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Volume 11 Issue 122
Santa Monica Daily Press
A MUST-SEE FILM SEE PAGE 4
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THE WELCOME TO SANTA MONICA ISSUE
Santa Monica gets first female police chief BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
CITY HALL Santa Monica will soon have its first female police chief. Jacqueline Seabrooks, the current chief of police in Inglewood and a former member of the Santa Monica Police Department, has been selected to serve as Santa Monica’s next top cop following a three month, nationwide search, city officials announced Monday fol-
lowing inquiries made by the Daily Press. Seabrooks, a Los Angeles native who has served in law enforcement for 30 years — 25 of them with the SMPD, will replace Tim Jackman, who retired last month. As chief of police, Seabrooks will receive a salary of $238,752, city officials said. She will manage a department with a budget of over $70 million and 443 employees, including 215 sworn officers spread across the divisions of Administration, Operations, Special
Enforcement and Criminal Enforcement. Pending background checks, Seabrooks is expected to take the reigns in May. “I am equally honored, humbled, and excited to accept this offer to work in the Santa Monica community as its next chief of police,” Seabrooks said in a press release. “I am particularly happy to be joining a community that is so involved and leading a police department with great achievements in public safety.”
Seabrooks could not be reached Monday for further comment. Seabrooks was named head of the Inglewood Police Department in 2007. She is the first female SEABROOKS SEE CHIEF PAGE 11
Court upholds affirmative action ban CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press
LOS ANGELES Affirmative action proponents took a hit Monday as a federal appeals court panel upheld California’s ban on using race, ethnicity and gender in admitting students to public colleges and universities. The ruling marked the second time the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back a challenge to the state’s landmark voter initiative, Proposition 209, which was passed in 1996. Affirmative action proponents, who had requested that the court reconsider its 1997 decision after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that affirmative action could be used in college admissions, said they would continue fighting. “We think the decision is wrong,” said Detroit attorney George B. Washington, who is representing the group of minority students and advocacy groups that filed the latest challenge in January 2010. Washington said he would ask the full appellate court to review the case since this decision was issued by a three-judge panel. In its ruling, the court rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments that a new ruling is needed and said the previous decision still applies. Ralph Kasarda, attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation who had argued in favor SEE BAN PAGE 9
Daniel Archuleta daniela@smdp.com
THE SPOT: City employees exit the rear entrance of City Hall on Monday. The area behind the historic building may be the site of a new city facility.
Council finally moves on City Hall expansion BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL Sometimes, things move slowly at City Hall. The Land Use and Circulation Element
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update, which controls development and transportation infrastructure for the entire city, took over seven years to complete, and even still provides only a rough outline that has yet to be filled in with actual policy. An analysis of the pros and cons of
moveable signs will likely be extended for another year after a three-month trial allowing them on private property on Main Street expired with no formal document SEE CITY HALL PAGE 10
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