Santa Monica has settled the last batch of claims deriving from sexual abuse allegations at the Police Activities League for $122.5 million bringing the total from the Eric Uller case to $229.8 million.
The settlement, announced at the April 25 Council meeting, resolves all claims related to the case and will pay out from a variety of funds including pending lawsuits to recoup money from the city’s insurance companies.
Eric Uller was accused of abusing young boys between the late 1980s and early 2000s while he was employed by the City and volunteered in the Police Activities League (PALs), a city owned nonprofit. He committed suicide before his criminal trial in 2018.
The deadline to file a claim related to abuse was Dec. 31 of 2022 and 124 individuals were included in the most recent settlement. The City will pay out $70 million within 10 days and the balance by June 30 by 2023. The City has previously paid $107.3 million to 105 individuals that had filed earlier.
The total settlement equates to about $5,000 per Santa Monica household.
“This settlement represents the city of Santa Monica’s best efforts to address the pain and suffering of victims in a responsible way,” said City Manager David White. “This is a painful part of our city’s history. Although it took place 20 to 30 years ago, and current members of the leadership team were not here during this painful past, we had an obligation to offer recompense to the victims. As an organization, our hearts break over the suffering of these victims. And that is why the City took swift action when we first heard about the claims. Equally important, we continue to be vigilant in protecting our youth. So these horrific acts do not occur again. That’s a promise we must keep.”
White said the city has created a Child Protection Committee and established a child protection officer to oversee implementation of child abuse prevention measures across all City programs. Santa Monica has also implemented a city wide code of conduct for providing services to youth and updated standardized screening of volunteers that now includes a standard application form, reference checks, and a live scan fingerprint criminal background check.
According to White, as a result of the abuse Santa Monica has expanded requirements for child abuse mandated reporter training for all employees, volunteers and contractors for any city managed youth program and has hired a new volunteer coordinator to monitor and oversee the recruitment and training of volunteers across city programs.
White said the City has been planning for the settlement and it won’t impact current levels of city service. To make the payments, City Hall will draw down reserves in the general fund, suspend a substantial portion of Measure GSH funds to affordable housing through 2024, borrow against the general fund portion of the Housing Trust Fund, borrow from the general fund portion of the workers compensation fund, and borrow from the water fund.
“To begin restoring these funds, the city will take two actions that have a longer timeframe, selling limited city owned parcels and pushing for the city’s insurance providers to appropriately compensate the city in which active litigation is pending,” he said. “It’s important to note that the city has planned for the settlement and it will not impact our current services or the restorations and enhancements that will be included in the upcoming biannual budget. The city looks forward to programming funds from recent voter measures with the upcoming budgets.”
Mayor Gleam Davis said the city is absolutely committed to ensuring “unconscionable acts do not occur again.”
“We have modified virtually every program in this community that addresses youth and deals with youth to make sure that our youth are protected to the greatest extent possible from anything like this ever happening again,” she said. “And it’s critical to note that the actions of this former employee happened two to three decades ago, and don’t represent the exemplary work of our employees of our current youth program offerings or the PAL program as it operates today.”
Abuse settlements vary wildly based on the number of individuals involved, where the abuse occurred and the severity of the claims. Last year a woman’s individual claim against the San Jose School District was settled for $4 million while the University of California system settled 200 claims of abuse against women for a total of $243.6 million. In 2021, USC settled over 700 claims of abuse against women for $1.1 billion.
The Santa Monica totals, both in terms of money and the number of victims, is among the highest for a municipality.
editor@smdp.com