THE LOW-DOWN ON THE TOWN Impudent, uncensored account By C. Castle

The Table's Turned

Unconscionable.

A hostile offensive.

It could spell doom for many....

"They developed this entire measure in secret, without any public input or comment. There was nobody there to question or test their assumptions... That's particularly galling."

No, those weren't the angry sentiments of hotel and restaurant owners reacting to the proposed living wage ordinance being studied by the City Council.

They were some of the responses by outraged city officials to a college proposal unveiled this week that calls for $18 million a year in education funding, among other things.

But we couldn't help but notice the uncanny parallels.

Both proposals were hatched during months of closed-door meetings. In one case it was college officials and their attorneys who crafted the plan in secrecy. In the other, it was Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism and key leaders of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMMR), including many of the city officials who are now expressing such outrage at how the collage proposal came about.

In both cases, those who would be most directly affected were kept in the dark. In the case of the college proposal, city officials learned of the details days before it was unveiled in a staff report on Thursday. In the case of the living wage proposal, business leaders got wind of the details after a spirited rally to kick off the campaign. In both cases, all the Ts had been crossed and the Is dotted by expert attorneys before any documents were made public.

And in both cases, the proposals were crafted with no input from those whose purse strings it yanked. City officials had no say in how much money the city could afford to give for education. And hotel and restaurant owners weren't invited to comment on how paying a living wage would affect their bottom line.

Both sides vowed that the proposals were just that - proposals. They promised that there would be an extensive public process that could result in changes to what was put on the table for discussion.

Funny how things look from the other side of the fence.