Tomorrow evening, City Council will officially approve the employment contract and welcome new City Manager Rick Cole, who replaces Rod Gould. Gould completed five years as City Manager as of Jan.31 and had announced his retirement last summer.
Rick Cole has extensive experience in municipal business and financial affairs and comes to our city with high praise. He most recently served two years as Los Angeles' deputy mayor of budget and innovation and is a former Pasadena mayor and city council member. He was previously the city manager of Ventura and Azusa. Cole is a 1978 Occidental College graduate. Cole's salary will be $329,424 and he'll receive the same benefits as other city department heads.
Gould resigned after a controversial decision to hire and then fire a public relations manager for the city. Former chair of the North of Montana Neighborhood Association and slow-growth advocate Elizabeth Riel was hired for the new job of "Communications and Public Affairs Officer." A red-faced Gould revoked the job a few days later.
Word had leaked out that Riel's politics made one particular city council person uncomfortable. The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) charged that politics were behind Gould's decision to fire Riel and has suggested that he acted illegally.
It seems that Riel had also contributed to a 2006 SMCLC campaign that opposed the re-election of councilwoman Pam O'Connor and she was very unhappy with Riel's appointment, letting Gould know her feelings in no uncertain terms. Riel's contract was abruptly terminated in what is now described as one of City Hall's major political and public relations blunders.
Gould has moved on and his new title is Vice President of Management Partners — a firm that does consulting on contract with the city.
Cole will have his work cut out for him. He enters City Hall at a time of monumental distrust of and dissatisfaction with government. He will find a city with conflicting goals and deep divisions. The most obvious schism is between slow and pro-growth advocates.
He'll be faced with satisfying the needs and desires of mostly longer-term residents who feel that poor planning decisions especially regarding development and traffic management have harmed Santa Monica's livability. At the same time he'll have to work with the generally younger, newer arrivals eager for change who embrace "urban apartment living" and who want more development, bike lanes, walking amenities and mass transit.
Cole will also have to make decisions as to how to best improve city services. For 30years the Planning Department's traffic management division has pursued half-cocked theory after theory for calming traffic. Traffic jamming street improvements have made driving here increasingly demanding and dangerous. Removing congested traffic lanes for the five percent of street users on bicycles is utter nonsense. City Hall's traffic management philosophy is among the worst in the state by design.
Forcing people out of cars by making driving more difficult and unpleasant hasn't worked. Traffic remains bad while traffic engineering's pursuit of rainbows and unicorns lurches from one, stupid, ineffective, street redo to another. Ongoing complaints are ignored by policy makers whose social agenda preempts residents' quality of life.
Cole will also have to balance the business-vs.-lifestyle aspect of Santa Monica living by making sure tourism and development don't turn this city into "Disneyland by the Sea." Many viewed Gould as being "too tight" with Chamber of Commerce interests and major developers thus throwing a delicate balance out of kilter and shortchanging residents. Accusations of undue-influence, back room dealing and cronyism seriously marred some residents' interpretation of the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) and related zoning code updating to the point that it and city government have no credibility and that now, most municipal activity is subject to suspicion and mistrust.
Welcome aboard, Mr. Cole. The fun is just beginning.
ECEC still in the wrong place
The controversial Santa Monica Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) is before City Council tomorrow. Action calls for amending the Civic Center Specific Plan, reviewing designs, and adopting amendments to an expired Memorandum of Understanding with Santa Monica College (SMC) plus execution of a ground lease on Civic Center land with SMC for the ECEC. City taxpayers are being hosed.
Council will consider approving a 50-year lease of approximately 1.6 acres worth an estimated $20 milllion to SMC for one dollar. The rush to sign this lease without it being made available in advance for public or council review is unprecedented and raises big red flags concerning its terms and transparency. The city is also expected to kick in $5.5 million to help pay ECEC construction costs. In essence, Santa Monica taxpayers are providing land, a new facility and financial support for what is essentially an SMC academic department.
This is nothing more than a huge child care perk for the well-paid employees of RANDCorporation, City Hall and the college who have priority. Families will be charged going rates for services, although some financial aid may be available.
I'm all for early child care and education but the heart of the Civic Center is the wrong place for this, especially when SMC has a perfect spot for it — on vacant college property at Pico Boulevard and 14th Street adjacent to itscampus. This development also removes valuable acreage from cultural and park resources and adds another disparate element that's incompatible with culture and a renovated Civic Auditorium.
Bill Bauer can be reached at mr.bilbau@gmail.com.
