October 7, 2010 -- The Lookout Staff submitted questionnaires to the 23 candidates running for seats on the City Council and Board of Education. The candidates were given the same timeframe to answer the questions and were limited to 150 words per answer.
During the next several days, the Lookout News will publish the candidates’ answers verbatim. The profiles for the four-year City Council race will be published first, followed by the two-year City Council race and lastly the Board of Education race. They will appear in alphabetical order based on the candidates’ first names.

Name: Ted Winterer
Running for: 4-year City Council seat?
Status: Challenger

How long have you lived in Santa Monica? In what neighborhood do you live?
I’ve lived in Santa Monica for 18 years as both a renter and homeowner and currently reside in Ocean Park with my wife, two kids, two dogs, one cat and an ever-changing number of goldfish.

Why are you running for office and why should residents vote for you?
I got involved in local activism when my first child was born: I’m running for Council to assure Santa Monica remains a wonderful place to live as my kids grow up.

Residents should vote for me because I’ve proven as a Planning Commissioner, Recreation and Parks Commissioner and president of the Ocean Park Association that I listen to them and respond, since their issues are also part of my life. I swim at the beach and want it cleaner. I live under the flight path for the Santa Monica airport. I have a child in public school. I bike, walk and ride the bus: it should be easier to get around town. I’ve remodeled a home and know how excruciating permitting and inspections can be. I could go on, but my point should be clear: when I meet with voters and hear what troubles them I can relate.

Why do you enjoy living in Santa Monica?
The list of what I enjoy about Santa Monica is a long one. So I’ll just cite what I care about the most. I love my Ocean Park neighborhood and my neighbors. Where else can you enjoy the benefits of urban living and yet feel you know everyone in your community? When I walk my daughter to school, jog with the dogs along the beach or stroll down to Main Street for coffee, I always see a familiar face and stop to chat. And I think we all feel that way about our neighborhoods and our neighbors – they are treasured resources.

How would you rate the current City Council? What particular decisions stand out for you that made you form that opinion?
I’m circumspect about rating the current Council since until one serves it’s difficult to fully comprehend the challenges of balancing competing interests and formulating policy which best serves the community. That said, I feel the Council is too often reactive rather than proactive. For instance, civic activists knew for years development agreements weren’t being audited and complained vocally to their elected officials and City staff. So why did it take a decade to require so many DAs to comply with the terms of their contracts? Or why did we formulate a Bike Path Master Plan in 1995 and then shelve it? Why wasn’t the public notified sooner of the FAA’s test of a new flight path from Santa Monica Airport over schools and homes? Our Council could do a better job of anticipating and leading on many issues instead of merely responding to City staff’s agenda.

What is the most frequent complaint you hear on the campaign trail? What do you plan to do about this issue?
While the pace of development has slowed recently due to our struggling economy, I still hear frequently from voters that they are troubled that Santa Monica’s character will be changed by future growth. Fortunately, our new Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) seeks to conserve and protect our existing residential neighborhoods while redirecting new development to our commercial boulevards, downtown and the east end of town, especially adjacent to the Expo light rail line. To preserve Santa Monica’s character, this new development must be appropriately scaled, architecturally distinguished and provide significant public benefits. And if projects don’t meet our high community standards, we must turn them down. There will always be better projects waiting in the wings to step in for substandard development.

Should Santa Monica residents be allowed to vote on major development agreements? Why or why not?
Since we’ve approved the LUCE but have not yet crafted a Zoning Ordinance, for the short term some development agreements will be necessary in locations where existing zoning doesn’t conform to the LUCE. But once we have our zoning in place, I believe development agreements should be the exception rather than the rule and only used in special circumstances such as historic preservation.

We spent six years of community outreach developing the LUCE so the community has every right to assume projects will adhere to the LUCE and the zoning it begets. So once the Zoning Ordinance is completed, if major development agreements add substantial net new square footage and exceed our zoning, then the public should vote on them at the ballot box.

Where do you stand on Measure Y, the half-cent sales tax proposal, and Measure YY, the companion measure that would recommend 50 percent of the tax revenue go to education?
I support both measures.

Solve the traffic problem in Santa Monica in under 150 words.
The first priority should be implementing a traffic mitigation fee on new development. Los Angeles has levied a similar trip tax for years and the LUCE calls for such a fee. It’s basic economics: if you charge for traffic generation when it used to be free, you will reduce demand for traffic generation.

We’ll still have development, of course, but at least projects will then yield fees which can be used for traffic reduction strategies such as synchronizing signals, employee trip reduction plans, intracity shuttles and improvements for cyclists and pedestrians.

We should limit traffic-generating commercial development unless it fills a specific community need such as affordable retail or provides significant revenue, as hotels do. The growth we have should be predominately housing near transit. Finally, the No Net New Trips specified by the LUCE should be a hard and fast rule rather than a feel good policy goal.

If you were emperor with absolute authority for a day and could do one thing for Santa Monica, what would it be?
I’d order an end to all sources of pollution in Santa Monica and restore our water and air quality to what it was 200 years ago.