This past week, Q-line asked:
The City Council last Tuesday appointed Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights Co-Chair Gleam Davis to fulfill the remainder of the late Herb Katz’ term. Do you believe the council made the right choice and why?
Here are your responses:
“The election of Gleam Davis by the City Council is just one more example of how they stack the deck in their favor. Her credentials speak for themselves. A big conglomerate attorney and co-chair of SMRR. Male, female, black, white, hasn’t got a thing to do with it. She now rounds out the oligarchy that has a stranglehold on this city. Look at the mess this city is in! And it will get worse. Lots of stuff going on behind closed doors. A new name for Santa Monica would be Glut City. Glutted with bums, glutted with traffic and glutted with too many people.”
“As usual, the council made the best choice. Not for the people of Santa Monica, but for themselves. However, this might lead to a way to save Santa Monicans money. Since SMRR and the council now are run by the same people, why not combine them? Call the them the SMRR and council. One group, one meeting place instead of two, one meeting instead of two and one monetary compensation instead of two.”
“The council might have chosen the right person, but they did ignore democratic principles. And that is deeply saddening.”
“City Council members should work together in concert as an orchestra to produce beautiful political music without any flat notes. The council feels that Gleam Davis is the lost note that they are looking for. I agree.”
“They picked the right one, but just for themselves. They don’t care what anybody else thinks so they didn’t pick the one people want, they pick the one they wanted.”
“Of course it’s not right. It’s totally anti-democratic. If anyone is planning a recall petition, they will have my signature. Also, for a long overdue term limits initiative. Ted Winterer and Susan Hartley should put together a slate for the next election and those of us outraged by this autocratic move should vote only for them and not for any of the incumbents. There has to be a new direction in Santa Monica.”
“No, I do not believe that Gleam Davis was the choice of the citizens of Santa Monica. She is the obvious choice of those who are in control of our City Council. And this is not democracy the way it is supposed to be. The results of our last election do not indicate that Gleam Davis was the choice of the citizens of Santa Monica but that of the Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights. Why do we tolerate the City Council conducting our business entirely to their own satisfaction? It’s time we did something about that.”
“Gleam Davis was a very good choice. It was also very good that they decided that night and didn’t have to do another divisive, costly and untimely election at this point in time. Some of the other candidates would have also been good choices. But I still wish Jerry Rubin would some day make it to the City Council.”
“I feel the City Council made the right choice for the City Council but not for the citizens of Santa Monica. I think they should have simply let the person that came in fifth place — if he wanted the position — let him have it. If the fifth place didn’t want it, then go down to the sixth, etc.”
“I think the council should have appointed Ted Winterer, the next runner-up in the November 2008 election. There’s no logical reason for appointing someone who sat out the most recent election instead of Ted.”
“I’m delighted at the choice of Gleam Davis for City Council. She has all the qualities that I believe are necessary to be a very fine City Council member.”
“No, the council did not make the right choice. It was as if there was a marathon and the winner collapsed at the finish line dying and the second place was not appointed. Instead, the council chose to appoint somebody standing on the sidelines that didn’t even have the guts … to run. It’s a travesty.”
“It’s an abusive power for the SMRR council majority to appoint SMRR’s own co-chair to the open seat on the council instead of Ted Winterer. Ted Winterer was ‘mugged.’”
“The City Council appointment of Gleam Davis is the definition of cronyism. This is nothing to be proud of.”
“The voters of Santa Monica keep returning the councilmen to their seats on the dais. They must be happy with their decisions. So when the council votes to select one of their own to be up there on the dais with them, obviously that person would be thinking just like them. So everybody should be happy because they obviously will make the right decisions according to the voters. No? Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
“Shame on SMRR! This is absolutely outrageous. Shame on them. They are not interested in what the general public and population want or need. They’re only interested in their own greedy, self-interest of keeping a hold of power in our city. Shame on them.”
“You can call the choice of the councilmembers’ appointment of Gleam Davis many things, but ‘right’ is not one of them.”
“Of course they did not make the right appointment, and I love the article that Kenny Mack wrote in Wednesday’s paper. It says it all. For all of us that are upset, we should join SMRR, get together and throw those in charge out so that we can actually get somebody elected and some business done that actually would work.”
