At the start of the City Council Candidate Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters there were eight candidates and two empty chairs. I wasn’t sure if that meant that John Putnam and Dr. Vivian Roknian were no longer running or if they were just afraid to participate, but since I’m still receiving campaign literature from the Safer Santa Monica coalition with their names, I’m going to assume the latter. The event was not as partisan as the previous Council candidate forum, which made it a less fiery but also less lively event. Wade Kelley got in a couple of zingers, and Councilmember Oscar de la Torre admirably mitigated his more bellicose rhetoric, which was a good choice for a man running for Mayor.
Yes, you heard that right. Santa Monica residents will be voting directly for Mayor — for the first time since 1946. However, it’s less of a typical election than a Soviet-style exercise with only one person on the ballot.
Let me back up and explain for the 95% of the population who likely have no idea what I’m talking about. In January 2023, Councilmember de la Torre successfully proposed eliminating the 77-year tradition of Councilmembers voting for the Mayor and replacing it with a rotating system, where each Councilmember would be guaranteed a turn as Mayor, based on seniority.
In theory, it’s a more equitable system, as long as you believe that all Councilmembers are created equal. Not everyone buys that theory.
"This isn’t a fourth-grade sport where every player gets some kind of medal for participating," former Mayor Mike Feinstein wrote in these pages regarding the change. "Anyone who can’t get four votes for Mayor on a seven-member City Council… shouldn’t be in a position of leading them."
What I like about the rotating system is it counters the factionalism that governs so much of the Council’s actions, and I would personally look forward to a future Mayor Negrete, who after two years as Mayor Pro Tem is the most qualified for the position.
What I don’t like is that there’s an assumption that the Mayorship is an entitlement program rather than a role requiring any particular skills or knowledge. Should every local doctor get a chance to be Chief of Staff at UCLA Medical Center? Should every Representative in the US Congress automatically get a turn as President?
But we’re not talking about every Councilmember in the current election. We’re only talking about one in particular, because by luck or design Councilmember de la Torre is the first to benefit from the new system he advocated. Or the first to be held accountable for the change. Because he is both running for re-election and first in line to be rotated in as Mayor — so he is in effect running for Mayor. He just doesn’t seem to be mentioning it, despite the fact that becoming Mayor was previously his clearly stated goal.
There are many aspects of Councilmember de la Torre’s personal story that make him an inspirational as well as aspirational leader, especially for residents who may have faced some of the challenges he has faced and are hoping to similarly overcome them. He deserves credit for giving voice to some in the Santa Monica community who may not have felt fully represented by Councilmembers who have shared less of their life experiences.
However, after four years in office, Councilmember de la Torre is still woefully unaware of Council procedures, resulting in frequent reprimands even by his allies for errors or misstatements. As a Councilmember, it’s disappointing he hasn’t made more effort to educate himself. As a Mayor, it would seem a recipe for disaster, especially when Council meetings are already notorious for often lasting eight or nine hours.
So what are the options?
If voters don’t approve of this new rotating Mayorship or don’t approve of Councilmember de la Torre becoming Mayor, they could choose to deny him re-election to the Council. But that would mean voting against the only Hispanic candidate this year. The fact that he’s the only Hispanic candidate is a discredit to both slates, including Councilmember de la Torre, who when given the opportunity to open the doors to fellow Hispanic citizens failed to practice what he preaches about equity and inclusion (though if Dr. Roknian is elected, she would be a welcome representative of the Persian community).
Or the Council could vote to return to the previous system. But that was admittedly also a flawed process, since newly elected Councilmembers had to vote for Mayor as their first act in office, which guaranteed that whatever faction won the majority of Council seats would also win the Mayorship. But the inverse could mean a Mayor from the minority faction being elected against the will of the voters.
Councilmember de la Torre once suggested that a rotational Mayor would remove politics from the process. But you can’t remove politics from a Mayoral election. Even a surreptitious one.
