After a tense discussion full of political barbs at its meeting Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council voted to adopt a motion that subjects members of boards and commissions to the same administrative rules that city employees are bound by, allowing them to be investigated and potentially punished for violations like workplace abuse of city employees. 

The original motion presented also included city council members and was brought forward in response to a leak from a recent city council closed session, which is a violation of California’s Brown Act. However, accusations of political maneuvering derailed those efforts, with the motion delaying any implementation of policy on city council members on this topic until December 10.

Councilmembers Gleam Davis and Oscar De La Torre were at the forefront of the discussion Tuesday night. Davis has been the face of the motion also brought forward by councilmembers Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis and was addressed and questioned directly by De La Torre.

De La Torre was far more resistant to the idea, arguing that the motion was politically motivated. He threw out a levy of accusations against her — that she wouldn’t have called for the investigation if she were on the council’s political majority and that she was weaponizing this process for the upcoming election season.

“I fear that if we approve this, some of the councilmembers might say ‘hey, I am going to launch an investigation against my political opponents’ like it has been done these past couple of times by councilmember Davis,” De La Torre said.

Davis rebuked De La Torre’s claims, accusing De La Torre of lying “Through [his] teeth” about the intent of the motion and the presentation of the investigations. 

“Don’t tell me I have launched investigations against you or anyone else,” Davis said to De La Torre. “They were never directed at anyone, they were to simply to identify who leaked out of closed session.”

She also said the timing had nothing to do with the election season, and that she simply wanted to promptly respond to the notification from the city attorney regarding the leaks. This feeling was supported by Zwick, who also expressed the desire to address the leaks as quickly as possible.

Zwick also commented on this uncharacteristic response to the law being broken in the city, and also said that the crime should not just be judged by its outcome, but also by its intent. 

“If we were making these kinds of comments about literally any other crime in the city of Santa Monica,” he said, “I think it would be…absurd.”

These assurances did not calm De La Torre’s fears, who continued probing Davis about her past on the city council and why this had not come up previously. He explained that the lack of action in the past and the fact that the motion was brought forward by Davis, Zwick, and Torosis caused concern.

“You could have called me and said ‘Hey Oscar, there was a leak out of closed session and I want you to join me on an item to call for an investigation,’” De La Torre said. “But it was Jesse Zwick, Caroline Torosis, and Gleam Davis that put that item forward, it wasn’t bipartisan.”

Seeing the discussion turning unproductive, Mayor Phil Brock decided to make his own comments, calling the inflammatory conduct during the item “embarrassing.” He did agree with De La Torre to an extent, telling Davis that despite her intent, the fact the motion was not bi-partisan gave an impression that it was politically motivated.

“It appears that this is an election issue regardless of whether councilmember Davis or Mayor Brock or anyone else is running,” Brock said.

In an attempt to resolve some of the disagreements, Brock proposed a substitute motion: come back for a resolution only applying to boards and commissions while a council-related change would only take effect when the next council takes office on December 10. In the interim, staff would be directed to look into similar policies in nearby jurisdictions to model the policy, a suggestion made by Councilmember Christine Parra.

This compromise, he argued, would minimize the politicizing of the motion. However, Mayor Pro Tem Lana Negrete wondered why the current resolution could not be implemented for just boards and commissions to help city staff, as these bodies are not nearly as politicized.

The urgency to implement something for boards and commissions was brought on in part by comments from Santa Monica City Manager David White, who noted that there have been documented incidents of city employees being put in difficult working circumstances by board members or commissioners, but the city has been unable to act on it because of the current policy.

“If the council would be open to making boards and commissions subject to the resolution,” White said, “It would be a great benefit to the workforce.”

For the sake of finding consensus and continuing the late-running meeting, this compromise was acceptable to most council members in attendance. This final motion including the current motion applying to boards and commissions and a stay on the city council portion of investigation rule changes until December passed 6-1, with Torosis — unsatisfied with not acting on city council members that night — being the lone dissenting vote.

Photo courtesy of the City of Santa Monica website.