Three new faces to join Santa Monica City Council Tuesday
By Sam Catanzaro
Santa Monica will pick a new mayor and seat newly-elected councilmembers Tuesday.
At the December 8 Santa Monica City Council meeting, Phil Brock, Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre will be sworn-in as Councilmembers. In the recently-certified election of four councilmembers, challenger and Arts Commissioner Brock finished in first place (19,319 votes) while incumbent Gleam Davis finished in second place (18,153 votes). Parra–a challenger and head of emergency services for Culver City–finished in third place (18,031 votes) while challenger and SMMUSD School Board member Oscar de la Torre finished in fourth (17,570 votes).
Incumbents Ted Winterer, Terry O’Day and Ana Marie Jara did not hold onto their seats in the election.
After the City official accepts the election results and the new council is seated, lawmakers will choose a new mayor to replace Mayor Kevin McKeown. As reported by the Santa Monica Lookout, the seven councilmembers are expected to choose Sue Himmelrich–elected in 2014–as mayor.
In addition, lawmakers will certify the following races from the November election.
- The race for one two-year Santa Monica City Council seat in favor of Kristin McCowan who ran unopposed.
- Candidates elected to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board: Jon Kean, Maria Leon-Vazquez, Jen Smith.
- Candidates elected to the Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees: Susan Aminoff, Margaret Quinones-Perez, Rob Greenstein Rader.
- Candidates elected to the Rent Control Board: Caroline Torosis, Anastasia Foster.
- MEASURE SM (passaed with 71.88 percent of the vote): “To protect essential services including addressing homelessness, cleaning beaches/parks, public safety/fire/emergency response, protections for tenants and seniors, supporting libraries, small business recovery, food for the hungry, and after-school/ mental health services for youth, shall the City of Santa Monica increase the one-time real estate transfer tax paid on each sale of property for $5 million or more by $3.00 per $1,000 of sales prices, exempting affordable housing projects, providing $3 million annually for local services?”
- MEASURE AB (passed with 60.18 percent of the vote): “Shall the City Charter be amended to repeal provisions setting rules for appointing candidates and promoting employees into the Civil Service, to enable the City Council to advance equity-based hiring within the appointment and promotional processes and strengthen the City’s workforce?”
The meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. and can be streamed live at PrimetTme.BlueJeans.com/a2m/live-event/hwjfxves.
