Santa Monica, Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land (S5E16)

When you think of what a city on the Pacific Ocean in Southern California looks like, chances are you are thinking of Santa Monica. Meet former Mayor Phil Brock, who served in city government and continues to be his city’s booster. Listen to what’s going on in this beachfront city where the city motto is Fortunate City in a Fortunate Land. Sounds like Santa Monica.

GoodGovernmentShow.com Thanks to our sponsors:

Executive Producers: David Martin, David Snyder, Jim Ludlow
Host/Reporter: David Martin
Producers: David Martin, Jason Stershic
Editor: Jason Stershic

Transcription

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Phil Brock: First and foremost, that’s why I ran for council. It was to help my neighbors. In Santa Monica. Right now, we estimate we’re receiving about six homeless humans every hour. A politician, to me, sort of is kind of a dirty word. It sounds like there’s backroom things and all that. I don’t ever want to think of myself that way.

I really want to think of myself as trying to respond to my neighbors, and that I have a louder voice. And so I can. I’m not afraid to ask and demand things that we need. Because a lot of what my job is, is to inspire people to do more than they thought they could do. It’s a lot more difficult to govern because you’re knocking on.

David Martin: Whenever I get to Los Angeles, I always try to stop into Santa Monica. It’s a beautiful city on the beach. If you’ve never been there before, well, you’ve seen it many, many times in the movies and on TV. The Santa Monica pier. Well it’s iconic. Rocky three, Forrest Gump and the opening credits to the classic TV show Three’s Company are just a few of the things filmed there.

So when I got a chance to talk to the mayor of Santa Monica, I had him sit down for a conversation. Welcome to the Good Government show. I’m your host, Dave Martin. First, help us share the message of good government by liking us and sharing us where we are on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky. Please share us with your friends and don’t forget to review us!

Let’s get everyone excited about good government. All right. On this episode, I talked with Santa Monica mayor Phil Brock. However, there is an update. We recorded this at the Conference of Mayors in the summer of 2024. Unfortunately, in his last election, Mayor Brock did not retain his seat on the city council, and that’s how the mayor selected. He lost the race, but I thought the conversation was entertaining and interesting.

And hey, I like talking to people from some of my favorite places. So let’s go visit Santa Monica. If you’ve never been there. Well, go. It’s city of about 90,000 people on the West Coast and surrounded by the city of Los Angeles on three sides and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Of course, we talked about the beaches and surfing.

While tourists may see a beautiful beach, a fantastic view along the beachside strand and think, well, everything’s perfect here. Well, the city has problems too, just like any other city. Former Mayor Brock had some real challenges, but he had some solutions too. We discussed two issues. The city is dealing with homelessness and crime. Mayor Brock, help the city expand the police department.

He also work to alleviate the homeless problem that plagues his city and other cities. No easy solutions, but he recognizes the issue and he’s working on it. And he’ll tell you that. So coming up, my conversation with former Santa Monica mayor Phil Brock. I isn’t the future of government. It’s happening now. Let polymorphic power your government with AI, like other agencies, are already doing.

Polymorphic helps you power resident for a service to streamline requests while reducing staff workloads and speeding up how your citizens get answers. It’s a secure system that’s built for government. You’ll see immediate results with more informed citizens. Want to see how I can help you power a service first government. Visit polymorphic.com. That’s Polly Moi Icom.

County government affects more people than any other form of government. That’s why we like talking to so many representatives of county government here on the Good Government show. They are the voice of public service. The National Association of Counties, or Naco, supports all 3069 counties across the USA. This year, their annual conference is in Philadelphia in July. Plan to attend the conference and join them in their efforts to bring good government to America’s counties.

Check out the details at naco.org. That’s naco.org.

Welcome to the Good Government show. We are happy to have Mayor Phil Brock of one of my favorite places in America, Santa Monica, California. Welcome to the show.

Phil Brock: Happens to be my favorite place in America as well.

David Martin: And I see you’ve got your set of Monica, your your Santa Monica pier pin on.

Phil Brock: Absolutely.

David Martin: One of the great spots. One of the great spots. How often you visit the pier?

Phil Brock: I was down there twice last week.

David Martin: You were?

Phil Brock: Yeah, I was. I spend a lot of time walking our city. So I try and I try and, yeah, we’re walkable. But it’s also a way for me to connect with residents, connect with problems that I see on the streets. So I, I try and do at least a 3 to 4 mile walk every morning. You do so and different routes, different routes.

So I’ll go Palisades Park, the pier down to Ocean Park. I’ll find another way to go down, different boulevard or a different set of streets. So I try and cover the city. My significant other hates those walks sometimes, because anytime I see something wrong, I stop. You stop and report it right there.

David Martin: Okay. And you are. You are somewhat of a rarity. You said you’re a second generation, California, Santa Monica.

Phil Brock: And Santa Monica.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: Yeah. My, grandparents arrived in, LA in 1926. First in Bunker Hill. Yeah. Then Venice, then, Santa Monica. And that’s where they stayed.

David Martin: And how’s your movie script coming?

Phil Brock: No. Movie script, will be script. But, you know, look at the value of being the lungs of LA Santa Monica being that place where the fresh air flowed in. Yes, it was low rise. That’s going to change. But we were a low rise, comfortable city with the beach, with palm trees. When my grandparents were alive. Fishing boats, all that going on.

David Martin: Did you did you grow up surfing.

Phil Brock: App surfing, body surfing, baseball, basketball, volleyball, anything outdoors in Santa Monica, which I’m paying for now because I have various skin cancer thing.

David Martin: All, you know, what can you do? I have a question to ask. All you, all you guys who grew up surfing in Southern California, watching all the stuff I, you know, movies and TV as a kid. And then having finally surfed in Southern California. The water’s freezing. How did you do it without a wetsuit?

Phil Brock: No, no, no. Well, you don’t start. Tell me usually and then. But you know, at at, I don’t know if it’s freezing. It’s just it’s just so you warm blooded people don’t have any, stamina.

David Martin: I don’t think that’s what it is.

Phil Brock: I say the water’s cold, and actually, it’s warm enough for us. We just put ice cubes in when we see you coming.

David Martin: I say, well, I did talk to a guy who grew up there, and he said, oh, no, you just you were cold.

Phil Brock: That’s the. Yes. No, it’s the yeah.

David Martin: That’s what you did. Now. Santa Monica is certainly, a Los Angeles County city on the beach. Beautiful beaches, beautiful location. You can’t have any problems in Santa Monica, do you?

Phil Brock: Well, I’d like to think that in my fantasy that my dreams. We have no problems.

David Martin: No. Everything’s here.

Phil Brock: Girls in bikinis, guys. And, you know, no wetsuits, no guys at the Beach.

David Martin: Boys are constantly. Yes. Right.

Phil Brock: And Gidget. Good. The reality is. Yeah, we have a lot of issues in Santa Monica. We are connected on three sides by Los Angeles.

David Martin: Sounds a little bit like you’re going to dump on LA.

Phil Brock: Just. No, no, I’m not. But, the only side of our city that doesn’t have problems is the seaside area, because, look, as far as I have seen, I haven’t found any homeless dolphins yet.

David Martin: No, no, no. And this is something you mentioned to me. You do have a large homeless population and a homeless, challenge. What are you doing about it? What can you do about it? Where I’m more with the good government show. So let’s hear some good.

Phil Brock: Well, treat this well first thing is, I’m here at this conference.

David Martin: Of mayors.

Phil Brock: For a reason. I’m part of the, U.S. Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness. So seven weeks ago, we were in Washington, D.C.. Mayor Karen Bass of L.A. Other mayors from throughout the nation working on four different items. One, mental.

David Martin: Health.

Phil Brock: I have to we have to provide mental health to people in every city in the nation, because that is a crisis and crisis. I’m calling the loneliness crisis right now in America, where people have turned to drugs, alcohol, they’re depressed, rates of suicide have risen. That’s one so we need assistance that has to come from the federal and state government.

Secondly, section eight vouchers for those in need, for those who need help paying their housing bills, that’s the way to stop them from ending up on the street. That includes seniors who need housing because they’re on a fixed incomes and their rents have risen. So we were back in Washington DC asking for higher rates on section eight vouchers.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: Thirdly, section eight vouchers that come with the building so a developer could build an all affordable housing project because the government would in effect be guaranteeing their rent. So a lender would be willing to lend them the money to build the project. Fourthly, veterans have had a really tough time. If you’re a veteran of the United States and you get all your your benefits, medical, dental.

David Martin: Especially some of these veterans now are having two and three and four tours in combat.

Phil Brock: And and they learn to live on the streets. Yeah. As well. Now they’re put back in the housing. The federal government, you know, takes three months to train them, a week or two to let them out of the army. So veterans housing vouchers are very important. We’re trying to get them decoupled from their benefits so that, veterans need to get his housing and his vouchers.

We estimate in Santa Monica every night we have between 94 and 110 homeless ex Marines, Army, Air Force, etc.. That’s tragic. To further expand on that, on that, in Santa Monica right now, we estimate we’re receiving about six homeless humans every hour each way in light rail. That comes right in downtown Santa Monica now, and bus systems and the freeway.

It’s the end of route 66. The weather’s nice, weather’s nice, and they feel they can stay there and be unhoused. So, we s we guess that we have a statistic have shown we have between 900 and 1100 homeless people on the streets of Santa Monica each and every night. We’re an 8.3mi² city of 93,000 residents, the homeless population, we’re not showing compassion.

The federal government, the state government, the county nobody is showing compassion to them by leaving them on the streets. Number one.

David Martin: Yeah.

Phil Brock: Number two, we’re not showing compassion to the people who are residents of our city.

David Martin: Well, I was going to ask you about that. I mean, how did the residents of Santa Monica, how do you manage their expectations and their demands? I mean, that’s the challenge.

Phil Brock: We have a highly intelligent population of residents who are very active and concerned, but they’re also now feeling fear. They’re scared, because homeless people who are on set, not on meth or on traffic, are have lost control of their own emotions. So they will randomly reach out and strike someone, hit someone, walk into a restaurant with a, machete or bayonet.

Those are things that aren’t good for your residents.

David Martin: And and I.

Phil Brock: Yeah. And on top of that, there are real problems for our businesses. Our retail businesses are confronted with people sleeping in front of their doorways, are confronted with people walk in the store, retail theft.

David Martin: And a lot of the restaurants are outdoor restaurants where you can just start.

Phil Brock: So a lot of our restaurants and stores, especially in the downtown area, are now hiring private security guards. Well, if you’re hiring, private security guard to guard your taco business 100,000 a year for security. Yeah, is a hell of a lot. That’s a big. You have so.

David Martin: Sure. How do you stop that from being all consuming?

Phil Brock: I don’t think we have it. Is it is all consuming right now. And in Santa Monica, our residents feel fear. They’re concerned, they’re upset. But federal and state laws don’t let us. We can’t remove someone who’s laying on the public sidewalk. You can stop them from hoisting a tent, okay. And usually attend. But if they just want to lay down a public street, there is no law that says that they have to move along.

Well, that’s the problem because you can offer them services, you can offer them supportive housing, you can offer them drug counseling. You can offer them all the things that they should. They say.

David Martin: Know as they invariably do.

Phil Brock: And then there’s nothing you can do. And that therein lies the rub. Your residents want parks that are clean and safe. Sure, you’re residents want to be able to walk to and from our shopping areas safely.

David Martin: Or from their car to the restaurant back.

Phil Brock: Yeah, yeah. And, they’re worried. So that’s caused a huge emergency crisis in the city. But it’s one we can’t solve by ourselves. And it’s influenced by a lot of factors, not only the rise in homelessness, but 96% of the homeless population in Santa Monica are not from L.A. County. They have traveled from Missouri from everywhere to come to L.A..

David Martin: I mean, it’s the it’s the reason they they came for the same reason everybody else come to southern.

Phil Brock: I was assaulted last July on the side a year ago now on the third Street promenade. Did you know? Yeah.

David Martin: To me, you know.

Phil Brock: I told him. I said he needed to back off because things would not end well for it. Now he is very silly trying to steal the hat I was wearing. Just a tennis bucket hat. Okay. And, things escalated. He ended up, trying to flee the point.

David Martin: He said someone stole your hair.

Phil Brock: Yeah, well, that’s true to us. I wasn’t able to catch that person. Sorry, but, so this was a.

David Martin: Guy who took.

Phil Brock: This was. Oh, yeah. This was a gentleman who. 20 year old came here from Missouri, two months before he supposedly paid someone in in city government in Missouri, paid his bus fare to LA to get rid of them, while he was existing on our beach. He had been arrested for a felony on June 30th. Arrested for another felony on July 6th with me.

He hit the trifecta because I’m now a senior citizen. I’m a public official. And he sold by force. That was three felonies. He County July 30th. Yeah. He he had a police officer. August 20th.

David Martin: He has mental.

Phil Brock: Issues. Yeah. August 20th, he princess made an armed robbery. The DEA in LA held him after the seventh felony. Now, I was raised that if you got a felony, your life was over. Yeah. You were in the slammer, as they would say, and you were done. You got several felonies before the Da finally decided to hold him.

We have a lot of that circulating in Santa Monica many times when we have to make contact with the homeless individual because they’ve just done something.

David Martin: So, as a result of this, I mean, I understand the issue, but as a result of this, is the city able to and have you been forward in social service options and other stuff like that that are support services, not just jail?

Phil Brock: Yeah.

David Martin: That’s good government. It’s not just throwing them in jail. No no.

Phil Brock: No no. Well throwing them in jail doesn’t do any good because as you mentioned, the gentleman tried to assault me. Yeah. He was had he had mental health issues, right? He needed to be in a facility to figure out how to get him off drugs and have a chance to rejoin society as a productive member. So we have an Inside Pathway home program where we’ve taken over a motel in Santa Monica.

For the most part, these are people who were local, okay, who had fallen on very hard times. And they are now, in a motel with, the absolute ironclad promise that they will get permanent housing somewhere in LA County within three months. We put 40 people in there. Oh, we have that’s a good start. You know, it’s a great start.

David Martin: You talk a little bit about you. Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Phil Brock: Secondly, we have a, judge now who your have had so many drug alcohol, miscellaneous offenses that even the judge is going to throw you in jail. You go before that, judge, if you guarantee that you’ll go into rehab and they’ll give you the place to go. Right? How to get through rehab every 30 days, you will report back to the court, along with the, drug treatment center.

And if you completely, get off drugs, get clean. They will dismiss the charges. That’s number two. And that’s started in February as well. Number three, we now have a la County psychiatric, mobile van that has a psychiatry or social workers. If the police or fire call during the daytime.

David Martin: Yeah.

Phil Brock: They will go out and try and assess that person, possibly him, remand them into custody for a mental health hold or whatever, and they should be out. If someone’s suicidal, they should be out there talking to that person down from that and trying to get some help. Those are three new initiatives in 2024.

David Martin: And one thing we talked about a little bit before we turn the mikes on, I know that in other parts of California, they’re, they’re erecting many houses, and you it look like you would look at that and other issues like other.

Phil Brock: We’ve looked at housing, prop houses. We look at congregate shelters out of shipping containers. We have a very active program where, for instance, under construction right now we have, 24, potential, 18 year olds who have just got out of foster homes.

David Martin: Right.

Phil Brock: And this is going to be a prefab housing project where it’s made off premises, foisted on the place. And those people will then be able to get housing to get taken care of so they can transition. Because one of the worst things that can happen to you is you’re a foster child. You turn 18, no more money, right?

So the the the people throw you out in the street.

David Martin: Doesn’t L.A. County have a program? And they have some kind of income for foster kids?

Phil Brock: They do, but it’s insufficient. So, you know, and that’s the problem.

David Martin: Said of Monica.

Phil Brock: Yeah. The problem is we have so many issues in Santa Monica and LA has those issues too. People go back and forth. It’s not a hard, fast border. The sign that says Welcome to Santa Monica.

David Martin: You’re like, oh, the pier must be have a couple blocks. I know another issue in Los Angeles is water. What what are you what is the issue that you’re facing? And what are you doing? How how he how is your good government project helping.

Phil Brock: The water problem? Well, first Santa Monica is only a city. Yep. Because the predecessors to me drilled and found our own water and our own aquifer. So a lot of our water comes from our own sources and doesn’t take from the Colorado River or Northern California. That’s a great thing. Yeah, but that’s not enough because we’re in a land of perpetual drought.

So we just started, we just finished. And so $100 million so expensive. But a Swift project storm water infiltration plant right in downtown Santa Monica. It’s below ground. You don’t know it’s there, but it takes storm water that comes in from the Santa Monica freeway from all of Santa Monica. It can handle up to a million gallons a day and turn that million gallons into gray water, which can then be either pumped back into the aquifer to be purified, or we can use it for irrigation.

David Martin: Wow. That’s that’s a new project you started recently.

Phil Brock: It’s, just won numerous awards. It just opened.

David Martin: Okay, well, we’re going to take a break, and then we’re going to come back and we’re going to get to the heart of your philosophy of government.

Phil Brock: Sure.

Ad Narrator: These are difficult times. And if you believe in justice, progress and democracy, the news you read and listen to can be pretty depressing. And that’s why there’s a new podcast called Good News for Lefties and America Every Day. It features positive news stories for progressive listeners because no matter how disturbing the headlines might be, there’s always hope we can build on for a better tomorrow.

Good news for lefties and America. Listen on this platform at good news for lefties.com or wherever podcasts are heard.

David Martin: All right. Are you ready? This is this is the Good Government show questionnaire. We’re going to find out what you really think about government okay. All right. You were a city council person and now you’re mayor. Define good government.

Phil Brock: Honest interaction transparency, always trying to help your neighbors, your neighbors in this case. So the residents in the entire city, that’s first and foremost. That’s why I ran for council. It was to help my neighbors, do the best you can. Be pragmatic in your in, government in Santa Monica. Everyone’s progressive. Yes, but but there’s also a common sense element to that.

So I, I attempt to make sure that my decisions are rooted in common sense. They’re pragmatic, as much as I can. They’re the least expensive way to get the job done, because my job is to protect the taxpayers. Money. Okay. My job is not to put the taxpayers through the wringer constantly.

David Martin: It’s a bit of an interesting, turn, the way that things run in Santa Monica. So as I understand what you told me is you’re on the city council, and then you’re selected to be mayor on a rotating basis. Can you explain a little bit about how that how how that works in your city?

Phil Brock: Well, we don’t have a elected mayor, although I believe we should have one. So.

David Martin: Anybody in mind who would be a good.

Phil Brock: Candidate? There you go. I do have a I.

David Martin: Do have a candidate, but.

Phil Brock: But, city council, was selecting mayors on a two year basis, and it was sort of a fight in the back room where whoever won, everyone else threw a gavel out of hand. Okay. And now. Yes. Oh, definitely. Overhand. So it was a very unpleasant experience. We switched, last year to a system which our neighboring cities, Culver City and Beverly Hills.

Now, where it would go by the amount of votes you got in the last election, your seniority on the council, there were 3 or 4.

David Martin: There’s criteria for.

Phil Brock: Criteria that would put it through. So it was no longer just a popularity contest. It was much more involved in here’s a rotation. I was the top vote getter on the 2020 election, so I my name actually came up a year before.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: There was some, Senator, I will say, and. Yeah. And I didn’t get to I was supposed to be mayor for a two year term. Ended up now with a one year term. But we hope the shenanigans are over permanently. Okay, but I would like to, in 2026, if I’m still on the council, I’d like to have another chair.

Yeah, well, I like to have an elected mayor, and I’d like to have that mayor have more power, and the city council have more resources. Each city council member in Santa Monica is very strange because we have a $700 million budget. Yeah, nobody on the council gets their own office. Oh, and and we have no staff that work directly for us.

David Martin: Are you getting any support for your, elected mayor position? Yeah, yeah. What do you think will happen?

Phil Brock: Yeah, it has to, because look at we we operate, including our enterprise funds, about $707 million a year budget. You can’t do that with, city council. That’s only expected for two meetings a month. I mean, I put it in probably I put in a full time job. Yeah. Being mayor.

David Martin: I’m sure.

Phil Brock: And going to events. I think everyone has to have, better pay conditions. They need their own office, and they need at least half time assistance to help them through the duties.

David Martin: That would be better government.

Phil Brock: We’re a big city. I think it would be okay. I believe absolutely. It would be a better government. And with higher pay, more people could run. We didn’t have a large income. Otherwise, most of what you get, you get people who are independently wealthy, right. Because they don’t need the money.

David Martin: Yeah.

Phil Brock: Well that’s that’s all well and good. But you have residents who are they’re kept out of being able to run or be an effective leader if they did get elected.

David Martin: Okay. That makes sense. So how do you judge your success? You’re the mayor. How do you know if you’re doing a good job?

Phil Brock: You don’t get booed walking down the street? No.

David Martin: Do you get booed walking out?

Phil Brock: No, I never have.

David Martin: Never say never.

Phil Brock: It’ll probably happen now when I go back. Exactly. No. Look, I, I believe firmly that you succeed if you make decisions that are based upon the residents of a neighborhood’s needs. I believe you succeed. If, at the end of the day, not everyone has to be happy. But. Okay. But you’ve done your best to weigh all options and do the best you can.

And if your residents believe you’re honestly looking out for their interests, that you care, that you’re not just in an ivory tower or somewhere, right? That that you’re really out there. And in my case, I was elected on the basis of, problems and homelessness, problems with public safety and hyper overdevelopment. The state now has usurped my ability to stand up for residents on overdevelopment.

But, I think residents know I absolutely care about this place. I was born in Santa Monica. I’ll die in Santa Monica. And, hopefully not too soon. But but, I believe.

David Martin: Are the freeways at Tura have to be.

Phil Brock: There? You know, I believe that, it is imperative that residents know you care. Okay. That’s all you can really do. You respond to individual residents, you respond to groups, and you make.

David Martin: Sure your feedback in the street.

Phil Brock: I believe that’s that’s an important thing. When I’m out on the street, I’m wearing my mayor shirt. I’m walking through the city inviting and inviting people to, come talk to me. That’s how I get my feedback and is by actively talking. I do what I do daily walks, I do town halls. I’m on social media.

I answer questions on Facebook. Next door on Instagram. I’m a glutton for punishment, but but I believe the opportunity to talk to, residents is an important part of the job of any elected leader. Because you you get in an echo chamber, you can get caught. Just what people are going to agree with you. Sure. And that’s all well and good, but that’s not the totality of the populace.

David Martin: If if people think they aren’t getting good government, if they don’t like what they see, what should they do?

Phil Brock: They can vote against you. But okay, but but before that.

David Martin: Not now, not, you know.

Phil Brock: But before that. Yeah. What I’m very concerned with. I think they need to make sure that they call they right. If a resident writes me, I’m happy to call them back. I have coffee or lunch or breakfast with residents three, four times a week. I had a resident who I was a week and a half later return his call, but I let him know I would call him.

Yeah. We talked for half an hour about homelessness and about the cleanliness of our parks, yesterday morning. I think those things are so valuable because I’m willing to respond. I’m willing to communicate with people that that goes a long way. And there are times I can still disagree with you. I have a, playground, park, playground.

That’s been, renovated soon. And the residents there have always had tons of sand in their playground. Yep. Well, now the new criteria are you’re not supposed to have sand, so they’re bitter and upset and I. And so last Saturday morning last. Yeah last Saturday morning I went and walked the playground with them and talked to them about the dangers of sand, you know, razor blades.

David Martin: Did you turn them away? Did you turn them around a little bit?

Phil Brock: I think, I think I convince them that if we did sand and may have to be something that’s raised, something that’s narrow, where kids can still play. Yeah, but not just go sit in the sand. Because as I pointed out, there was a lady feeding your kid melons in the middle of the sand. And I said, you know, if that melon drops, I can guarantee that, parent is is going to, you know, throw more sand over it.

And, and, and we know that homeless people will urinate in the sand. Well, that’s not a yes or worse. And that’s not a sad place for a two year old to be. So I think I’ve told them I’ll look at the park design, because I used to be on the Recreation and Parks Commission for 14 years.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: And I’ll come back and see if the adjustments can be made. But honestly, sand right now is a liability.

David Martin: All right. So you’ve had a long history in serving in Santa Monica. I think you said you’re on the Arts Commission. You’re on the Parks Commission, city council now, mayor, what would you like people to know about government? As an insider.

Phil Brock: It’s a lot more difficult to govern because you’re not king. You’re right. There’s seven of you.

David Martin: Would you like to be consistent?

Phil Brock: No, no no no, but there’s not there’s you’re saying no I’m not saying that. But there are seven people. Yeah. You’ve got to win over three other people if you want anything done. Okay. That’s that’s a minimum. So, I think that’s very important for them to know, for them to be advocates for their cause, for what they want done.

And for me. Yeah, I’ve spent these 22 years as a city commissioner, city council person. I’m part of Lyons, Kiwanis, rotary, Boys and Girls Clubs, Salvation Army.

David Martin: You left out Little League.

Phil Brock: And, well, actually, I’m going to throw out the first pitch.

David Martin: Or your name.

Phil Brock: Morning at the Little League playoffs. No kidding. Yeah. No kidding. And then I’m also.

David Martin: I just have you got to have you got to throw it.

Phil Brock: Out. Yeah. I’ve got it down okay. But and, you know, I’m also even president of my high school, Santa Monica high School Alumni Association. I am so complete. What do you do for that in the community?

David Martin: What do you do for what do you do in your off hours of your downtime?

Phil Brock: We have no downtime now, but, go to the movies. I have a day job.

David Martin: Oh. What is your day job?

Phil Brock: I own studio talent group for 29 years. I represent actors and actresses.

David Martin: You studios. I’m sorry.

Phil Brock: What is a studio talent group in Santa Monica?

David Martin: What does that do?

Phil Brock: We represent actors for film, television, theater and commercials. Okay, so.

David Martin: You’re an agent?

Phil Brock: Yeah, I have a I have a real job to.

David Martin: But I’ll tell you about my script later.

Phil Brock: There you go. So. But at any rate, look, at the part of good government is to me, is to be responsive. And for residents, even if you end up disagreeing and voting against what they wanted, they need to know that you have integrity while doing okay, that you really cared about their issue.

David Martin: Two part question what’s the best part of your job?

Phil Brock: Meeting people on the streets, talking to residents. The Sanders stuff, giving proclamations, recognizing businesses that have been in our city for a long time. I in my state of the city, at the beginning of the year, I talked about expanding the arts in Santa Monica. We believed in 2018, we had 41% of our population works in the arts.

So I want public art and dance and film and theater and literary. I want all those things to be present in the city. Secondly, I wanted more trees. We’ve had a lot of development. We’re losing trees. Thirdly, what kind of trees? All trees.

David Martin: I actually there’s a tree issue. I just I just announced that.

Phil Brock: I’ll change that. Yes. I’m not in favor of more palm trees because palm trees, a aren’t trees. They’re grasses. And B, they provide no real shade.

David Martin: So I just learned about this. Since I have you on, I want to I want to just explain this briefly. Palm trees are not native to Southern California. Correct. They were brought here, brought there, and now they’re dying, as I understand it. And there’s a great controversy about whether they should replace them or just get rid of them.

Phil Brock: Well, some palm trees are dying because they get STDs and because they get seeds, right?

David Martin: Because rats live in them.

Phil Brock: Well, and forget the rats from here, but they’re it’s actually palm tree sexually transmitted diseases that hit specific species, palm trees. It can spread from one to the other to the other. So the the the solution is when one dies, you plant a different species of palm tree, okay? And then you eliminate that problem. The same as right now in Santa Monica.

We have ficus trees that are passing away because of a beetle. So there’s always something. But I would not look at. I know palm trees especially are iconic in Santa Monica. Sure there are certain places. Yes.

David Martin: Up and down the boardwalk.

Phil Brock: And the Palisades Park. Yeah, but. But there are other places that I’d rather put in trees that will enhance our tree canopy.

David Martin: Right.

Phil Brock: And not diminish it. So Monday morning, my, first thing I did Monday morning was I planted a tree. Good. Yeah. And, Holbrook Park and I bought the tree. The city helped me planted. Okay. But I’m doing a big push to increase our tree canopy, which went from 18% to 12%. And by contrast, New York City. Yes, is 28%.

David Martin: Really?

Phil Brock: So we need more trees. We need more.

David Martin: I guess there’s more trees.

Phil Brock: Yeah. So that’s that’s, part of that. And and.

David Martin: That sounds like good government. More trees.

Phil Brock: Well, look at more trees, more green space. Right. We have the ability. We’re closing, Santa Monica airport and December 31st, 2028, the voters in 2014 voted that it would become a park. Wow.

David Martin: That’s going to be a big park.

Phil Brock: It would be 200 and some odd acres, 190 acres of useful park land. That would be tremendous. I don’t know how we would pay for it. Yeah, but I think we could. I drove through there. I was on a fire truck a couple of weeks ago because I also because you’re the mayor.

David Martin: Do you get to ride on fire trucks?

Phil Brock: Well, but I also go on ride alongs with I’ve been on every fire engine truck, Iowa City. I’ve been out with the police every few months. I do a ride along, but out with trash collectors. I’ve been out with our bulky item pick up. That was crazy, I bet. So I’ve done a lot of those things because I also wanted to make sure city staff knew I was on their side.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: And, so we were in, swinging around the boundary of the airport. There’s also this beautiful field of flowers. Turns out that fire station, when they have to empty their hoses, they empty in there. So as well. Water. Okay, we keep driving a little ways, and there’s a coyote in the middle of the road there. I thought it was wonderful.

So we already have a park.

David Martin: There you go. We’ve already had a park. What’s the hardest part of the job?

Phil Brock: City council meetings. Why? Having to manage expectations and demands of other Partizan council members. So on a personal note, I’m not sure they’re each of them is always concerned about the good will of the people. Some of them are concerned more about their political ambitions. Okay, I’m never concerned about political ambitions. There’s nothing else I ever wanted to be.

It’s the honor of my lifetime.

David Martin: Okay? Accept the fully elected mayor.

Phil Brock: Yeah, but. But for me right now. Yeah. If I had a bucket list from being, 17 at Santa Monica High School and meeting the mayor at that time, and it’s during the police department, this is the bucket list item for me, and it really, truly is. I’ve done a lot of great stuff in my life to meet a lot of people that a lot of great stuff in my lifetime.

But being mayor of my home city is the biggest honor I could ever have. And and I owe that to the residents of the city who believed in me. I can’t give up that trust. But, I, I just deviated from the answer you asked for, and the answer is that city council meetings are the toughest time because of the infighting and because of the backbiting that goes on.

I want to believe that each of my council, fellow council members, are only ever concerned about the good of the entire city.

David Martin: And that’s one of the reasons why we started this podcast, and why we call it The Good Government, showed why we talk about good government. It’s because there are a lot of people who do work hard in government. What do you do about the people that aren’t.

Phil Brock: Well, I’m the mayor right now, so my job is to make sure I work as well as I can with everybody on the council. Okay, and not become overly partizan. I not hard. It’s against my better instinct. But I’ve actually done a very good job of. It’s a very.

David Martin: Proud of yourself for giving yourself out of control.

Phil Brock: Yeah. Why? Look at you know what it shows? It shows that I’m maturing. Yeah. Look at. I’m slow to mature. And I used to be very quick to temper.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: I have managed to eliminate a lot of that. So I can work for the people.

David Martin: Yeah.

Phil Brock: And not being a councilman, if I lose my cool, imagine what happens to the rest of the council.

David Martin: True.

Phil Brock: So I have to set the bar.

David Martin: Kudos to your maturity. Thank you, thank you. So you’re you’re a newsmaker? Certainly in Santa Monica. Where do you get your news?

Phil Brock: LA times okay. Local newspaper, Santa Monica Daily Press. Sound like mirror, Eyewitness News, KTLA. I’m in Los Angeles. Sure, everyone. So KTLA? Yep. No. So I, And now the internet. I’m absorbing newsletters every morning with news on them. You know, I’m looking at things constantly. I read Vanity Fair on the way here from,

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: From, L.A. last night on the plane. All right. So, you know, I’m very concerned always about foreign affairs. National affairs. I’ve always been. I was a history major at UCLA all right, so for me, I’m a little wonky that way that I want to read the news. I get depressed by the first ten minutes of local newscasts now because they’re all about who got murdered, whose story got broken into.

All the things that I see on my streets and real lives that I’m trying to stop. Okay. And, I think I can get overwhelmed because you can end up really depressed. You can get depressed.

David Martin: Well, listen to our show. You’ll feel better.

Phil Brock: There you go.

David Martin: You said that at 17, as a high school student at Santa Monica high, you met the mayor of Santa Monica. Is he your political hero? And who are your political heroes?

Phil Brock: He was not my political here. Okay, I didn’t know enough about it. Sure, but I you know, I was mentored by a former Santa Monica mayor. All right, who was. He was on the city council for 24 years, school board for eight years. I loved his kids. And the fact that he was so congenial that he also tried to do what was right, but was willing to talk to everybody.

My political heroes nationally, I actually I love Joe Biden, and I know he’s getting a lot of heat, but I was at the white House twice, three times this year. And have got to, sit right in front of me while he delivered a press and then a press conference. I was in the white House with him.

Heroes before that. Strangely enough, I’m a lifelong Democrat.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: But I will tell you, Ronald Reagan, who I got to know a little bit. Was a hero because of his way of communicating.

David Martin: The great communicator.

Phil Brock: Yeah, he really was. When I was younger, Lyndon Johnson presidents.

David Martin: They’re going back.

Phil Brock: Oh, yeah. Going back. Not Nixon, you know. Yeah.

David Martin: Although a Southern California native.

Phil Brock: Yeah. And not, yeah. Not Nixon, not George W Bush. All right. You know, but, there’s I mean, Churchill, you can go back to. Okay, you know, people who, Teddy Roosevelt that went to his ranch in North Dakota couple of years ago.

David Martin: All right. I go to his house at oyster Bay sometimes.

Phil Brock: There you go. Yeah. I mean, I said there are a lot of people I love, too. I thought the practice good democracy practice, they were able to motivate people. They were able to inspire people. Right. Because a lot of what my job is, is to inspire people to do more than they thought they could do. My first career, I was a teacher and a coach.

David Martin: What did you coach?

Phil Brock: Baseball and football.

David Martin: Let’s see. You got your baseball throw down for Little League. Okay, guy.

Phil Brock: And my job really was to make my players, believe in much more than they thought they could. Sure. I wanted them to rise to better heights. All right. I want the residents of my city to rise to better heights. And so for me, inspiration. John. Oh, John one. Just. Okay. I was lucky enough. No, I was at UCLA.

Yeah, he was at UCLA.

David Martin: Legendary UCLA basketball.

Phil Brock: Okay, I met him. I got to meet him a few times. All right. He was amazingly intelligent, amazingly well read. Not just about sports, but about life, about English, about poetry. You know, I.

David Martin: Didn’t play for UCLA basketball.

Phil Brock: I did okay, baseball.

David Martin: But you played baseball, but I.

Phil Brock: I felt that his writings, you know, you can’t have a good day unless you did something for someone who could never repay you. All the different quotes, the different things he said. He has always inspired me. He’s always inspired me to want to do better, to want to be excellent. Okay. I want to be honest, and forthright.

I’m not someone who beat around the bush, you know, but I.

David Martin: But doesn’t seem so now.

Phil Brock: But to me, those things were really important. So that’s a long winded answer.

David Martin: That’s okay. Did growing up, did you want to be in politics? Did you want to be president of the United States or your president, your senior class.

Phil Brock: When you were I was in student government.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: Yeah, I did. I want to be president. I think when you’re like 5 or 8 years old or ten years.

David Martin: You want to be a policeman? Our president. Right? Yeah. Okay.

Phil Brock: Yeah. The standards.

David Martin: Did you have I mean, did you start your career in politics and government?

Phil Brock: No. By the time I was 12, I wanted to be a teacher, okay? I wanted to teach, and I wanted to coach. All right. And I got to that in eighth grade. And then after that, that was my goal. Yeah, but I’ve always been active. I was, has in my day job. I was active as president of the Talent Managers Association in the United States.

David Martin: Okay.

Phil Brock: Last year I got, voted into the. I don’t know how I got voted into the Hall of Fame for the managers. There’s a National Hall of Fame.

David Martin: I did not.

Phil Brock: You know, I didn’t know it either, but, so there’s, a lot of things that I thought were really important. And I was always avidly interested in politics. But I have to add a caveat. I don’t think I’m a politician now. A politician to me, sort of is kind of a dirty word. It sounds like there’s back things and all that.

Okay. I don’t ever want to think of myself that way. I really want to think of myself as trying to respond to my neighbors and that I have a louder voice. And so I can. I’m not afraid to ask and demand things that we need and they need.

David Martin: Okay, now I have been to Santa Monica. I’ll say several times, one of my really good friends lived in Los Angeles for 25 plus years, so I’ve been going out regularly. I’ve been to the Kings, had many times a good British pub right near a right off the beach. If I’m coming out and you’re taking me out to dinner, where are we going?

What are we having? What’s the what’s the best local cuisine in Santa Monica these days?

Phil Brock: Well, California’s native cuisine. It’s Mexican, of course. So I’d probably take you to Gilbert’s El Indio. Yeah, because it’s downhome Mexican by a family that has nine members of their family who graduated from Santa Monica High School. Yeah, they’re hyper local, and they just had their 50 year celebration.

David Martin: And what did you have the last time you were there?

Phil Brock: Enchilada chili. We know rice and beans okay. Standard Mexican, good Mexican. If we’re going for breakfast, there’s a place down the street named Ray’s, which is a 1950s diner. Really? So I go to, you know, the High Line, too. Okay. But if I was really showing people where someone lives and eats, I had a, city council member from our friendship city brightening our peers or friends.

David Martin: Oh. All right. Yeah.

Phil Brock: And he was in town three and a half weeks ago.

David Martin: I said beach town, beach town night.

Phil Brock: And he came to Santa Monica and I it was the night of Gilbert’s O’Neals 50th anniversary. So if you want to see how Santa Monica kids live, right, let’s go. Okay. And 550 people showed up to this restaurant to help them celebrate. And he was so impressed. All right, because I didn’t take him to, you know, the High Line place.

I just come to.

David Martin: The celebrity room.

Phil Brock: Yeah. And I took him to where people, neighbors go, where people go to meet each other. And they’re really, as they would say, familiar.

David Martin: Okay. All right, all right. Well, listen, you can’t go wrong with, good Mexican food. I did, Los Angeles. So we are the good government show. We always like to bring it back to good government. Tell me about a good government project that you’ve worked on that you’re excited about.

Phil Brock: I’ll go back a little bit. When I was chair of the Recreation Commission, we opened or remodeled seven parks in the city.

David Martin: Seven.

Phil Brock: And that was the largest expansion of our parks system in our city’s history. Today I’m working on projects all over the city. We’re going to create a dog park at one of our parks, that I think residents will.

David Martin: Tell my daughter she’ll bring her dog next time.

Phil Brock: Perfect.

David Martin: All right,

Phil Brock: I think that’s important. I think open reopening theaters that closed during Covid. I want our theaters open. Where? Right now? We have a legendary civic auditorium that has been closed for 15 years. Back in the 60s, it hosted Martin Luther King and Jimi Hendrix and, the Who in the stones.

David Martin: Yeah. Now it was a it was a big place.

Phil Brock: And the Academy Awards for seven years it’s been closed. We have a group that is vying to reopen it, refurbish it, get it going. I’m totally behind that.

David Martin: So you’ll be at the Oscar party soon?

Phil Brock: Absolutely, absolutely.

David Martin: All right, well, that sounds great. Good luck with that. Mayor Phil Brock, mayor of Santa Monica, California. It is a pleasure meeting you and having you on the show. Thank you very much.

Phil Brock: There you go.

David Martin: The Good Government show is sponsored by our. That’s. Oh, you are for our community. Get involved. We hear that all the time from government leaders. Our co brands with your governments name and logo. Your staff and the people you serve are connected and part of your community. From any device. Your members provide reliable data and meaningful feedback. Ask a question like do we want more parkland or better homeless services?

More engage conversations come through for our app. Visit our Co that’s ou rco.com and book a demonstration.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt, talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts.

Here’s something I read about former Santa Monica mayor Phil Brock. If the city elected a mascot, it would be him. As you heard, he’s a third generation Santa Monica resident. His enthusiasm for his hometown shows through both during his term as mayor but also as city councilman before that. And I have no doubt Phil Brock will continue to be a booster for Santa Monica and continue to push to improve the city he walks through every day.

Well, that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share this with your friends and with us right here. We’re listening. Check out our website good Government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government and action everywhere. Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe, then share and like us and review us. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.

Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.

**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.