By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

January 19, 2010 -- Meeting tonight for the first time this year, the City Council will not be making final votes on many major items. Instead, most of the agenda is dedicated to requesting City staff research various important issues that the council members will consider at future meetings.

Perhaps most important on the list is the council seat made vacant earlier this month by the death of Mayor Ken Genser. The council is expected to direct staff to prepare information for the next meeting, scheduled for January 26, on how to proceed with finding a replacement.

According to the City Charter, the council has the option of either appointing a replacement or setting a date for a special election. If it chooses to appoint somebody, the council must do it within 30 days after Genser’s seat is declared vacant, which is expected to officially take place at next week’s meeting.

Following Council member Herb Katz’s death last year, the council chose to appoint his replacement. It took several hours and eight rounds of voting before a majority finally reached the decision to name Gleam Davis to fill the vacant seat.

Also on the agenda is the enforcement of the City’s ban on leaf blowers. Council members are expected to ask staff to prepare an amendment that would shift the responsibility of adhering to the law from the operator of the device to the property owner.

Also, enforcing the law would become the job of the City’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment. Currently, the Police Department is tasked with the responsibility.

Other items the council is expected to request City staff to review include:

• The status of the City’s ban on smoking in common areas of multi-family residences;

• The recent UCLA study alleging aircraft exhaust from the Santa Monica Airport has caused a health hazard for nearby residents;
  
• Allowing food vending trucks to park and do business in portions of the city;
  
• Santa Monica’s participation in President Obama’s anticipated federal home energy conservation subsidy program, and
  
• A recent decision by the State Court of Appeal on a tenant eviction law in Oakland and its effect on Santa Monica