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Doug Trussler Newsletter — September 7, 2026
📋 The Game Plan with Doug Trussler
📅 September 7, 2026
Happy Labor Day, Santa Monica,
Before we get to the numbers, a thank you. City Hall is dark today, but the people who actually keep this city running are not off the clock: the lifeguards watching a rough ocean, the officers on holiday patrol, the bus drivers, the kitchen crews, the caregivers. This edition is dedicated to them. It was also a milestone week for this campaign, because more than 200 of you packed our kickoff and reminded me exactly why I got into this race. So grab a coffee, because between a hazardous surf advisory, a Sacramento fight over our coastline, and a Council agenda worth your attention tomorrow night, there is plenty on the whiteboard.
🎉 The Kickoff: 200 Strong
🔹 You showed up, and I took notes: As a first time candidate, I honestly did not know how to gauge a campaign kickoff. Then more than 200 neighbors filled the room: renters and homeowners, longtime residents and newcomers, people from every neighborhood and every political stripe. What struck me was not the headcount. It was the common cause, a Santa Monica we are all proud to call home. Days earlier, we hit another milestone by turning in several hundred resident signatures to officially qualify for the ballot. Every one of those signatures came from a conversation, and those conversations are shaping this platform every week.
🔹 A longer conversation, if you want one: I also sat down with the Free Game Podcast for Episode 4, a wide-ranging conversation about homelessness, housing, crime, and what our local businesses need to recover. Whether you agree with every answer or none of them, these are the conversations our city needs to be having out loud.
👉 View the podcast post (Instagram)
💼 Economic Development
🔹 A second act for the Camera Obscura: The city is searching for a cafe operator to run the historic Camera Obscura Building at 1450 Ocean Avenue, with a request for proposals released August 20 and responses due October 1. The renovation adds roughly 2,000 square feet of exhibition space, a warming kitchen, and a wraparound deck overlooking Palisades Park, with the building ready by summer 2027. Then comes the headline: from roughly June through September 2028, the site becomes Switzerland's official hospitality house for the Los Angeles Olympics, before returning to year-round community use.
→ 💬 My take: I read this RFP the way I would read a deal memo, and staff structured it well: negotiable lease terms, rent tied partly to gross receipts, and an explicit invitation for market feedback before the city locks in an operating model. That is how you turn an underused public asset into revenue, foot traffic, and civic pride at the same time. If you run a food and beverage business here, take a serious look before October 1.
👉 Read the SMDP report on the Camera Obscura RFP
🔹 The Gehry carveout is dead, but the real question is still standing: A last-minute Sacramento effort to exempt the Gehry designed Ocean Avenue project from Coastal Commission review died this week, with Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur confirming the proposal is "dead for this year" after he and roughly a dozen colleagues opposed it in an August 26 letter to state leadership.
→ 💬 My take: I want that corner built. Council approved the project in 2022, the Coastal Commission approved it in 2023, and it still has not broken ground. But a legislative carveout written for one politically connected development is the wrong way to build a city, and it would have set a precedent every coastal community came to regret. Investment needs predictable rules, honestly applied. The productive next step is the unglamorous one: getting Santa Monica a certified Local Coastal Program so approved projects stop living in limbo.
👉 Read the SMDP coverage of the coastal exemption fight
🔹 A library card that pays you back at local registers: September is Library Card Sign-Up Month, and this year new cardholders get a special edition card designed by local artist Al Mercado, plus access to the second year of the Read Local, Shop Local discount program at more than a dozen Santa Monica businesses, from Harvelle's to Sweet Lady Jane to Road Runner Sports. Families can decorate card sleeves at the Main Library on Saturday, September 12. This might be the smallest line item in this newsletter and it is quietly my favorite: a free public institution steering customers straight to our small businesses. More of this, please.
👉 See the special edition card and discount program
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 One alert patrol, three loaded guns off our streets: An SMPD operation targeting catalytic converter theft took a sharp turn on August 25, when officers tracked a suspicious black Audi that crashed near 2nd Street and Colorado Avenue. By the time the investigation wrapped, four people connected to the car were in custody, a backpack pulled from the wreck had yielded three loaded handguns including two untraceable ghost guns, and the Audi itself was confirmed stolen in an armed carjacking. Police credited alert officers, SMART Center technology, and regional partnerships.
→ 💬 My take: This is what the fully staffed department I wrote about in August looks like in practice: proactive work that interrupts the next crime instead of just documenting the last one. Downtown's recovery depends on residents and visitors feeling safe on exactly these blocks, and results like this one earn that feeling. To the officers involved: thank you.
👉 Read the SMDP report on the investigation
🔹 Tomorrow night's Council agenda is a roadway safety double feature: On Tuesday, September 8 at 5:30 PM, Council takes up the first reading of an ordinance establishing an Automated Traffic Enforcement System to detect red light violations (item 10.A), followed by a Vision Zero study session on shifting the city to a Safe System approach and setting future roadway safety priorities (item 11.B).
→ 📊 The test I will apply: Automated enforcement can genuinely save lives, and it can also drift into a quiet revenue line. The difference is measurement. I want published before and after collision data for every camera location, clear signage, and an honest annual report. If the safety data leads and the accounting is transparent, this earns support. If you have a view, Tuesday is the night to share it.
🌊 Environment & Open Space
🔹 The ocean is running hot this holiday, and the Pier has a water warning: The National Weather Service has a High Surf Advisory and a Coastal Flood Advisory in effect through 11 PM Tuesday, as swells from Hurricane Marie drive strong rip currents toward south facing beaches, with evening high tides near 7 feet raising the risk of coastal flooding and beach erosion. Forecasters flagged Sunday through Monday as the likely peak, which means today. Separately, county health officials are advising everyone to stay out of the water within 100 yards of the Santa Monica Pier because bacteria levels exceed state health standards.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Our beach is both our front yard and our economic engine, and this weekend it demands respect on both counts. If you are cooling off today, pick a tower with a lifeguard on duty, keep kids close, and stay off the rocks and jetties. And on the water quality advisory: clean water at the Pier is a public health issue first and a competitiveness issue second, and I will be watching how quickly those readings come back into compliance.
👉 Read the full surf and flood advisory report
🏛️ City Hall Watch
🔹 A new keeper of the public record: After a national search, Council has appointed Walfred Solorzano as Santa Monica's next city clerk. He brings more than two decades in local government, most recently as Sausalito's city clerk, and he starts Monday, September 21. A genuine thank you as well to Denise Anderson-Warren, who came back from retirement to steady the office during the search.
→ 💬 My take: The clerk's office is the plumbing of transparency: it prepares Council agendas, manages public records requests, enforces Brown Act compliance, and serves as the city's elections official. I became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2010, and I have never once taken a well-run election for granted. With a citywide vote eight weeks away, this hire matters more than most people realize. Welcome aboard, Mr. Solorzano. Residents will be counting on your office, and so will I.
👉 Read the city clerk announcement
📅 Mark Your Calendar
🔹 Today, Monday, September 7: City Hall and most city facilities are closed in observance of Labor Day. To everyone whose work keeps Santa Monica moving, today is yours, and you have earned it.
👉 See the holiday closures and service changes
🔹 Tuesday, September 8, 5:30 PM: City Council regular meeting at City Hall Council Chambers, 1685 Main Street. The traffic camera ordinance and Vision Zero study session above are both on the agenda.
🔹 Sunday, September 13, 7 AM: The Santa Monica Classic, which has sold out every 10K and 5K entry this year. If you started one of those free training plans I shared back in July, congratulations, race day is here. The 10K starts at Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard at 7 AM, and spectators make the morning, so come cheer.
🔹 Sunday, September 13, 1:30 to 6:30 PM: Americana in the Park returns to Gandara Park, 1819 Stewart Street, for its sixth year. Free and all ages, with food trucks, kid-friendly activities, and Grammy winning guitarist Albert Lee headlining, presented by McCabe's Guitar Shop with the city's Cultural Affairs Division and KCRW. Bring a blanket and a lawn chair.
👉 Read the Americana in the Park lineup
🔹 Tuesday, November 3: Election Day, exactly eight weeks from tomorrow.
🤝 Join the Campaign
Two hundred people in a room was a great start, but campaigns are won at thousands of front doors, and this one runs entirely on neighbors. No developer money, no special interests, just residents who want a City Hall that keeps score in public. If that is you, there is a position open on this team: knock on doors with us, plant a lawn sign, host a living room conversation, or chip in whatever you can. Every conversation counts, and so does every dollar.
⚽ The Final Whistle
A kickoff is only the first whistle. What comes next is the part I actually enjoy: eight weeks of showing up, listening, and putting real numbers in front of you every Monday. Tomorrow night Council debates traffic cameras. Sunday the whole city lines Ocean Avenue for a sold out race. Somewhere in between, a few hundred more Santa Monicans will sign up for a library card that doubles as a discount at a local business, which might be the most Santa Monica sentence I have ever written. Tell me which item in this edition you want unpacked next week. Your questions set my agenda, and I read every message. Enjoy the rest of the holiday, and I hope to see you at the finish line on Sunday.
Together, we're building a community and better future that works for everyone. Thank you for staying connected!
Doug Trussler
Council Candidate, City of Santa Monica
