Friday, Aug. 18, 2006 | Congratulations to former San Diego City Manager Lamont Ewell for proving he is well qualified for the City Manager position in Santa Monica. The mayor and City Council of Santa Monica knew he would be the right man for the job when they hired him. In an article in the Los Angeles City Beat, titled, “Trashing Clean Votes, Former attorney general John Van de Kamp says Santa Monica is trashing its anti-corruption bill,” describes the new ethical standards in Santa Monica city government.
“They basically trashed Proposition LL and showed really utter disdain for campaign finance reform,” said Van de Kamp, who had urged Santa Monica officials to take a page from Pasadena’s playbook. “I’m disappointed, because I always thought Santa Monica has been considered a relatively progressive community and they are, I think, turning backwards,” he added.
And in a quote that we here in San Diego can all relate to, the former Attorney General said, “Basically, they walked away from this. One of these days there will be some problems there, the problems that are found at the foot of big money and attempts to influence elected officials by people with big money. While no system will ever totally prevent that, having a balanced, intelligent system intended to reduce that type of corruption makes good sense,” he said.