Council Wrap Up: Taxes, Murals, Mansions and Parks

By Gene Williams

June 17 -- The City Council had its hands full Tuesday night with an agenda that included everything from the college to art to business, several appointments and, of course, Santa Monica’s favorite subjects -- parking and the homeless.

Here are some of the highlights:

• In what seems to be an ongoing tug-of-war between the City and Santa Monica College, the council has agreed to allow one-time only, temporary pedestrian access to summer students attending the college’s airport campus. (see related story) But council members want the college to know that it will have to come up with a master plan before any long-term agreement on access to the newly-built satellite campus can be reached.
  

• The council gave the final go-ahead to grant small business owners in the city with less than $40,000 in gross receipts an exemption from the $75 business tax. However, as of yet, new mom-and-pops still have to pay the $180 in licensing fees. (see related story)
  

• Once again, the question of employee permit parking on streets restricted by residential permits came before the council. Once again, the council directed staff to go back and study the matter further. (see related story)
  

• And on the subject of parking, the council has approved yet another preferential parking zone for residents, this time on 24th and 25th between California and Washington.
  

• The council directed staff to work with homeless agencies at the Veterans Administration (V.A.) to improve and expand services for homeless veterans. Earlier this year, the Westside Council of Governments was hoping to get the V.A. to allow a regional homeless facility on its site for vets and non-vets alike. Looks like, for the time being at least, Santa Monica will be happy if the V.A. just does its best to take care of its own. (see related story)
  

• Perhaps the single item on the agenda with the greatest potential to impact residents would ease provisions in the City’s “monster mansion” ordinance -- a two year emergency measure that placed tough building restrictions on single family residences in Sunset Park and North of Montana. While some have criticized the ordinance as unreasonable, others say the emergency measure must be extended to preserve the human scale of the neighborhoods. The ordinance would have expired if the council had not given it a brief reprieve in March. Council and staff now have until sometime in August to tinker with it and do something. (see related story)
  

• Still in the planning stages, Euclid Park will not be fenced in. Instead, the council is asking for increased policing and enforcement when it opens.
  

• The council also approved a contract for the restoration and installation of The Stanton MacDonald Wright Mural Series in the New Main Library scheduled for completion in January. The mural, once a prominent fixture in Santa Monica’s old, old main library --which was torn down around 1970 to make room for a high rise -- sat in a basement for years. Somehow it made its way to the Smithsonian which recently returned it. Two libraries later, it looks like it will go back up.
  

• Brenda Katz was appointed to the Pier Restoration Board and, with regret, the city accepted the resignation of Ruth Elwell from the Bayside District Board. Ruth and her husband Phil recently sold the Kings Head Pub in the downtown and are set for a well deserved retirement. So long and good luck to the Elwells, and thanks for all the beer and fish and chips. (see related story)

And finally, the council expressed its sympathy for the families of the following: SMPD officer and Marine Reservist Ricardo Crocker who was killed May 26 by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq (see related story); Max Ganezer, father of Santa Monica Observer publisher David Ganezer, who died June 10 in an auto accident; Wally Breisch, father of library board member Ken Breisch; Adonis Harris, son of City employee Tony Harris, who died last weekend in a senseless act of violence, and to the family of Mrs. Bernadine Edmunds, who with her husband played an instrumental part in developing early housing in the Westside. May they Rest in Peace.