The City Council meeting on Dec. 11 will be the last for Councilwoman Pam O’Connor after 24 years on the dais.

O’Connor lost her bid for reelection in November of this year and Council will recognize her time in office as part of the annual reorganization ceremony that includes swearing in of new councilmembers and selecting a mayor.

Council will also formally accept the official results of the November ballot.

According to the report, there were 69,686 registered voters in the City of Santa Monica. Of those, 23,247 voted in person and 23,481 voted by mail for a total of 46,730 or 67 percent turnout. The SMC and SMMUSD borders are wider than the City but total turnout was similar. In the SMC District, there are 81,432 voters. 27,158 voted in person and 27,647 voted by mail for a total of 54,807 or 67 percent. In SMMUSD there are 81,503 voters. Of those, 27,158 voted in person and 27,708 voted by mail for a total of 54,868 or 67 percent.

The report includes the final counts for ballot measures. Measure TL won with 74 percent, Measure SM won with 70 percent and Measure RR won with 78 percent,

The meeting of Dec. 11 is devoid of traditional business and is dedicated to the administrative task of seating newly elected officials. In addition to the successful City Council candidates (Sue Himmelrich, Greg Morena, Kevin McKeown), the meeting will include the oath of office for the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees (Louise Jaffe, Nancy Greenstein, Sion Roy, Barry Snell), Santa Monica Malibu Unified School Board (Laurie Lieberman, Richard Thvildaran-Jesswein, Oscar De La Torre, Craig Foster) and Rent Control Board (Naomi Sultan, Nicole Phillis, Steve Duron).

Following the Oaths of Office, the new council will select a Mayor and a Vice Mayor to serve for the next two years.

While the meeting is following the traditional pattern for newly elected offices, the swearing-in follows the recent ruling against the city in the California Voting Rights Act case. A judge has issued a tentative ruling declaring the at-large election system as biased but she has not yet decided how the rules will change. The Plaintiffs have asked for a new election in 2019 with districts they have drawn. The City is appealing the ruling and has said any move to districts should allow enough time for a public process to draw district boundaries.

editor@smdp.com