October 23, 2024 -- Tuesday night's City Council meeting quickly devolved into a political fracas after Councilmember Oscar de la Torre's most vocal critics attacked him for comments he made in 2019 that had been dredged up shortly before Election Day.
Mayor Phil Brock repeatedly tried to referee the heated 20-minute bout that took place both from the podium and audience before Jason Mastbaum and Democratic Club president Jon Katz left the chambers after police were prepared to escort them out.
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The trigger was an item placed on the agenda by de la Torre -- who political opponents allege made an anti-Semitic remark in 2019 -- to allocate $2,500 to sponsor the "2024 Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism" conference in December in Beverly Hills.
Mastbaum kicked off public comments with a video of de la Torre criticizing two of his opponents in the November 5 race for control of the Council -- Dan Hall and Natalya Zernitskaya.
"... and by the way," the video started with de la Torre in mid-sentence, "some of these people haven't lived in the city long enough to understand the city.
"Natalya -- I can't even pronounce her last name because I haven't seen her long enough to know who she really is. I don't know where she came from," said de la Torre, who was born and raised in Santa Monica.
"Some of these folks, they come into our community, and we don't know who they really are. It looks like they were handpicked, and they're there to follow an agenda. If they win they're going to be beholden to all these special interests."
"Welcome to the Santa Monica three-minute history series," a voice from a different video that played earlier cuts in.
Mastbaun called de la Torre's discussion item "a stupid stunt" and said "Oscar should resign and apologize," leading to the first meltdown after Councilmember Christine Parrra tried to intervene.
"Excuse me," Mastbaum said. "This is my time, Christine, not your time."
"I think we're going to retire your time," Brock said after City Attorney Doug Sloan advised the comments should be "related to an item on the agenda."
As the heated exchange continued, Brock stepped in again. "Sir, you need to step away from the podium," he told Mastbaum. "Oscar, all of you, sir, you need to leave the podium.
"Thank you very much, you're done," the mayor said as Mastbaum was escorted from the podium by a police officer.
De la Torre tried to make a point of privilege, which triggered another outburst.
"Guys, hold on a minute. We are still a City Council on a dais," Brock said. "We need to maintain our decorum regardless of what anyone in the audience or any speaker may say."
He then let the Councilmember speak. "A lot of false allegations are continuously being said by Mr. Jason Mastbaum," de la Torre said. "And it's very offensive.
De la Torre said he placed the item on the agenda Thursday, the day before the Daily Press ran a letter by School Board member Jon Kean accusing him of making an anti-Semitic remark five years ago.
"It shows where my heart is, not where your fake allegations are," de la Torre said. "You can call it a 'stupid stunt.' I think that's anti-Semitic."
Brock stepped in as Mastbaum and de la Torre went at it again. "You either are going to be quiet in this chamber," he told Mastbaum, "or you are to leave this chamber."
"Actually, I have a minute and a half," Mastbaum said, prompting Brock to threaten to call in the police.
"He made a lot of allegations," de la Torre said. "I'm not going to address them all. Just to say that I am not anti-Semitic.
"I proudly have supported actions against hate, racism, anti-Semitism since I was 19 years old, and I've worked with Jewish leaders, Rabbi (Neil) Comess-Daniels, to stop hate.
"And this is the kind of hate that you continue to promote through all the negative emails we receive and all the fake accounts you create disrespecting us all of the time. I think you are part of the problem Mr. Jason."
After a brief respite during which a speaker addressed an item on Downtown signage, Katz stepped up to the podium.
"The biggest problem with the School Board is that it is run by the Jews," he said in a loud voice.
"Oscar de la Torre shared these words with a consultant hired by the School District in 2019. The consultant immediately shared her story with three School Board members, all of whom have come forward to confirm that Oscar did, in fact, make this anti-Semitic statement.
"We have long known Oscar to be divisive and specifically to divide our community along racial lines," Katz said.
"Oscar, you know you said it. I know you said it. Everyone here and everyone watching at home knows you said it," Katz said. "Oscar did make this remark, and it's time you hold him accountable."
Katz then concluded his speech. "He is gaslighting you, Santa Monica. Don't let him get away with it today, and don't let him get away with it on election day."
Mastbaum was given his remaining 1 minute and 42 seconds to speak -- which he used to air ant-transgender comments he said were made by de la Torre, who countered that he had voted for transgender bathrooms.
Given his final turn to speak, de la Torre addressed the source of his alleged anti-Semitic comments. The consultant, he said, was not picked by the District Superintendent or chosen after a bidding process. She was picked by Kean.
"The consultant in question -- this is the smoking gun -- I interviewed (with) for 45 minutes," de la Torre said.
She quit "not because of an alleged comment I made" but because "I told her I could not participate in the process" due to her "relationship" with Kean.
"These are not unbiased people," de la Torre said. "These are people who have an agenda."
De la Torre noted that Kean never brought up the issue when the comments were allegedly made in 2019 or when he ran for Council in 2020, but in a letter to the editor a month before the election.
"He's bringing it up in this election now because it's dirty politics," de la Torre said. "It's clearly a political attack."
Katz and Mastbaum continued shouting comments from the audience as Brock, who is also running for reelection, tried to maintain order.
"You should be embarrassed," Katz shouted from the audience. "Look at the meeting you're running."
"Mr. Katz," Brock said, "please leave the chamber. You're done."
"You'll be done election day," Katz shouted, before he and Mastbaum were escorted by two officers from the Council chambers.
