City Council Puts up Its Dukes to Fight the Suspects and Violators

Ari L. NoonanNews

Nostalgia-sniffing residents yearning for former times — when men wore stovepipe hats, ladies' dresses skirted the ground and the Culver City News shlepped original stories instead of recycling old ones borrowed from rivals — welcomed the City Council's return to dysfunctional form last night. Whether it was good news depended on one�s perspective on this evening when the Council faced an agenda of middling issues.

For the first time in weeks, the kids reverted to squabbling over who spilled a saucer of sour milk, or something like that.

For those without a scorecard, the City Council's favorite weekly game pits the strict constructionists — Steve Rose and Carol Gross — against the other three who favor a more relaxed interpretation of behavior rules.

49 Is the Final Number — And Vorceak Celebrates a Victory

Ari L. NoonanNews

Two final storylines emerged at the weekend that demonstrated again ordinary citizens can play influential roles in the ever-widening redevelopment of Culver City:

  • Stubborn Patrick Vorceak, the owner of Metal Art on Exposition Boulevard, who vowed to go out of business only on his terms, has won a key battle with City Hall.
  • In what may be a record showing of neighborhood interest, City Hall announced late Friday afternoon that 49 persons have applied for the 9 available seats on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the South Sepulveda Boulevard redevelopment project.


Letters for City Hall Workers — Should They Be Addressed to Limbo, CA?

Ari L. NoonanNews

With a psychological crisis looming, tenterhooks have replaced swivel chairs as the seats of choice for many of City Hall’s 750 employees.

Technically, the massive personnel upheaval dictated by the City Charter changes that voters approved last April, will not take place for another 13 months, April of ’08.

But City Manager Jerry Fulwood already is shifting the heavy machinery — the mental furniture — around City Hall. He says he needs more than a year’s lead time to be certain the reorganized staff is in place when the bell rings.

This appears to be a matter of opinion, and there are as many of those as there are bodies at City Hall.

Storming to Montanio’s Defense: ‘Christie Is Wrong — John Is No Racist’

Ari L. NoonanNews

[Editor’s Note: Please see previous story, “Lawsuit by Ex-Culver City Officer May Ignite Montanio Fireworks,” Feb. 1.]

Responding to explosive accusations made by a dismissed officer against former Police Chief John Montanio in a court filing, two ranking veterans of the Culver City Police Dept. came to the defense of their old boss yesterday.

“John Montanio is not a racist, not in any way,” the two titled police veterans agreed. “It is a lie to say he is. Such a charge is so far off, so wrong, that it almost is not worth answering, except that it must be because he has been accused.”

Budd Schulberg -— A Standout Face in the Crowd

Ross HawkinsNews

I confess I have been AWOL from my duties as steward of the weekly Westside Calendar of thefrontpageonline.com for a month. I am returning from much needed rest in Palm Springs after producing the second Backlot Film Festival.

My personal highlight was a private meeting with the renowned Budd Schulberg in his room at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday, Feb. 3, the last day of the festival.

46 So Far for Citizens Advisory Committee — and There’s Still Time

Ari L. NoonanNews

[Editor’s Note: See previous story, “Overwhelming Turnout (Today) for South Sepulveda Committee,” Feb. 19.]

If further proof were needed that the proposed teardown of 77 businesses along South Sepulveda Boulevard has ignited the peoples’ ire like no other subject in Culver City, here it is:

A Fat Roster

By yesterday’s deadline — which is going to turn into a moveable feast — a whopping 46 persons had signed up for inclusion on the geographically delineated Citizens Advisory Committee to oversee the projected rebuild.

Good News for Vorceak — His Buyout Bid Postpones Friday Closing

Ari L. NoonanNews

[Editor’s Note: See previous story, “Even if Friday’s Exit Happens, Vorceak Still Has Court Date,” Feb. 14.]

Forty-eight hours before the city was scheduled to close down Patrick Vorceak’s small business on Exposition Boulevard — via eminent domain — his lawyer struck a two-toned deal with the city that left both sides feeling satisfied.

Following a late-afternoon meeting yesterday in the Pasadena offices of Mr. Vorceak’s attorney, Robert Silverstein, two dangling, nagging conditions were virtually fulfilled:

  • The long-warring sides are close on the buyout price that Culver City will pay to Mr. Vorceak, who has been in business for two decades.
  • Friday’s closing date has been set back a minimum of 6 weeks, until March 31. The atmosphere in Mr. Silverstein’s office was so collegial that the city’s attorney, Bruce Gridley, indicated afterward that Mr. Vorceak’s date may be placed even later in the spring.


Even if Friday’s Exit Happens, Vorceak Still Has Court Date

Ari L. NoonanNews

Friday’s eviction notice notwithstanding, Patrick Vorceak, owner of the last active business on Exposition Boulevard, has a court date on June 5 to determine the amount of compensation he is due from Culver City in a bitterly fought eminent domain case.

Barring a compromise in the next 100 days, a jury will be impaneled to judge “just compensation.”

Bruce Gridley, the city’s lawyer for the Vorceak case, explained the instructions that will be given to the jury. “They will be told that ‘just compensation’ is based on the standard of the highest and best use of the property, a willing buyer and a willing seller on the day of the evaluation.

Faulting Vorceak for Lack of Cooperation, City Says Friday Is His Final Day

Ari L. NoonanNews

[Editor’s Note: See previous story, “The Last Man Standing, Physically, on Exposition Boulevard, Admits, ‘I’m Cornered,’” Feb. 9.]

Business owner Patrick Vorgeack is finished, as far as City Hall is concerned.

Down to his last 72 hours.

In the delicate, transformational world of eminent domain law, the final sifting, shifting sands of the clock Culver City has been using to measure Mr. Vorgeack’s must-depart status run out on Friday.

Barring a late-hour compromise, the city is expected to padlock Mr. Vorgeack’s long-established wrought iron furniture business, Metal Art, at 8829 Exposition Blvd., just east of Downtown. This could change if lawyers for the two warring parties, scheduled to meet on Wednesday afternoon, can reach a compromise.

City Council Seems Inclined to Support Fulwood’s CFO Idea Tonight

Ari L. NoonanNews

Ten months after Culver City voters decisively approved far-reaching changes in the City Charter, City Manager Jerry Fulwood will move to implement the first major transformation tonight when he asks the City Council to authorize the creation of the city’s first Chief Financial Officer.

“I am proposing a restructuring plan that will consolidate the financial operations of the city,” Mr. Fulwood said in the staff report distributed last week to City Council members.