Crook
Editor:
Oscar de la Torre is a crook and SMRR should not disgrace itself or lose its credibility over succumbing to his blackmail. There is good reason the City has decreased its support of his organization and that is because it cannot legitimately account for the public funds it receives. The City should stop wasting taxpayer money on this fraudulent organization.
Jaime Gomez
Santa Monica
No time for bullies
Editor:
How typical of Oscar De La Torre to amass a gang of recruits to intimidate the citizens of Santa Monica to “see” things his way. (Pico Delegation wants City Manager Fired, SMDP 7/29/14). Oscar has operated and conducted himself in this manner for years, continually threatening city officials, the police and Samohi students.
Is this the kind of representation and decision maker we want to re-elect to the school board? Someone who threatens anyone who doesn’t do what he wants? And do we want to elect his wife, Maria Loya to the College Board as well?
Oscar has repeatedly shown himself to be an unethical, selfish bully. This new tirade to demand the firing of Ron Gould is directly attributed to Ron Gould auditing the PYFC’s books, and again finding problems with the required financial reporting by the PYFC. In a rare instance of sanity, the City Council listened to facts outlining PYFC’s accounting inconsistencies and cut back the funding.
At a time when bullying is such a headline issue, how can this community elect or re-elect a pathological bully to represent our kids? And if Oscar gets re-elected to the school board, who will be the next target of his threats and intimidation?
Lori Emerson
Santa Monica
Truth Telling – Racism & Classism Exists in SM, City Manager is an agent of Gentrification
Editor:
Has racism and classism existed historically in the city of Santa Monica? Does racism and classism currently exist in the city of Santa Monica? Is the process of gentrification in the city of Santa Monica driven by racism and classism ideologies within social institutions like City Government? If the voices of dissent and push back from Pico Neighborhood leaders and progressive folks like Oscar de la Torre, PNA, SMRR, and PYFC youth leaders did not exist, would the city government of SM, more specifically city manager Ron Gould, ignore and disregard the needs of low income families of color of the PN? The answer to all this questions are YES! YES! YES! The bottom line is that the city manager personally attacked a Latino PN community leader in Oscar de la Torre and politically attempted to dismantle a community based organization that was created by Pico Neighborhood residents and has proven to improve and save lives of PN youth & their families. In matter of fact, ALL SM youth & their families who believe in PEACE, UNITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE for the City of SM and globally in general. The city manager of SM was used a tool for the power brokers of the City of Santa Monica to silence the racism and classism that drives the process of gentrification within the City by silencing Oscar and by trying to shut down the PYFC! If you sit back and look at history and current conditions in SM, you will know that I am “truth telling.”
Johnny Ramirez
Pico Rep
These letters appear to have accepted Gould’s attacks on Oscar de la Torre as the truth. The only evidence of any wrongdoing was a bookkeeping error. Gould hates people of color who want to run their own lives, so it is good we are finally rid of his elitism.
This time when we pick a city manager, Residocracy will make sure we will not pay him or her $450,000 a year and guarantee the loan on a $1.4 million house as the City did for Gould and every previous city manager. That is why we get elitists and a new one every five years, when their contract requires them to refinance the home and pay off the loan if they leave.
Wouldn’t we all love such a perk? And to have it not show anywhere as compensation? Then the nerve of Gould to stack the Board of the only organization that has brought peace to Pico Neighborhood. Such hypocrisy, double standards, and opacity in city government have got to go.