By Jorge Casuso

October 27, 2025 -- A latest plan to chart Santa Monica's comeback revisits initiatives the previous Council proposed and, in some cases, set in motion with few visible results.

Downtown, which is on the 3.0 version of its visioning plan, continues to struggle, crime and homelessness persist and the City's economic recovery is slow to take hold.

"The truth is that for four years, the previous Council had the opportunity to act on these issues but didn’t deliver meaningful or visible progress," said Councilmember Caroline Torosis.

This time, the new plan proposes bolder moves, some of which Mayor Lana Negrete notes she had previously pushed with little success, in some cases due to delays or roadblocks placed by staff.

These include establishing a police substation at Santa Monica Place Mall, boosting misdemeanor prosecutions and waiving wastewater fees for restaurants, Negrete said.

There is also a sense that even the new plan's boldest move -- relocating SamoShel, the City's homeless shelter, from Downtown -- can also be achieved.

The difference, Councilmembers agree, is City Manager Oliver Chi. As the municipal government's CEO in a Charter City with a strong City Manager form of government, Chi has taken charge since assuming the post three months ago.

"All of these goals were there," said Mayor Lana Negrete, who credits the new council with providing a sharper focus. "The difference is instead of being told we don't have the money to do it and it goes on the back burner, (Chi) is realigning departments and dollars to get it done.

"He is figuring out how to be bold and brave," said Negrete, who was appointed to the Council in 2021 and is its longest serving member. "He's shaking things up from the inside out, and this entire time, we've been shaking things up from the outside."

A case in point, Negrete said, is the plan's proposal to encourage restaurants to expand by waiving the City's portion of the wastewater capacity fee, which is about $1,400 per seat a year.

Negrete said she brokered a meeting with struggling restaurant owners and staff last year, only to be told State law prohibited the move. She notes that Chi, who has experience running a water department, said it could be done.

Negrete believes it's important to clarify for residents how all the work that led to the detailed 34-page plan began and "how much of it has been years in the making."

"The progress we’re seeing today didn’t appear overnight -- it was built step by step, meeting by meeting, and relationship by relationship.

“The real progress comes from relationships — from the people behind every policy and project,” she said. “When we keep people at the center of our decisions, we get results that last.”

“Santa Monica doesn’t need political spin -- it needs teamwork," Negrete said. "If we’re all rowing in the same direction now, that’s good for Santa Monica."

Councilmember Dan Hall, who was elected in November and is part of the Council's new 6 to 1 super majority, said he agrees "many items have been worked on for years and I absolutely give credit to those past councils for kicking off some of this work."

"The difference, I think, is that we’ve hired a City Manager who took our campaign promises and direction from the dais and turned them into a clear, actionable strategic plan and is putting budget behind it," Hall said.

"That’s exactly why we chose him from among an impressive field of candidates," Hall said. "We saw in Oliver a leader who could right the ship and deliver on our shared agenda.

"In the Army, I learned that leadership means providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and strengthen the organization. This realignment plan from City Manager Chi does exactly that."