Susan White Resigns from Planning Commission

By Jorge Casuso

Five months after joining the City's powerful Planning Commission, Susan M. White has abruptly resigned.

The resignation was effective Dec. 7, the date on the two-sentence letter to the City Clerk from White, one of three commissioners appointed by the newly-won Santa Monicans for Renters Rights City Council majority in July.

In architecturally precise lettering, White wrote, "Due to an increase in job-related time commitments, I am resigning as commissioner of the City of Santa Monica Planning Commission, effective 12-7-99. Thank you for your attention." The letter is signed in large flowing letters.

The resignation of White - a Green Party member appointed along with former Councilman Kelly Olsen and North of Montana Neighborhood Association leader Darrell Clark -caught longtime commissioners by surprise.

"I'm sorry to see her go, and it's surprising because it's a short tenure," said commission chair Ken Breisch. "I'm surprised."

Commissioner John Zinner said he too was "surprised" and "sorry to see her go." He said White recently began teaching at Emerson Jr. High School in Westwood. (A 10 p.m. call to White was not returned.)

"She cared a lot about what she was doing," Zinner said. "I thought she was the best of the new commissioners."

Zinner added that the planning commission "is not the same place" since three seats turned over in July, when Kathy Weremuik and Frank Gruber were not re-appointed and Bert Bradley chose not to return.

"The old commission worked hard to work together," said Zinner, the former chair. "This commission is at each other's throats, and it's really bad.... There's been so much stuff flying."

Matt Kanny, a member of the minority on the commission, agreed.

"The old commission, while we didn't agree, we tried to come up with a consensus," Kanny said. It wasn't "argumentative for the sake of being argumentative.

"It's just a shame that she's going," he said. "She's done a good job, and she was very dedicated. She had independence and was able to do what she thought was right, which is commendable."

White recently broke with Olsen and Clarke over an appeal of a four-story office building on the Civic Center site.

Councilman Micheal Feinstein, a Green Party leader who lobbied to get White on the commission, called her resignation a "bummer."

"I like Susan and she has a good background in planning," he wrote in an email to The Lookout. "But Planning Commission takes a lot of time. You have to know the
material and you have to be out in the community a lot. That is not an insignificant commitment.

"If changes in Susan's work responsibilities mean she no longer has sufficient time to devote to the Commission, then she is doing the responsible thing."