Elected Official? Create newsletters in minutes, not hours.
Transparent, authentic, comprehensive newsletters to maximize constituent representation and civic engagement.
Doug Trussler Newsletter — August 24, 2026
📋 The Game Plan with Doug Trussler
📅 August 24, 2026
Good morning, Santa Monica,
Some weeks the scoreboard is kind. This was not one of them. A man died in an officer-involved shooting in Palisades Park on Saturday, another person was wounded near the Pier on Sunday night, and Santa Monica College received a formal warning about its finances. I promised you honest assessment every Monday, and weeks like this are exactly when that promise matters most. There was brighter news too: the first bell of the school year rang on Thursday, and City Hall's new homelessness system took its first real step from paper to practice. Let's go through all of it, the hard and the hopeful, together.
🚨 Public Safety & Homelessness
🔹 A painful weekend in our most public spaces: On Saturday afternoon, SMPD officers were in Palisades Park near the 1400 block of Ocean Avenue investigating a reported domestic violence incident when a man unconnected to that call rushed them with a knife. An officer fired, and the man later died at a hospital. Then late Sunday night, a person was shot and wounded during an attempted robbery near the Pier, and that investigation was still active as this newsletter went out.
→ 💬 My take: A life ended in one of the most beautiful parks in America, and I will not pretend that fits neatly into a campaign newsletter. My heart goes out to everyone touched by both incidents, and I am grateful no officers or bystanders were hurt. Residents deserve a full, transparent investigation of Saturday's shooting, and they deserve straight answers about safety in the park, beach, and Pier areas where our families and visitors gather. I will follow the facts here as they are released, not the rumors.
👉 Read the SMDP report on the Palisades Park shooting
👉 Follow SMPD updates on the Pier investigation
🔹 The homelessness overhaul moves from vote to execution: The Housing Focused System of Care that Council approved in July is now in motion. On August 12, the city formally invited property owners to join a new Master Leasing Program, under which the city or a nonprofit partner would lease vacant units, multifamily buildings, or hotels for up to five years and sublease them as interim housing for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
→ 📊 By the numbers I want to see: I supported the principle of local control when Council took this up, and I still do. Now comes the part where deals like this succeed or fail: cost per unit compared to the alternatives, clear good-neighbor rules with someone accountable for enforcing them, and outcomes published where residents can check them. I have spent 25 years reviewing agreements like these, and the lease terms will tell us more than the press release. I will keep reading them for you.
👉 Read the city's Master Leasing announcement
🔹 The first bell rang Thursday: Santa Monica-Malibu Unified students headed back to class on Thursday, August 20, and SMPD put out a timely reminder for drivers to slow down in school zones, watch the crosswalks, and put the phone away. With two boys of my own back in the homework season, this one is personal. Please give yourself five extra minutes near every campus. Those minutes are the cheapest insurance in town.
👉 Read SMPD's back-to-school safety reminders
💼 Economic Development
🔹 A warning light at Santa Monica College: The Daily Press reported Friday that SMC's accreditor has placed the college on enhanced monitoring after it scored in the at-risk category on a key financial index, citing three straight years of expenses exceeding revenue, an unfunded retiree benefits liability, and a 34 percent decline in cash over three years. College leadership says the data predates cost-cutting steps already underway.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: SMC is one of this city's great economic engines, a pathway to careers for thousands of local students and workers. It is also a case study in the lesson I keep repeating about City Hall: structural deficits compound quietly, and clean-looking annual reports always describe the past, not the trajectory. Watch the trend line, not the headline. I am rooting hard for SMC's turnaround, and the honest accounting now on the table is how turnarounds start.
👉 Read the SMDP report on SMC's finances
🔹 Our businesses are partners, not just taxpayers: I posted about this on Friday, because it keeps coming up in my conversations across the city: some of Santa Monica's largest employers report little or no direct engagement with City Council. That should trouble all of us. Every job created here and every sales and hotel tax dollar collected here helps fund the parks, libraries, and public safety we all rely on. Good leadership means knowing who your biggest employers are, understanding what they are facing, and listening before there is a crisis. If we want the recovery we keep talking about, City Hall has to treat the businesses already invested here as partners in it.
👉 Explore the city's business resources hub
🏛️ How City Hall Does Business
🔹 Special meetings should be special: A Daily Press column on Friday documented a pattern worth your attention: Council recently held a special meeting to rescind a rent control measure it had passed just weeks earlier, the third walk-back of its kind this year. One local government law expert quoted in the piece put it plainly: "It suggests things are being rushed and not being given proper consideration."
→ 💬 My take: I have served on dozens of boards and committees, and the rule everywhere I have worked is the same: do the hard analysis before the vote, not after. Rework is the most expensive work there is, in business and in government. Good intentions are not a substitute for preparation, and every do-over meeting costs staff time, legal fees, and public trust. This is fixable. It starts with clear agendas, complete staff work, and council members willing to ask the uncomfortable questions the first time.
🌳 Environment & Open Space
🔹 Whiplash on Broadway: Three weeks ago I told you a court had ordered quiet overnight hours at the Waymo charging lots at 1222 and 1310 Broadway, and I promised to track what happened next. Here is the update: the Court of Appeal has temporarily stayed that injunction while it considers Waymo's challenge, which means 24-hour operations have resumed for now. The underlying nuisance case is still moving forward, with the trial court's October 23 status conference ahead.
→ 💬 My take: This is how the legal process works, and the city is right to keep making its case. I back innovation, including in my own investing career, but neighbors losing sleep was never an acceptable cost of it. The October checkpoint stays on the scoreboard, and so does my commitment to report it here.
👉 Read the city's update on the ruling
🔹 Neighbors showing up for San Vicente: This past week brought reports of volunteers gathering along the San Vicente median to help care for the coral trees that remain after this month's removals. That is the spirit this moment calls for, and it strengthens my position: every tree that comes down should be matched by a funded, scheduled replanting commitment. A canopy is infrastructure. You maintain it, you budget for it, and you replace it when it fails.
📅 Mark Your Calendar
🔹 Wednesday, August 26: Women's Equality Day, marking the certification of the 19th Amendment. A fitting note in an election year: the surest way to honor it is to make sure everyone in your household is registered and ready for November.
🔹 Tuesday, September 8, 5:30 PM: City Council returns from summer recess for its first regular meeting, at City Hall, 1685 Main Street. Expect the fall agenda to move quickly. I will preview the big items here the Monday before.
🔹 Sunday, September 13: The 20th running of the Santa Monica Classic, with a 10K, 5K, and Kids Run along the coast. Three weeks out is still enough time to train, and the free plans from the LA Road Runners can get you to the start line.
👉 Read about the free training plans
🔹 Tuesday, November 3: Election Day, exactly 71 days from today.
👉 Visit the city's elections page
🤝 Join the Campaign
Seventy-one days. That is the whole season left, and this grassroots team runs on neighbors, not machines: the AYSO families I have coached alongside, the shop owners I trade notes with near the Promenade, and readers like you who want a City Hall that does its homework before the vote. If that is the government you want, there is a position for you on this roster. Knock on doors with us, host a living room conversation, or simply forward this newsletter to one neighbor who cares about where this city is headed.
⚽ The Final Whistle
Tough weeks do not change the game plan. They prove why you need one. A city that knows its numbers, prepares before it votes, and tells residents the truth is a city that can absorb a hard weekend and come back stronger, and I believe Santa Monica is that city. Thursday morning proved it in miniature: thousands of kids walking through school gates, crossing guards at their posts, a whole community quietly doing its job. That steadiness is worth protecting, and it is worth fighting for.
Council is back on September 8, and so is the fall agenda. Between now and then, tell one neighbor what you read here today, and hold me to the same standard I am asking of City Hall.
See you out there, Santa Monica.
