Editor’s Note: There are 21 candidates running for City Council, eight for School Board, four for College Board and four for Rent Control Board. Below readers will find brief descriptions of each candidate. Subscribe to Inside The Daily Press podcast for interviews with each candidate.
City Council
Phil Brock
Phil Brock is lifetime Santa Monica resident and is running on the “Change” slate with Oscar de la Torre, Christine Parra, and Mario Fonda-Bonardi. He has worked on the Recreation & Parks Commission and the Arts Commission and has taught in local schools. Brock’s priorities are stopping over development, restoring public safety, and finding homelessness solutions.
Andrew Browning
Browning qualified for the ballot, but has decided not to actively campaign
Merv Andika
Andika has a background in public service including working with the Santa Monica Public Library. Andika supports using more social workers to deal with homelessness, limiting big development, supporting small businesses, funding local programs and increased council transparency.
Dominic Gomez
Gomez qualified for the ballot, but has decided not to actively campaign
Christine Parra
Parra has lived in the Pico neighborhood for 20 years and is running on the “Change” slate with Phil Brock, Christine Parra, and Mario Fonda-Bonardi. She is a career public servant in a neighboring city and wants to create a more transparent City Council that responds to citizen feedback. She supports a balanced budget and limiting development.
Terry O’Day
O’day is Mayor Pro Tem, a 22 year resident of the Pico Neighborhood, and is running for his 3rd term. O’Day supports preserving and creating affordable housing, protecting school funding, protecting renters’ rights, and expanding sustainability initiatives.
Marcus Owens
Owens is a member of Santa Monica 4 Democracy and the Lead Organizer of Black Lives Matter Santa Monica Charter. Owens is running on a platform of redirecting law enforcement money towards homelessness, community outreach, drug rehabilitation and mental health services.
Anne-Marie Slack
Slack is the Executive Director of the Motion Picture Sound Editors nonprofit. She has a background in project and facility management, event planning, sales, bookkeeping, operations, and contract negotiations.
Jon Mann
John Mann is running for City Council for a 15th time, according to his candidate statement. He is running because of crime, corruption, conflicts of interest in City Council, and to reinstate the court order for District Elections.
Chip Martin
Martin is a Director of Sales for a large consumer products company and is a renter in downtown Santa Monica. He is running on a platform of crime reduction, economic recovery/support for small businesses, reducing homelessness, reducing development, eliminating scooters, and promoting tourism.
Todd Mentch
Mentch is running on a platform of increasing budget revenue, bringing back jobs, listening to the public, reducing development, increasing transparency, and building housing for the homeless. He has worked in sales, marketing, and blockchain technology.
Zoe Muntaner
Muntaner is running on a platform of increasing safety, removing special interests from the City government, and bringing an intersectional lens to City Council. Zoe is the founder of Compassionate Santa Monica and Moon Media & Communications.
Gleam Davis
Davis is running for her 3rd term. She supports increasing equitable access to opportunity, reimagining public safety, restoring the local economy, working on a safer and more sustainable transportation system, reducing homelessness, and converting the Santa Monica Airport to a park.
Oscar de la Torre
De la Torre is a lifelong Santa Monica resident, 18 year member of the Board of Education, and Chair of the Pico Neighborhood Association. He is running on the “Change” slate with Phil Brock, Christine Parra, and Mario Fonda-Bonardi. He seeks to stop irresponsible development, challenge the culture of corruption at City Hall, defend workers, and fight for social justice.
Mario Fonda-Bonardi
Fonda-Bonardi is a 40 year Santa Monica resident, member of the Planning Commission, and Board Member of the Santa Monica Conservancy. He is running on the “Change” slate with Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, and Christine Parra. He supports reducing crime, improving homelessness, stopping over development, and creating more affordable housing.
Tom Ciszek
Ciszek is an information professional and two-time local business owner. He is running on a platform of making decisions grounded in data and analysis. His top priorities are addressing homelessness, increasing safety and economic recovery.
Andrew Kamm
Kamm is an educator and says he is committed to ensuring Santa Monica’s schools are the best in the state. He seeks to reduce the recent spike in crime and to solve the homeless crisis with innovation and compassion.
Ted Winterer
Winterer is running for his 3rd term. His priorities are economic recovery, reducing homelessness, decreasing crime, restoring cutback city services, protecting low-income tenants and seniors, and supporting a commitment to sustainability.
Ana Maria Jara
Jara was appointed to City Council in Jan. 2019 and is a 35 year resident of the Pico Neighborhood. She has worked at SMC for 25 years and served as Chair on the Commission for Status of Women and the Social Services Commission. She supports equity and justice in jobs, economic development, and supporting affordable housing.
John Patrick Jewell III
Jewell ran a business in the Marina Del Rey Harbor “Gondolas D’amore” as a singing Gondolier/Actor/Businessman.
Nathaniel Jones
Jones is a 35-year renter in Santa Monica. He seeks to tackle the homeless problem and clean up our streets so all residents can feel a sense of protection every day.
School Board
Maria Leon-Vazquez
Leon-Vazquez is running for her 6th term. Her two sons are SMMUSD graduates and she has a grandson in Kindergarten. She believes her leadership is a driver of SMMUSD’s shift to 21st-century education and was vital during the pivot to distance learning. She supports transparency, accountability, and balancing the budget.
Esther Hickman
Hickman attended Juan Cabrillo, Malibu Park, and Samohi, and is running on the “New Leadership” slate with Jason Feldman and Steven Johnson. She seeks to shift budget priorities toward teachers and students’ needs and away from external consultants and expensive development projects. She wants increased transparency and accountability from the Board.
Jen Smith
Smith has two students enrolled in SMMUSD and has served as Santa Monica-Malibu PTA president. She is on the Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee, Facilities District Advisory Committee, and the Samohi PTSA Executive Board. She supports financial transparency, increased equity, and innovative leadership.
Dhun May
May has been a teacher for over 40 years. She advocates for reducing student exposure to wireless devices, teaching students about nutrition, promoting critical thinking, and advancing a social justice agenda.
Jason Feldman
Feldman is a civil rights attorney and has two elementary children enrolled in the District. He is running on the “New Leadership” slate with Esther Hickman and Steven Johnson. He supports transparency in board actions, improving the race and social justice curriculum, closing the achievement gap, and stopping making teachers the first victims of budget cuts.
Keith Coleman
Keith Coleman is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University Graduate School of Education and Co-Chair of SMMUSD Intercultural Equity and Excellence Committee. He is running to democratize opportunity for all students and support progressive values of residents in the diverse communities of SMMUSD.
Jon Kean
Kean is School Board President and running for his second term. He has worked to expand access to early education programs, approve a K-12 social justice framework, reduce teacher cuts, pass measure SMS to modernize facilities, and develop American cultures/ethnic studies classes.
Steven Johnson
Johnson had a daughter attend SMMUSD K-12 and is running on the “New Leadership” slate with Esther Hickman and Jason Feldman. He supports protecting teachers from budget cuts, prioritizing equity and access for students, reducing class size, and bringing transparency to the budget process.
College Board
Susan Aminoff
Aminoff is running for her 5th term and is a SMC professor. She supported SMC’s transition to remote learning and has been part of budget and curriculum decisions that have shaped students’ experiences at SMC for years.
Brian O’Neil
O’Neil has been a history professor for 20 years and has two children enrolled in SMMUSD. He believes he knows what it takes for a college to be a vibrant engine for its students and the larger community. He feels his teaching experience allows him to understand social justice, student equity, and pandemic learning challenges.
Margaret Quinones-Perez
Quinones-Perez is a SMC alumnus and is running for her 6th term. She is a former Board of Governor for 115 CA Community colleges. She seeks to make SMC a key partner in racial equity, provide safe and quality virtual and on campus education, and sustain all of SMC’s partner programs.
Rob Greenstein Rader
Greenstein Rader is running for his 5th term. He is a first generation college graduate of Harvard and Stanford, Professor of Law at Pepperdine, and General Counsel for Ovation TV Network. His goals include preserving academic excellence, increasing support for local students, closing the equity gap, and ensuring strong financial oversight.
Rent Control
Caroline M. Torosis
Tororis is the current board Chair and is running for her 2nd term. She is a workers’ rights attorney and helps direct the County’s economic recovery efforts. On the board she says she has expanded relocation benefits for tenants in owner-occupied properties, protected tenants evicted through no fault of their own, and ensured units cannot be rented to corporations.
Aishah Newson
Newsom is a data scientist and a Santa Monica renter. She seeks to advocate for young people and families’ access to affordable housing, rent control, and tenant protections.
Anastasia Foster
Foster is running for her 2nd term. She is a senior living operator for Meals on Wheels. On the board she says she has helped create policies that cap tax pass throughs, mitigate construction issues experienced by tenants and stop the misuse of housing stock.
Robert Kronovet
Kronovet is running to regain his former position on the board and represent the perspective of a property manager and real estate broker. He seeks to balance the relationship between supply and demand in the Santa Monica housing market.
