TRANSCRIPT: PART I

JUDGE DAVID FINKEL: "The question that was posed to Bob and me was: 'Can the City of Santa Monica continue to be a progressive government?' We'll start with the preposition, the threshold question, of whether or not it ever was a progressive government. And if you should answer that question in the affirmative, we can debate that. Then you have to ask the second question: 'Has there been some nibbling going on?'"

"Let me just suggest for the argument that there are cities like Berkley that have a long history of academic activism, a strong university being the center of that town, which gave that city a progressive history. So you can say with greater ease that a city like Berkley has long been a progressive city.

The city of Santa Monica became progressive in the eyes of those who observe Santa Monica when we passed the Rent Control law is 1979. Now prior to 1979, not too long before, my congressman was Bob Dornam" (laughter).

"So one could argue that Santa Monica became an issue-oriented City that made a very progressive move in a limited area, albeit very dynamic and important, which contained within it the potential for Santa Monica to become a progressive city if it built on that.

"And I recall very keenly that in 1981 Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights were largely responsible, together with the Santa Monica Democratic Club, for taking charge of the City Council and elected one of our own as a mayor, Ruth Yanatta Goldway (CQ), that we immediately made a fundamental major error starting the next morning.

"We did not build strong grassroots block teams, and other political mechanisms for building a strong progressive democracy in our town. What we did was, we took some of the people we thought were responsible, we put them in political office and then we referred to them the responsibilities of handling the progressive matters of the day.

"And you could make an argument if you wanted to, this is such fun I haven't talked politics in 12 years (laughter), that that was the beginning of a decline, a decline from potential, as opposed to a decline from reality.

"So if you take that cynical approach, then you have to approach your club's question very cautiously. Can we be a progressive city in the future? I am not sure we can say that we were a progressive city yesterday. The question is can we be a progressive city tomorrow?"

Now I am going to stop for a minute and give it over to Bob because he's got some things on his mind." (Applause.)

FORMER CITY ATTORNEY ROBERT MYERS: "To some extent I do believe that Santa Monica was a progressive city because it had done a number of progressive things through the acts of the City Council and its boards and commissions.

"It was at the forefront of passing progressive legislation in the area of inclusionary housing, requiring commercial developers to do housing, one of the first cities in the county to pass an ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and the basis of AIDS.

"It did a number of important groundbreaking legislation with the help of people in this room. On the issue of, for example, whether or not the City Council should pass an anti-war resolution I went through some of the resolutions I drafted when I was City Attorney at the request of the City Council.

"Resolution 6327 opposing United States intervention in El Salvador. Resolution 6339 urging an end to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Resolution 6490 urging an end to draft registration. Resolution 6491 urging local schools to provide adequate information concerning military service to try to stop military recruiting on campus. Resolution 8109 calling on President [George H. W.] Bush to halt nuclear weapons testing and negotiate an end to nuclear testing for all time.

"Today, our City Council was given an opportunity on November 26 and did not pass an anti-war resolution. It took no action." (Hands out list of cities that have passed anti-war resolutions in the United States). So I commend the Santa Monica Democratic Club for urging the Santa Monica City Council to pass an anti-war resolution. The City Council in the past didn't step back from taking positions on important issues that effect all of us.

"The war that this country is going to fight against Iraq if we don't stop it, is a local issue because our reckless president threatening to use nuclear weapons is making this a dangerous world for all of us to live in, and none of us will be safe any place in this world if president Bush is allowed to engage in endless war.

"So we need to have a City Council that is committed to peace and against war. Now what are some of the other things our City Council has done recently? Can anybody name all the progressive things that the Santa Monica City Council did last year?

"Now I have spent a lot of time in the last several months working with the outdoor feeding programs who have been criminalized by the Santa Monica City Council. It is now a crime in Santa Monica to give food to poor people in public places, and the City Council's ordinance is so bad that one of the provisions says that no person shall serve or distribute to any member of the public on the sidewalk or the street.

"This means that a mother can not give a bottle to a baby on a public sidewalk, given the plain wording of that ordinance, and that's what our City Council is doing. And isn't it amazing that these ordinances always are adopted several months before City Council elections?

"In fact this ordinance came up basically on the 10-year anniversary of my being fired for refusing to write a similar ordinance right before a council election. So this act by the Santa Monica City Council is shameful and it is something that everyone should be concerned about.

"Now there are other things going on in this community that you should be very concerned about because of your support for renter's rights and housing rights. Now that's what brought us all together in 1979 when we passed rent control. That's what helped Santa Monicans for Renter's Rights take control of the City Council in 1981, and when it took control of the City Council we put a number of progressive people in the City bureaucracy to help carry out a progressive program for this community.

"And so I don't know all the progressive people in City government today. If there are very many, I don't see very many of them taking strong stands on progressive issues. But we did something important in 1981 in taking control of City government to help preserve rent control.

"I think what's going on in this community in terms of development policy and City spending priorities is not progressive and is ultimately going to result in the end of rent control in this community.

"If this were a progressive city why would we be spending so much money on capital infrastructure projects that do not benefit people. The Civic Center plan; does that benefit anyone in this community? Does the RAND acquisition benefit anyone in this community? And the most frightening project the City is considering is the Downtown parking improvement project. What will that do? (Myers was referring to a $92.5 million plan to add 1,772 spaces by 2010. In addition, the City plans to add hundreds of more spaces at the Civic Center and the Main Library.)

These parking spaces are "a major corporate welfare program for Downtown businesses. It's the public paying for parking for businesses so we can have more stores on the Promenade selling more sweatshop-made goods. And Santa Monica is facilitating the profits of these businesses by doing this parking.

"And what does all of this improvement do? The infrastructure improvement, the Civic Center, the Pico Boulevard streetscape, the Third Street Promenade? It makes this a wealthier community. It puts incredible pressures on the housing stock. More people will want to live in the expensive condominiums that will be built when rent control apartments are torn down.

"Why is isn't all of this money being spent on affordable housing? Why is this community investing money in monuments -- capital projects that are not monuments to people, not investing money in our children and in the school system. Gov. [Gray] Davis has proposed slashing education at both the k-12 and community college level. There will be layoffs, and many school districts in the state of California are on the verge of bankruptcy and fiscal crisis because of the state of the budget.

"Yet Gov. Davis has proposed an increase in the budget for the department of corrections. He is proposing in the budget spending $220 million for a new death row in San Quentin that will have a 1000-person cell capacity. I represent two men on death row in San Quentin. We don't need more people on death row, we need an end to the death penalty in this country." (Applause)

"If a republican governor in Illinois can commute the sentences of everyone on death row in that state we deserve a governor in California that is opposed to the death penalty.

"The final issue that I touched upon briefly in terms of where I think this city went astray is that it has not elected people in City government that reflect your values. I know when I was City Attorney people would come to my office, like Dan Cohen, or Herman Rosenstien, or other elder statesmen of our community. They kept me honest. I cared about their opinion.

"People in our community who have been around, who were here during the depression, who fought during the McCarthy period, who had a history of progressive struggle helped keep me honest. It was important to have those connections. People involved in the Women International for Peace and Freedom, people who fought in the Spanish Civil War, people like David [Finkel] who went to the South in 1964 during the Civil Rights movement. Those people helped keep me honest, and that was important.

"But we don't have people in our City bureaucracy you can call your friends. People knew that you could come and talk to me when I was City Attorney, and that's alright if the political decision had to be made to fire me, that's fine, but why wasn't the replacement City Attorney someone who came out of the progressive movement. Why aren't other people in the City government people who came out of the progressive movement?

"What we have in Santa Monica is a bunch a technocrats running this City who don't care about the values of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, so why have you spent so much money and time over the years electing City Council members who are technocrats, to run this city.

"I think that is the fundamental question you have to ask in terms of whether or not we can have a progressive city in Santa Monica." (Applause)

FINKEL: "He was a choir boy when I met him." (Laughter)

Click for PART II