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Former Mayor #mikefeinstein writes in the #smdailypress to defend the #Santamonicacity decision to pay $10M to appeal a verdict that the city's at-large districts violate the California Voting Rights Act. #CVRA smdp.com/santa-monica-c…
What #mikefeinstein doesn't mention is one of the central points of the court's ruling - in 72 years of at-large voting, only 1 Hispanic candidate has been elected to the #Santamonicacity city council despite representing 13.1% of the population. santamonica.gov/Media/Default/…
What #mikefeinstein doesn't mention is the long history of the use of At-large elections in the South to ensure white-only governments or the fact that #Santamonicacity adopted the at-large plan "at a time of significant interracial tension" in Santa Monica. 
What #mikefeinstein doesn't mention is that the #Santamonicacity won't disclose how much it has spent on fighting the lawsuit (believed to be approx $20M) and will spend as much as $10M on appeal.
What #mikefeinstein doesn't mention is that $10M could add up to 100 police officers to #Santamonicacity whose crime rate is up, when neighboring cities are seeing a drop. Instead, he says raise council pay since protecting incumbents is more important than protecting citizens.
So spending $30M protecting an outdated system and the incumbents who benefit makes sense to #mikefeinstein when #Santamonicacity was unable to deploy new fire engines to replace its aging fleet because it did not have the $$ for tools/equipment to place them in service.
I see the entrenched ruling class of a so-called progressive city being forced to choose between its privileged position and its values and choosing the former at great expense and without informed debate (since the costs are not disclosed). #Santamonicacity
