College Donor Protests Ceremony Speaker

The selection of a liberal City Council member as keynote speaker at a Santa Monica College awards ceremony has angered an important contributor to the school’s scholarship fund.

David Simon, a Santa Monica attorney and landlord who this year gave $9,000 worth of scholarships to the college, planned to boycott the speech, scheduled Wednesday night. He originally threatened to cancel all future donations to the school, but he changed his mind on Wednesday.

Simon also canceled a living trust of $407,878 that had named the school as beneficiary. He said Wednesday he would reconsider that move.

Simon is protesting the choice of Councilman Dennis Zane as keynote speaker for the annual scholarship award ceremony.

‘Deeply Insulted’

Zane, who is running for reelection to the council, is a prominent member of the city’s dominant political faction, the liberal Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights.

“I was deeply insulted and offended by his selection as keynote speaker,” Simon said in a letter dated Monday to the board of directors of the College Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises money for scholarships to the school.

“His selection by the college most certainly carries with it an endorsement of his extreme radical political position on rent control, as well as other matters affecting owners of property in Santa Monica.”

Simon said Wednesday he decided the school meant too much to him to cancel his donations. He said he planned to attend the ceremony but would leave when Zane spoke.

College officials, contacted Tuesday, said they were surprised by Simon’s reaction. They said Zane was invited to speak in his official capacity as a representative of the city government and not as a politician.

Misunderstanding

“It’s an unfortunate misunderstanding,” college President Richard Moore said. “This is a political year and a political town. But that’s not what we’re about and not what this ceremony is about.”

Maggie Hall, an assistant dean who coordinates the awards ceremony, said she had “absolutely no idea” Zane’s appearance would be controversial.

Hall said she thought a speaker from the city would be appropriate because the college and city recently reached a landmark agreement on parking that ended nearly a decade of contention. She said she asked Mayor James Conn to speak, but he was unavailable and recommended Zane.

“When the city recommends someone . . . (he or she) is speaking as a representative of the whole City Council, not as an individual,” Hall said. “It seems to me to be a natural way to work out difficulties with the city: to have communication between the two groups.”

No Criticism in Past

Hall said selection of speakers, most of whom have been alumni, has never before generated criticism.

“I try to find something that’s topical at the time, someone who speaks to supporting education,” said Hall, who also serves as campus liaison to the foundation.

A total of 250 scholarships and awards worth $90,000 were to be handed out at this week’s ceremony. Simon’s contribution came to about 10% of the total.

Simon’s opposition to Zane stems from the councilman’s work with Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, a tenant activist group that promoted the city’s tough rent control law.

“Radical Activist”

In another letter--to Colin Petrie, a member of the college’s board of trustees--Simon described Zane as a “radical activist” who leads a “movement to undermine and destroy the constitutionally guaranteed rights of property owners” in Santa Monica.

“As a major property owner in the city of Santa Monica, I have been the victim of his radical and extreme views on property rights,” Simon wrote.

Zane “is one of the leaders of the Santa Monica rent control movement, which for the past 10 years’ time has ruthlessly pursued a policy of persecution and oppression of landlords.”

Simon, 64, who received a degree from Santa Monica College in 1952, went on to compare the selection of Zane to choosing Adolf Hitler to speak at a reunion of concentration camp survivors.

Zane was not available for comment.

Petrie described Simon as a very generous man, but very “politically oriented.”

“Any college or school is better off selecting a speaker who is not politically involved, because you can’t please everyone,” Petrie said. “You bring in someone with a definite philosophy, you leave yourself open for this sort of thing.”

But others defended the choice of speaker as part of a university or college’s doctrine of academic freedom.

“Any institution of higher learning prides itself on its tradition of academic freedom,” board of trustees Chairman Fred Beteta said. “If there are restrictions on the figures we can invite (to speak), then it is an encroachment on that freedom.”