Having worked in the city attorney’s office many years ago and lived in Santa Monica for over 40 years a financial crisis was inevitable even without the pandemic. The city, despite having some of the highest taxes in the state and tons of money from tourism, has spent like there is no tomorrow.
Do we really need a “Quality of Life” employee? Do we need attorneys in rent control who have to hire outside attorneys when the city is sued? Do we have to pay employees obscenely high pensions (and I am pro union). I could keep going on all the frivolous spending. Why are we spending money on attorneys to fight a lawsuit to vote by districts when most people think it’s the fair thing to do?
And what do we decide to cut during the crisis. Not high end, high paying administrative jobs, but services that help the average person including libraries, buses, pools, parks, senior’s services etc. It is sad that our citizens have to suffer now due to years of poor city management and wild spending. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call and we can soon be back to normal having learned a sad lesson.
Morris Kushner
Santa Monica
