By Kevin McKeown

We wish Santa Monica Councilmember Christine Parra a compassionate goodbye to embrace family challenges.  Now, there remain even fewer reasons to support what’s left of the “change slate.”

The Council incumbents running for re-election have a full-term achievement gap.  All their failures are recorded for posterity in Council video archives on the City website.

After four years, Phil Brock leaves a record littered with Brocken promises.

In 2020, Brock pledged his effort to cut homelessness by 50% during his first year in office.  How’s that going in your neighborhood?

Brock’s original campaign website promised to protect renters and existing affordable housing.  Instead, landlord Phil indulged in a 2:00 a.m. Council discussion that would have destroyed rent control.  Another Brocken promise.

After pledging to protect Santa Monica from overdevelopment, Brock voted for a Housing Element that City staff warned would be rejected by the state of California.  That made us vulnerable to oversized “builder’s remedy” developments all over town.  Thanks, Phil.

Perhaps the most telling Brocken promise has to do with integrity.  Phil has twice voted to block a Council ethics investigation, covering up serious leaks of legally protected information that began only after he and his change slate colleagues were elected.

Some of us knew four years ago that Phil was blowing smoke.  Nonetheless, his promises and pledges contrast sharply with his lack of achievements, and voters have every right to demand accountability.

No more Brocken promises!

Kevin McKeown is a former Mayor of Santa Monica and served the community as a city council member for more than 20 years.

Photo of Mayor Phil Brock obtained by a screen capture of a city council meeting.