By Jorge Casuso

August 5, 2024 -- Santa Monica's public safety unions will make their City Council endorsements -- which could play an out-sized role in this year's election -- after candidates have qualified for the ballot.

Lt. Cody Green, president of the local Police Officers Association (POA), said on Monday that the union will hold interviews with Council candidates "in the next week or two."

The Firefighters Political Activities Committee will concurrently hold interviews with the same candidates in a separate room, Green said.

The public safety endorsements will be made after the August 9 deadline for candidates to withdraw their nominating papers and the August 14 deadline for candidates to file them.

"We're hoping to see what the field will be," Green said. "People can line up their decision to run or not to run."

This year's public safety endorsements come as more than half a dozen candidates -- including Mayor Phil Brock and Councilmembers Oscar de la Torre and Christine Parra -- are running on a law-and-order platform in the race for four Council seats ("Parra's Candidacy Alters Race," July 30, 2024).

They will face a slate endorsed by the city's political establishment more than a month ago composed of SMC Trustee Barry Snell, Planning Commissioner Ellis Raskin, Natalya Zernitskaya and Pier Corporation Board Chair Dan Hall ("Major Political Establishment Groups to Field United Council Slate," June 27, 2024).

Two years ago, the public safety unions were the first major groups to make endorsements for three Council seats and, for the first time, failed to back the same slate.

The Firefighters union backed two Change candidates -- incumbent Lana Negrete and Residocracy founder Armen Melkonians --, as well as Rent Board Commissioner Caroline Torosis, who was backed by the political establishment.

Meanwhile, the Police union -- which sat out the 2020 election after the Department came under fire for its response to the May 31 Santa Monica riots -- backed Negrete, Melkonians and Recreation and Parks Commissioner Albin Gielicz.

Torosis and Jesse Zwick -- who was also backed by Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR), the local Democratic Club and the hotel workers union -- cruised to easy victories.

Negrete, the target of a highly negative campaign, finished third after the political establishment failed to field a united slate, splintering the vote.

This year, the Police and Firefighters unions -- which had raised a combined total of nearly $200,000 as of June 30 -- could be on the same page, Green said.

"We're two different organizations," he said. "We have a different view of local politics.