To the Mayor and the Members of the City Council,
As a Santa Monica resident whose hedge, planted 70 years ago, was grandfathered in by the council’s last action I must confess I do not understand. Why is the council raising this issue again?
There may be some few Santa Monica residents who disagreed with your last (and we all thought final) ruling on the hedges. Be assured that I and others who applauded your good sense and reserve in your last ruling will oppose you with all the legal means at our disposal should that ruling be overturned. The notion of “a right to public viewership” will, as I’m sure you well know, be laughed out of court.
An overturning of your previous ruling will cost the city of Santa Monica millions of dollars in litigation and will cost your opponents of such an action — taxpaying citizens of our city — time, money and aggravation.
Some few complaints may have induced you to reopen this can of worms, but those complaints would be as nothing against the vehement opposition of those, myself among them, who would understand any revision of the already settled dispute as a betrayal on the part of the city council.
Sincerely Yours,
David Mamet
