Tribute to Joe Natoli

Editor's note: Joe Natoli -- a constant presence at City Council meetings known for his trademark cap and blunt, often controversial, testimony -- died March 12 at a Santa Monica hospital after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 55.

March 26, 2008

To me, Joe Natoli was amazing. Many people discounted him, but I learned early on to pay attention to what he had to say. Over years of listening to him, I found him a great source of accurate information about what was going on around the city in an amazing number of areas.

Joe believed in the old fashioned value of fairness. He believed it wasn’t fair for you to hurt people on your way to making money or gaining power. He believed the little guy had as much right to fairness as the big guy, and he made it his business to talk and listen to people at the bottom of the ladder as well as people at the top – a very wise thing to do because what he heard from those down the ladder often differed dramatically from the official version.

He believed in truth, and if you strayed from it, he’d let you and others know it. Clever manipulation of words didn’t fool Joe. He knew when there was an effort afoot to con the public or cut the public out of the discourse.

He believed that governments should serve the people, rather than the ambitions of those in government, and no matter who you were, if he disagreed with you, he’d let you know it, most likely at the microphone at the next City Council meeting. He also believed that the public was entitled to know the truth.

Joe saw himself as a kind of watchdog. He went to city meetings, board meetings, commission meetings, council meetings. He went to court and sat through cases. He talked to people all over town, and he became the best source of information in the city.

Joe cared. When he championed a cause, he gave it his all. At one point, he lived to save the Boat House on the Pier. Then he discovered just how dramatically dysfunctional it had become and suddenly became the best source of information for why it had to go.

First he believed it was unfair to put it out of business, then with new information, he decided it was unfair to allow it to remain in business. He fought both fights from a sense of what is right and what is fair with no apology for his change of heart.

Joe had involvements even beyond the city, always in service of what he considered to be what’s right. I guess it’s fair to say that Joe walked in where angels fear to tread. He lived to challenge what he saw as abuse of power, and to do his bit to make sure the bad guys didn’t win. He could drive you crazy with his long-winded explanations, but his information was usually impeccable.

I, for one, already miss him.

Ellen Brennan
Santa Monica