By Jorge Casuso

October 3, 2025 -- Santa Monica's printed newsletter "Seascape," as well as its election forum, will return as part of a plan unanimously approved by the City Council Tuesday that bars neighborhood groups from engaging in politics.

The plan also bases funding for the seven groups on the number of households each represents -- instead of the current $7,000 given to each group -- and waives City fees for neighborhood events and activities.

City Manager Oliver Chi noted that Santa Monica provides "much larger grant amounts than any of the jurisdictions we surveyed," which were Mountain View, Palm Springs and West Hollywood.

Santa Monica's engagement with neighborhood groups is "much more expansive, much more staff intensive" and costly, providing "much larger grant amounts" than the other jurisdictions, Chi said.

Tuesday's vote -- which drew extensive public input -- comes after the Council voted to suspend the program after at least two of the seven neighborhood groups endorsed candidates in last November's Council race, although they did not use City funding.

Under the new program, neighborhood groups receiving City funding that endorse or oppose political candidates are "ineligible for participation for at least five years and will not be listed on the city's website," according to the approved motion.

In addition, the groups that violate the policy would not be given space in "Seascape," which will be mailed to every Santa Monica household at least once a year at a cost of some $200,000.

Councilmember Dan Hall, who made the motion, said he had a problem with groups that "build their membership lists" using taxpayers dollars" then cross an "ethical line" by using the list "for partisan politics."

"I don't see why it would be appropriate for any of those groups to get funding any more so than any groups that engage in political activity or lobbying in the city," said Councilmember Jesse Zwick.

Zwick was also concerned that "the neighborhood groups are not actually representative of the neighborhoods that they represent."

He backed a provision included in the motion that requires the City to "collect demographic information on membership and board representation of each officially recognized group."

This information would include age, income and housing tenure and would be published annually "and compared against the demographics of the neighborhoods they represent."

Zwick also raised concerns about the $200,000 the cash-strapped City would spend printing and mailing a newsletter that is available online.

"I just don't understand why Seascape seems like an economic option if it's four times what we're allocating currently to allow (neighborhood groups) to send a mailer," Zwick said.

Councilmember Ellis Raskin acknowledged "it's a lot of money, especially at a time of fiscal crisis like this" but added it was worth it.

"It's money that I think is critically well spent for informing the public and having an opportunity to leverage a forum for all of the neighborhood associations to have space to to get their message out," Raskin said.