The first City Council meeting of September looks alot like the last meeting of August with a couple of weighty items held over but we’ll have to wait and see if Council can get through its agenda this week.
Council has a habit of long meetings often fueled by extensive closed session discussion of legal matters. The August 10 also includes several updates to pending cases (including some long gestating and controversial issues) but with only three closed session items on the agenda as of September 6, there may be time to get to other discussions.
Regular business will have the Council focus on items prompted by a pair of court decisions like rules for homeless camps and prohibiting gifts to councilmembers that sound a lot like but definitely are not bribes.
Homelessness
Following a recent ruling that expanded local authority to regulate homeless camps, Councilmembers asked staff for options to revise Santa Monica rules consistent with the new precedent.
Staff are presenting three options, take no action, roll back a set of changes that were made in 2022 prompted by the then legal standard or ask staff to return at a future date after studying actions in other cities. The changes to local rules were made in 2022 under the Grants Pass ruling from the Ninth Circuit court. That ruling limited the ability of municipalities to clear homeless camps and in order to comply, the City was forced to remove sleeping bags and bedrolls from its list of items that constitute a prohibited campsite. The Supreme Court invalidated the Grants Pass rules this year and the Council now has the option to return sleeping bags and bedrolls to the list of prohibited items.
Gratuities
A recent US Supreme Court decision said that absent a clear ban on "gratuities" by a local jurisdiction, such payments to an elected official would be allowed. Gratuities differ from bribes because they are given after, rather than before, an official act.
"The decision in Snyder v. United States stated that providing state and local officials with tokens of appreciation for their official action, for example, gift cards, meals, event tickets, or cash payments, do not subject those officials to federal prosecution. At the same time, the Court reiterated that the decision does not affect the ability of state and local governments to regulate gratuities," said the staff report.
Council will be debating a proposed ordinance that will prohibit any City official from accepting or soliciting, directly or indirectly, anything of value from any person to whom the official has conferred a public benefit within the last twelve months, intended as a reward or token of appreciation for or because of an official act performed by the public official.
According to staff, violations may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor, or by an administrative fine of up to $500 per violation.
New business
In September 2019, the City Council adopted the Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance (HWPO) at the recommendation of the Commission on the Status of Women. The ordinance aims to protect hotel employees from sexual violence and exploitation, requiring panic buttons and limiting excessive workloads. Initially, enforcement options, including lawsuits and collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Business and Consumer Affairs (DCBA), were considered, but the DCBA lacked resources at the time. Over the years, the City received complaints about workload violations and consulted the DCBA informally. With improved staffing, the DCBA now supports collaborative enforcement. Proposed amendments would authorize civil citation enforcement, clarify record-keeping requirements, and mandate cooperation with City investigators.
Building codes
In 2022, Santa Monica adopted an all-electric requirement for new construction, drastically reducing carbon emissions. However, a 2023 federal court ruling blocked a similar Berkeley policy, impacting enforcement of such codes across California. In response, Santa Monica paused its Zero Emission Code in January 2024 and is now considering the Energy Performance Approach, which amends the 2022 California Energy Code to meet emission reduction goals.
The proposed Reach Code Ordinance, called the Energy Performance Approach, introduces new requirements for buildings to reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions by applying an increased source energy margin to both electric and mixed-fuel designs. While it is less effective at cutting emissions than the previous all-electric Zero Emission Building Code, it offers the most feasible option for advancing the City Council's climate action goals. This approach has already been adopted by several California cities, including San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Palo Alto, Encinitas, and Brisbane.
If adopted, the proposed Energy Performance Approach would replace Santa Monica's Zero Emission Building Code to achieve low-emission new buildings while adhering to updated legal frameworks. This approach supports the city's climate action goals, which aim for carbon-neutral construction in new residential, commercial, and multi-family properties.
Discussion items
Councilwoman Gleam Davis is asking for an amendment to Council rules that would require all future discussion to be approved by the city Attorney and City Manager for legality and feasibility. While not explicitly stated, the item is a response to a discussion at the last meeting that saw a majority of the Council vote for an item to prohibit needle distribution in local parks after being told the council had no legal authority to pass the item and that it would be impossible to implement.
Davis is also asking for $7,000 to support LGBTQ+ history month in October.
