Meyerside Chats: Government, Policy & Civility
Meyerside Chats seeks to eliminate the “us and them” narrative and toxic polarization by praising those who lead by example, virtuous community leadership, and authentic conversation. The intent is to showcase the humanity in those that take on the often thankless jobs of public service through civil discourse, and honoring differing points of view.
Cities are an essential part of our identity. Depending on where we live, we develop different attitudes, personalities, perspectives, and ways of living. But is the average citizen aware of how their cities actually operate? Likely not. Conflicts between landlords and tenants are common. Many people lack knowledge of the ordinances their leaders enact. For those residents and communities that lack communication, the gap will worsen if left unaddressed.
There are deep-seated issues in many cities that prevent them from progressing. People tend to look at national-level issues rather than concentrating on issues in their own localities, and they are not aware of these severe problems. It is only as they become immersed in the country's biggest issues (which are outside of their control) that they realize what they want. But a knee-jerk response of fury or blame is useless without productive action.
What can be done to correct issues like poor compost, unfair ordinances, or substandard infrastructure? The key is to shift the focus to the local level, get involved, and become part of the solution. Identifying what you can do to contribute begins with listening and trying new ideas. We must establish deeper relationships with each other to achieve more practical solutions.
To find out how, host Evan leads eye-opening conversations about civic and community leadership that highlight how to stand up and make cities better. Addressing the "Us and Them" mentality, he brings people together to see eye to eye and provide their unique viewpoints.
This show aims to humanize politics, break the toxic bureaucracy, and reconnect residents with their city leaders. Evan explores the muddied relationships with politicians. With their grand buildings and great powers, these individuals usually appear distant and untouchable. But they are not infallible. It is possible to start authentic conversations that eventually lead to sustainable and inclusive communities.
Long-time community leader Evan Meyer invites you to focus on this alarming state of living through his podcast, Meyerside Chats. On this show, you'll hear real talks about rebuilding trust between people, leaders, and our government.
Evan brings vast experience to the podcast as a civic guru and community leader. For many years, he has been heavily involved in the development of Santa Monica using highly innovative approaches. He created the city's Civic Love program, a group focused on volunteerism and making change through the process of "doing good." He also served his neighborhood association for a decade, eventually as president.
In addition to outstanding community involvement, Evan founded several start-up businesses. He actively works to transform neglected communities globally through murals, art education, and social responsibility. The efforts of Evan are a perfect example of what citizens can do to make their city a better place to live, work and thrive.
Meyerside Chats: Government, Policy & Civility
California Assemblyman Rick Zbur & Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete on Cross-Jurisdictional Partnerships
About Evan Meyer
Tech entrepreneur and civic leader - he founded mygovtools.org, a platform to drive government efficiency, constituent representation, and civic engagement; BeautifyEarth.com, a platform accelerating urban beautification through art; and its sister nonprofit, transforming schools in underserved areas. He also co-founded RideAmigos.com, a platform that optimizes commuter travel globally. Previously, he served as District Director for the California State Senate and led many civic initiatives in Santa Monica. Through seminars and his podcast Meyerside Chats, Evan inspires civic engagement, innovation, and cultural growth.
He loves the outdoors, is a master of creative projects, is an avid muralist and musician, and finds the world fascinating in every regard.
Hey everyone, and thank you for joining today. have Santa Monica, mayor Lana Negretti back again from our last time with council Woman Tracy Park with Los Angeles in our part two version of the Regional Collaboration Series. So this time with Assemblyman Rick Ber, thank you for joining us. Thank you for being here.
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:You are welcome. Glad, glad to be here.
Evan Meyer:Um, last time was really, was really fun. We had a good a great conversation. I'm excited to continue the conversation around the collaboration, cross jurisdictional partnerships, and especially around our really difficult issues like homelessness, transportation, housing crime, public safety and all that. So we know that stuff is important but it's a matter of actually getting it done and having those conversations across these. These lines. So, it's exciting to, to have a local a local elected as along with a state elected representative to be able to have this conversation. And let's just start with you assemblyman Zaur. does that mean to you? When I say crush jurisdictional collaboration or regional partnerships? comes up for you personally, professionally?
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:Well, you know, I represent my, my district starts over in Griffith Park and I go over the hill into Universal City and Universal Studios, and then run all the way along Santa Monica Boulevard, out to Santa Monica. So I've got Hollywood, west Hollywood, Beverly Hills Westwood west LA and Santa Monica. And so I've got four cities in my district and I view my role as really helping. Local elected officials accomplish the things that they wanna accomplish for their cities. And that is a big part of my responsibility. You know, some of my job is really to listen and to understand how I, what I need to do at the state level to help our local elected officials. And you know, I try my best to maintain good good working relationships with all four with the elected officials in all four cities. And luckily I've got like amazing elected officials that I get to work with, including our mayor. So.
Evan Meyer:and, and how about you, mayor? What, what comes up for you in when you hear that?
Mayor Lana Negrete:well, it's being able to, again, building on relationships, that's key for me. So being able to text our assembly member is something I don't take for granted. Being able to call him up or his field staff, and. Get immediate responses and immediate involvement. I mean, through the fires. It meant working with Caltrans. It has developed into something that's really neat. We're actually working on a bill together and assembly members of Bur brought it forward, which was an issue that we realized during the fire needed to be addressed, which was how we deal with animals. So, everything from instantaneous small and big issues in the moment to realizing that maybe we need to talk about creating a bill and having our assembly member be the author of that. So it's. Really great to have that personal relationship and to continue to be in communication so that when you need something, you can get to it much quicker. And oftentimes you're working at the same speed at the same time on a lot of the same issues. And so it kind of feels like, you know, even though he's our assembly member, he knows so much about what's going on in Santa Monica and has great staff members that are also locally showing up to all our meetings. I mean, it just feels like he's right next door to us, even though a few days a week he has to be up in Sacramento.
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:Well, that's so nice of you to say that, mayor. I appreciate that. You know, I remember when when the fires were happening and I. In addition to the bill that the mayor talked about, which, you know, Santa Monica and her work in you know, during the, during the, the fires was a big part of the inspiration for that bill. But even before that the way that I. And I hadn't worked for that with the mayor that much'cause she had just moved into her role as mayor. One of the things I remember her doing was calling and telling me that they were they had put in a, the city of Santa Monica had put in a request for National Guard, protection for the neighborhoods because so many, such a large part of Santa Monica had been evacuated during the fire. And of course, people were afraid to leave their homes unattended and, you know. Protecting the safety of people in Santa Monica in part was about making sure that people felt secure and leaving their homes. And, I remember the mayor called me up and said that there, you know, they had put in a request and it was just sort of sitting there. And I remember going to the speaker of the assembly at the governor's office and I think we got you aid in about a day, I think from that, at that point. Yeah. So,
Mayor Lana Negrete:within less than 24 hours,
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:yeah.
Mayor Lana Negrete:say. With the relationship that we've developed the assembly member has been so great in bringing me along and introducing me to the speaker of the house. There was a lot of emergency meetings during the fires and he made sure that I was at the table, so things were moving really quickly. I wasn't always getting necessarily invitations, and so he was making sure. I was attending all these crucial meetings and he continues to keep me involved and invite me to different events to continue to collaborate and work with other local leaders and state leaders. And so, you know, that's how it kind of works. We pull our, our fellow electeds up through the ranks and assembly members of Burr. I mean, I really consider him a friend and a joy to work with because he genuinely does that. I feel like there's been times I've walked into a room and not known anyone. During the fires, he brought me in in terms of like, look, it was my first time being mayor. I was also just really new to being an elected leader, just to, you know, two and a half years under my belt at the time. So, or maybe three years I guess. But he's really just been a great mentor too, I would say.
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:Yeah, well, I, you didn't need a lot of mentoring. You got a pretty sophisticated mayor, so, who, who really knows how to fight for this, for the people of Santa Monica. So it's been a, it is really been a pleasure working with her and, and the other members of the council, but, but the mayor in particular.
Evan Meyer:Do, do you feel that, I guess either of you, do you feel that there's opportunities for improvement when it comes to, maybe not just between you both, but perhaps in California in general? When it comes to these types of collaborations, what, what do you recommend for other, for other districts or what can be done? To make it so that, especially in solving these difficult issues that can become the norm. We talked about an example with, you know, the fires. How about, for example, with homelessness? Do you see that being done and what could be done to make it easier?
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:Well, so I mean, first of all, I think one of the things I'd like to say is that it's a real honor to represent Santa Monica because Santa Monica is one of those laboratories of experimentation in which a lot of what the city does is at the cutting edge and. A, the, the mayor talked about one of the bills that, you know, she and I and the city are working together now. The FOUND Act, which is a bill that is focused on making sure that cities, when they update their emergency plans during a mandatory evacuation that. Provisions are made for evacuating pets and the people can ident, can find their pets if they have to leave their home. And you know, it recognizes the fact that pets are parts of the family. I have four bills now, and I've only been in office for. Two and a half years now that are actually modeled after things that were done in Santa Monica. The found act was one of them. I, I remember the city was, you know, city understood that there was a gap in caring for pets and actually, you know, took steps to make sure that that pets were being taken care of. And that's the model for this bill on homelessness. the, you know, carried a bill in my first year well, two bills in my first year. One, one, which was passed which was AB 1620, which was a bill that allowed tenants in. Rent control departments that were in the second floor to move down to first floor units when they, if they had a disability or as they were becoming older. And that was actually something that the city of Santa Monica and West Hollywood together identified the problem. They actually had tenants that they knew. Were trapped in second floor apartments. And and, you know, they brought that to my attention and we carried a bill on behalf of both cities and got that signed into law. Another bill, which we, we shelved this year only temporarily because of the budget, but the California Housing Security Act is a rent subsidy program to try to keep people in their homes. And it's modeled after what Santa Monica's already doing. And of course, Santa Monica. Does it have the resources necessary to really make that program the, what it needs to be in order to really address homelessness as robustly as we need to do? But that's modeled after what Santa Monica did. And then last but not least I've got another bill AB 39, which is requires local electrification planning. It requires cities to put plans in for how you you know, where you're gonna put in electric vehicle chargers strategies for. Electrifying homes to meet climate change needs, and that's modeled after a plan that the city of Santa Monica has already adopted. So, you know, one of the things that I'm really fortunate on is that I've got both in Santa Monica and in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the public safety front. Beverly Hills is really a leader in that in that area as well. But I've got three cities that are really at the cutting edge of things and really in leadership positions, and it allows me to sort of take those things and try to expand them statewide.
Mayor Lana Negrete:I think what I'll say to answer your question on the other end, so a lot of the stuff we just discussed is yes preventative you know, bills to make sure that people don't lose their home is definitely one key of homelessness and one issue that we. At the forefront on, we also are a program service rich community. But in terms of answering your question as it pertains to like, how do you work with your leaders as a local leader? I'll just give an example that's most recent. Our governor has made an announcement about you know, directing comm local governments to address encampments. And for a city like Santa Monica, who's already had a. Laws doesn't mean a lot for us. What it means is that I'm more concerned now that other jurisdictions around us as they start to really address their encampment laws. What does that mean for Santa Monica as a service rich city? Are we gonna see an influx of folks who are being shoved off and out of the streets into Santa Monica? And so I would say that. where this relationship is key because, our assembly member oversees four cities. Our senator oversees an even broader district. I have a relationship as does assembly members of Bur with Ben Allen. I mean, I grew up with Ben Allen, another person I can just text. But that relationship like I have with Tracy Park, the standing dinners I have with Lindsay Horvath working with assembly members of Bur Island, that allows me to say, Hey guys. This is coming down the pi, this is how it's gonna affect Santa Monica, and I wanna talk to the other regions and make sure we have a plan. And if I don't have that relationship with the, a more rapidly evolving door of how leadership changes maybe in local government, then our assembly member can help coordinate that. So I would say that that ability to communicate at that level, I don't think has consistently always been there for everybody in leadership. And it's so crucial because for. On a small scale, but a huge impact. We had a traffic issue with Caltrans closing the number one lane on the freeway. Tracy Park and I went out and made a video. We made a lot of noise and I had to lean on assembly members and Van Allen, but got, you know. The right person on the phone from Cal District seven, and we're actually able to address that number one lane finally this week. But it was only because assembly members of Burr's office was like literally two, three times a week following up on it. Our police department was, I was, I had Tracy Park doing it. I was calling Lindsay Marbeth. That pressure bubbled it to the top and it than it would've. But it was only that pressure. If we didn't have that, I don't think we would've even heard our concern addressed. And so as it pertains to homelessness, I think it's important because we can really say, well, this is our problem in Santa Monica. And because we have strong encampment laws, because we have these other preventative measures in place, and because we have so many services, we have a different subset of issues we need to address. And the assembly member, knowing that West Hollywood and the other cities may have different issues. That's how we can kind of like work together, but it's not always like that in government.
Evan Meyer:Yeah, do. Do you feel that there's a set of best practices that would be. Template templatizable in a sense around these kinds of things? Is it just sort of real time communication when something arises? Is it something that we can sort of share with others to show that like, this is when things do happen, these are some of the steps that we can go through to make sure that people and cities are operating effectively and coming together and working with their state electeds.
Mayor Lana Negrete:mean, I think there's like a lot of events that we all get invited to, and it's not sort of laid out that way, but it's known that. Even though you're attending some event about a specific topic, maybe it's about traffic, maybe it's about homelessness. It's really about getting in the room and spending that first mingle hour connecting with your other local electeds to develop this relationship, but to really be more impactful and effective given the fact that in city council, in Santa Monica and West Hollywood and Culver City and other areas, it's a part-time job. Unlike in the city of LA where it's a full-time job with a salary and staff, people might not be going to these events. So what would be useful is to have a one stop. Communication piece to go to where you can connect with your local leaders and it would you right there, who is in charge of what, who's connected, who like an org chart and you can click on it and message. Now look, we have everybody's emails. Sure. But when you first get elected, you don't necessarily have that all. You're not handed like, here's all the staff workers for your assembly member. Here's all the things that they can help you with and who they're in charge of. So honestly, if there was this type of tool that you could use where you could go in there and not to just plug Gov tools, but I'll just say that like if there was a way to Google and search as an elected and find out all the emails in Subverse staff and who it can send in message to right away within a system about an issue. And it would automatically update me and follow up, and other jurisdictions could see it. Oh, city of Santa Monica is messaging about this issue on the 10 freeway that's affecting us, or City of Santa Monica just rolled out. They have 10 new beds in their shelter, but they're having a problem with this other issue that has to do with homelessness. Let's see if we can help. That would be really cool because I think that would allow us to have one place to look and it would see what everybody's already working on. I can't tell you how many times I've called and ran something up a flagpole to a government department where they said, oh, somebody else has already been working on that. Let me circle back with that person and it creates this let me circle back model that we do in government and everyone's circling back and running up flagpoles that nothing gets done if we had it all in one transparent space. it's even more constituents can see it. It doesn't need to be private. It should be that you could see and type in City of Santa Monica. Outstanding issues. that's the 10 freeway waiting for a response from Cal seven. District Zebu staff could go in there and say, let me see and look in. Oh, Santa Monica's waiting for a response. Let me see how I can help. And that chat was live. Wow. That would be a game changer. I mean, I think that would be a really cool technology or tool that we could put in place that would let our constituency that we are working.'cause I'm sure. The assembly member can tell you, we work a lot of hours, and I don't think our constituents realize the amount of little things that we're working on that are just as important as the big things that.
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:I think you've just developed a new bill idea for next year.
Mayor Lana Negrete:Well, we have, I have an idea for you. It's called Gov Tools. I'm being serious, but I mean, it probably should be a bill or a program that's rolled out, but
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:Yep.
Mayor Lana Negrete:I think it's the one thing that seems the most obvious that everybody could benefit from, and it's fully transparent.
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think my best, what I would say, my best practice is not as techy because I'm older than the mayor is, and so I I go, I go to old school things, but I think it's really just always making sure that you are, I. Keeping relationships with the other elected officials that serve the public strong and warm, and that you always approach every person with an assumption of best intentions. You know, we you know, I don't agree with every single elected official on every single thing in my district. And they don't agree with me on everything, but I think, you know, I think we both have good working relationships with pretty much everyone that represents other people in the, in, in the areas that we cover. And it's because, you know, if you always make the, the, your top priority, I. Helping people in your district. Then you put aside all the, you know, all the other things that sometimes come up in political life. and you're willing to work with people who are, you know, more conservative than you, or more progressive than you, or, you know, different than you we're all different and unique. And and that, that's sort of, I think the, the thing that I, I'm just, I'm really thankful for in terms of the elected officials that cover. The area that I represent, I think it's an amazingly committed group of people. You know, the public I think, doesn't understand sometimes how you know, it's easy to become angry because there are a lot of problems that are affecting people's lives on from a day-to-day basis. You know, I mean, people are barely, some people are barely making ends meet. Some people are not housed. People are on the verge of homelessness. Others have lost their jobs. And you know, it's easy to become frustrated and angry and but you know, when you're in the role I am, one of the things that it makes me, you know, I. Optimistic about the future, even when the challenges seem are, is just that I, I, I would say without a doubt, the elected officials that at every level of government are in it for the right reasons and actually are trying their best to make the lives better for people in our, in our communities. I.
Evan Meyer:Do you think? Do you think that? Most people in politics, Do you feel that in, in your experience, that that's the type of people that you deal with? In general. I don't wanna, you know, have to pinpoint, but like in general, do you feel like that's what you get out of being an assembly member and, and, or does it, is it just locally that you experienced that?
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:I think, I think it's brought, I mean, you know, there are political rivalries that happen in all the communities that I represent, and I think the, the folks that are successful ultimately in accomplishing things are people that sort of put political rivalries aside and really try to help the community and and I think ultimately. That's what happens, you know, most of the time, most of the time in my area. But I think that's also true in, you know, among my colleagues. You know, it's, we don't, there's a lot of people I don't agree with on certain things and especially on the other side of the aisle right now. But but I still, even with those folks, you know, there's a group of folks that you know, that I, while they disagree with me, they actually have authentic. Views that, you know they, they're, they are, you know, I think they're misguided, but they're trying to make the community better. I just think that their prescriptions are not that great. But, you know, you try to find common ground on the areas where they are. I mean, for example, I'm, I'm working really hard and I know that Mayor Negreti has actually been really helpful and some others in the council on trying to get the film tax credit reauthorized and, and increased. I mean, that's gonna be a, that's a huge, huge. Need for the whole area that I represent. It's important for workers in Santa Monica. The, I mean, the tourism industry in Santa Monica really depends on having a thriving film and television tax industry. And you know, there's people on, you know, there are republicans there are supporting that bill. And frankly getting that through because it's viewed, you know, there's some folks in other parts of the state. Who think that it's you know, a giveaway to Los Angeles and not understanding that this is a jobs bill, you know, where you have to build the support person by person. And so, you know, I've got republicans that are supporting.
Evan Meyer:That's great. It's, it's, it's great to see that you've been successful in building those, You know, cross political borders and being able to do that successfully. And so congratulations on that. I think that's what's needed, regardless of who you are and what party you are. Right? it's an important skill. It's an important the ability to, and there, there seems to be a lot of, some good movement coming along with people being able to have, find their common ground and have. Dialogue. We, we, we seem to have lost that for a while in, in a lot of ways. And, and there, there does seem to be some some movement towards getting it back from, from what I can tell. But has been a great. Time with both of you. Thank you for sharing this. We're about at the end here unfortunately, but we could do a quick lightning round on if there's any last words that you wanna share about what you think, what you'd like to see as it, as it relates to this in the future, and, and, and what we can do here to to, to come together and solve these, these issues. So any, any, any last words on that?
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:I think I would just like to say that, I mean, I really appreciate the mayor's leadership in the city of Santa Monica and the other members of the council. You know, we haven't, we haven't talked all about a lot of things that we're working on together, including issues that are affecting the Santa Monica budget, affecting the budget of Santa Monica College. We're in a big budget crunch right now in the city. From the mayor has been up in Sacramento a bunch of times advocating for needs of the city. And you know, I just people should understand how attentive and committed their elected officials has. Head of Monica are. I mean, it's a really, a, a, a really extraordinary group of people and I'm very honored to have the opportunity to work with, with Mayor Negreti and, and the other members of the council.
Mayor Lana Negrete:I would just say that continuing to reach across the aisle even within our city council, you know, people thought, oh, because people ran on a slate that there would be. No congeniality there would be no working together. And, and that is not the case. I maybe it's not ironic. I think we all are people and serving and we all agree on the three priorities for Santa Monica, and so we already have so much common ground how we get there. We might have differing opinions, but I think we all respect other, we respect passionate and rooted in. Our belief that it's gonna do good for the community. So we allow each other the space to express that. We try to support a happy median to get there and we respect when just completely on opposite ends of it. And what I enjoy is that when we walk away from city council'cause it wasn't always like this, we all still, even after I would say a passionate evening, we all still smile and say goodnight to each other and enjoy each other's. You know, company outside of it. So working together and developing relationships is key. I encourage people to do that with their elected officials to get their voices heard, and I enjoy. I always encourage people to join commissions and boards and get involved as much as you can to understand who your elected officials are.
Evan Meyer:Wonderful. well thank you both very much for, for being here. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your, your knowledge, your wisdom, and and for serving our community and doing it honorably. We will see you next time. Have a, have a wonderful evening.
Assemblyman Rick Zbur:thanks a lot. It's really nice to get to know you on this. Take care.