Hometown Hero: Eileen Fogarty

"Eileen was a force for good and for smarts. 

She worked like a tigress and she achieved 

the LUCE, an amazing result.  And she did 

everything else well too!  The City will miss 

her experience, vision and sense of humor."

Councilman Bobby Shriver.

 “Values frame opportunities,” said Eileen Fogarty, speaking of why she came to Santa Monica in 2006 to lead the City through the process of creating a new Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE).  The LUCE, adopted to acclaim this year, is now part of Santa Monica’s General Plan and will guide development and planning in Santa Monica for twenty years to come.

Fogarty’s introduction to Santa Monica was one of “a community where the people had a commitment to the social well being of all its residents, an interest in the City as a whole, and a commitment to sustainability.  It was important to me that it was a progressive community.  These values give a positive flavor to a community and I knew I would be expected and allowed to be creative and innovative.”

The Council had offered Fogarty the job as Director of Planning and Community Development only after an extensive search and after ensuring she had the experience and the skills to build relationships with the neighborhood and business communities in Santa Monica and to lead the City through an inclusive and transparent planning process. 

Before coming to Santa Monica, Fogarty was the Director of Planning in Alexandria, VA, which she describes as “a combination of prime real estate and residents who love and care deeply about their town.   I found in Santa Monica the same kind of sophisticated, educated community and people who are passionate about their quality of life.”

When asked what she hopes and expects from Santa Monica in the future Fogarty said, “The long term health of the City depends on the continued involvement of the community. 

“Conservation of neighborhoods is a top priority.  We need a proactive community to identify character and have greater control over neighborhood decisions.  We need a community that continues to remain integrally involved in every project to ensure projects fit into context, scale, and neighborhood character.

“Implementing all the strategies in the LUCE for getting around town easily is also a priority.  Any new development will be subject to very aggressive transportation demand strategies which will create opportunities for funding/construction contributions to the downtown, such as Expo Station benefits, having large employers make it viable for their employees to come to work on Expo, and wider sidewalks, street trees, bike amenities – all of the connections talked about in the LUCE.  In the neighborhoods it will be green streets, bike paths, street trees, protection of neighborhood character, and preservation and reuse of buildings.”

When asked what the LUCE means for the person living in Santa Monica Fogarty said, “I’m planning to still be living here when the plans we’ve made begin to become a reality.

“I would walk or bike most places.  I wouldn’t need to get into the car to get around Santa Monica.  I’ll be able to go to art events at the exciting Bergamot neighborhood with its open space and its farmer’s market and special character.  Getting downtown LA will also be easy on Expo.”

With the completion of the LUCE, Fogarty feels it is time for her to work on new projects.  She submitted her official resignation letter to City Manager Rod Gould on March 4, 2011 although she plans to work here through the end of spring to help prepare for the work to implement the LUCE.

Fogarty called leaving the job a “very hard decision because I’m very involved in every project and I’m so attached to this community and it was hard for me to make a decision even though I think pragmatically and objectively it is the right one and the right time.”

Fogarty gives great credit to her parents for her concepts about good cities and about working with people in communities.  She grew up on the Jersey Shore in Seaside Heights, a much smaller town than Santa Monica and also in Brooklyn, NY.  “Even as a child growing up I could see the beautiful towns and the towns that had been neglected and had deteriorated and I could see the cycles of neighborhoods and communities,” remembers Fogarty.

Her Dad worked for Con Edison and was a union leader.  Her Mom was a Quaker and took her to demonstrations against the Polaris submarines.  “As a kid I was embarrassed – other kids’ families had a Cadillac in the garage and my family had a house full of Freedom Riders.  But it was my parents’ commitment to standing up for what you believe in that stayed with me.” Fogarty stated.

Fogarty and her husband, the artist John Clendening, originally met on an East Coast beach.  They both have a tremendous love for the beach and the small town feeling that comes from living in a beach community.  “One of the greatest draws for us is the beach.  I swim in the ocean, especially in the summer and I’m looking forward to doing more swimming.” said Eileen Fogarty.

What Say You? School Nurses

School Nurses have long been a treasured resource in the Santa Monica/Malibu Schools.  School RN’s are professional nurses with extensive training specific to school nursing.  They are the first line of defense any time a student on campus needs help because of illness or injury.  School nurses have the professional training and expertise to make the decisions that can make the difference in how a child is treated, skills that are crucial in any urgent situation or emergency.  RN’s are trained and licensed to administer medications.  They are health educators for our students, staff and school families.  Historically, they have led the way on important health initiatives in the schools.  And, fortunately for Santa Monica, because of the continuity of their work, they know the students and their families personally and have, over and over, been the ones to notice and help when there are students with serious problems at school or at home.

Yet school nurses holding 5.6 ‘full-time equivalent’ positions were issued potential lay off notices at the School Board meeting of February 17, 2011 with one ‘no’ vote, from Board Member Mechur.  Board Member Leon Vasquez was not present.

Board Members who voted ‘yes’ emphasized that the potential layoff notices were being issued as a precautionary measure and would help the district maintain needed flexibility with its budget if the Governor’s proposal, as part of his plan to balance the budget, does not prevail in the proposed June elections.  And the District has convened a task force to study and make alternate recommendations to the Board about providing health care on our campuses. 

While the immediate problem is real, are we asking the right question? Are we addressing this problem at the right level?  Governor Brown’s proposed June election asking the voters for a five-year extension to continue current personal income and sales taxes, as well as the Vehicle License Fee rate comes with the promise that revenue from the sales tax and the vehicle license fee will be transferred directly to local governments and, the Governor states, “one area of state spending that will be spared from further cuts is kindergarten through 12th grade education.” 

The Governor’s spending plan assumes that all statutory changes to implement budget actions will be adopted by the legislature in March, allowing the necessary ballot measures to be put before the people at a June special election and that the measure will pass.  Without that we will see further cuts in K-12 education spending.

Senator Fran Pavley, with her long history in pubic education, believes “It’s imperative that we invest in our children and prepare them to compete in a global economy. We simply can’t afford to cut education any further.  I urge Californians to support Governor Brown’s proposal to maintain existing taxes for another five years in order to avoid catastrophic cuts– cuts that could result in a generation of students who would be deprived of the kind of quality education they deserve.”

Even if the tax extensions pass, Santa Monicans know that State funding will not be enough.  Our City does much to support our students.  City Manager Rod Gould said, “7.8 million dollars will go from the City to the School District this year and that number will go to 8 million dollars next fiscal year and that’s before Measure Y.  Measure Y funding is anticipated to add 5.5 million dollars to the school budget in the coming fiscal year.”

So why don’t we have the money to keep our treasured school nurses, our full faculty, our music programs, our sports programs.  In short, why can’t we be the school district we once were?

Is the issue that the problem is bigger than our City and bigger than our State? When persons as divergent as David Stockman, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, and the filmmaker, Michael Moore, identify the growing wealth gap and bad economic policy as the issue, the issue becomes one of national priorities and national values. 

While we can’t opt out of being part of the national or state economy, we need to do everything we can to provide education here. Maybe we should be planning for the education we want and then focus on how to get there knowing, that at least in the immediate future, neither the Federal government nor the State government is going to support education in the way it once did in our Country.

We can hope for, and vote for, the Governor’s plan, but we know it is not sufficient to fund the schools our children need and deserve.  We may need to think differently, both about education and about funding.  We may need more support from other parts of our community.  But we need to do something.  Right now we’re not thinking big enough and it’s our children who need us to ‘think bigger.’

What Say You?