Be Accountable to Residents, Reappoint Olsen

June 23, 2003

Dear Editor,

When I moved to Santa Monica in l995, I was a stranger to city politics. With my first Santa Monica City Council election approaching, I attended a candidates forum to get a sense of the candidates and their positions.

It was an interesting evening. As it progressed, some of the candidates, instead of talking about their qualifications for Council, started taking potshots at one of the other candidates. I found this bizarre and confusing, because the candidate being attacked seemed to be bright, knowledgeable, and experienced. He seemed to have a clear grasp of the issues and a kind of stand-up integrity that I found appealing. His name was Kelly Olsen.

I later learned that he, and a video he made, had been largely responsible for the City’s moving the homeless campers out of Palisades Park, giving the park back to the residents. For his role in this, some people in town still hated him, I was told. So I was introduced to the polarization of views in Santa Monica, and to what it took to stand up to the powers that be in defense of what you believe is right.

Kelly Olsen has continued to do just that. And I have continued to admire him for doing so. I don’t always agree with him. Sometimes I disagree vociferously. But I continue to admire his integrity, his forthrightness, and his willingness to question.

Kelly is finishing a four-year term on the Planning Commission, serving as Chair for part of that time. I have been part of three appeals before the Commission, and I’ve found Kelly to be fair, reasonable, creative, a very knowledgeable Commissioner, and very concerned about the direction the City is taking.

He has continued to question the way things are done, and to stand as champion of residents’ right to code enforcement, reasonable development, and accountability from the City. He questions those who don’t like to be questioned, ignores those who try to derail him, and tends not to honor sacred cows.

He is up for reappointment. His fellow Commissioners, and those who want resident oriented development, very much want him re-appointed. Those who don’t like having their authority challenged, and those who have agendas for city development, want him gone. (He even splits the SMRRs).

If you care about having the City of Santa Monica be accountable to the residents, I suggest that each reader follow his reappointment closely. Kelly is one of the few people in town who is willing to stand up for residents in circles where doing so is risky.

You may not always agree with him, as I don’t, but he is a role model for the rest of us.

Besides Kelly, Chair Darrell Clark and Commissioner Barbara Brown are also
up for reappointment. Both are integral to the teamwork that is the
hallmark of this Planning Commission. I hope the Council members will have
the wisdom to reappoint all three of them. We sorely need thhem there to
continue to respond to our interests as residents of Santa Monica.

Ellen Brennan
Santa Monica