Richard Bloom
CITY COUNCIL
Richard is a nine-year veteran of the Santa Monica City Council. For five of those years, Richard served as Mayor and Mayor pro Tem. He has lived in the city for twenty-seven years.
Richard has been instrumental in many important local and regional initiatives. Examples include focusing Santa Monica on a regional agenda to end homelessness, dramatically increasing the city’s financial support and collaborative work with Santa Monica’s public schools, reducing gang and gun violence, expanding cultural and recreational opportunities, prohibiting smoking in public places and continuing Santa Monica’s longstanding leadership on critical issues such as sustainability, public transit and affordable housing. All the while, Richard has successfully worked with the local business and residential community to ensure Santa Monica’s continued economic vitality while preserving the character that makes the City special.
REGIONAL ROLES
After being elected it’s first Chair in 2006-2007, Richard now serves as Santa Monica’s delegate to the Westside Cities Council of Governments that represents Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City and the City & County of Los Angeles. This State chartered Council of elected officials coordinates policy and advocacy on issues of regional significance, particularly homelessness and public transportation. He is co-chair of the Westside Cities Council’s Homelessness Sub-Committee and Alternate on its Sustainability Sub-Committee.
Richard is the Chair of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, an appointed body of elected and public officials, environmentalists and other stakeholders that is charged with coordinating, facilitating and overseeing federal, state and local plans to restore the health of the 266 square mile Santa Monica Bay and its 400 square mile watershed, located in the second most populous region in the United States. Richard was first appointed in 2004 and has also served as a Commission Vice-Chair.
In 2002 – 2004, Richard served on the Executive Committee of “Bring L.A. Home” issuing a widely praised 10-year plan to end homelessness in Los Angeles.
OCCUPATION
Richard is an attorney and consultant in private practice with nearly 30 years of experience providing family law (marital dissolution, child custody, support, etc.) services to a diverse client base. For nearly a decade, he has served twice yearly as a Family Law Settlement Officer of the Los Angeles Superior Court. This position is an appointment of the Family Law Department’s Presiding Judge. In addition to the traditional practice of law, Richard utilizes his extensive experience in civic engagement as the basis for additional consulting services to individuals and organizations.
Richard is the former Executive Director of Levitt & Quinn Family Law Center in Los Angeles, California, a non-profit law firm serving low-income clients.
Richard has served as a Judge Pro Tem and volunteer mediator for the Los Angeles Superior Courts and on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Family Law Section.
PERSONAL
Richard married California native, Robbie Black in 1980. They moved to Santa Monica, California in 1981 and have two children, Zac (19) a sophomore at Colby College in Maine (Int’l Relations & Language) and Emmett (18) a freshman at the University of California, Santa Barbara (History).
In his spare time, Richard enjoys reading, traveling, gardening, baking, tinkering and, occasionally, sleeping.