2 to Split Santa Monica Mayoralty : Politics: Council members Ken Genser and Judy Abdo, both in tenants group, will each serve a year.

As part of a compromise to maintain unity within the powerful tenants political group whose members make up the majority on the City Council, the two-year term of mayor in Santa Monica will be split between council members Judy Abdo and Ken Genser.

The newly installed City Council on Tuesday night voted along political lines to elect Abdo as mayor and Genser as mayor pro tem through December, 1991. The two will then reverse roles.

City Council observers said this is believed to be the first time the two-year term of mayor has been split in advance.

Although the intense maneuvering that led to the compromise might suggest that great power was at stake, the post of mayor is essentially a ceremonial one. The mayor presides at council meetings, but has just one of seven votes on the council and no veto power.

Up until late last week, outgoing Mayor Dennis Zane was expected to be reelected to another two-year term to settle a dispute between Abdo and Genser, two first-term council members who both wanted to be mayor. All three are members of the tenants group, Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights.

But by Monday night, word spread that councilmen Herb Katz--who had also expressed interest in serving as mayor and is second only to Zane in seniority--and Robert Holbrook had agreed to support Genser for mayor if Genser would agree to support Katz for mayor pro tem.

Councilman Kelly Olsen had also agreed to vote for Genser.

With four votes, including Genser’s own, he could have beat out Zane or Abdo for mayor.

But Genser said in an interview Tuesday night that he had decided, after speaking with Zane and other members of the tenants group, that he would go along with the split mayors.

“I could have had it if I wanted it,” Genser said. “But I took into account the symbolism of what such an election might mean.”

“We would have been very disappointed if that had happened,” said Nancy Greenstein, who co-chairs the tenants group, commonly known by its acronym SMRR.

“I knew that there were all sorts of proposals floating around, but I didn’t believe Ken would accept becoming mayor without the support of a majority of SMRR members,” Zane said.

Katz said just before the vote that all the political maneuvering indicated a shift in the way the mayor’s job is perceived. In the past, it was generally treated as a ceremonial job and rotated among council members, with consideration given to seniority. Now, Katz said, it appears that SMRR leaders are determined to keep control of the position.

“I think this is the wrong thing to do,” he said.

Katz said that four years ago, he was involved in negotiations for a similar split mayoral term. The proposal was that Katz and then-Councilman James Conn would serve one-year terms, but Katz said he rejected the idea because he thought it inappropriate.

“I didn’t want to be mayor that bad,” he said.

In the aftermath of a tough election campaign--and what some observers called among the dirtiest in recent history--many politically active people in the city were expressing hope that a mayor who could unify the city would be picked.

The consensus among council members this week, however, was that unity would be difficult to attain.

“The negativity in the campaign was so intense,” said Holbrook, who had run on a slate with community activist Donna Alvarez and Christine Reed, who was defeated in her bid for a fifth term. “It’ll take a while just to get over that negativism.”

Abdo, who was elected in 1988, agreed.

“We are fractured. We have experienced deep divisions,” she said. “Seven people as council members cannot solve the problems of this community, only the community working together can solve these problems.”

The city is facing a slew of problems, which were raised during the campaign. Among them is the large, increasingly violent homeless population; a declining supply of affordable housing, which will probably mean changes in the city’s tough rent control law, and growing traffic and density, attributed to an increase in development.

Observers differed over the probable effect of the split mayors on resolving the city’s problems.

“This proves there is a lack of leadership in the city,” said one City Hall insider who asked not to be identified. “They have two people who are diametrically opposed to each other on most issues who are splitting the job.”

Genser has been vocal in opposing major development in the city, whereas Abdo has voted for some, including a proposed luxury hotel and conference center on publicly owned beachfront property. The project was defeated by voters in the Nov. 6 election.

Zane said having two people with different views splitting the job of mayor will “affirm two voices in the community and give them both their appropriate due.”

But Abdo acknowledged that the job will be tough for both her and Genser.

“I think that two years makes it much easier to plea for a program,” she said. “A one-year term of service will make it that much more difficult. We are going to have to work much more closely as a council through the two-year period.”

Abdo, 47, formerly co-chaired SMRR and was often the swing vote in the past two years, when SMRR had only a 4-to-3 majority on the council, and works at the Ocean Park Community Center. She is one of the few openly gay or lesbian elected public officials in the state.

In the 1988 race for four seats, she finished third, behind incumbents Katz and Zane. Genser captured the fourth seat in that election.