Evan Meyer welcomes Debbie Lee to this edition of Meyerside Chats. Interested in any of the civic topics below? Please tune in to Meyerside Chats on the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Debbie has been the Chief Communications Officer for the City of Santa Monica for the past 8 years. Previously working for SM Travel & Tourism, and Downtown SM, Debbie has dedicated her professional career to our city for more than 23 years. She has helped shape the Santa Monica we live in today.
Meyerside Chats seeks to eliminate the “us and them” narrative and toxic polarization by praising those who lead by example, virtuous community leadership, and authentic conversation. The intent is to showcase the humanity in those that take on the often thankless jobs of public service through civil discourse, and honoring differing points of view.
Recorded by santamonicamusic.com
Summary:
– “Without building relationships, you can’t build trust”
– “How to reach as many people as possible | 3:30
– Access to information IS equity | 6:30
– What are the factors that determine what “misinformation” is?
– How the city differentiates fact vs opinion | 10:00
– Debbie’s background in Santa Monica | 15:00
– How the city can improve | 17:50
– How access to information can change how we experience and build trust for government | 21:00
– Anger as a legitimate emotion around policy impacts, and how to it convert into constructive kindness to help drive your point clearer and faster | 24:30
– What advice would you give to other cities? | 33:10
– Bureaucracy, and balancing cost, efficiency and equity | 36:00
– Santa’s Monica’s strategy and metrics around multi-channel, targeted communications | 44:00
– Public/private partnership in Santa Monica – past successes & future opportunities | 46:00
– Opportunities for Santa Monica/Los Angeles partnerships | 50:00
– Empathizing with those in Public Service | 58:00
– Debbie’s next journey | 1:00:40
– Debbie’s farewell message | 1:02:00
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Listen to the podcast here
Meyerside Chats Debbie Lee
Sometimes before I do anything big like whenever I’m on onstage type thing, I bite an apple. There’s the confidence you get when you bite into an apple.
I like it. How did you come up with that? Is that something that you did on your own?
No. I think I read it somewhere. I forget. I was like, “That apple technique is money.” It’s great. You just chew. Imagine yourself biting into an apple. You’re always confident.
That’s interesting. It’s a great technique. I will have to try that.
I didn’t do that now.
You didn’t bring an apple with you?
No. I wish I did though. Maybe it was something I did the first 10 or 20 times I remembered it, and then you can’t always have an apple. Do they give apples out in the city?
They don’t give apples out in the city, but that might be a great technique. You bite an apple. Draw yourself out of the mindset you are in. Get some nutrition.
It could be a good cultural shift to start promoting nutrition and healthy eating. There are always apples available in the city of Santa Monica.
There are always apples maybe at the farmer’s market. See a partnership somewhere down the road.
You have spent now a bunch of years in the city. How many?
Just shy of eight years. That’s a while.
You’ve got a lot of experience in dealing with all of the things that a city can possibly deal with.
We have dealt with quite a few of these past couple of years.
As the Chief Communications Officer, communications is your forte and what you focused on, and arguably one of the most important aspects of any relationship.
Relationship is the keyword there. Relationships are so important not just within City Hall, but building a relationship with the community to build that understanding and tackle some of the hardest issues. Without a relationship, you can’t build trust. Relationship is important.
How did you start to do that in the city? What were some of the strategic initiatives you employed? Tell me a little bit about how that went and what some of your focus was. Let’s get into it.
In some sense, I had the easiest job and the hardest job. It was easy because there was no program before I joined the city. When I came to Santa Monica City Hall, there was a skeletal crew disjointed working on communications, and there was a deep need. There’s still one now, not just in Santa Monica but I believe in government, in general.
Building understanding of some tough issues, there are a lot of details. There are a lot of nuances. Things that feel straightforward sometimes are not. I was tapped to come and start a program. How do you build a relationship with a community? There are actual steps that you can take. One of them was we had a great Seascape. A lot of people read that newsletter. It goes to every home in Santa Monica.
We were on the verge of digital when I joined the city. We had a website, but our social media was lacking and people were starting to subscribe to email newsletters and things of that nature. Beyond the tactics, it was about building a way to reach people where they are and do it in a way where it was multi-channel, and that we had a direct connection to residents, so that incorporates everything.
Whether it’s having a space on the website where people can go and learn more about information about the things that matter to them, to proactively reaching out whether it’s through media relations, through our local newspapers, creating great video content, or building engaging content on our TV channels.
Social media was this growing and emerging thing when I joined the city. Some people felt it was all about the numbers. Get as many followers and likes as you possibly can. We focused on getting the right viewership. We were super focused on that 64,000 households. How do we build a communications program that reaches that audience? Whether it’s in times of crisis, we have been through quite a few of those in the past couple of years, all the way through to learning about exciting new programs and services that residents and people in the community can take advantage of and benefit from.
Those things, there need to be a reliable way that you can reach as many of the people out there as possible. Provide timely, factual, and robust information, and then let people figure out how they feel about things. Whether they want to engage or if the programs and services are right for them. We have been able to do that over time and it has been a rewarding and tough job.
I remember you mentioned access to information is equity.
Information is power. If you don’t know about something and you don’t have all the information that you need, you may make decisions based on misinformation and lack of information. Having the right information and all of the information is critical.
Misinformation is a fun word going around right now. What are the factors that determine what information is misinformation?
There’s a big difference between opinion and fact, and that’s prevalent in our society. That’s much bigger than Santa Monica, my job or City Hall.
Most people have a different definition of the word fact, which is a problem in a lot of ways.
There lies part of the problem. Some people feel that government shouldn’t have a voice and shouldn’t have an opinion, but the government is comprised of people. The people that work there, myself included. When I was there, we have thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. There is a space for that. That’s why in blogs and some social media content, it’s important to be able to produce those thoughts. It’s all part of building that relationship. If you know me, my views, and what’s driving me to make some of the decisions or recommendations that I’m doing, it may help further that dialogue and build that understanding. If it’s just fact-based, that might be a little bit more of a challenge.
[bctt tweet=”Some people feel that government shouldn’t have a voice or opinion. But the government is comprised of people.” username=””]
The trick that I found is that it’s hard to keep those two things parallel and not always entwined. There’s space where some press releases and information on the website have to be straightforward and fact-based. There are other times where that opinion, that expertise, and the reasons why are also important. Figuring out ways and proper channels to be able to do those two things, and that people can recognize the difference between those two things are important components of what we set up at City Hall.
Can people recognize the difference between those two things?
I hope so. As far as the program we set up, absolutely. Press releases, other than people’s quotes which we never edit, were fact-based primarily. Where we took some liberties and shared points of view was through our blog. If you go on the city’s website, those two things are very clearly identified as separate things. It’s important to be able to digest both of them, and then factor both opinion and fact into it even if it isn’t your point of view, and then be able to figure out how you feel about something and where you sit on an issue.
It’s a good strategy. I’m interested to learn how people perceive that. I always get hung up on the opinion versus fact thing because it’s so tricky. I do believe one person’s opinion is another person’s fact in a lot of cases, how they make cases for things, how they show up at council meetings, talk about things, and take up those two minutes of time. If they are on the council, talking about it for more than two minutes. It’s a good line to draw and it’s nice that you’ve drawn it.
The important thing is it’s helpful to have both. There’s a danger in living in absolutes, one or the other. Never this, always that. We are all humans and we are imperfect or should I say perfectly imperfect. Being able to know and identify when you are getting opinions and when you are getting facts, being able to take both those things at face value, and then being able to formulate your own opinion on things. That’s the beauty of democracy.
Even though the government wasn’t part of my professional career path plan, it’s part of why I felt compelled to take this job and do the work that we have done over the past several years. It’s being able to engage as many people as possible, and then have them be part of that decision-making process. Know that their voices and opinions matter. Even if I don’t agree with your point of view, having a difference of opinion or thought, that’s what makes democracy work.
If we all think the same, look the same, and act the same, it might be easier in one sense, but you may not get the results and be able to advance in what you are trying to achieve. It takes bravery to think outside the box, go against the grain, and advocate for something when you are the minority. Those things are so such an important part of why democracy works in America. We spend a lot of time focused on the people we disagree with, even in Santa Monica.
Especially in Santa Monica, what I found is that if we spend more time thinking and acknowledging what we all have in common and the things that are our connective tissue, the things that we don’t agree on don’t feel as big and overwhelming maybe. When you think about it from a human relationship, if I can say to you, Evan, “We have ten things in common and two things that we disagree on, or maybe don’t see eye on,” then those two things may be important things, but I’m also balancing the other ten things.
It’s weighted. If you don’t do that weighing, you end up thinking that people are against each other and it’s not the case. I do believe that people have more in common than they disagree on. The council would say that too because they seem to be unanimous on most of their votes if I’m not mistaken.
Where it gets a little tricky is sometimes people can agree on a broader level of a topic. How we do things is almost as important as what we do. That’s both from my culture, also from how I have approached my work. If you want to get results, but the way you get those results is not in line with consensus building, relationship building, and trust, then you might be successful but you might be alone in that.
It’s super important to factor those things in as you are making decisions and as you are approaching your work. Where we started this conversation is relationships. What has kept me in Santa Monica for as long as I have been here are the relationships. I think about all of the great things that we have been able to accomplish. Most of it was based on the fact that we had trusting relationships. I still believe that trust is still there. It’s super hopeful for the future there.
You’ve done a lot in under a decade.
I spent almost eight years in this in City Hall, but before that, I spent almost half my life working in one capacity or another for the community. I have a deep-rooted passion and love for the community. I probably spent more time in Santa Monica than in my own home. That’s a different definition of community member. I might not be a resident of Santa Monica, but I have spent more time there than I did in my own home for many years.
You have a passion for it. Tell me a little bit about what you were doing before this. Give some context.
I spent about nine years as the Vice President of downtown Santa Monica. I joined that downtown bid when it was Bayside District Corporation. It was a tiny little business improvement district. I was able to join at an exciting time when they were about to establish the property-based assessment district. With that shift, there was a lot more ability to do much more sophisticated outreach and marketing, enhanced cleaning, and more advocacy for the area.
I was fortunate enough to be there during a time when we went from a small primarily third street promenade to a thriving downtown district. Prior to that, I spent about eight years working for the Santa Monica Travel Tourism Office, doing marketing, destination branding, and place-making. That was helpful as I came to City Hall and started thinking about how to best reach the Santa Monica community. I had a lot of understanding and context of the needs of the community. There are some things that we have done well and other things that we still have a lot of room for improvement.
What are some of the things you see that we can still do better either during your time or in hindsight? Where do we need to go?
It’s a good question. I’m going to stay in my lane and focus mostly on outreach and communications. There is a gap in understanding what that means. It’s very logical. If I spend a lot of time with you, getting to know you and telling you about myself, my thoughts, and why I feel the way I do, then you build that trusting relationship. That takes time. It may take resources and it doesn’t happen overnight. We have a lot of opportunities to grow. We don’t always invest enough and certainly not at the right time in doing that outreach.
That’s an area that the city could take more of a closer look at. Most companies spend anywhere from 5% to 10% of their annual budget on outreach. Government is a service organization. We don’t build widgets. We don’t sell anything. They are in service to the community. If the community doesn’t know about the services, programs, and policy decisions that are being made, it doesn’t have to be about convincing people that we are right. It’s about what we talked about earlier, information is power.
If you have the information, you are able to engage in a different way and you are able to maybe drive change. Those are very powerful things in the society that we are in. We don’t always invest in those types of outreach and communication strategies a lot of times. It’s not just isolated to Santa Monica. You invest the money once you have a problem or once something is misunderstood. Imagine a place where people have information, to begin with. It may not change the full outcome. It may not even change your opinion on it. What it might change is how you feel about how the services were provided, how that policy decision was made, and how it impacts me.
It’s very similar to basic human relationships. If I tell you something is happening before it happens, it may not change the end result, but it might change and have an impact on how we feel about each other, that I trusted you enough and I shared enough with you in advance so that you weren’t left wondering why at the end and speculating. That part of not just government but any business would need that type of investment.
Do you think all the residents of the city know that pure sentiment? That’s beautiful. Sometimes when I get some things from the city that feel like city things, they feel like pure information. It’s usually some legalese. Maybe it’s something about the store going up with a liquor license that you need to have an opportunity to. It’s like on a white card.
Other times, even in the sea breeze, for example, I do feel that there’s a warmth to it. Do you think that people are beginning to understand that there are people in the city like you who care? It’s like what you said, to make them feel that you are connected to this in a meaningful way. You are trying to give them all the information. Are they reacting differently? Are they saying, “I see that at least they are trying to communicate this to me in an effective way?” How do you even measure something like that? Sometimes it’s tricky, I imagine.
There are different ways from a marketing standpoint that you can measure that. You can poll and you can ask. There have been a lot of conversations around market research and building that understanding. It depends on who you are trying to reach and who you are trying to poll. There are people who are very engaged and who remain engaged which is great.
There are other people who don’t have the ability to, whether it’s because they are busy working. They don’t have childcare. You can’t always make it to a city council meeting. Knowing different ways to reach those audiences is important. I’m very fortunate that I got to work with such caring and intelligent people at City Hall. Santa Monica, despite some of the opinions I have heard, I can say that I have been fortunate to work with some of the brightest people in public service.
You may not agree with the approach. You may not agree on the end result. The one thing I can say based on my experience is that there are a lot of people at City Hall that cares so much about the community. They take pride in the work that they produce. They are experts in their field and there’s a basic level of respect that should come with that even if there’s disagreement on the why or the what frame.
One of the purposes of originally creating this show was my frustration with the anger that people have. Regardless of how much they have in common, they will focus on the one thing that they disagree and they will say mean things to each other. They will name call. They sometimes do even preschool behavior where you’d be like, “That’s not how we treat each other.”
I see it a lot. When I was the president of the Ocean Park Association, one of the rules that I had is you come in here and you speak nicely to people. You don’t have to agree with it, but this is not a place where we yell at each other. There’s a stigma around that in a lot of organizations. That was one of the things I wanted to change. I have been harping on it now for a long time.
A lot of what the opportunity is to get people to say, “I have the information. I see that there’s another person on the other side of there. I don’t have to yell at them and be angry at them. They are a person too.” When we are talking about communications, it’s the epicenter of the opportunity to contribute to many people who live here. I’m always thinking and I have seen a lot of it. I know a lot of it has improved while I have been there. It’s a good sign which is great. All we can do is hope that people continue to be cautious about how they speak to people and be kind.
You started with the word anger and I don’t think being angry is bad. Anger is driven by passion when you feel strongly about something. What you do with that anger matters. That goes back to what we talked about earlier about how you do something. If you don’t agree with somebody, you can be angry about a situation or about a topic. How you choose to then express that anger and what you do with that energy is important. If you want to let that anger fester and it becomes personal and you make personal attacks, that’s a choice.
On the flip side, if you take anger, it can drive change that can benefit a lot of people. That goes back to how you approach something and how you do something can make a huge difference in who’s standing next to you and behind you as you make those changes and strive for that in your work. I have seen a lot of dissatisfaction either with the government, politicians, different neighborhood, organizations, and different groups. All of it is important as we talk about civic engagement, and everybody deserves to have their opinion.
[bctt tweet=”How you approach and do something can make a huge difference in who’s standing next to you or behind you.” username=””]
I didn’t believe in the First Amendment. I don’t think I would be able to have done the work that I have done for almost a decade of my life. The outcomes matter. At the end of all of that, if you’ve hurt someone’s feelings, that’s an outcome. If you use that anger or that passion to drive necessary change and improvement, and work with people, I think over time, you are building a stronger foundation for a better place. That’s the connective tissue or that top line of what we all have in common. We all want a great place that we can be proud of and that we connect to.
I’m glad you made that diff differentiation because the spectrum of emotion is something that is human. It’s a human thing. That’s not something you can get rid of necessarily, but allowing it to process in doing something constructive. The simplest way is if something bad happens to you in a day, you wouldn’t go to the coffee shop and yell at the person selling you a coffee.
If something happened and it stinks, you wouldn’t want to project that energy outward to the rest of the world. That’s a microcosm when we are dealing with bigger issues. It’s like, “There’s a real issue here.” All the time, that anger is coming from a good place. Most of the time. I try not to make universal statements.
Generally speaking, that anger is coming from a place that’s important. You are feeling something that needs to be addressed, and there’s a real reason why it’s bothering you. It could be safety. It could be something family-wise historically that’s bothered you. It could be the future and the way you’ve seen things happen in the past, and you don’t want it to happen again.
If it’s not put forth in the right way, then what happens is it goes on deaf ears very often. If you go out and yell at somebody, then they first put up their block to say like, “This doesn’t even penetrate yet. I have to first realize that you are yelling at me and to not take that personally, and then absorb what you are saying and see if there’s truth in there.”
Sometimes you only get two minutes, and it’s hard to do that when you are back to back with two-minute of public comments. I guess that is what I’m referring to in this particular case. If you only have two minutes and your goal is to make a point, then kindness is going to be the way to go even if you are angry. That’s what it is. It’s how we convert at that moment, where people have to make that solid point or tell that solid story and still be kind, even though sometimes it’s hard.
There seems to be a central theme here of relationships. If you are upset and you want to say what you want to say, you’ve got two minutes to do it. You can say your piece, have that mic drop moment, and then leave. When you are in a community and you are working on multiple issues and you’ve got a long-term investment in the place that you live, where you send your kids to school and live your life, then you need to be thinking about the long plan too.
You need to know that what you are contributing in those two minutes isn’t the end all be all. There’s going to be that next time, that next issue, or that next program or service that you are going to be advocating for. Those are things that are important. That’s why ongoing dialogue and communications are so important. There are a lot of times when people read about something or learn about something and they may not act. The next time that there is a moment that they want to act, there’s all that history of information and dialogue that’s there waiting for them
They try to separate sometimes.
It is and you’re right. It can be helpful. It can also be hurtful, but it’s better for it to be there than not. You have to hear the stuff.
If you were to give one piece of advice to other cities and you said, “This is what I have learned and this is what I recommend all cities do,” what would that be?
I don’t know if I have the exact answer. What I can say based on my experience is to invest in good ongoing communications. You can’t just invest in it when things are wrong or when you want to prove a point. There needs to be a relationship between the community and it goes beyond residents. It’s businesses, organizations, and nonprofits. You need to have that direct relationship and that takes time, investments, and resources.
If you have that built trust and understanding, even when the times get tough, that’s when you can rely on that to get you through to the other side. There have been lots of times. The pandemic is a perfect example. We spent a long time sending out information, even though LA county was sending out information and the state obviously was sending out information. Santa Monica invested a lot in relaying information over time to our community about changes in local ordinances, programs and services available to help support the community.
That is a super strong model if you want to do that level of outreach. Imagine that on all kinds of programs. That would be the words of advice that I could give. If you have a strong relationship, it doesn’t mean that you have to like each other, but a strong relationship with your community, it will make the tough times, the challenging, and debating a different discourse than if you have no relationship.
Have you found an overlap between the values that you put forth with the city around communication and how communication serves you in all other aspects of your life knowing that this is your specialty without getting home life and new friends? Is there a common thread that draws some of the values that you’ve put forth?
You have to ask my husband that question but yeah. I think so.
You don’t have to go into the details of all the little things, but generally speaking.
Yes. It’s important. At least for me personally, that’s an important part of who I am. I have a husband and I have got kids. I spend a lot of time at work and I know you are a new parent too. If you’re going to spend that time outside of your family and the things that matter to you most from a personal perspective, you have to be able to infuse who you are into your work and draw some lines in the sand of what you are doing and how you want to do it. How I wanted to do the work was with that kindness and with that empathy, with the approach that because you haven’t participated before, it doesn’t mean your opinion matters less.
[bctt tweet=”You have to be able to infuse who you are into your work. Draw some lines in the sand of what you’re doing and how you want to do it.” username=””]
You started the conversation around marginalized communities. I’m a first-generation Korean-American. I grew up in a family where my parents relied on me and my sisters to help interpret things. Those voices matter. There’s a lot of room for growth in reaching out to people who don’t have access to a computer for the first twelve hours of your day. They might be out working in different areas and English may not be their first language.
Those voices and opinions, and how programs, services and policies impacted those people matter. They are like my parents who came to America and raised their family and voted, but they may not have understood or been able to participate at the level they would have if they were able to receive information in a different way.
One of the things that always occurs to me with working in an organization like a city is that there are sometimes things that are inefficient. I make a joke of that because sometimes those inefficient things have to be done that way because efficiency is not always the answer when it comes to bureaucracy or when it comes to distributing information by paper. Printing paper is costly.
It is and mailing is costly.
Whenever you are utilizing services like that, it’s a cost center. I don’t know how much the city spends a year on that. You probably do, but you’d say, “That’s the price we are willing to pay for equity.” How do you make choices like that in those times?
If there are certain programs and services that the entire community needs to know about, they should be out there. Those things do require full citywide mailings. Seascape is one of the main ways that people get information broadly about Santa Monica programs and services, and know who’s new and what’s going on at City Hall.
There are ways to be targeted. We went through this with rental assistance. During the pandemic, there were a lot of people who couldn’t work or were laid off and needed help to stay housed with state and Federal programming, knowing what’s available and who qualifies. Some could argue that needed to be citywide.
There are also other ways when there are limited budgets. You look at people who are in rent control departments. You look at things or other databases that give you a more targeted list and might be able to get the information into the hands of people who need it the most, and you still are able to make that impact and that difference. Knowing when to invest and how to invest, and use the resources that you have in the most beneficial way is an important part of equity. When do you translate?
I’m a huge proponent of translating as many languages as you possibly can and as much as you possibly can. That may not always be the reality whether it’s time, money or space even. You have to think about the tools that you have and allocate the resources to make the most impact in the areas with the people that need it the most. That’s strategic targeted communication.
It’s an interesting line to walk too. I like picking up paper. Sometimes what you do by sending them the mail is you offset their normal routine. You are like, “This looks interesting like the one paper I will read.” I get the sea breeze. Everything else comes to me in my email. This is a fun approach as well. I could add even fun and unique.
Multichannel communications are important. If you start to see things and your preference is to get emails, you also now once a month or however often read an article and Seascape. It is slightly different information. Maybe one is more detailed than the other. It may change and build your understanding of something. What you get in a tweet is going to be very different from what you get in a blog or an article in Seascape.
What would you say is the most effective medium that you’ve used?
I don’t know that I could say there’s any one most effective, and it depends on what you mean by effective.
Maybe which reaches the most amount of people. Which one reaches the most amount of people?
That I can track?
Yeah.
It’s the email newsletter that we built. We did not have a citywide email newsletter and we know that some people love Seascape and some people don’t ever open Seascape. If digital is your format, we know that goes out to, 40,000 residents’ email addresses and we know what the open rates are. We know that’s about a 40% open rate. That’s high. That means that you are reaching many.
You can look at clickthroughs and you can see which articles people are most interested in. How many people are coming through certain channels to be able to access that information? The next step is then figuring out how to double down on that. That’s where marketing comes into play. That’s another area of potential growth for the city. It is tracking those metrics and not in the name of swaying. There are a lot of people who feel strongly about whether the government should be doing that kind of work. Using technology and data to then make better decisions on how to allocate resources and how people are accessing information can be a very powerful tool.
There are a lot of these tools out there.
There are a lot of tools out there and a lot of understanding. All of us use it in our daily lives. Digital has taken over how we live our lives every day. I can remember a day when I did not use an app to purchase something. I didn’t use a digital map to find my way somewhere. Digital is our reliance. We used to use paper maps. You used to find it on a grid, and then have to chart your course on how you are going to find someone’s house or a business, the White Pages. That’s not how we think. It’s not how we act. We don’t take the time to do that kind of research anymore. It’s all at your fingertips. I think government can become that accessible, but it takes time and investment.
I always love to see when a government is doing things that normally I would expect from a private company, especially on marketing tactics and stuff like that. It is probably a good segue into a little bit around public-private partnerships. Are there any that are significant that are worth mentioning in terms of how you’ve done some of the strategic communications or in general?
There’s so much opportunity there because Santa Monica is such a dynamic place. It has so many great companies. There are so many great private residents in the city, and the government can’t do everything on its own. Public-private partnership is one way to fill some of those gaps that government can’t fill on its own.
In the last few years that I was with the city, we created the We Are Santa Monica Advisory Board. That was a board that is advisory to the city manager but has management duties over the We Are Santa Monica Fund. That fund was set up during COVID in response to the pandemic but has the ability to live beyond that. It fills some of the greatest needs in the community that government can’t do by itself, and that maybe grants and other types of Federal aid may not be able to fill.
We were able to raise $1.3 million in a short period of time. That’s very generous. It’s all private donations from the community. There’s a lot more potential out there. Allocating those funds to things that can be done quicker, and maybe more effectively by local nonprofits, is one way that public-private partnerships could grow in our community, and do good things that government maybe has some limitations on. I hope that they will continue to invest in that. I will be supporting them as a private citizen now.
What do you think is in the way of moving that forward?
One of the things that we were focused on too as far as a public-private partnership is the Virginia Avenue Community Kitchen. This is a project that came out of the work of the well-being group conducted and asking the community, “What do you need?” Entrepreneurship is a way to change the trajectory of people’s lives and their families lives for generations.
Having a community kitchen and allowing people to grow in food service without following that traditional model of you have to lease a space. It was very expensive. You hire a lot of staff. You have to invest in all of that overhead. Having the ability to have a space like that can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Finding ways to fund programs like that, which may not be in the city’s budget necessarily, is one of the ways that public-private partnerships can be a tangible way to improve people’s lives in our community and create some more of that equity that we so desperately need.
I imagine it’s easier to do that with a nonprofit.
Yes, but donors can be for profit. There are lots of big well-funded companies in our community and beyond. We always think about our 8.3 square miles, but we are surrounded by LA. This definition of community, we should take a hard look at that. Yes, there are some things that belong in Santa Monica and we have to prioritize our community, but we take part in the Greater Los Angeles area, and the Greater Los Angeles area takes part in Santa Monica.
[bctt tweet=”You have to prioritize your community, but don’t just take care of your community. A lot of community issues don’t have boundaries.” username=””]
Creating different kinds of symbiotic relationships that break the traditional mold of our 8.3 square miles has to take care of our 8.3 square miles is something that we should be taking a different look at. A lot of our issues don’t have boundaries, traffic, homelessness, and safety. Those things cut through the boundaries of where our city boundaries start and end. Having those symbiotic relationships are important in public-private partnerships in our community and beyond. There is so much that happens in Santa Monica that isn’t Santa Monica-centric.
We just hosted Super Bowl coverage on our peer. That’s not just for our community. That’s for the whole world to see. You’ve got stuff coming down the pike with the Olympics. There’s a benefit because we reap the benefit of welcoming the rest of the world into the community. That’s a value to the Greater Los Angeles area. There are a lot of partnerships that can be built from that, and a lot of good that can be for Santa Monica and then for LA in general.
While you were with Santa Monica, do you recall partnerships even with LA, and is there an opportunity to do that, that you see now that you’d love to say, “Here’s a great thing that Santa Monica and LA could very immediately do.” Homelessness is such a big one, but is there anything top of mind that you are like, “That would be a great partnership?”
There’s probably a lot more. We limit ourselves at least as city staff person to the things that you think could happen. If we were to blow that apart and say anything, I’d say everything. When you are talking about homelessness, homelessness is not a Santa Monica issue. It’s a global issue. When you think about it from a local level, all the way up to state and national level, there are lots of partnerships. When we look at what models work in other areas, there’s stuff that we can learn and then vice versa.
Those types of partnerships can help open our eyes and not be so Santa Monica-centric. It’s also beneficial for us to share our knowledge and our experience with cities and places beyond that are facing a lot of the same challenges as we are. They may not have the same access to resources that we do. Santa Monica is a very fortunate place. I know we have gone through a lot of challenges in the last couple of years, but it’s still one of the best places that you could ever want to be in Southern California. We have a lot to offer to the rest of the world.
We do. We would like to help.
We would like to help. I hope so. We have to help each other.
There’s a balance in all these things. It’s one of the things that I have also seen. Anytime that you can see the outcome of something and how you would get there, there seems to be another side of a different approach. If you take that approach, then some people will struggle or not like the approach, you are constantly having to balance the needs of everybody. It’s very challenging.
It is. That’s why public service is hard, but it’s also the most rewarding. It has to be a commitment you make to yourself that you want to be in public service to want to always strive for that, even if it’s maybe not possible to attain. That has to be the North Star. You always want to be able to engage, reach, and inform as many people. Hopefully, that creates enough voices and enough opinions that you can make a decision, and people can feel good about it. That’s the beauty of democracy.
If you think about democracy in that way, then to bring it back, you’d think that if people supported democracy. Let’s say something was 50/50 or close to that on any vote or any issue, and you were an advocate of democracy. You would potentially be able to accept at least some circumstances that obviously a lot of people feel differently than I do and I believe in democracy. Here we are in a city like Santa Monica where every vote counts. Inarguably, for the most part, I’d imagine it’s pretty straightforward. You vote, it counts, it’s a check, and it goes on the tally for the most part.
I think so, but I also think it’s not the end of the story. If you lose one vote on an issue, it doesn’t mean that that’s done forever. Sometimes there are opportunities to learn from those decisions, and then continue to evolve the way you think. Also, maybe have an impact down the road when that type of decision comes up again.
Part of evolution is you make a decision, you apply it, you learn from it, and then hopefully the next time around, you know. We either got it right or we need to make some tweaks. If we completely got it wrong, we need to try something different. That iterative approach is so important when you are talking about impacting people’s lives and livelihoods, but that also takes factors and risks. It factors in a lot of other things that government can’t always afford to do. Again, it goes back to relationships. If you know we are trying something, it may work or it may not. Our commitment is to continue to learn and adjust. That is the basis of a good democracy.
We are grateful for your time here in Santa Monica. Thank you for your service.
Thank you. It has been a wonderful ride. Who knows what will happen down the road, but it has been an honor to serve the community. I hope I will find other ways to do that.
You probably don’t get enough as many thank yous. Everyone should be thanking you. For people who don’t know how tough public service is, it is relatively thankless and very often people are striving to do their best to accommodate everybody’s needs. When you get involved in that path, you have to take on the emotional capacity of knowing that they will be upset. Some upset people sometimes and that’s hard. At least, I know for me. Has it been hard for you in that way? Has that happened?
For someone like me, anytime I can make 100 people happy, but the one person I didn’t make happy, that’s the one that sticks out in my head. You have to balance that. Know that if I made 100 people happy, then that was a job well done. Always have your eye on how you can improve to maybe get 101 people happy the next time. That’s part of public service. It’s always striving to improve that, reach more people, and do better.
I encourage everybody in the world to do at least some public service. It potentially could help relate to all the people who do it all day.
It can be a thankless job in that way. It’s important for the community to remember that the people serving you are also people that have feelings and want to do a good job.
Now that you are moving on, do you want to tell me a little bit about what’s going on and where you are going?
I am going to be starting with a local boutique public affairs firm called Elevate, and I’m very excited about it. It’s a female-owned local company. It’s in Santa Monica. They have an office in Sacramento as well. I’m very excited about going and being able to meld some of my public sector work with private sector work, and still having that government affairs tie. I’m excited and terrified, but being able to meld those two things and still be of public service but in a private company is a very interesting next step for me. I’m excited.
When was the last time you were with a private company?
Never. I spent my entire career in either nonprofit or public sector work. That’s why it’s a little terrifying.
It’s going to be so refreshing.
That’s what people say. I’m one that feels more comfortable playing in the sandbox and knowing what the rules are. The agency I’m going to would have the ability to meet a few of my to-be colleagues. I’m very excited about working with some intelligent and committed people and doing some good work. We’ll see, Evan. Our paths may cross again soon.
You are not going far.
I’m not going far. They are based in Santa Monica and a lot of the staff live in the Greater Los Angeles area, so we’ll probably see each other walking down the street.
Would you like to leave the community of Santa Monica with a couple of last words?
I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Even though the last couple of years have been super hard, they have also been the most rewarding years because I have been able to work with some great people and work for some great people. I hope Santa Monica continues to be the amazing place that it is. I hope to continue to contribute to it maybe not as a city employee, but as a private citizen. It’s a special place, so keep it special.
[bctt tweet=”Santa Monica is a special place. Keep it special. ” username=””]
Thank you for being with me and spending the time.
It has been an honor. Thank you for having me.
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About Debbie Lee
As City of Santa Monica’s Chief Communications Officer, Debbie Lee oversees the city’s robust communications and is an integral member of the City Manager’s senior management team. She serves as the city’s chief spokesperson and directs the city’s integrated communication strategy program over various platforms including video production, City TV programming, print publications, web management, online communication and social media activities. Lee coordinates communication strategies with Council, departments, external agencies and neighborhood organizations to promote transparency of city programs and initiatives.
Lee’s experience is deeply rooted in Santa Monica. Prior to joining the city team, she served as Vice President of Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. for eight years overseeing marketing, special programs, and community involvement. Her responsibilities included website management, social media, public relations, community relations, crisis communications management, event production and government relations. She worked frequently with community organizations, the Santa Monica business community, elected officials and the media. During her time with the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau, Debbie served as Vice President of Business Development, responsible for brand development, production of marketing materials, media relations, community relations and website management.