JUNE 2020 MEETING ON ZOOM - BUDGET and MAYOR Kevin McKeown

​Our mayor, Kevin McKeown, attended the meeting. He avowed his complete opposition to the 60 condos in the “Miramar Hotel Project.” He also fielded questions about the curfews. While he acknowledged the inconvenience of the curfews, he felt they were necessary to assure citizen safety. When asked about the deployment of the SMPD on Sunday, May 31st, when looting went on for hours and caused such an astonishing amount of widespread damage throughout the city, his position was that the SMPD’s primary responsibility was to protect and deal with the George Floyd protest march, and the primary aim of the SMPD was to prevent loss of life or injury, which was accomplished. After 8 pm when the curfew was in place, then the SMPD put their full attention to the looters and over 400 of them were arrested. 

​Our Wilmont Newsletter is OUT and it looks INCREDIBLE! However, the City has cut all future Newsletters and Neighborhood Grants from its budget. We are asking for the Newsletter to be reinstated in the future. Please open these newsletters as they unfortunately come addressed only to “Resident.” We hope the newsletter will encourage people to become members and/or become active in the organization.
We appreciate Laurence Eubank, Board Member At Large, seen here with his dogs at Reed Park, who wrote the newsletter. Thank you, Laurence!

​Proposed “Miramar Hotel Project”:
We oppose many aspects of this project:

• the huge size, 11 stories
• 60 very expensive high-end condos facing the ocean – although touted and titled as a “hotel” project overall, the “Miramar Hotel Project” does not substantially expand the number of hotel rooms, rather primarily adds a spa, retail areas, catering and an expanded banquet room
• Change to the traffic patterns – the volume of traffic will be greatly increased as it is rerouted to California Ave. They are trying to make a boulevard out of California, instead of using Wilshire.
  • removal of the Wilshire entrance
  • creation of an entrance on Ocean Ave. for the proposed  condo owners
  • creation of an entrance on California Ave. for employees
  • creation of an entrance on 2nd Street for guests and visitors

Neighorhood parking is bound to be negatively impacted, especially by guests and visitors unwilling to use the valet parking, etc.

​Budget Process – restructuring of budget 
The City is mandated by State Law –it must have a balanced budget by June 30.
Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, the City has lost revenue from almost all its usual sources, especially tourism, utility taxes on businesses, and sales tax revenues.
We are submitting neighborhood letters lobbying for lost neighborhood resources , especially the loss of ALL the CROSSING GUARDS, and limitation of the Montana Branch Library to being open 2 days only.

WHAT IS THE GENERAL FUND?  The General Fund is The General Fund is the largest fund and supports resident services. There are no restrictions on how these funds can be used. It is made up of the departments that we think of as basic city services: police, fire, parks, public works, libraries, planning, etc. They do not generate significant revenue. The General Fund is the heart of the city, and normally is supported by transient occupancy tax (tourism), sales taxes, utility taxes (paid by businesses), fines, parking tickets, etc. The other funds, such as Big Blue Bus, are specific to their function. The General Fund is the largest part of the budget – approximately 60% of the overall financial activity of city.
Residents pay for waste & sanitation and water and sewage: waste water treatment, garbage and recycling, preferential parking.

​Additional Impacts on Residents
We will lose all crossing guards, Playground access, and Crest Sports unless we ADVOCATE to the City Council before the June 9th meeting.
Parks turning into homeless central – Ambassadors should be re-instated in all parks, especially Reed and Douglas Parks.

Wilmont Members, Residents and Friends:

This is a request of you. The approximate 40% reduction in the 2020-21 City budget will be discussed by Santa Monica City Councilors and acted upon on Tuesday, May 5th, beginning at 3PM and extending into the evening. If you can, please take the time to view this meeting.

We cannot overstate the momentous nature of the discussion, as these reductions will substantively if not drastically, affect WILMONT and all residents of Santa Monica. An informed citizenry is an effective citizenry and if we do not digest and react to the proposed budget changes we will simply have to live with them.

The link at the bottom of this email accesses the City Developed Restructure Plan for the FY 2020-21 City Budget and Staff Report for the your review ('A Plan For The Future').

How to Access City Council May 5th Meeting – STARTS at 3 PM
TV: Cable Channel 16 or Streaming at https://www.smgov.net/content.aspx?id=4292
 
Online: LIVE STREAM (Chrome Browser Recommended but not required): https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/xzurkqeh
 
DIAL-IN NUMBER: 1 (415) 466-7000 (US), PIN 8072851 #
  
Services to residents have been significantly reduced. We are particularly concerned about these budget cuts:

• Reduction of out-of-school time programming at school and park sites i.e., CREST (Childcare Recreation Enrichment Sports Together serves 3,600 K-8 students, the PAL (Police Activities League) and VAP (Virginia Avenue Park). These programs provide care and activities for children of working parents;
• Lack of future support for senior cash housing assistance via POD (Preserving Our Diversity);
• Montana Library will ONLY be open 12 noon- 8 PM on Monday and Wednesdays;
• Departments not related to residents’ services are largely untouched;
• Some budget cuts refer to unfilled positions or aspirational elements of previous FY 20-21 budget, i.e., monies that were budgeted but not spent are now labeled 'cuts':
• Priority is given to four large development sites, St. John’s, Miramar, Gehry (Santa Monica and Ocean) and 4th/5th and Arizona which will increase traffic, create more competition for existing hotels and increased costs for the City with their commercial space and housing.

Ways to Provide Your Input to City Council May 5th Meeting
To send comments to the City Council or to dial-in to be in a phone que to speak on Tuesday night follow these rules:

• The public is encouraged to submit written correspondence and written public comment on agenda items via email to [email protected]. 
• Written public comment submitted before 2:00 pm on the day of the meeting will be available for online viewing. 
• Additionally, effective May 5, 2020 and until COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, remote public comments can be made by phone at (310) 458-8423. Remarks from the public are limited to a total of 6 minutes per City Council meeting, with a maximum of 2 minutes per agenda item; under some circumstances, Council may change the maximum to 1 minute per agenda item. 

We will be in touch soon with the Council's decisions, their immediate affects on us, and how we plan to address them through the public process.

We hope you and your loved ones are well and enjoying our fine weather. Let's take care of each other.

Sincerely,
The WILMONT Board fo Directors