One universal truth in politics is that those in power want to stay in power. From the President right down to your local HOA board, folks in power will construe the facts to support why they should remain in power. And that is what we are seeing in Santa Monica; folks who claim to be progressive, opposing by-district voting and the California Voters Right Act (CVRA) because it threatens their continuance of power.
Currently the SM city and SMMUSD charters call for at-large elections. This means that every election we as a city vote for three or four at-large seats.
The 2001 CVRA is meant to give minorities and the marginalized representation, specifically if they have a majority within a geographic segment, but are a minority in the overall municipality. A good example of this is the city of Escondido, which is roughly 49% Latino and yet had only had two Latino city council members in 125 years.
But we have minorities on our city council and school board, so we don’t need districting, right? That is the counter argument that proponents of the current system make.
It’s a spurious argument, and I honestly think the proponents know it. Because we would not have to lose minority representation to have a more democratic city. Let’s start with the long list of organizations and associations in favor of by-district elections:
California Teachers’ Association, LA democratic party, ACLU, NAACP, Service Employees International Union, California State Council State Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO United Farm Workers, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California, Latino Issues Forum, California state democratic party, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Dolores Huerta Foundation, FairVote, Khmer Girls in Action, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Asian Law Alliance, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, League of United Latin American Citizens, California Latino School Boards Association, Black, Latino and Asian Caucus — New York City Council, Latino Caucus of California Counties, California Teamsters Public Affairs Council and Pomona Valley Democratic Club.
That’s a pretty heavy list. It also includes the Los Angeles County Democratic party, the California Democratic party and Senator Alex Padilla.
All politics are local, right? Well not in Santa Monica. If every city council member is responsible to every corner of the city and no specific council/school board member is responsible to any specific area, then there is no direct accountability or responsibility. Who do I go to with my neighborhood’s issues? Take your pick of council/school board members and hope it works out. It’s nonsense and they know it.
Do you think John Muir would have been allowed to rot and deteriorate due to water intrusion for 20+ years until children were breathing mold and it was ultimately shut down if there had a been a member of the school board who was specifically and directly responsible to the parents of that school? No way.
Would decades of planes crashing and noise pollution have been ignored had one city council member been tasked by their direct constituents to find solutions to the problems faced by the airport and Sunset Park residents? No. Did it cost SM an airport? Maybe.
One of our former mayors was famously asked in a deposition in the CVRA suit brought against the city "Would you want a hazardous waste storage facility in your neighborhood?" Answer: "I wouldn’t mind." Come on. That’s rubbish.
There’s a Foucauldian web of folks who have for decades controlled the groups that elect our city officials. They don’t want there to be district-based elections because they will lose their grip on our city — and they know it.
So, they spend millions of our tax dollars in attorney’s fees fighting something that they know is more democratic with honestly no real argument against it, other than, ‘everything is fine here’. Well look around. Is the Promenade fine? Our big golden workhorse that used to pay for all kinds of things with tourist and retail taxes — it’s not fine.
Homelessness is growing and our humanitarian instincts are overwhelmed by a problem that seems to just get worse. Our city budget is ruinous because a despicable pedophilic city employee abused our kids for years at the Police Activities League and the city is responsible for paying the massive settlement. Our schools are widely disproportionate in their class sizes, test scores and states of maintenance.
There are real challenges to be faced, so let’s do it democratically, through representation.
The California Voting Rights Act is about enfranchising voters — giving them voice. Where is our voice in this city? Who represents you? Let’s look at the schools… Do we choose which school to send our kids to? You could, it’s an option (once). But no, we go to our neighborhood school site. We do that because it’s about community and connection and the school represents our neighborhood. So why wouldn’t our local school board member be tied and associated to specific schools, when we already operate that way with regard to admissions?
The first of the three proposed maps provided for the SMMUSD districting is of course absurd. It is meant as a rebuke to the school district and LACOE’s insistence that Malibu is contiguous with Santa Monica. The opponents of the map know this an absurd map, because it’s meant to be! But they have yet to provide an alternate map.
So, let’s stop messing around. Let’s stop playing games and put together some districts that represent our city. We can use the school neighborhood boundaries as a starting place, since we all seem to be relatively fine with those. And then we can adjust to do our best to ensure that minorities and neighborhoods are represented.
Let’s do what the California Democratic party, the LA county Democratic party and the California Supreme court have all said is the right thing to do. Let’s enact districting, even if it hurts those in power, because it is the right thing to do for our democracy.
Miles Warner is a Santa Monica parent and resident.
