Heres my questionnaire answers for a local newspaper. Some of my answers will be truncated for publication as they are over the allowed word count. QUESTIONNAIRE Name: Phil Brock Age on Election Day: 60 Incumbent or Challenger: Challenger Occupation: President/CEO Studio Talent Group. Chair, Santa Monica Recreation & Parks Commission; Member, Civic Auditorium Working Group 1. How long have you lived in Santa Monica? In what neighborhood do you live? 60 years (Born at St Johns Hospital, Santa Monica). San Vicente Blvd by Ocean Avenue (NOMA) now, grew up in Mid City. 2. You are allowed to vote for up to three candidates in this City Council election. Who has your vote? Phil Brock. Im an independent voice who will work with whatever other Council Members are on the dais for the good of our residents, not outside business interests. 3. Who is this city’s greatest council member in Santa Monica history past or present? What about this person earns the title? I have a tie between Herb Katz and Ken Genser. Both were willing to listen to residents, both reached beyond ideology and were willing to compromise for the good of our residents, and both left our city a better place. 4. What has your experience been in community involvement? How does it qualify you to be on the City Council? I am presently the Chair of the Recreation & Parks Commission and have been a Commissioner since 2003. In addition, Im a member of the Civic Auditorium Working Group, formerly the Chair of the Sports & Physical Education Advisory Committee of the SMMUSD, a former President of the Boys & Girls Clubs Council, a Kiwanis Club Board member, Vice President of the Santa Monica Alumni Association and more. I have volunteered in this town to help children, teens and anyone who needs a hand up in life. Ive marched with janitors, with hotel workers, with teachers, with actors and writers as they seek social & economic justice. I have helped raise needed dollars for Sojourn, The Pico Youth & Family Center, of course, the Boys & Girls Clubs. I went to our public schools, played in our parks and believe we can do better as a city. Im an independent voice with a lifetime of experience in Santa Monica. My parents taught me common sense, I learned how to use it as a businessman. I want to apply that knowledge in our City Hall to help all of our residents of all ages have a better life in Santa Monica. Its time for a councilperson to stand up and fight for our residents and to put our neighborhoods first. As a Parks Commissioner I know that Parks Make Life Better. Lets add more parks...not more high rises! 5. Should Santa Monica Airport fully or partially close as an aviation facility? Is so, when should this happen and when will it happen? The Santa Monica Airport, I believe, has long outlived its value to our community. First, we must try to reduce jet traffic. I believe our city can reclaim 35 acres of the westernmost runway one year from now without a battle with the FAA. We must remove that acreage from the Airport. The large jets that pollute houses below the flight path with noise and particulates will no longer be able to depart or arrive at SMO. We must also change all leases to short term (month to month) rentals at current market rates. We should not renew any leases until they all expire in July 2015. The FAA has said they will return control of SMO to our city in 2023. When that is achieved our residents should decide whether they want the airport to close and what the next uses shall be. We should concentrate on obtaining permission to sell cleaner aviation fuel in the interim as well as stopping flight school flights. On November 4th I ask that you vote NO on Measure D (promoted by the airplane pilots and operators association) & vote YES on Measure LC for Local Control. 6. What’s your take on the Elizabeth Riel affair? I believe Elizabeths prior political activity had no bearing on whether she would perform her duties for the City Manager and our residents. Quite obviously, political pressure was applied by the Mayor to the City Manager because Elizabeth had opposed Pam OConnor 8 years ago. In this town of political and social activism the only yardstick should have been her fitness for the job advertised, not to whom she had donated. Our Mayor is from Chicago but she should know that is not acceptable behavior for Santa Monica politics. Along with the taking of donations to retire her previous campaign debt from the Hines Company Ms OConnor is not setting the bar very high. I firmly believe that this hiring/firing of Elizabeth Riel (whom I have never met) is a travesty for the City Manager and the Mayor. We must do better. 7. A recent Rent Control Board report shows the median rent for a studio apartment in 2013 was $1,300 and for a three-bedroom it was $3,171. Do you believe Santa Monica has become too expensive of a place for the average person to live? If so, should this be changed? Can it be changed? Rents in Santa Monica are out of control. Obviously, we are a desirable place to live and rents are a symptom of our popularity as a town. However, rent inflation has skyrocketed. We must protect our current renters by doubling the Ellis Act payout amounts. We must stop the combining of property parcels in order to eliminate the desire to build bigger apartment or condo complexes. We can instill conservation overlay zones to protect our current housing stock. We need to make sure that we set firm zoning height limits in our neighborhoods. We need to build both middle and low cost housing throughout our community. By gently increasing the housing stock and by preserving our existing stock we can control rents in Santa Monica. 8. Recently, organizations have formed in Santa Monica to fight what they consider to be the threat of major development in Santa Monica. Do you agree major development is a threat to Santa Monica? If so, how can this threat be curbed? If not, why do you think these organizations are wrong? Yes, development is the major issue in our city. Its the reason Im seeking a seat on the City Council. We have to think of our residents and a Department Of Common Sense in City Hall is a start. Development spawns traffic and degrades our quality of life. I joined Residocracy and fought against the Hines development because our streets and our residents couldnt handle another 7,000 cars each day. 13,510 of my fellow residents joined me in saying, STOP. Residocracy is a needed organization in Santa Monica since we cannot trust our Planning Department, City Manager or City Council. We are a beach community. Thats our charm and our legacy to future generations. Santa Monica is not supposed to just be an extension of downtown LA...we are the breath of fresh air for LA. High rises are not our future, trees are. Streets that are canyons of buildings are not the Santa Monica that we are live here for. Were already the 6th most densely populated city in California and #2 on the list of most stressed out suburbs in America. We have the least amount of Park space for a city our size in our state. Traffic is gridlocked through much of our city. Over 30 more developments are in the planning stages with four high rises planned from Ocean Avenue to 5th Street. We cant take more. A light rail line is coming with no parking, no real bus service & only stupid bus stools to sit on. Our water supply is limited yet our City Council ignores it while rates start to spike. So, development is a threat that we have to deal with. It wont be stopped by being nice, by letting one high rise be built...we have to stop development thats not sustainable or smart, and that may harm our residents quality of life. I advocate height limits of four stories downtown, three stories on our boulevards and two stories in our neighborhoods. There should be no waivers or end arounds. Santa Monica can be livable forever if we do the right things now. 9. Should residents be allowed to vote on major development approvals and development agreements? If our residents vote on firm height limits in our city then most development agreements will be eliminated. A developer who wants to go bigger and denser than our codes would have to go the ballot box to change our law for their project. Most developers wont want to spend massive amounts of money and then lose. They will conform to our zoning codes, our height and density rules and build projects that our residents will like. Our development agreements are almost always a good deal...for the developers. Lets change that. I want special interests out of our Planning Department, our City Managers office and our City Council. There is only one special interest that should matter...the voice of our residents. 10. Name at least one positive change and one negative change that the Expo Rail will create for Santa Monica. Regarding the negative change, is there something the local government can do to mitigate it? Connectivity to major points in LA County is the positive change that Expo will bring. Over time, traffic will be reduced on our streets. But, in our immediate future, the Expo line will bring pain. We have not planned for parking. We have not planned for great connectivity to our north/south neighborhoods from the Expo Line. We have placed the light rail line on Colorado instead of above the center median of Olympic Blvd. Were adding to our traffic nightmare, creating more car pollution as cars circle endlessly to find a spot to park close to the stations and decreasing the odds that our residents will use the train. In addition, the pressure to redevelop along the train line is immense. This may decrease our affordable housing stock. We can add a park & ride parking structure in the City Yards to allow residents to use the train for their daily commute. We must establish a DASH type system to provide our residents access to the train. 11. Bob Holbrook will step down as a council member this year after 24 years on the dais. In many cities it would not be possible for a person to be on a council for so long because they have term limits. Should Santa Monica have term limits? Defend why or why not? Bob and I disagree about development issues but he cares deeply about our community. However, I believe that three terms is enough for any one person to serve on the City Council. As a Recreation & Parks Commissioner I am limited to three four year terms and our Council should be as well. In addition, we may need to vote for Council Members by district in the future to give our neighborhoods better representation. 12. Because no candidate was able to get enough votes at the Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights convention to earn an endorsement, the decision of whom to back was made by a small committee. Does this devalue the significance of SMRR support? Should SMRR still be considered a powerful organization? SMRR is still powerful but has lost its purpose. It appears now that the reason for its existence is simply to maintain power not to exercise it for the good of our residents. If the SMRR Board was going to make the endorsement decisions then why bother with a convention at all. Either respect the will of the collected membership or be honest and let everyone know that the Boards voice is the only one that matters. SMRR needs to find its communal focus and truly work for the good of our residents or be dismantled. If I recall, SMRR was for Hines until it wasnt. The emergence of Residocracy caused SMRR leadership to realign their organization. If SMRR was doing the right thing (working for renters) over the last decade our traffic wouldnt be as bad, planning decisions would not be corrupt and our Council would be listening to our residents concerns. 13. You’re forced into a talent show. What’s your act? Scene One: A comedy routine about the ineptitude of City Staff leadership. Scene Two: I fix the problems we laughingly see in scene one. The Department Of Common Sense is born. 14. Not including Santa Monica, what is your favorite US City and why? Denver. Its an active population concerned with wellness (not studying wellness, being well!), has great public transportation sources (including free downtown transit, bike sharing, train systems, walking & biking paths) and a city government that is designed around the wellbeing of its residents. It is a city long concerned being green and sustainable. And, I love the proximity to mountains, lakes, prairies and popular amenities. 15. What is your favorite street in Santa Monica and why? San Vicente Blvd. The median parkway with the beautiful Coral Trees, the courtyard apartments on my block, and the Magnolia trees on the street easements. The close proximity to our communal front yard, Palisades Park. The great bike lanes, the Adelaide stairs (when people remember that they are in a neighborhood) and the ability to walk to the beach and see one of the best sunsets in the world. 16. You’re given absolute authority in Santa Monica for one day to do one thing. What do you do? Build Parks On City Owned Land for our residents to enjoy forever!!!
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:29:50 +0000
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