years to bring to the screen. It was optioned in 2007, spent about 10 years in development and was finally
October 23 – October 29, 2020
Rated R 129 Minutes Released October 16th, Streaming on Netflix shot in late 2019. Sorkin doesn’t paint the world as all black or white. It’s realistically messy, as always. The film is beautifully shot and edited. The drama arises from the confrontation of the “new guard” up against the entrenched social standards of the mid20th Century. All the characters display their heart, courage and flaws. As with all Sorkin works, this is an ensemble masterpiece, and the group of actors he has assembled succeeds unequivocally. This is a team of box-office names and those incredibly skilled character actors you know you’ve seen many times. The cast includes Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen), Mark Rylance, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Keaton. What may have begun as a peaceful demonstration taught our nation that we need to be able to question and comprehend the framework of our government, why it works and when we need to challenge it. To reflect the similarity between the tumultuous social and political forces of 1968 and today’s upended world, here is a line from a play by George Bernard Shaw, paraphrased by Bobby Kennedy and then spoken by his brother Ted at RFK’s June 1968 funeral. “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not?” Sorkin himself says, “The script didn’t change to mirror the times. The times changed to mirror the script.” It takes unflagging courage to see beyond the status quo, and even more strength to fight against established forces that you know are wrong. Sometimes the fight is messy and the arrows don’t always land where they should. The leap of faith to say “why not?” is the first step. Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
October 23 – October 29, 2020
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11
Santa Monica Has Issued Over 40 Face Covering Citations Serving Area since 1996 Locally Owned Business
Photos: Sam Catanzaro
Santa Monica police issue a citation for an individual not wearing a mask in August on Montana Avenue.
City expanding COVID-19 compliance efforts with the addition of “Health Ambassadors” By Sam Catanzaro
The City of Santa Monica says that since the pandemic began over 40 citations carrying fines starting at $100 have been issued to people not wearing face coverings. Under City of Santa Monica rules, when individuals are or can be in contact with or walking near or past others who are nonSUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME Case No. 20TRCP00241 Superior Court of California, county of Los Angeles 825 Maple Ave | Torrance, CA 90503 Petition of: Anh Minh Nguyen, by and through Kien Trung Nguyen and Thao Thi Phuong Tran for change of name. ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME To all interested persons: Kien Trung Nguyen and Thao Thi Phuong Tran Petitioner: filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: a. Anh Minh Nguyen to Bella Minh-Anh Nguyen The court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: 12/11/2020 | Time: 8:30AM | Dept: M Room: A copy of this ORDER to SHOW CAUSE shall be published at least once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: SANTA MONICA MIRROR | Dated: OCT 15, 2020 Judge DEIRDRE HILL Published: 10/23/2020, 10/30/2020, 11/06/2020, and 11/13/2020
household members in both public and private spaces, a face covering must be visible and ready to be immediately put on whenever a moving person approaches within 30 feet of a non-household member. For individuals not wearing a mask, the rules set $100 for a first violation, $250 for a second violation and $500 for a third violation. According to the City of Santa Monica, since mid-March, Code Enforcement has conducted 35,059 business checks, issued 854 warnings and 126 citations. There have been 8,351 face covering checks, 408 face coverings distributed and 42 citations issued. The stats were included in a press release announcing the expansion of COVID-19 compliance efforts with the addition of “Health Ambassadors” who will focus on safe business operations and face covering education. The Health Ambassadors will operate six days a week conducting business checks to ensure local establishments have required LA County COVID-19 signage posted, personnel and patrons are wearing face coverings when not eating and drinking, and physical distancing is being adhered to, among other business requirements under LA County Health Officer Orders. While this team will not be issuing citations, they will assist Code Enforcement staff and Santa Monica Police Department Public Service Officers in special face covering enforcement operations and distribute face coverings. Costs related to this effort are potentially eligible for FEMA reimbursement, according to the City.
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October 23 – October 29, 2020
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