For the second time in five months, Friends mobilized a huge crowd of aroused, well-organized sympathizers. They pleaded to have the unpopular County animal control officer replaced by a local person who, they argued, would be more attentive, more efficient.
The City Council said no, at least in part because City Hall is in financial straits. A hiring freeze has been instituted, and what was described as financial uncertainty has caused the city to suspend labor negotiations with its six unions.
It was financially imprudent last summer when it was debated, and it still is, the Council concluded, especially in the middle of an austere fiscal year, which ends June 30.
That figured to bury the issue. But it did not. The drama still was to play out.
Vera Pulls Off a Surprise
Because the agenda item was an informal discussion rather than a rules-bound vote, one eagle-eyed City Council member spotted an opening as the emotional debate wound down.
To the surprise of nearly everyone, Albert Vera, the iconoclastic mayor, suddenly stepped into what looked like a hopeless situation.
Singlehandedly, he reversed it, possibly attracting future votes in the process.
Three months before he is up for re-election in April, Mr. Vera studied the members of Friends of Culver City Animals in the audience. He read heartbreak in their eyes, and he would try to change that. Shrewdly, he ignited a bombshell.
The last echoes of near unanimity against the Friends’ petition still were wafting across Council Chambers when Mr. Vera actually wiped out the Friends’ defeat. Without warning, he exhumed a dead body.
“This group is not going to go away,” he said, instantly creating a whole new avenue of inquiry that offered renewed hope to those seeking a local animal control officer.
At least figuratively clearing his throat, Mr. Vera said that even though what Friends proposed was unaffordable, the group was persistent. For that reason, he said, perhaps the Council should listen a third time to the logic of their pleas that have been broadly, firmly rejected.
Mr. Vera’s unorthodox rhetoric was so subtle and persuasive that his colleagues soon found themselves muttering “ummm hmmm” to each other.
Did they all really err a moment ago?
Before any Council member could change his changed mind, Mr. Vera, advancing deftly across a minefield, began dropping smaller, innocent-sounding bombs. Nothing too strident. “Let’s continue to work on this,” he said, simply. “Let’s sit down with the County and figure this out.” “I will be glad to form a committee.” “The people behind this are very strong.” “Let’s not let this go to sleep.”
Before the slower thinkers in Chambers realized what had transpired, the Friends of Culver City Animals were wearing beaming smiles, especially in Mr. Vera’s direction.
Possibly it was the oddest coincidence, but when a subcommittee was casually approved, Mr. Vera and Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger — the other incumbent up for re-election in April — raced to nab both seats.
COUNCIL NOTES — Against the wishes of some members of the Parks and Recreation Commission, the city’s new skateboard park will be in Lower instead of Upper Culver City Park. The City Council determined, by a four to one vote, with only Alan Corlin dissenting, that it preferred a location that was called “safer, more secure.” Halfway through his first year as Recreation Director, Bill LaPointe won the Diplomacy of the Evening Award. Asked to serve as a possible tiebreaker in the midst of a steamy argument over which was better, Upper or Lower, Mr. LaPointe said, convincingly, that both areas had strong advantages…