Santa Monica Council’s Firing of City Attorney

If the saintly Bob Myers really was the principled person his City Council admirers and SMRR supporters claim, he would have resigned from the $110,000-plus city attorney position rather than continue to accept salary for refusing to do the job for which he was hired.

And if Saint Bob was really a principled man, he would not have told one of his SMRR cohorts to wait until after the election so that the SMRR council could keep Myers on, not act on the reforms needed to ensure safety in our parks and public areas, and avoid having to answer to the public in November. Would such a principled man accept $82,000 in severance pay for sabotaging the will of the council?

And were it not for the complicity of his SMRR allies on the council, would these same council members have dipped into public monies to try to buy Saint Bob’s silence? (According to press reports, Bob Myers was promised the $82,000 severance pay if he would quietly resign, but St. Bob with his mighty principles showed once again that he could make fools out of his council allies, take the cash and still have it his way.)

Now it looks as though the council will allow Myers’ handpicked flunkies to continue the policies of defiance. In fact, acting City Atty. Joseph Lawrence already has stated publicly that his staff will carry on in the Myers tradition.

Beware of those who are sure they have the corner on righteousness. And beware also of those who are willing to let the zealots have their way--but only until it interferes with their attempt to maintain their political power.

Can we trust the SMRR majority on the council to enforce public safety requirements after an election, given their dependence on Myers’ allies who still remain in positions of authority? If this council is serious about curbing the excesses of the homeless, they must get rid of all those in the city attorney’s office who cloak themselves in righteousness and defiance, while having no compunctions about accepting their generous city salaries and then thumbing their noses at all of us.

ROBERTA GOLDFARB

Santa Monica