Remarks by Lana Negrete
67 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
The City of Santa Monica is located on the land of Tovongar. With great respect, the City acknowledges the Gabrielino Tongva and the first people of its ancestral and unceded territory, Curuvonga, a village that we know as Santa Monica. We honor their elders, past and present, and the Gabrielino descendants who are part of the Gabrielino Tongva tribes. We recognize that these peoples are still here, and as settlers, kuyam, guests, we recognize our responsibility and obligation to care for their land in partnership with them. The City of Santa Monica commits to work in partnership with the…
So when you go to the picture where it covers the building, it's going over windows?
What if they can't collect what's promised?
In terms of revenue to give us what's promised in the MAG and all that stuff.
Even if they don't meet it, they have to give us what they're promised.
And then you said it can be removed or like there's five years, after five years of it being dead, so it would have to sit there as a blight for five years, not performing?
But it could be not showing anything for five years, essentially sitting there as a big, giant, empty, non-usable sign.
I don't know, I'm asking, I thought I heard the occupancy part, but I thought...
How long can the display be dormant, like have nothing on it? I guess they wouldn't want to do that.
And then the removal of the trees, those are mature trees, obviously being replaced with much lower trees?
Is that at the old Trusted Vetted Building? I'm trying to...
I have a bizarre question, but it just feels like that building is perfect for housing above. And if there was housing put over there, I guess that sign would be a problem. That might not be an appropriate question for this particularly because it sort of doesn't relate to the building. But I presume that's up to the property owner and current.
the removal of it would then impact us in terms of receiving some revenue. So, like, I'm just trying to figure out, like, if something else happened to that building and they decided to do something else with it where that sign was impacting being in front of those windows.
And then my last question, the signs that we have already have been up for how long? Like the one on Wilshire?
Have we thought about seeing how they perform before moving to more signs?
I have one more question. Was the historic conservancy wanting to have like some sort of picture that plays the history of the building? Is that still happening?
It is in the development agreement? Yes. Okay. Be clear though, does it show a picture of like, like you're looking at the whole building?
I was just going to make the comment that maybe it's more after the vote, I guess. You just made your comment about, yeah, I'll make my comment after the vote.
I don't know. I'm having a hard time. Natalia was bringing up some of it. I'm really concerned about blank signage. I'm not a fan of it covering the windows. I think it prevents if we ever want to put housing there. I don't know what happens. I don't think you're going to remove this sign, and I don't know who would want to live behind a sign. But anyways, I'll save my comments for after the vote.
So I'd like to expand my no vote. I approve the first digital signage, and I have to be honest with you, although beautiful when I'm sitting and watching it, it also breaks my heart a little bit. I think economic recovery and historic preservation shouldn't have to compete with each other. I just don't think it's as aesthetically pleasing. I appreciate the sign. I appreciate what we're getting from it. It feels a little bit like selling our soul and the soul of the promenade in a way. I understand this is a new way to recoup revenue. I just don't think we've had signage up enough to make sure…
Question about the form. So let's just say somebody fills the form out and designates somebody and then forgets about it. And this emergency situation happens 10 years later. And the person that's on the form is no longer the person or they didn't think about designating it. I mean, what ends up happening? An ex-girlfriend or something and they go pick up the check.
And is it like a threshold of how many employees has to adhere to this? Is this everybody?
I have one more question to build on that. What I'm just trying to understand is so most people get direct deposit but lots of people get a paper check. A last paycheck is a paper check. My only confusion or understanding around this is like I understand that it's an open enrollment period but things can change mid-year and I would hope that someone would have to come to you and then they'd have to change their form. Like I'm just going to use the relationship thing. I no longer want this person to pick up my check. More importantly, though, the check is addressed to their home address or…
And now it's a form that you have to fill out, and if they don't wanna designate anyone, then they need to just put that on there. No one is designated to pick up my check. I wanna have it mailed.
Right, because otherwise you're forcing them to select someone. We can make sure we incorporate that.