Santa Monica has long been a beacon of Southern California’s economic strength and has suffered a share of struggles in recent years.
Its once bankrupt downtown shopping district has been hit by the pandemic, The Third Street Promenade that needs to be reinvented and the upscale Santa Monica Plaza shopping center Its anchor point is about to be lost. Other factors include a pandemic shift in the entertainment industry and new tariffs.
But Santa Monica finds herself on the verge of a financial crisis, and here’s another person: a reason not to be expected: Hundreds of millions of dollars in a sexual abuse settlement.
The city still faces 180 claims of sexual abuse by Santa Monica police dispatchers, a scandal that has already cost $229 million in settlement spending. On Tuesday, New York City announced it was in financial trouble, a move that raised concerns among urban workers, namely layoffs or even layoffs.
“The financial situation this city is dealing with is certainly serious,” said city manager Oliver Chi during the city council meeting.
City workers’ concerns reached a peak that Chi sent an email to all city employees ahead of Tuesday’s meeting in an attempt to assure them that there were no plans to lay off employees.
“Let me know,” read the Times reviewed email. “This action is not to lay off employees or reduce employees.”
Santa Monica’s recently approved budget budget for 2025-2026 is expected to see revenue of $473.5 million but cost $484.3 million, with city officials worried that the sexual abuse scandal could continue to waste already being consumed from the economically declining city safes.
Pedestrians walked up the vacant retail store on March 20, 2023 and rented along the Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.
(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Many cities are taking the lead from reducing tax revenue and struggling businesses.
But officials pointed out that the so-called sexual abuse of former city dispatcher Eric Uller was the factor that pushed Santa Monica into an all-financial crisis.
Uller Predation is mainly children in Latino communities According to court records, the city often rides in unmarked police cars or his personal SUVs with police equipment.
For decades, Uller volunteered to participate in the after-school program for police activities, but until He will be arrested and charged in 2018. He died of suicide in November 2018, but the effects of abuse will continue to reverberate in the city for many years.
A year later in 2019, AB 218 passed and expanded the limitations of the period of child sexual abuse. The new law means that victims of sexual abuse do not file a claim until they are 40 years old, or after they are discovered to be victims of abuse.
The new law unleashes a wave of litigation against school districts, counties and cities. In April, Los Angeles County agreed to a tentative settlement of $4 billion involving 6,800 abuse demands, some of which date back to the 1980s, involving probation camps, juvenile halls and McLaren Children’s Center.
For Santa Monica, the new law means taxpayers can face considerable labels in lawsuits related to Uller abuse.
Visitors walk past a store and enjoy a 50% discount on all items on the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade on July 16, 2024. Once Santa’s Monica’s iconic destination for shopping and dining, the Third Street Promenade showed off its age. During its heyday in the 1990s, the number of people who attracted locals and tourists who had attracted locals and tourists had been sparse for many years, down more than a third since 2019.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
More than 200 children are believed to have been harassed by former city employees. Although a 1991 background check showed Uller was hired and continued to work with children, according to a report reviewed by the Times, an investigation that showed he was arrested for harassing a young child as a teenager.
Chi said Santa Monica has had four rounds of settlement negotiations with those who filed the claims and will begin a fifth negotiation with another 180 claimants.
But current and former officials say the city’s current financial hardship cannot be placed just on legal claims and that its terrible financial situation can be seen in the shape of a few years ago.
“The city of Santa Monica has been dominating unnecessary spending for many years, and we know this financial crisis is imminent,” said former Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock.
Brock said the city faces a huge downturn in tourism and retail revenue, as well as several businesses leaving the city and promenade.
Undated Eric Uller cup.
(Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)
“I think you might have to provide the service on the right and look at [the city] “It may be served. I suggest we go back to the basics,” he said.
He said the city has been working to address the city’s homeless population and to find a sense of security in a city designed to attract international visitors and visitors from larger areas of Los Angeles in order to seek escape. He said the city had some success, but the decline in revenue and pending lawsuits created a “perfect storm” for the city.
Jon Farzan, who owns three hotels in the city, said the city’s sour economic outlook has been clear for some time.
“The business in Santa Monica has been going bankrupt,” Falshan said.
Farzan, a former board member in downtown Santa Monica, is one of two former members who recently filed a lawsuit against the city council, accusing six directors of wrongful dismissal. The nonprofit was established to promote, monitor maintenance and host special events in the city center. They claimed they were removed from office to promote the city’s service in the city center.
The city did not respond to the lawsuit in court.
Brock said the biggest obstacle to the city was the pending claims of the Uller scandal, which he said attracted “some immoral lawyers.”
Although the city has been insured, some of these individual claims have resulted in settlements ranging from $700,000 to less than $1 million, and the city’s $1 million deductions on some insurance companies are mostly the brunt of the brunt. The city has sued some insurance companies to recover some funds.
The announcement of “financial distress” on Tuesday, unanimously approved by the seven-member city council, has sparked concern and speculation among the city’s about 2,000 employees. According to a speech by the city manager, the city laid off about 400 employees in 2020, and New York City’s current forecast is that the city’s revenue is falling.
Teammate’s representative Judith Serling said that during the meeting, she went directly to city employees’ phone calls and questions to ask about possible layoffs.
“People are afraid of losing their jobs,” Salin said Tuesday. “People are afraid of cutting wages.”
Santa Monica officials have Originally set as a “financial emergency”, This move could have triggered authorities on urban settlements, such as cutting and immersion in reserves. However, the statement voted Tuesday to call for an announcement of “financial distress,” Chi said, which means a lot for New York City, engaging its financial position with other agencies, helping seek grants and other funds, and as a tool to “re-tune the city’s operations.”
“There is no doubt that the city is facing a serious financial situation and the resolution considered for the city council is a tool determined by staff aimed at helping develop a broader strategy,” the city said in a statement.
However, the strategy is still unclear. City officials said a plan is expected to be submitted in late October.
Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete said the declaration could help the city apply for grants, work with the California Coastal Commission to speed up the process of changing urban parking rates, and help push California lawmakers’ support bills to support liability for Santa Monica and other jurisdictions that have suffered from AB 218 and past sexual abuse liability.
Chi notes that there are bills that will limit AB 218 claims and may help the city.
“Our sexual abuse charges are over $229 million,” said Mayor Pro Tem Caroline Torosis. “We attribute this to survivors appropriately addressing this issue, but we should attribute it to Bible people to protect the financial stability of our city.”
It is unclear the exact steps for the city are not yet clear. A city official who asked not to be named would not speak on the record, said employees expressed doubts about the steps the city will take and whether it means cutting its salary or benefits. Earlier this year, the city reached an agreement with about 10 employees unions.
During Tuesday’s meeting, some residents urged city leaders not to cut services, but the future seems unclear.
“I heard a lot of people say we need more staff, we need more police, and all of this is true,” Chi said. “But the reality is that no matter how many resources we have, no matter how many police we have, no matter how many resources we have in the city, there is always more. All we need to do is try to figure out how we use the resources we have in the best way.”
