People Who Govern in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones
By Frank Gruber
Because I was in New York I missed Thursday night's City Council meeting
where the controversial topic was whether to increase the City's funding
of the School District. (see
story)
I was in New York because the great musical machine known as the Santa
Monica High School Wind Ensemble, of which my son Henry is a saxophone-playing
cog, was performing in Carnegie Hall. That's not the kind of event doting
parents can miss.
Given that this will probably be the only time Henry will have the
opportunity to perform on the renowned Carnegie Hall stage, and given
that he had the opportunity because of the brilliance of the District's
music programs at John Adams Middle School and Samohi, you can imagine
where I come down on the dispute over school funding.
Give the schools the money.
But not only my parochial interests lead me to this conclusion. The
council members who most oppose granting the additional money -- Bobby
Shriver and Herb Katz -- seem to be pushing political points more than
good policies.
Council member Shriver is annoyed with the confidentiality clause the
District included in its settlement agreement with former CFO Winston
Braham. While the District was wrong in the first place to require the
broad confidentiality clause in the settlement, the District has resolved
that issue by releasing Mr. Braham from the obligation in a manner any
reasonable person would find satisfactory.
Indeed, Mr. Braham's persnicketiness in parsing the language of his
release from the confidentiality clause, as reported in The Lookout,
has made me wonder whether Mr. Braham was the forthright and reasonable
bean counter he had the reputation of being.
Council Member Katz objected to increasing the contribution to the
District because of his annoyance with the confidentiality clauses the
District includes in agreements with the parents of special needs children
for their educational programs. But this is micromanaging. Special needs
funding has become the great minefield of education finance, and the
City Council would be well-advised not to bumble onto it.
Paul Silvern, who, as Chair of the District's Oversight Committee,
has not been shy when it comes to reviewing the District's finances,
was certainly correct when he pointed out at the Council meeting that
the District's finances are not only more transparent than the City's,
but also subject to many more layers of review.
As one who has reviewed, or tried to review, the City's budgets over
the years, I can attest that they are monuments to confusion -- each
year expenses shift from one category to another, making them hard to
track; it's hard to separate capital costs from operating expenses,
especially when it comes to the City's various funds, and it's hard
to determine what money has been authorized and what has been spent,
or which employees are merely budgeted for and which have actually been
hired.
As for accountability, let's not forget those years early in the decade
when the Council drastically increased operating expenses and staffing,
without any regard to what might happen to the City's pension plan obligations
if the stock market dropped. Which it did, like a stone, and City had
a financial crisis beyond anything the School District has suffered.
And as for confidentiality agreements in settlement agreements -- what
about all the litigation and real estate deals and personnel matters
the City Council resolves in closed session?
The difference is that the City doesn't get its money from the state,
and the City Council is not responsible to a higher level of government.
Judging from bond issues and such, the schools are the most popular
governmental institutions in Santa Monica. If we the people could, we
would give our school board at least the powers to tax or levy fees
that the City Council has.
Then the District wouldn't have to beg.
* * *
Since I've recently come to know and appreciate Santa Monica's Woodlawn
Cemetery, and since I've previously written about Ricardo Crocker, the
Santa Monica police officer and Major in the Marines who was killed
in Iraq, I made a point yesterday to attend the Memorial Day Observance
at the cemetery.
Part of this year's ceremony was to be a commemoration of Major Crocker's
life, and his mother and sister received tributes from Assembly Member
Julia Brownley, Mayor Richard Bloom, Council members Robert Holbrook
and Kevin McKeown and representatives of the Police Department.
Yesterday's was Santa Monica's 69th annual Memorial Day Observance,
but it was the first one I've attended. I doubt I ever paid attention
to the ceremony. It is a manifestation of a Santa Monica that existed
prior to my moving here -- a city of service clubs, like the Elks who
were the primary organizers of the event -- and a manifestation of an
era when more of us were veterans.
Most of the residents laying down flowers in front of the memorial
to the fallen were gray -- greyer than me -- and many were stooped,
but the keynote speaker, First Lieutenant Colin Browning, of the Marines,
was only four years out of Annapolis. The memories he invoked were quite
recent and specific -- his memories of four noncommissioned officers
in his platoon who died in Falluja.
It looks like families will be remembering their dead, and we will
be paying tribute to them, for at least another 69 Memorial Days.
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| A combined choir from John Adams
and Lincoln Middle Schools sings at the Memorial Day Observance.
(Photo by Frank Gruber) |
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