By Jorge Casuso

July 11, 2024 -- The Change faction on the City Council flexed its political muscle Tuesday night and replaced a Planning Commissioner and Downtown Board member appointed four years ago by the rival faction.

Both Planning Commission Chair Ellis Raskin and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. Board member Erika Lesley failed to win the necessary four votes needed to be reappointed to a second four-year term.

Both -- who were appointed in 2020 when the City's political establishment controlled the Council -- are running in the November 5 race for four open Council seats, three of them held by the Change faction.

Of the five applicants to fill five seats on the two boards, only longtime Planning Commissioner Leslie Lambert was reappointed unanimously.

The other four applicants -- none of whom had served on City Boards or Commissions -- were appointed with 4 to 3 votes.

"The status quo is not working for Santa Monica," said Mayor Phil Brock, who leads the Change faction. "We will need new blood to inspire change."

But former Mayor Dennis Zane, a co-chair of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR), which has dominated local politics for more than four decades, believes the appointments are political.

"It sounds like a purge of SMRR advocates for renters," Zane said. "It won't help them in November."

The most significant move was the replacement of Planning Commission Chair Raskin, one of four candidates backed by the political establishment that also includes the local Democratic Club and hotel workers union.

The seat will be taken by Peer Chacko, an urban planner who moved to the city two years ago after working as a consultant in Texas "developing and implementing comprehensive and strategic plans related to land development policy."

"I believe that change is inevitable and well-modulated change is healthy," Chacko wrote in his application.

"The role of the Planning Commission is to help modulate change in a manner that best serves the interests of all residents in the city within the context of the larger region."

Brock said Chacko is a planning professional who is "going to be creative in protecting" the city.

Raskin, a land use and environmental attorney, was appointed to the Commission in 2020 and was elected vice chair in 2022 and chair this year.

Zane sees the move as clearly political. "I guess doing a good job doesn't matter," he said. "Competency and success are not the criteria.

"The criteria is apparently political, and since he was running for City Council, they didn't want him to have the visibility."

Lesley, who was appointed to the Downtown Board in 2020, is also Chair of the Rent Control Board. According to her application, she has brought "innovative ideas to include the community with our projects and programming."

Brock thinks that is not enough. "Right now, we need people who are intimately involved," he said. "A lot of the Board members were political appointees without a stake Downtown."

The three appointees to the DTSM Board -- Jon Farzam, Berta Negari and Michelle Cardiel -- are all major stakeholders in the Downtown.

Farzam -- who owns the Shore Hotel and Ocean View Hotel -- said his primary goal is "to contribute to the economic revitalization of Downtown Santa Monica."

"I envision the board as a catalyst for economic growth, promoting business development, attracting investments and supporting local enterprises to enhance the economic vitality."

Negari runs two property management companies in Santa Monica, and her son, Daniel Negari, recently purchased eight parcels along the Promenade for a combined total of $104 million ("Investment Downtown Signals Revitalization Underway, Officials Say," June 21, 2024).

"My vision is to unite the city and property owners/businesses who are sometimes at odds in order to bring about the changes that are necessary to bring back the Promenade and downtown Santa Monica," said Negari, who has worked in Santa Monica for more than ten years.

Cardiel is a Santa Monica native and business owner who has run a company since 2006 that expedites permits.

Cardiel's vision is to make the Promenade "safe, clean and inviting" and return it to what it was in the 1990s and early 2000s -- "a world renowned open air retail and restaurant location."

The Planning Commission and Downtown Board were among 16 Boards and Commissions that saw a total of 34 new members appointed by the Council Tuesday.