For 25 years, Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) has advocated for public education in Santa Monica. We have endorsed and campaigned for ballot measures that benefit our schools. And we have endorsed candidates for the Santa Monica City Council, the SMMUSD Board of Education and the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees who we believe are most supportive of public education. This year, CEPS’ City Council endorsements are Dan Hall, Natalya Zernitskaya, Barry Snell and Ellis Raskin.
Rarely has CEPS actively opposed a particular candidate. But this year we are making an exception to our normal practice: CEPS strongly opposes Oscar de la Torre’s re-election to the Santa Monica City Council and urges Santa Monica’s voters to vote in favor of four other candidates.
Recently, the SMDP printed a letter from School Board member Jon Kean revealing de la Torre’s statement, made while he was a member of the Board of Education, that "the biggest problem with the School Board is that it’s run by the Jews." Although de la Torre denies making this statement, School Board member Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein and other District officials have confirmed its accuracy. As the Reverend (and former Santa Monica Mayor) Jim Conn wrote recently: "Sadly, his words express a frame of reference that diminishes a group of people based on their ethnicity and cultural heritage. It harkens back to an era of bigotry that led to religious wars and pogroms throughout Europe. No one in our time should be sitting in city leadership and espousing such thoughts, especially in a city that calls itself progressive."
This is not the only example of de la Torre’s bigotry. In a recent meeting of Northeast Neighbors, de la Torre disrespected City Council candidate Natalya Zernitskaya, a longtime Santa Monica resident with a distinguished record of community service including serving as President of the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica, a leader in the Human Relations Council Santa Monica Bay Area, and a member of the City of Santa Monica’s Audit Committee. De la Torre is very familiar with Ms. Zernitskaya, who has spoken numerous times at City Council meetings and in other settings where de la Torre was present and described her family background as Jewish refugees from Belarus (which was formerly part of the Soviet Union and has a long history of antisemitism). Yet, de la Torre stated at Northeast Neighbors: "…I can’t even pronounce her last name because I haven’t seen her long enough to know who she really is. I don’t even know where she comes from."
As longtime Santa Monica resident and community activist Vivian Rothstein has observed: "There are plenty of Americans with complicated last names because we’re largely (although not only) a nation of immigrants from across the globe. The question is, do we need a City Councilmember who only respects SOME of us, and not ALL of us? Does he know, or care, who we really are?"
De la Torre’s failings as a public official extend far beyond his bigotry. Below are a few of many examples:
• When elected to the City Council in November 2020, de la Torre claimed -- without any basis — that he could continue serving as a member of the School Board even though he was advised that under State law his election to the City Council meant he forfeited his School Board seat. When informed he was no longer a School Board member, de la Torre (with the aid of his attorney, Kevin Shenkman) threatened to sue the School District.
Ironically, since his departure from the School Board, de la Torre has shown no interest in supporting school district issues, culminating in abstaining from what should have been an easy vote to support a necessary and popular bond measure (Measure QS) which garnered the endorsement of the City Council, with the support of five Council members: Mayor Phil Brock, Mayor Pro Tempore Lana Negrete, and Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick.
• Upon taking office as a Councilmember, de la Torre began pressuring his new colleagues to concede a lawsuit that he (as President of the Pico Neighborhood Association), his spouse Maria Loya and attorney Shenkman had filed in 2016 challenging the Santa Monica City Charter provisions establishing at-large elections for both City Council and the Board of Education. De la Torre has continued pressuring his colleagues and insisting that he be allowed to vote on the lawsuit, despite his obvious conflict of interest given his spouse’s role as a plaintiff and his attorney’s role as counsel for the plaintiffs.
De la Torre claims that a judge ruled he has no conflict of interest, but that is false. The judge in question rejected de la Torre’s request for a ruling in his favor, pointing to de la Torre’s relationship with attorney Shenkman as "the elephant in the room." De la Torre has proudly shared that he pursued the lawsuit as a matter of spite because the City had discontinued its funding of his non-profit organization (Pico Youth and Family Center) due to his mismanagement, deceit and financial improprieties. The City Council, as required by the City Charter, has defended the lawsuit for more than eight years at great cost to Santa Monica taxpayers.
• At the same Northeast Neighbors’ meeting where he disrespected Ms. Zernitskaya, de la Torre threatened the jobs of City employees by calling for a new City Manager who would be directed to demand that City employees resign, followed by a round of begging for reinstatement at reduced salaries. To quote de la Torre: "‘But one thing we can do, and we should look into, is hire a city manager who will make everyone reapply for their jobs … get everyone. So then we’re not targeting one staff member or another, we’re saying let’s have everybody reapply for their jobs.’"
While this threat calls for actions that are clearly illegal, CEPS is informed that de la Torre’s threats have already hurt the morale of many City employees. The result would be a slowdown and possible disruption of City services upon which Santa Monica residents depend.
During de la Torre’s years in public office, his personal grievances have taken center stage. He has caused the diversion of millions of dollars of Santa Monica taxpayer money that could have been used for public safety, public education and other community priorities, into paying lawyers. This is a disservice to our community, which deserves leaders who put the City’s commitments to its constituents first.
CEPS has had enough of de la Torre’s bigotry, antics, misconduct and deceit, a small sampling of which has been described above. The list goes on. Santa Monica deserves more from its elected officials — a lot more. The voters should say NO to de la Torre.
Sirinya Matute & Ted Winterer, Executive Committee of Community for Excellent Public Schools
