School Funding Measure Picks Up Steam

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

April 26 -- Sponsors of a controversial school funding initiative this weekend topped the approximately 8,200 signatures necessary to make the ballot, adding urgency to negotiations between City and School District officials over a compromise agreement.

Nearly 200 volunteers and paid campaign workers scoured the city Saturday, gathering at least 2,000 signatures, according to Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS), the grassroots group sponsoring the charter amendment, which would carve out nearly $6 million a year from the City’s budget to fund the cash-strapped school district.

That brings the total number of signatures to at least 9,000, more than the 15 percent of the city’s registered voters needed, but short of the 13,000 CEPS hopes to gather to assure the measure gets on the November ballot.

Following the City Clerk’s suggestion that signatures should be submitted by early next month, the group has stepped up its petition drive in an effort to meet a self-imposed May 5 deadline.

The intensified campaign -- which includes an undisclosed number of paid workers and more than 100 volunteers -- comes at a time when negotiations over a plan to avert the ballot measure appear to be making little progress, according to sources.

“Time is running out,” said CEPS Co-chair Louise Jaffe. “I mean if (the City and the school district) could come out with an agreement that is agreeable to them, that would pull the rug out from under our measure.

“That would be fine, but they don’t appear to getting there yet, from what I’ve heard,” she said. “I think we made it clear what we think needs to happen and, so far, (the City has) made it clear what they are willing to do, and there is definitely a chasm.”

City officials -- who vehemently oppose the measure -- have agreed to provide the mandated $6 million a year, but they have offered an annual a cost of living increase that falls far short of the additional funding CEPS guarantees if the municipal budget grows by more than 3.5 percent.

If the CEPS amendment passes, it could mean millions more a year during healthy economic times.

Once the signatures are submitted and verified, there is no way to remove the measure from the ballot, Jaffe said. To further complicate maters, CEPS cannot formally participate in the negotiations between the City and school district, she said.

“We’re certainly listening and attending the liaison meetings and encouraging council to move forward because there is always a risk in an election,” Jaffe said, referring to public meetings between school and City officials.

Despite progress in the negotiations over the past month, the City’s proposal falls short of the CEPS funding guarantees and there is a fundamental difference in the way City officials and CEPS supporters -- who are mostly parents and teachers -- view the City’s fiscal health.

Santa Monica, Jaffe said, has “a very strong tax base and we think that it will grow, and we want to share the growth. So that’s a big difference”
But City officials sounded a cautionary note at the liaison meeting earlier this month.

“It’s not that the City is insensitive to the needs of the school district,” said Councilman Ken Genser. “All of us recognize the district’s needs are large, but we are already scratching to provide what we can provide.”

In an effort to meet the looming deadline, CEPS -- which has relied on volunteers since kicking off its campaign in January -- has brought on paid signature gatherers in the last couple of weeks.

On Saturday, a paid worker and a volunteer flanked the entrance to Bob’s Market on Ocean Park Boulevard. The volunteer, a PTA president, was focusing on the CEPS initiative, while the paid workers was circulating petitions for a number of measures.

“The response has been great,” said the volunteer, who declined to give her name.

Jaffe declined to say how many workers the campaign is paying, only noting that it was “less than 100.” One worker said he believes he will be paid $4 dollars per signature.

“The bulk of our signatures have been gathered by volunteers,” Jaffe said. “We’re just trying to get a cushion with the paid volunteers because of the timeline.”