October 27, 2025
Below is an Open Letter that SMCLC intends to send to the City Council urging Councilmember Zwick to resign. If you agree, please send us an email at info@smclc.net authorizing us to include your name. And please send this to anyone who might also add their name, so that residents' voices are heard. Thank you, and we’ll update you when it’s sent.
OPEN LETTER
Santa Monica is faced with an ethics and good-governance crisis.
As has been widely reported, Councilmember Zwick has recently accepted a paid senior position with an organization (HAC) whose mission is to promote building development and increased density in Santa Monica and elsewhere.
This creates a clear, ethical conflict of interest, making it impossible for Mr. Zwick to impartially and independently vote on any matters relating to development.
The website of Mr. Zwick’s employer illustrates his disqualifying conflict.
“Zwick’s… responsibilities include “building our membership and advancing our political and legislative goals.” www.housingactioncoalition.org
One of Mr. Zwick’s tasks for his new employer will be recruiting additional developers—as well as their law firms, architects, and others—to join HAC in advancing its pro-development agenda.
Mr. Zwick’s day job of recruiting developers presents an obvious conflict with his night job of voting on the very issues those recruited developers most care about.
An ethical question already hangs over Mr. Zwick.
On August 12th— less than one month before the announcement of his new position— his future employer, HAC, spoke before Council in support of an emergency housing ordinance. Mr. Zwick then voted for that ordinance without recusing himself or disclosing any relationship he may have had with HAC.
Councilmember Zwick ‘s appointment was announced on September 4. If he was engaged in job discussions on or before his August 12th vote, he absolutely should have disclosed that fact and recused himself from Council deliberations.
The City must determine the relevant dates of Mr. Zwick’s employment discussions and whether his conduct violates the City’s Code of Ethics, warranting review and appropriate action by the Council.
“Never argue with a man whose job depends on him not changing his mind.” —attributed to Upton Sinclair
Councilmember Zwick is being paid by an organization to advance its agenda—an agenda on which he will be voting in countless Council meetings.
Residents elected Mr. Zwick to represent the best interests of our City and our community, not the interests of an organization with a very specific agenda.
For these reasons, it is in the best interests of the City, its residents, and the City Council that Councilmember Zwick resign.
