In September 1872, Col. Robert S. Baker
purchased the San Vicente and Santa Monica ranchos
from Jose del Carmen Sepulveda and other landowners.
The purchase included a total of 38,409 acres of
land for a reported $54,000. Col. Baker was a
wealthy businessman who married Arcadia Bandini de
Stearns. She was the widow of Don
Abel Stearns, one of the earliest American settlers
of Southern California, and the daughter of Juan
Bandini, one of the wealthiest and most
distinguished of the early Californians, according
to Ingersoll’s Century History – California,
1542-1908.Sometime in 1874, Senator
John P. Jones purchased an interest in the San
Vicente ranch and, in partnership with Colonel
Baker, began laying out the townsite of Santa
Monica. Senator Jones was a member of the State
Legislature of California from 1863 to 1868, and a
U.S. Senator representing Nevada from 1873 to 1903.
(Ingersoll’s Century History – California,
1542-1908.)
July 15, 1875. The Honorable
Tom Fitch, announcing the auction of the first
lots in Santa Monica:
At one o’clock we will sell at
public outcry to the highest bidder, the Pacific
Ocean, draped with a western sky of scarlet and
gold; we will sell a bay filled with white-winged
ships; we will sell a southern horizon, rimmed with
a choice collection of purple mountains, carved in
castles and turrets and domes; we will sell a
frostless, bracing, warm, yet languid air, braided
in and out with sunshine and odored with the breath
of flowers. The purchaser of this job lot of climate
and scenery will be presented with a deed of land 50
by 150 feet. The title to the land will be
guaranteed by the owner. The title to the ocean and
the sunset, the hills and the clouds, the breath of
the life-giving ozone and the song of birds is
guaranteed by the beneficent God who bestowed them
in all their beauty. (Looking at Santa Monica,
James W. Lunsford, 1983)
|
11/30/1886 |
A Special
Election was held to decide the
incorporation of the Town of Santa Monica . |
|
12/06/1886 |
The Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors met on this date
to canvass the votes cast at the November
30, 1886, election for the incorporation of
the City. The votes cast were 96 in favor
and 71 opposed! At the same election, a
board of five trustees was elected to
administer Santa Monica. The first City
Seal was adopted December 22, 1886, by
Ordinance No. 4, and is described as
follows: “Around the margin of said seal the
words ‘Town of Santa Monica Incorporated
November 30, 1886,’ vignette, wharf ship in
the distance, bathers in the surf.” The Town
of Santa Monica was situated within the
Township of La Ballona. |
| |
FIRST CHARTER:
MAYOR-COUNCIL ELECTED EXECUTIVE FORM OF
GOVERNMENT |
|
10/17/1905 |
The Board of
Trustees called for a special election to be
held on this date to decide whether to elect
15 freeholders to frame a municipal charter.
The measure was approved. |
|
03/28/1906 |
On this date,
an election was held wherein the proposed
charter framed by the freeholders was
approved. The Charter was ratified by the
Legislature on January 15, 1907. Under the
new charter, the City Council was composed
of one Mayor with veto power, and one
Councilmember from each of its seven wards.
The charter required weekly meetings.
Councilmembers received $5 per meeting,
which were set not to exceed one per week.
|
| |
SECOND CHARTER:
COMMISSION FORM OF GOVERNMENT |
|
12/01/1914 |
A Special
Election was called for this date as a
result of qualified petition submitted by
voters for a charter amendment to change the
form of govern-ment. The charter amendment
was approved. City Government now consisted
of 3 departments: Public Safety, Public
Works and Finance with one elected
Commissioner responsible for each
department. The City Council consisted of
the three elected Commissioners. The City
Councilmembers had $3,000, annual salaries.
The Commissioner of the Department of Public
Safety was the ex-officio Mayor; and the
elections process included the use of a
preferential ballot form. |
|
12/07/1915 |
Municipal
Election to elect the three Commissioners,
as provided for under the new charter form
of government. Three Commissioners were
elected. The Commissioner of Public Safety
was also the ex-officio Mayor and Chairman
of the Board. This form of Government
continued for many years. |
| |
CURRENT CHARTER:
COUNCIL-MANAGER FORM OF GOVERNMENT |
|
10/00/1945 |
The City
Council voluntarily placed the question of
election 15 freeholders to frame a new
charter on the upcoming December municipal
election in response to a petition that was
being circulated and had already gotten
about 7,000 signatures. The petition sought
to place the same question on the ballot. |
WHY WAS CHARTER REFORM NEEDED?
(The following information was
gathered from a number of articles appearing in
different editions of the Evening Outlook in 1945.)
In 1944, the Santa Monica Chamber of
Commerce began a study of the problems confronting
the City. Some time later, after a series of forum
meetings, the Chamber arrived at the conclusion that
a council-manager form of government was what was
needed in Santa Monica. At that point, the
recommendation was turned over to a city-wide
Citizens Charter Committee, chaired by Charles
Ashford. Mr. Ashford was quoted in an Evening
Outlook article as follows:
For years Santa Monica has
been handicapped by a system of divided
authority in its city government and by other
bad effects of a charter adopted when this city
had less than 12,000 population. Today the need
for a new charter has become apparent to the
great majority of our citizens. If Santa Monica
is to grow and prosper in the postwar era, it
must have a progressive-minded and efficient
city government which it cannot have under the
present charter. The movement for charter reform
is nonpartisan and nonpolitical. It is not
directed against present office holders, who
under the present form of government are poorly
paid to have too restricted an opportunity to
serve the city. Under a new charter they might
find a much larger field for real public
service.
In the summer of 1945, the Citizens
Charter Committee began circulating a petition to
place on the upcoming municipal election in December
the question of electing 15 freeholders to frame a
new charter for the City, and to elect the 15
freeholders at the same election. In October of the
same year, when the petition gatherers had secured
about 7,000 signatures, apparently influenced by the
popularity of the petition and, perhaps not wanting
to incur the costs of a special election if the
petition did not meet the December election
deadline, the City Council voluntarily placed the
question of electing the freeholders on the December
ballot.
Articles published in the Evening
Outlook in the weeks prior to the election set forth
the various problems surrounding the then existing
three-commissioner form of government, as follows:
-
“It divides authority among
three men and makes none responsible for what
happens outside their respective departments.
-
“All three are equal in
authority, and if a disagreement arises about a
course of action, the matter is usually dropped.
They rarely agree on any question of broad
policy outside their own departments or overall
policy looking to the future. This form of
government prevents any of them from being
responsible for the whole government and from
considering city administration as a whole.
-
“Specific examples: the botched
breakwater project, where a great deal of money
was wasted; failure to provide recreation
facilities in the City; and lack of civic
improvements of any importance.
-
“The government, operating
without any over-all business head or policy,
has brought the city finances into a deplorable
condition over a long term of years. In spite of
stiff taxes, the city services cannot be
maintained even at the present level but for the
profits earned by the Municipal Bus Lines. If
revenues from the bus lines were to decline in
the future, the city would probably have to
raise taxes.” (The Evening Outlook added that
the then current combined tax rate for Santa
Monica was higher than that of any other city in
Los Angeles County.)
-
“The Commissioner of Public
Safety, ex-officio Mayor, is responsible for the
Police and Fire Departments, and the airport and
lifeguard service: This Commissioner gets a
salary of only $250 per month, the same as the
other two commissioners. He is not allowed to
engage in any (other) business or profession.
And because he controls the Police Department
and is responsible for law enforcement, he is
exposed to great temptation. If the Commissioner
yields to the temptation, there is no one in
city government to do anything about it or to
hold him accountable for his actions. The result
is a demoralized police force – something that
no community could afford.”
| 12/04/45
|
General
Election held; the creation of a Board of
Freeholders to draft a new Charter passed
and 15 Freeholders were elected; Bond
measure for sewage treatment plant passed;
increase of Commissioner salary from $3,000
to $6,000 annually failed; and exchange of
lands with UCLA Regents failed. The total
vote on whether to elect a Board of
Freeholders was 8,733, with 7,150 “yes”
votes and 1,583 “no” votes. |
| 11/05/46
|
Special
Election held for ratification of new
Charter providing a Council-Manager form or
government, with seven Councilmembers
elected at-large, as proposed by the Board
of Freeholders. The new Charter was adopted. |
| 03/18/47
|
General
Election for the selection of the first
seven Councilmembers under the new charter:
Mark T. Gates, H. George Markworth, George
A. Neilson, Ben A. Barnard, Jack J. Guercio,
J. Lee Schimmer, Jr., and Edwin Talmadge
were elected. The Council elected Mark T.
Gates as Mayor/Chairman, and J. Lee Schimmer,
Jr., as Mayor Pro Tempore. City Engineer
Maurice King was appointed Acting City
Manager. |
The Council-Manager form of
government established in the 1947 Charter has
served Santa Monica well for more than 50 years.
Nearly half of the cities in the U.S. with
populations of 2500 or more operate under the
Council-Manager form of government with an elected
governing body and a manager hired by that body to
carry out the policies it establishes.
This page was last modified on
07/25/2007
|
