SR 01-23-2024 4C
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: January 23, 2024
Agenda Item: 4.C
1 of 1
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Nikima Newsome, Interim City Clerk, Records and Election Services
Department
Subject: Conference with legal counsel - existing litigation - Gov. Code §54956.9(d)(1):
Black Lives Matter, et al. v. City of Santa Monica, et al.; U.S. Dist. Court,
Central District of California, Case No. 2:21-cv-05253
Prepared By: Esterlina Lugo, Deputy City Clerk
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Written Comments
4.C
Packet Pg. 118
From:Wittig, Michele A
To:councilmtgitems
Cc:Phil Brock; David White
Subject:Jan 23, 2024 City Council Items 3A, 4C and 16F
Date:Tuesday, January 23, 2024 5:55:29 AM
EXTERNAL
To: Santa Monica City Council
From: Michele Wittig
RE: Jan 23, 2024 Council Meeting Items 3A, 4C and 16F
Dear Mayor and Council,
Thank you for agendizing the following Items:
3 A Black History Month
4 C Litigation regarding policing of 1st Amendment protests on Ocean Ave
and looting in the downtown retail district on May 31, 2020
16 F Steps toward implementing our City’s 2022 Black Apology
Each February, across the US, we celebrate the contributions of African-
Americans. Here in Santa Monica, we face the challenge of fulfilling the terms
of the City’s 2022 Black Apology.
1.As you move through tonight’s agenda and every Council agenda, let
your work stand as proof that you act on behalf of all Santa Monica
residents who share the Black Apology’s resolve “… take responsibility for
personal and direct contributions to discrimination…”
2.Use the recent Board and Commission restructuring and the 2021
launch of the Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission as avenues
for implementing the promise made in the Black Apology to “…to rectify the
lingering consequences of discriminatory city policies…”
3.Enlist the meaningful involvement of our local business community,
faith-based organizations, governmental agencies, non-profit civil rights,
educational, health and housing institutions and grassroots organizations to
“dismantle structures responsible for racial disparities…”
Thank you for your past, current and future leadership in furtherance of these
resolutions, promises and commitments.
ITEM 4.C.
January 23, 2024
ITEM 4.C.
January 23, 2024
4.C.a
Packet Pg. 119 Attachment: Written Comments (6226 : Closed Session 4.C. - Black Lives Matter)
From:Karen Wise
To:councilmtgitems
Cc:Phil Brock; Lana Negrete; Gleam Davis; Christine Parra; Jesse Zwick; Caroline M. Torosis; Oscar de la Torre
Subject:Council Agenda Items 3A, 4C, 16F January 23, 2024
Date:Tuesday, January 23, 2024 7:28:29 AM
EXTERNAL
January 23, 2023
Dear City Council Members:
I write today in reference to three items that appear on tonight’s City Council Agenda:
3 A Black History Month
4 C Litigation regarding policing of 1st Amendment protests on Ocean Ave
and looting in the downtown retail district on May 31, 2020
16 F The City of Santa Monica’s 2022 Black Apology
These items are related, and they should be considered as such, since they all stem from our
City’s ongoing legacy of racist policies and practices, as well as the fallout, never truly
addressed, of the horrors of May 31, 2020, after which we were featured on the front page of
the New York Times as an example of local police using military weapons against peaceful
protesters, many of which where our own youth – some even known by Police Officers who
fired “non-lethal” weapons at them.
1. As you move through tonight’s agenda and every Council agenda, let your work stand as
proof that you act on behalf of all Santa Monica residents who share the Black Apology’s
resolve “… take responsibility for personal and direct contributions to discrimination…”
2. Use the recent Board and Commission restructuring and the 2021 launch of the Public
Safety Reform and Oversight Commission as avenues for implementing the promise made in
the Black Apology to “…to rectify the lingering consequences of discriminatory city policies…”
3. Enlist the meaningful involvement of our local business community, faith-based
organizations, governmental agencies, non-profit civil rights, educational, health and housing
institutions and grassroots organizations to “dismantle structures responsible for racial
disparities…”
Words are not enough. It is time to act - actually to dismantle ongoing inequities in housing,
education, and treatment by the police here in Santa Monica today. We need proactive,
creative action to revitalize our downtown and bring true equity to our city.
ITEM 4.C.
January 23, 2024
ITEM 4.C.
January 23, 2024
4.C.a
Packet Pg. 120 Attachment: Written Comments (6226 : Closed Session 4.C. - Black Lives Matter)
We can be a better city, a city that shows the way for the future, but this will require all of us,
and you as our elected representatives, to look to the future and not to the past as models for
what our city can be, and will be.
Thank you for all you do on behalf of all of us.
Sincerely yours,
Karen Wise, Santa Monica
Karen Wise
kwise2@gmail.com
ITEM 4.C.
January 23, 2024
ITEM 4.C.
January 23, 2024
4.C.a
Packet Pg. 121 Attachment: Written Comments (6226 : Closed Session 4.C. - Black Lives Matter)