The city established a $3.5 million fund to address financial claims of ‘historically rooted harm caused by City action.’
Santa Monica just passed what the city lauds as the most ambitious ever locally funded reparations effort to redress “past harms.”
The city council approved the Santa Monica Restorative Justice Program unanimously on Tuesday night, establishing a $3.5 million fund to address financial claims of “historically rooted harm caused by City action.”
A recently settled reparations claim became an “inflection” point for the city to develop an “institutionalized mechanism” to deliver reparations, the City Manager’s office said in a report. That claim, the Ebony Beach Club matter, was presented to the council in 2024 by Constance White, the daughter of Silas White who in 1957 signed a lease-to-purchase agreement in Santa Monica to develop a black-only private club.
The agreement bound White to pay monthly installments for 15 years, the city of Santa Monica found in a report published in 2024. White made one payment in the span of about a year, at which point, the city filed an eminent domain claim to seize the site and its surrounding properties. Santa Monica determined that White “didn’t have the capital or capability to buy it outright at the time.”
After the findings of the report were provided to White’s living relatives in August 2024, the family “presented an estimated value of economic loss at $125,000.” The city eventually approved a settlement of $350,000 for White’s family.
“We as a council made a decision, that despite the fact we’re facing a very challenging financial time, we want to dedicate funding because [a formal apology to the Black community] is great, but unless it comes with money and meaningful repair, it’s just an empty word,” Mayor Caroline Torosis said last year.
Santa Monica declared a state of fiscal distress last year; in addition to declining tourist revenue post-Covid-19, the city is on the hook for a $229 million payout to victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by a former city employee. City Manager Oliver Chi, who also led Tuesday night’s presentation of the restorative justice program, has called the city’s financial situation “fairly dire.”
To sidestep budget constraints, the city will earmark $3.5 million received through a recent development agreement with the RAND Corporation for the restorative justice program. The program will also establish a formal Restorative Justice Commission and allow for the city to hire an administrator to lead the program, according to Chi’s report.
The city may also explore adding to the program an additional $2 million in one-time funds to be delivered as part of the RAND agreement in mid-2028.
“The program that this city council has identified to establish, one where it’s intended to address multiple categories of historically rooted harms, where we’re allocating substantial dedicated funding, in an amount that really constitutes one of the largest locally funded restorative justice initiatives of its kind — is different than most of the programs we’ve seen across the country,” Chi said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Other reparations efforts in California, and other states, have addressed specific harms through one-time settlements.
“Rather than resolving the matter solely through a one-time settlement, City Council directed staff to pursue a resolution that honored the historical record for the Club and also used the opportunity to put into place a broader restorative justice infrastructure that could serve all residents similarly impacted by past City actions,” the City Manager’s office said in a report.
The $3.5 million currently allocated toward the fund is “seed” money, the council clarified on Tuesday. Councilmembers floated the possibility of collaborating with corporate partners to increase the fund, and Councilwoman Lana Negrete said that local banks have expressed interest in contributing to the project through financial literacy programs.
“We believe this is seeding the fund initially, and that over time as we identify additional funding sources or program requirements as the program is built out, there would be an established mechanism for allocating additional resources to the effort,” Chi said.
The restorative justice framework will draw from the city’s already-established Landback Commission, which is developing a Harms Report with “actionable recommendations for reparative justice to be adopted by City Council.”