The last item on the agenda Monday night for the Santa Monica City Council was a request by outgoing Councilmember Oscar de la Torre for the city council to amend council rules addressing council member decorum on the dais. His motion called on council members to agree to treat one another respectfully and professionally.

Councilmember de la Torre has faced an escalating number of accusations recently, from several different sources, over racist and anti-Semitic statements he’s made. The controversy drew angry public speakers at recent meetings who addressed de la Torre directly, with de la Torre shouting back.

In an October letter written by Santa Monica-Malibu School Board Member Jon Kean and published in the Santa Monica Daily Press, Kean claimed that de la Torre said in 2019, “The biggest problem with the school board is that it’s run by the Jews.” De la Torre wrote a response to the letter that was published the following day denying the allegations.

Monday evening, Councilmember de la Torre seemed to counter his own motion for decorum, launching an accusation that Councilmember Gleam Davis lied at the October 22 council meeting about a conversation the two had previously. De la Torre said he “didn’t recall ever having that meeting” before attacking her heritage.

“You know you said you met with me, and you told me that you had Latina or Latino blood or Mexican blood, not sure you know what, what racial group or ethnic group you want to identify with at the time, but somehow that excuses your behavior or softens the egregiousness of what you did,” barked de la Torre.

The council member was then interrupted by Councilmember Jesse Zwick, who asked the mayor what de la Torre’s attack had to do with the item at hand.

Mayor Phil Brock asked Councilmember de la Torre not to go into specifics.

“If you have a general discussion that you wish to have and a proposal, I think that would be fine, but we’re going down to the ‘he said, she said,’ and battle royale, which I don’t want to tolerate during this meeting,” said Mayor Phil Brock.

De la Torre ignored Mayor Brock’s suggestion and continued questioning Councilmember Davis’s heritage, saying he “just wanted to correct what Ms. Gleam Davis said in the October 22 meeting.”

“Here you claim for the court that you were a genetic Latina, in order to thwart Latino voting rights, to thwart the historically marginalized groups attempt to have a seat at the table within with district elections,” continued de la Torre, undaunted by warnings to cease his diatribe. He was initially a party to a lawsuit against the city, which has carried on through his wife Maria Loya, to force the city to adopt a system of district-based elections for the city council.

“And so you, when you became mayor, you never took pride in being the first Latina mayor. Why if you claim to be a genetic Latina, how come you never have said I’m the first Latina mayor in the city’s history? Can you answer that? Please?”

Mayor Brock again scolded Councilmember de la Torre and accused him of “being off the rails.”

“Talk about what you want to do, and are going to propose,” instructed Brock.

De la Torre continued to ignore Brock and attacked Davis again for text messages she sent on behalf of the candidates she endorsed for the election.

Mayor Brock continued, “We’re still going into a personal attack. I’m asking you for the last time to stop the personal attacks.”

Councilmember de la Torre then attempted to read a letter from Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman that would show his support for the Jewish community. He was told it was not appropriate, but undeterred, he read the letter after being told three times under council rules by the mayor and city attorney that he could not read a letter from the Mayor of Beverly Hills about an incident that happened at a previous city council meeting.

In the letter from Friedman, de la Torre read, “It is the collective responsibility of all elected officials to combat all forms of anti-Semitism, and it is gratifying to know that you and your colleagues support this effort.”

Then in his own voice, de la Torre said, “One of the speakers on October 22 called this a super stunt, and I just want to make sure that everybody knows the truth that this item came from the sincere willingness to be in solidarity with my Jewish brothers and sisters against anti-Semitism.” He added, “I brought that item forward. It was not a political stunt. It was something that sincerely came from me, representing my city, and the West Side so I just wanted to put that in for the record.”

Councilmember Christine Parra, observing Councilmember Zwick’s apparent amusement that de la Torre flouted council rules to march forward with the letter reading, jumped into the exchange by yelling that Councilmember Zwick was “being such an asshole.”

De la Torre continued attacking Councilmember Davis for allegedly leaking items from closed session meetings and said he had filed a complaint with the city attorney.

Councilmember Davis responded by telling Councilmember de la Torre “I welcome the investigation, unlike you the previous times.” Davis was referencing de la Torre’s repeated attempts to stonewall investigations into the leaks.

The meeting was then adjourned without a vote on de la Torre’s motion.

Image obtained by screen capture.