Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow published a voter guide Sept. 4 urging residents to scrutinize three active emergency declarations before the Tuesday, Nov. 3 election.

The guide, titled "Reading City Hall: Six Questions Before You Vote," appeared in the Santa Monica Mirror. Landmarks Commission architect Jack Hillbrand and nine co-authors wrote it on behalf of SM.a.r.t., the local architecture and advocacy group.

"Most of what a city council decides is settled before, around, or instead of a recorded vote," Hillbrand wrote. "If you only read the vote tallies, you are reading the part that was written to be read."

The guide names six warning signs. They include decisions that never reach a recorded vote, gaps between official meeting records and email records, new disclosure rules that signal past failures, emergency declarations without expiration dates, officials who never vote against their own stated positions, and defensive responses to errors.

One section focuses on the city's three active emergency declarations. Santa Monica operates under a homelessness emergency proclamation extended through the end of 2026 and a fire-related executive order. City council records from March 24, 2026, show at least 10 supplements to that fire order, though SM.a.r.t.'s guide puts the count at nine.

The third declaration is the September 2025 fiscal distress finding. The City Council unanimously approved it after the 2025-2026 budget projected $484.3 million in costs against $473.5 million in revenue, according to the Los Angeles Times. The city had also paid $229 million in settlements tied to sexual abuse by a former police dispatcher, with 180 additional claims pending.

City Manager Oliver Chi called the financial situation "certainly serious" at the September 2025 council meeting, the Times reported.

The guide also points to the Ocean Avenue project as an example of conflicting records. SM.a.r.t. wrote that the city published a timeline of what it knew about the Frank Gehry-designed development, but separately released emails showed a project attorney contacted city and county officials on a date that did not match the public account. The underlying records were not available for independent review.

The Ocean Avenue project, proposed by Worthe Real Estate Group, won City Council approval in 2022 and Coastal Commission approval in December 2023. Both approvals expired before construction began, according to Santa Monica Next.

SM.a.r.t.'s co-authors include former Planning Commissioners Mario Fonda-Bonardi and Sam Tolkin, former Building and Fire-Life Safety Commissioner Daniel Jansenson, and former Mayor Phil Brock. Brock is also a candidate for City Council in the Nov. 3 election, a connection the guide does not disclose.

The guide directs voters to publicly available records including City Clerk agendas, staff reports, meeting video, Form 700 financial disclosures and Form 460 campaign filings at santamonica.gov.

Three City Council seats, three Rent Control Board seats, four school board seats and four community college board seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot.