Second Term-Limit Initiative in Two Weeks Filed

By Teresa Rochester

In response to an initiative filed two weeks ago that called for term limits for City Council members, two Santa Monica residents have filed an alternative initiative that not only calls for term limits but also election districts.

"Term limits without districting is useless," said one-time council candidate Irene Zivi, who signed the initiative along with Paul DeSantis. "It doesn't do anything I want to see done in electoral reform."

For Zivi and DeSantis, who have championed districting and term limits for 16 years, the proposed reforms would level the playing field for candidates and increase neighborhood representation. The two filed their intent to circulate the initiative with the City Clerk on Thursday.

The City Charter Amendment initiative, dubbed the Santa Monica Fair Elections Act, calls for City Council members to serve no more than two consecutive terms. If passed by voters it would also break up the City into seven electoral districts.

"The neighborhood movement has grown a great deal since 1992," said DeSantis, a real estate attorney who also authored a ballot measure allowing tenants to convert their units to condos. "The next step would be to let these neighborhoods have greater representation…With small districts you're going to be able to run without a lot of money or big slate endorsements."

Unlike the Santa Monica Fair Elections Act, the initiative filed two weeks ago by supporters of a business-backed living wage initiative on the November ballot limits council members to two four-year terms and restricts incumbents completing their first year this year to only one more term. Under the proposed initiative, tied council elections would be determined by casting lots, instead of holding a special run-off race.

The earlier initiative, spearheaded by Donna Daily Alvarez and Polly Benson-Brown, is currently stalled at the gate. City Clerk Maria Stewart said that her office has yet to receive proof that the initiative has been published in a newspaper of record or in three public spaces, a requirement before signatures can be gathered.

"They can't circulate the petition unless they publish it or post it," Stewart said.

Stewart is expected to okay the proposed Santa Monica Fair Elections Act initiative Monday, which would allow Zivi and DeSantis to publish their ballot measure. Backers would then have to gather 8,652 signatures to qualify the charter amendment for a special election ballot, which could occur in April.

Councilman Paul Rosenstein, who decided not to seek a third term this November, questioned the timing of the proposed initiative, as did Mayor Ken Genser, who is seeking a fourth term in office next month.

Rosentein and Genser also said the initiative might be a political ploy by supporters of Prop. KK, the business backed living wage initiative, whose attorney drafted the earlier term limit measure. Zivi denied the charge.

"One would wonder why you would start collecting now when there isn't an election for another two years," Rosenstein said. "I've never seen anybody collect signatures for an initiative in the middle of an election."

Rosenstein speculates that the ballot measure may be a "fall back position" for the hotels.

"If their Prop. KK fails and the council is able to pass a living wage ordinance they could take (the council's ordinance) to the voters," Rosenstein said. As a result, the hotels can use what will likely be a substantial war chest to also back a term limit measure, Rosenstein added.

Genser agrees. "Ultimately this is another ploy," Genser said. "I'm pretty confident this will be financed by the hotels again…One of the questions we have to ask is how much do we want corporate owned hotels to set policy for the city?"

Zivi and DeSantis -- who view districting and term limits as a way of breaking the Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights stronghold on City government -- said they decided to circulate the initiative now in order to capitalize on the public's focus on the elections. (The three SMRR incumbents are heavily favored to retain their seats and can count on a war chest that holds more than $110,000.)

"I think right now the level of frustration for a lot of people is great," Zivi said. "The time is an election and they'll pay attention."

The districts outlined in the Santa Monica Fair Elections Act initiative were crafted by Rosenstein's father, the late Herman Rosenstein, a lifelong activist who along with Zivi and DeSantis spearheaded earlier efforts to bring term limits and electoral districts to the city.

Efforts to set term limits and districts began more than 15 years ago and crop up every couple of years. In 1988 voters shot down Proposition J, which proposed "numbered seats" elected at large. Zivi called Prop. J ill conceived and said that a broad coalition of residents helped to handily defeat it.

That coalition gave birth in 1990 to Citizens United to Reform Elections, but its CURE initiative, which called for districts and term limits never made it to voters. In 1992 another effort drafted by DeSantis was launched that garnered the support of broad spectrum of residents including Genser. Like CURE, the 1992 Council District Amendment Plan never made it to the ballot.

The mayor said he opposes the current proposed initiative, which is a slightly modified version of the 1992 proposal.

"I did support it then, I don't support it any longer," said Genser. "I think it would be detrimental to the community if we have City Council members looking at what is good for the district not the whole community."

Genser said he changed his mind after watching other cities move from "at large" councils to districts. He said the end result is a lack of community vision and a lot of political back scratching as council members trade votes in order to get support for projects in their districts.

"It doesn't lend for good decision making, especially in planning," said Genser.

Rosenstein echoed some of Genser's concerns, adding that districting might lead to a "Balkanization" of the city.

"They [district council members] tend to look out for their neighborhood interest not the whole," Rosenstein said. "It leads to a very narrow minded council that doesn't look out for the community as a whole."

But Rosenstein also said he understands the frustration that led to the measure and pointed out some benefits of the plan his father championed.

"I understand the frustration people have when council members seem to see their role as a life long pursuit but that's up to the voters," Rosenstein said about term limits. "The best argument I've heard for districting is it would allow the Pico neighborhood representation, which they've never had."

Zivi and DeSantis said that representation for the Pico neighborhood is precisely the reason districts are needed. The City Council, they point out, has never had an elected member from the Pico neighborhood. (Hilliard Lawson, the only Pico resident ever to sit on the council, was appointed.)

"My feelings are really strong about representation," Zivi said. "I've seen what it means to not have representation in the Pico neighborhood. The at large elections we have here really shut out the minority community."

Term limits are also crucial for bringing new voices onto the council, Zivi said. Currently, four of the seven members of council have served more than one term.

"We are so locked into a slate here it discourages independents to run," Zivi said. "I see people all the time who could run…We need to take the big money out of the elections to give each neighborhood representation."