• Name: Jon Louis Mann
• Age: 65
• Occupation: Flight attendant/teacher
• Marital status/children: Single and available! Two boys, age 37 and 7
• Your neighborhood? How long have you lived there?: I’ve lived in Pico Neighborhood, Sunset Park and Ocean Park for over 30 years
• Your mode of transportation/model, make and year of your ride?: 2007 Motobecane fixed-wheel bicycle, and the Big Blue Bus
• Own or rent?: Rent at present. I’ve been a renter and an owner in Santa Monica
• Do you support Measure Y, the half-cent sales tax increase? If so, do you think half of the money generated by the increase should go to local public schools?
Absolutely not. Audit the school budget online, and cut all the fat; reduce administrators’ salaries, etc.
• What are you reading?
Just finished “The Year of the Flood,” by Margaret Atwood.
• Do you believe there is enough parking Downtown? If not, what do you plan to do about it?
More than enough. If elected I would fight the rest of the council to make buses free! The city is rich and could afford it if council members would stop bribing city employees to get their endorsement, and spent tax revenues more on services that benefit the voters and residents!
• Now that the Broad museum is out of play, what should City Hall do with the Civic Center parking lot?
Charge people to park there if they won’t take the free buses, and put in a safe Rollerblade facility that is free for kids.
• When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Musician and I was, for awhile.
• Local businesses provide the majority of the city’s general fund revenues, yet Santa Monica has a reputation for being a difficult place to do business. How would you entice more businesses, different businesses, to open up shop? How can City Hall help those businesses that are struggling in the current economy?
Give small business owners a break; lower taxes so locals won’t have to drive out of the city to shop!
• L.A. recently greatly reduced patients’ access to medical marijuana. Do you support medical marijuana dispensaries in Santa Monica?
I support legalizing all victimless crimes. Socialize gambling and prostitution, and put the Mafia out of business. I haven’t smoked pot in years and don’t recommend it, but I support Prop. 19. If it passes, the city should grow industrial marijuana (hopefully at the Santa Monica Airport) to increase revenues tenfold over just taxing it. Oakland is already letting large grow operations corner the profit. Why let the tobacco companies profit? I would hire any homeless who are talented in this kind of horticulture and monitor very carefully how the harvest is dispensed.
• Should smoking be banned within apartments?
I don’t smoke tobacco, either, but City Hall has gone way overboard in restricting smokers. They can’t enforce these new laws any more than you can stop people from smoking pot. People drank more alcohol during Prohibition than ever before. Here’s another radical idea; have City Hall take over all cigarette sales within city limits, set up kiosks and hire unemployed Santa Monica residents to man them.
• What would you do to make Santa Monica more bike friendly?
More bike lanes would impede traffic even more, but then people would have to take the free buses or ride bikes! I would also crack down on reckless bicyclists on the sidewalks; also skateboards, rollerblades, and those who don’t observe safety regulations. I would also crack down on pedestrians on the bike path!
• What’s the biggest threat facing the quality of life in Santa Monica?
The current City Council and city staff, and alll the parasites feeding off the public trough!
• Downtown properties owned by City Hall. Should parking be the top priority or should housing come first?
Low-income housing for people working here and only earning a living wage. The police earn enough to buy their own homes, but other candidates will disagree because they know they will be elected if they receive the SMPD endorsement.
• Do you support the closure of Santa Monica Airport in 2015? If so, what would you like to replace it with and how would you make up for the loss in revenue generated by airport operations, lease agreements?
First of all, what revenue is left over after costs? I was the first to call for airport closure and I lost my only endorsement as a result. Now other candidates are jumping on the bandwagon. It won’t be easy because the FAA is extremely powerful. To increase revenues, grow medical marijuana. Let’s see the DEA storm troopers bust the city!
• Do you believe in pension reform and should Santa Monica employees contribute more toward their healthcare and retirement benefits?
Absolutely, even if it means they won’t endorse me! If there is a way to take over Saint John’s for criminal over billing, and turn it into a single-payer medical provider with all profits going into better healthcare for the poor. It may get me excommunicated, but investigate and prevent all medicare and insurance fraud; jail the white collar (and white cowl) perpetrators!
• When it comes to getting public benefits from developers, what should be the top priority: affordable housing, public art, cash money, bike lanes or carpooling?
I say screw the developers and do our own contracting; make those people in building and safety do some honest work! Use Habitat for Humanity for affordable housing.
• Would you support placing a limit on the amount of time council members can speak on a particular item during meetings?
Yes, and even more important, put a two-time limit on terms, ranked voting and clean money; yeah!
• When was the last time you rode a bike or took Big Blue Bus?
Today.
• Does the housing-first model work for addressing the homeless issue or should we focus on building more emergency shelters to get people off the streets immediately?
Both, but we need to stop fostering dependency. Get rid of the bloodsuckers in the social service industry (especially the SMRR people) and hire the homeless to clean up the city, etc. They do it already collecting cans and bottles!
• Free form: What’s putting a burr under your saddle?
OK, you asked for it. Where to begin?
I am so tired of special interests dominating policy by determining who gets elected. Do not vote for incumbents, or any candidate with special interest endorsements, they are compromised! It’s called conflict of interest.
How about if the Santa Monica Daily Press advertises and promotes candidate debates before they occur, instead of just covering them after the fact? Put that in the SMDP and smoke it! That would get more people to come and learn that true, cost effective, democratic socialism is for the people! If I was on the council I would spend the hundreds of millions of dollars City Hall collects in revenues on the people.
If you’re tired of “The Man” wasting our money? Vote for a new Mann, for a real difference. Free bus transportation, and free WiFi linked to moderated public forums on the City Hall website, for the first municipal electronic village. Now that is how to implement transparency and accountability in city government, and empower the residents so our voices are heard loud and clear!
Other candidates say “take our government back,” but we never had it in the first place. I say run the red tape bureaucrats out of town and take over city government for the people! I have my red pen ready. Let Santa Monica be the first municipality to really have grass roots, participatory government with the first Virtual Town Hall.
I have run for City Council 10 times now and lost. What does that tell you about who really runs this city? Down with all special interests, up with the people! I’m last on the ballot, but the last will be first and the first (guess who!) will be last!
