By Jorge Casuso

January 25, 2010 -- Close friends, and colleagues remembered Mayor Ken Genser during a service Sunday as a stubborn, good-natured mensch who, despite lifelong physical ailments, worked relentlessly to get things done for the benefit of Santa Monicans, especially the less privileged.

While most speakers focused on Genser's joviality, determination and political accomplishments, one former colleague used the occasion to lobby for a replacement for Genser, who died January 9 after complications from an illness.

The longest-serving council member in Santa Monica history was remembered during the service attended by more than 700 people at Santa Monica High School's Barnum Hall as a staunch champion of tenants' rights, affordable housing and slow growth during his 21 years on the council.

"Ken was our shining light of selfless public service, of integrity and compassion," said Council member Richard Bloom, a close friend of Genser's. "His superhuman intellect and strength was focused on our community, this place he loved, this place that most assuredly loved him back.

"For almost six decades our friend Ken willed himself forward with steely and jovial resolve," Bloom said. "We have been blessed by his intellect, his humor, his grace and his everlasting legacy." ("Council member Bloom's Eulogy for Ken Genser," January 25, 2010)

Former planning commissioner Geraldine Moyle praised Genser for his "mighty stubbornness" and "enormous confidence in his convictions," but focused most of her eulogy on his "wicked sense of humor."

"He never stopped being a schoolboy," Moyle said. "He didn't merely laugh, he would be taken over by laughter… (by) the joy of being alive in the moment, the joy of being Kenny."

Genser's niece, Mara Beck, and his lifelong friend Dr. Bruce Shragg, also focused on Ken the prankster and on his love of food.

"He would drive anywhere if he heard the food was good," Beck said. She said she could picture her uncle with "fork held high and probably wondering, 'Are you going to eat that?'"

Shragg recalled how Genser once brought a Buddha statue to a class presentation and tried to pass it off as a genuine Chinese artifact until it dropped with a squeal, while Bloom recalled Genser bringing band-aids in the shape of bacon to Rosh Hashanah.

"I'll miss his warm smile and infectious laugh," Shragg said, "when his eyes would squint and his upper body would bounce up and down."

In a move that seemed to shock many of those in attendance, former council member Kelly Olsen used his eulogy to lobby for Patricia Hoffman, a former school board member and co-chair of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR), to fill Genser's seat, which the City Council is expected to declare officially vacant on Tuesday.

"We need to take action," said Olsen, a close friend of Genser's, "and see to it that Ken's vision for our community is carried out.

"It is important to see that Ken's seat on the council be filled by Patricia Hoffman," Olsen said. "Do what Ken would have wanted to continue his work and his fight."

Olsen's comment was a hot topic of conversation after the service, but was not heard by Mayor Pro Tem Pam O'Connor, the likely swing vote on the council who was in the hospital recovering from knee surgery.

It is unlikely that O'Connor, who a year ago opposed Hoffman during eight rounds of voting to replace the seat vacated by Herb Katz, will be swayed by Olsen's lobbying effort. ("Davis Picked to Fill Katz's Seat," February 25, 2009)

"Ken was our shining light of selfless public service, of integrity and compassion." Council member    Richard Bloom

"It is important to see that Ken's seat on the council be filled by Patricia Hoffman."
     Kelly Olsen