No kings in Santa Monica by Devan Sipher August 5, 2025 in Government & Politics, Opinion Last Friday, President Trump fired the Commissioner of Labor Statistics when she provided data that displeased him, which suggests we may have officially crossed into an Orwellian era. But if we’re demoralized by the denigration of democratic norms, we don’t have to look all the way to Washington, because it’s happening right here in Santa Monica. Three days prior to the President’s action, the City Council purged all of the appointed members of the Downtown Santa Monica (DTSM) board of directors in a hastily called special meeting by Councilmembers Barry Snell, Dan Hall, and Caroline Torosis. With little explanation and less warning, six of the seven Councilmembers voted to remove the DTSM board members and then declared an “emergency” due to their removal, which allowed the Council to appoint new people of their choosing. And they happened to choose two former members of the Council and the recent interim city manager. The Council claimed that they were merely appointing people from the list of current applicants. What they didn’t mention was that all but one of them had coincidentally applied in the 10 days prior to the announcement of the supposedly surprise meeting. Don't Miss Out Premium Santa Monica news in your inbox. It's free, cancel anytime. Email OR Sign in with LinkedIn Sign in with Microsoft The Council has the legal right to remove any appointed board member or commissioner with or without cause, which is also what the President’s defenders have repeatedly said, not only this week, but when he fired the consumer product safety commissioners, the federal trade commissioners, the National Labor Relations Board members, and the Kennedy Center board members. Now the door has been opened for the same kind of power plays in Santa Monica. “There are many commissioners that this council did not appoint that act against the wishes of this council,” Councilmember Hall stated at the meeting shortly before unseating the DTSM board members. “We have CHOSEN not to remove those commissioners.” The emphasis on the word “chosen” is mine, but the implicit threat is his. The Council seems to be operating on an assumption that the 2024 election provided them with a mandate for their agenda, but of the roughly 80,000 eligible voters in Santa Monica, only about a quarter of them voted for the winning slate. That doesn’t constitute anything resembling a mandate, and, ironically, it’s significantly less support than Donald Trump received from voters in that same election. Yet all of the Councilmembers defiantly spoke at the No Kings rally, protesting the Presidents’s hubris and autocratic overreach. “How does anybody not see that this is the same thing at a local level?” asked Mayor Lana Negrete, who was the only Councilmember to vote against the removal of the board members. Councilmember Hall rejected the comparison with Washington. “The parallels are unfair and incorrect,” he said. “What we are trying to do here is prevent the dismantling of an agency.” That was one of several reasons given for the Council’s actions. Councilmembers expressed grave skepticism about the board’s efforts to sustain DTSM as well as criticism about the number of unoccupied downtown storefronts. Of course, if the inability to improve the city’s economy is a legitimate reason for dismissal, then the Councilmembers should all be recalled. However, they also raised other valid concerns, including the board’s makeup. “The residents have been underrepresented due to prior council appointments,” said Councilmember Snell, who lambasted the fact that none of the current board members are residents of the city and all of them are downtown business or property owners, likely making decisions based on “financial motives rather than community interests.” But there’s a big difference between having compelling complaints and taking unprecedented and undemocratic action. In the history of Santa Monica, I haven’t found a previous example of a single board member or commissioner being removed without cause (let alone six). When there was an attempt to remove a housing commissioner in 2022, former Mayor Gleam Davis, who was a Councilmember at the time, said “it means that anybody who disagrees with people on this council has to be afraid now if they’re on a board or a commission.” She said she found it “offensive.” But she must have changed her mind, because she’s now one of the “scabs” replacing the ousted board members. What happens if a coup falls in a forest and no one hears it? That’s a thought I have frequently these days when seeing the national news. There’s an ideology taking root that democratic norms are only something that applies to one’s opponents. It’s an infection in the body politic, and now the virus is spreading to Santa Monica. Devan Sipher can be reached at Unmuted.SMDP@gmail.com