City Council Seeks to Reshape City Appointed DTSM Board Before Terms Expire
The Santa Monica City Council is taking steps to purge the Downtown Santa Monica (DTSM) board of the six city-appointed board members before their terms are up, according to a press release issued by DTSM today. Council members Barry Snell, Dan Hall, and Caroline Torosis wrote the memo that calls for the replacement of the DTSM board members, which will be discussed and voted upon during the meeting on July 29.
Barry Snell previously served on the DTSM board before being elected to the City Council in November of 2024.
DTSM, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that manages programs in the Downtown area, between Ocean Avenue to the west, Wilshire Boulevard to the north, Lincoln Boulevard to the east, and the Santa Monica Freeway to the south, known as the Property-based Business Assessment District.
DTSM board members met in an emergency session on Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to prevent the City Council from ousting the board members by updating the group’s bylaws. It is unknown if this move from DTSM will be successful, according to media reports.
In our interview with Lucian Tudor, DTSM Board member, he indicated that the issues were that the DTSM board objected to a City Council plan to increase parking fees in the city’s parking structures to increase city revenue.
Currently, the first 90 minutes are free, but the city council members stated that they wanted to raise the fees to two dollars starting at the first minute in the structure about a month ago. DTSM board members felt that instead of increasing fees, the city would benefit better in the long term if they increased the free time to three hours to encourage tourists to come visit the city.
Tudor added that raising the parking fees would likely cause visitors to park on city streets and take up spaces for residents. He also stated that DTSM has spent 1.2 million dollars to clean the city’s parking structures.
This breaking news story will be updated as events unfold.
