VERITAS author
   responds

   To the editor:
   Shame on the Mirror! Your editorial, “The Case Against VERITAS,” has two serious factual errors which require printed corrections. On the policy issues, we simply disagree.
   First step up and acknowledge your mistakes. You falsely state: “VERITAS would reduce residency requirements for candidates from two years to 30 days. There can be no good reason for reducing candidates’ residence requirements from two years to thirty days. Do you really want people with 30 days worth of knowledge of Santa Monica running for office?”
   You kindly printed our letter in your October 10-16 issue where we stated “...the 30 day requirement has been California law for 26 years. (See Johnson v. Hamilton, a California decision dating back to 1975.) As confirmed by the Santa Monica City Attorney’s official summary, VERITAS does not change California’s residency requirement in any way.”
   Surely you knew of our October letter published on your own editorial page. Why didn’t you check your facts? The 30 day residency requirement has been law in California for 26 years. This is clearly stated on the City’s web site under Charter Section “601. Eligibility.” A correction and apology are required.
   The second error is your statement that the VERITAS Mayor “would have executive as well as legislative powers.” VERITAS retains the City Manager as our Chief Executive Officer. In order for the Mayor to become the Chief Executive Officer, one would need to take away the City Manager’s executive powers, such as the power to hire and fire the heads of various City departments. VERITAS does not transfer those powers to the Mayor. VERITAS has left unchanged all the executive powers in the City Manager as enumerated in the City Charter Sec. 7.04.
   What VERITAS does do is give the Mayor the quasi-legislative power to veto legislation. The veto can be overturned by a two-thirds vote of the Council. This is a legislative “check and balance” between the Mayor on the one hand, who is elected at-large like the Governor of California or the President of the United States, and on the other hand, the Council which is elected by geographically based neighborhood communities like the California legislature. However, unlike the President, the Governor, or the Mayor of Los Angeles, the VERITAS Mayor will not have any executive powers. After VERITAS is enacted, the City Manager will still be Santa Monica’s Chief Executive Officer. A correction and an apology also is required for your second factual error.
   Some Santa Monicans would do away with the federal electoral college to make possible the direct election of the President but they oppose the direct election of the Mayor. Some favor Congressional election and campaign reform but they oppose election reform in Santa Monica. Some say that it is important to elect state and national officials with a majority vote. Yet, they are strangely silent about the appalling results produced by Santa Monica’s current at-large system, which because it encourages costly slate campaigns, has produced only one successful independent candidate in two decades. And, to Santa Monica’s further embarrassment, it permitted in the last poll the election of four “representatives” to the City Council with ridiculously low vote tallies ranging from 12.3% to 18.2%.
   It seems that the Mirror and some VERITAS nay-sayers have a double standard. They are willing, as they should be, to condemn anti-democratic practices elsewhere. But they complacently look the other way whenever the topic is raised about Santa Monica’s own patently anti-democratic practices. With due respect, let us first put our own house in order.
   Paul DeSantis
   Yes On VERITAS
   Santa Monica

Ed. note: As we are dedicated to a full and free exhange of ideas and opinions, we usually allow letters to the editor to stand or fall on their own – without comment from us, but the foregoing letter virtually demands comment from us. For our comments, see editorial, Unashamed, this page.


   Concerns about
   SMC bond measure

   To the Editor:
Regarding SMC Bond Measure U, I have the following three concerns: continued enrollment growth at SMC despite having outgrown its main campus, the impact this has on pedestrian safety for SMMUSD students attending the four schools near the college, and how the size of the college bond might affect passage of future SMMUSD facilities bonds.
   1. Enrollment growth — To put enrollment in context, I’ll compare SMC to another two-year college, El Camino College in Torrance.
   SMC has 33,259 students and about 1,600 faculty and staff, a main campus of 39 acres, with about 2,095 parking spaces at the main campus (1,455 student and 640 staff), and additional off-site campuses at S.M. Airport, the Entertainment Academy on Stewart, the Madison Site, and the Emeritus College on 2nd Street, plus administrative offices on Pico and 28th. The main campus is bordered by one major arterial street (Pico), two residential streets (16th and Pearl), and private residences on 20th Street.
   El Camino College has 24,403 students and about 1,500 faculty and staff, a main campus of 126 acres, with 4,641 parking spaces (3,734 student and 907 staff), and six off-site vocational education centers. The main campus is bordered by 3 major arterial streets and a county park.
   Approximately 15% of SMC students live in Santa Monica or Malibu. The other 28,000 students are commuters. Enrollment increased by about 2,000 in the past year, yet the college continues to actively recruit additional students with ads on KCRW. At this rate of growth, the 33,000 college students, who already vastly outnumber the 7,000 households in Sunset Park, will outnumber the 84,000 residents of the entire city of Santa Monica by the year 2027.
   The college staff estimates that there are about 6,500 people on the main campus each day but, according to my calculations, that figure should be closer to 24,500 students plus faculty and staff. Even if the 6,500 figure were correct, the Adams Middle School and SMC land parcels appear to be similar in size, yet Adams is at capacity with 1,167 students. It is difficult to understand how the college can justify the continued growth in SMC enrollment when this requires the residents of Santa Monica and Malibu to keep paying for more and more buildings and more and more land. There are at least 10 other junior colleges in the L.A. area. Everyone does not need to come to Santa Monica to attend a 2-year college.
   In contrast, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has an enrollment cap of 12,500 and controls the number of out-of-district permits each year in order to avoid overcrowding the campuses. I recommend that SMC consider a similar enrollment cap.
   2. Pedestrian safety — John Adams Middle School (1,167 students) is directly across the street from SMC, Rogers Elementary (676 students) is one block away, Grant Elementary (673 students) is four blocks away, and many students at Edison Elementary (436 students) cross Cloverfield Blvd. at the same time that college students are exiting the 10 freeway at Cloverfield each morning and speeding south to Pico Blvd.
   It’s not clear to me how the college’s plans for using Measure U money will make these elementary and middle school students safer. Here are some suggestions that might help:
   a. A stop sign at 17th and Pine, where Adams students cross to enter their campus and risk getting run over by college drivers.
   b. A drop-off zone on the south side of Pearl Street near 17th, so Adams parents can safely drop off their children in the morning without worrying about them being run over by college students hurrying to find a free parking space on Pearl.
   c. A traffic signal at 16th and Ocean Park, so Adams and Rogers students can safely cross Ocean Park Blvd. Many college drivers seem to roar up Ocean Park from Lincoln and turn north on 16th, colliding with Rogers students trying to reach the back entrance of their campus and Adams students trying to reach the main entrance of their campus, both on 16th Street.
   d. Improved safety measures to protect Edison students crossing Cloverfield at Virginia Avenue, as well as Grant students crossing Pico at Cloverfield.
   e. Staggered starting times for morning classes so that SMC and SMMUSD students are not all trying to get to class at the very same time.
   I recommend the the college actively work with the school district and the City of Santa Monica to mitigate these pedestrian safety problems, which are caused by the increasing numbers of commuter students at the college.
   3. How Measure U may affect passage of future SMMUSD facility bond measures — In 1998, supporters of SMMUSD’s Prop X worried that voters might not approve a $42 million bond measure. Now the college wants $160 million. When I raised this issue, SMC staff assured me that this would not be a problem because Santa Clarita had just passed both college and school district bond measures in November 2001. After doing a little research, I discovered that new housing developments in Santa Clarita had led to year-round scheduling for the school district due to a shortage of facilities. Meanwhile, enrollment at College of the Canyons was growing by 20% per year. Is this the role model for educational and urban planning we’re supposed to emulate in Santa Monica and Malibu?
   To re-cap, SMC needs new buildings. The surrounding community needs an enrollment cap at the college, improved pedestrian safety for the 2,952 children attending elementary and middle schools near the SMC campus, and some consideration and consultation with SMMUSD officials when the college determines the amount of future bond measures.
   Zina Josephs
   Santa Monica

   State budget
   cuts devestating

   To the editor:
   Governor Davis’ proposed budget cuts in the community colleges’ CalWORKs Program would deliver a devastating blow to welfare recipients who are trying to turn their lives around at Santa Monica College and throughout the state.
   Davis, in his proposed budget, is seeking to slash the CalWORKs budget from its current $65 million to $7 million in 2002-03. At SMC, that means a drastic reduction: from $707,000 to $76,000. It would eliminate virtually every form of assistance provided to CalWORKs students except child care, and even that would be cut by more than half. Gone would be academic and personal counseling, work-study programs, and job placement assistance.
   If the governor gets his way, I can assure you that dozens, maybe hundreds, of CalWORKs students will drop out of college. They need every bit of help they can get — their lives are too fragile, their pocketbooks too slim, their children’s demands too exhausting.
   Behind all the statistics are real people who have changed their lives, thanks to their persistence and the CalWORKs program. Here are three:
   • Nylsa Dickey, a domestic violence victim, was left by her husband just after the birth of her second child and was evicted from her apartment. She had been looking for work for two years. She came to SMC to upgrade her skills and, through CalWORKs, got a work study position in the Admissions Office, where she thrived using many natural and learned skills. She gained confidence and, with the continued assistance of CalWORKs, got a full-time job as a case worker for the Department of Public Social Services. She is off welfare and leading a self-sufficient life. “This is the first time in my life I have had stable housing, and with my job and being off welfare, I actually feel different,” she said.
   • Linda Martin is currently working full time as a Recreation Director at the Salvation Army in West Los Angeles. She graduated with a certificate in Recreation and is currently continuing her studies in pursuit of her A.A. degree at SMC. As a previous CalWORKs student, Linda completed several work study assignments, which she claims gave her the ability and confidence to be successful in the work place.
   • Terry Merrick, her husband David, and three children were homeless. They were living out of their car, often staying at relatives’ homes. Terry does not have a high school diploma and has had very little work experience. She came to SMC to join our special “Careers in Child Care Training Program” and has flourished. She loves her Child Development classes and instructors and has gotten her second job in the field making $10.50 an hour. It is clear that she is embarking on a career with many opportunities in store for her.
   The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program (CalWORKs) was initiated in 1997 in response to President Clinton’s Federal Welfare Reform, with the purpose of supporting low-income families and preventing child poverty. The highly successful state community college CalWORKs Program provides training, academic and personal counseling, work-study programs, child care, and job placement assistance. It is a comprehensive program under one umbrella.
   Currently, Santa Monica College serves as the training ground for about 1,500 of Los Angeles’ 30,000 CalWORKs students and since the spring of 1998 has provided services to approximately 1,000 students.
   From July 1998 through June 2001, SMC placed CalWORKs students in 165 work-study jobs, provided 206,219 free child care hours for 189 students, and gave 167 students employment assistance.
   A study conducted by the national agency Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation showed that for low-wage workers, the complexities of balancing school, work and family are very fragile, and that one single event can cause an individual to easily drop out of school or quit a job.
   Tracey Ellis, Project Manager
   CalWORKs
   Santa Monica College

   Lights
   Out!

   To the editor:
   This week my street on the southern border of Santa Monica, Dewey Street, is being outfitted with streetlights. So we who voted against the lights must have lost. At first this meant little to me, but ever so slowly, I see there was more at stake. So I write both to mourn the loss, and to note that we give up too much in such apparent trivialities.
   At night it is dark in the world, and that is peaceful and beautiful. I have felt particularly lucky since moving to Santa Monica to be able to stand outside my house at nighttime and view the stars overhead, or witness the moon transform the surroundings with its cast shadows. In a city, this is a gift for every unlit street. Given that Dewey Street borders a slim stretch of golf course covered in trees and grass, the play of moonlight has gifted us with an especially magical, natural effect.
   Cities rumble on blindly with standard “improvements” that very often take away what makes them livable in the first place. While I am sure the streetlights will make our street more inviting to automobile drivers, or to the rare late night pedestrian unwilling to tote a flashlight, I am unhappy at subsidizing and encouraging this breed.
   Pollution, light pollution or otherwise, comes from laziness and lazy thinking. I am sorry to see us slide into modernity without considering alternatives. I missed whatever discussion took place, and now realizing what we are giving up, I regret my own ignorance and laziness profoundly.
   So I urge other unlit streets, if there are any left, to consider alternatives (reflectors? white painted curbs?) that would not only cost less, but help us live more harmoniously in the natural world.
   Dylan Kohler
   Santa Monica