By Martin Goldstein, Political Director

The nominating convention of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR), the city's preeminent political organization, was by all measures a success for the SMC Faculty Association. Our goal was to gain SMRR's support for the four candidates we are supporting for the four Board of Trustees seats up in the November election, and by the end of the convention on August 6, held at Olympic High School in Santa Monica, we had achieved exactly that.

Current Board of Trustee members Herb Roney, Carol Currey and Dorothy Ehrhardt-Morrison all chose not to run again, leaving three seats open, with only current Board Chair Nancy Greenstein running for reelection. When the votes were counted, Chair Greenstein, Andrew Walzer, former part-time faculty member here at SMC, David Finkel, retired judge and current part-timer here, and Louise Jaffe, school activist and founder of the influential Community for Excellence in Public Schools (CEPS), all received the coveted SMRR endorsement.

Chair Greenstein received 125 of the 147 votes cast, Judge Finkel got 119, Ms. Jaffe 116, and Mr. Walzer 92, with Tom Donner, retired Vice President of the college, trailing with 27. All five have qualified for the November ballot, along with Susanna Bracke, a financial advisor, who did not seek the SMRR endorsement.

The often fractious convention proceeded smoothly this year, with a unity slate for city council made up of Kevin McKeown, Pam O'Conner, both incumbents, and Gleam Davis, a lawyer and school activist. The school board race gave the nod to incumbents Oscar de la Torre and Emily Bloomfield, along with newcomers Kelly Pye and Barry Snell, while the Rent Control Board support went by acclamation to SMRR supporters Jennifer Kennedy, Zelia Mollica and Marilyn Wilson. All other decisions were made on the first ballot, all winning candidates receiving the necessary 55% of the votes cast the first time around.

Before the convention, faculty enjoyed a delightful picnic lunch from Bay Cities Italian Deli, while mingling with (and lobbying) the SMRR loyalists. Given that our influence on the convention floor is directly related to the number of people we have there to vote, enormous thanks and appreciation are owed to those who gave up their Saturday afternoon to attend.

We thus wish to recognize the efforts of Teri Bernstein, Janet Harclerode, Josh Kanin, Lesley Kawaguchi, Barry Logan, Ruth Logan, Richard Mednick, Bill Price, Ken Rasmussen, Michael Strathearn, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, Michael Tracey, and especially Tracey Ellis, who helped us make this effort a smooth and solid success.

But - we still have a campaign to run and an election to win, so mark your calendars for the SMCFA PAC Fund Raiser Beach Party on October 7 from 1:00-6:00 on the beach in front of Josh Kanin's house. There you can join with all our friends from SMRR and the community at large there to enjoy an afternoon of sun and sand, good food and drink, lots of conversation -- and no speeches. Look for the invitations in your mailbox early in September. Everybody cool is coming, so be there or be square!