Major Developer Funneling Money Into New PAC

NMS Properties, Inc.—which owns about 15 apartment complexes in Santa Monica—is throwing money into this year's City Council race, upwards of $100,000 as of the end of September.

The new committee, Santa Monicans for a United Future, has so far spent $76,100 conducting polls, printing campaign mailers and paying consultants to advocate for the election of four candidates vying for four seats Nov. 6. They are incumbents Gleam Davis and Terry O'Day and challengers Shari Davis and Ted Winterer.

It's funded with contributions from NMS itself and handfuls of limited liability corporations affiliated with it, such as 501 Broadway NMS, LLC, according to a Fair Political Practices Commission campaign finance disclosure statement filed Monday with the Santa Monica City Clerk's office. (The file is attached to the right of this article).

Additionally, according to the committee's filing, there are three limited liability corporations contributing to the committee that not identified as having affiliations with NMS: Century West Partners, LLC; Ideal Properties, LLC; and Roberts Business Park—SM, LLC.

Collectively, all of the companies donated $175,000 to the committee between Jan. 1 and Sept. 31.

By about $5,000, it has so far outspent one of Santa Monica's most influential political committees, Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights.

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NMS is a Los Angeles-based real estate development and property management company. In Santa Monica, it typically builds modern complexes, some of which are income-constricted. Four of its 20 projects—including 97 junior one-bedrooms and studios at 1447 Lincoln Blvd. and 50 apartments and penthouses at 1420 Fifth St.—are currently under construction, according a review of its website.

The city's Planning Department did not return a message Monday seeking information about any NMS projects that might be in the pipeline.

Santa Monicans United for a Responsible Future mailed fliers this week emphasizing the incumbents' records on keeping affordable housing a priority, creating jobs in Santa Monica and supporting public safety employees," the Santa Monica LookOut reported Monday.

"The flyer also said that curbing traffic and funding of schools would be among the incumbents’ goals," the LookOut article states.

It was also impressed with Planning Commissioner Ted Winterer for "preserving Santa Monica’s beach town character and scale" and Shari Davis for work as an "education advocate."

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