Santa Monica City Council is set to meet for the third time in seven days on Tuesday, June 8, and there are a number of discussion items on the agenda that are of interest to local residents.
Hate Letter
In recognition of the 30-year anniversary of the unsolved 1991 act of hate that targeted Mexican/Latino students at Santa Monica High and residents of Santa Monica, Councilmember Oscar de la Torre has requested that City Council acknowledge the harm caused by the incident and express regret that the investigation did not produce justice for those affected.
In the spirit of healing and to work towards reconciliation, de la Torre is also asking for the Chief of Police to provide an internal report to the Council on the investigation’s conclusions and findings, including whether the United States Postal Inspection Service or the Federal Bureau of Investigation was engaged in the matter; direct that this report is shared with the Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission for review and subsequent recommendations regarding best practices for the reporting, investigation, and follow up on hate crimes, as mandated by State and Federal laws and statutes.
In the future, de la Torre wishes for Council to declare a week in 2022 as “Santa Monica Hate Crimes Awareness Week,” which would align with the soon to be announced 2022 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week and allow for the promotion of hate crime prevention and awareness efforts through a social media and public information campaign coordinated around Santa Monica Hate Crimes Awareness Week.
Code of Conduct
Santa Monica’s current Code of Ethics for city employees does not clearly apply to council members and contains no enforcement provisions, but Mayor Sue Himmelrich is hoping to change this. According to the agenda, Himmelrich is asking Council to direct staff to prepare a Code of Conduct and Ethics for the City Council that’s similar to drafts adopted in cities like Vallejo and Irvine.
Home Sharing
The final item of the night will center around proposed amendments to the City’s home-sharing ordinance.
At the request of Councilmember Gleam Davis, Council will discuss possibly directing staff to return with proposed amendments that would allow the home-sharing of detached accessory buildings as long as they are located more than six feet from the main building that’s occupied by the host who wishes to home-share the accessory building.
The city of Santa Monica originally passed a home-sharing ordinance in 2015 to prevent permanent housing from being converted to vacation rentals. Currently, any guest house that was permitted before March 31, 2017 and is on a parcel that is classified as a single-family parcel by the L.A. County Office of the Assessor can be used for home-sharing so long as the host continues to reside in either the main house or guest house during the home-share.
Brennon@smdp.com