Responding to last Saturday morning’s dust-up at the opening ceremonies for Fiesta La Ballona (see story below), Mayor Gary Silbiger today reached for his favorite weapon, placidity. Accustomed to being the quiet voice at the center of a storm — which he unintentionally generated this time — the Mayor said it was “perfectly normal” to invite the President of the School Board to address the crowd at the start of a community event. But Mr. Silbiger’s City Council colleague, Steve Rose, emphatically disagreed. To prove it, in a huff, he walked off a stage full of dignitaries when the Mayor, acting as the emcee, asked the School Board President Saundra Davis to deliver a brief opening greeting. The Mayor said she spoke for 30 seconds. Mr. Rose vacated the premises as soon as she was introduced, he explained, to protest Ms. Davis’s unscheduled speaking role, assertedly a departure from the program. That was improper, Mr. Rose said, because Fiesta is a city event as opposed to a School Board event. “When I am asked to emcee an event and given a script,” Mr. Rose said, “I follow it as a courtesy to my host.” The Mayor, he charged, was wrong to “politicize” the Opening Ceremonies.

Funeral services for retired Culver City Police Lt. Ellis Smith, 59 years old, will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Westwood Presbyterian Church, 10822 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood (310.474.4535). Afterward, a graveside service will be conducted at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. Mr. Smith’s father-in-law, the Rev. Charles Orr, is the senior pastor at Westwood Presbyterian, where he has been posted for close to 40 years. Hailed as a soldier-brave hero throughout his lengthy career, but especially in his final days, Mr. Smith died last Thursday night at St. John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, following a brief, several-week bout with cancer. Friends said that he spent his closing hours firmly assuring bedside visitors that he would conquer the disease that had placed him there. “He was a true hero,” said Mr. Smith’s daughter Lauren, “a great man and the best possible father.” In logging 30 years with the Police Dept., Mr. Smith was a man of the community. Frequently honored, in addition to awards for valor and bravery, he was saluted by service clubs, civic organizations, and,perhaps most importantly of all, by other law enforcement agencies.

It must be drawing tellingly late in someone’s second/final term on the City Council when she who is known for loquacity turns to two of the boys on the Council and, seriously, tut-tuts them for wasting “the people’s time” nattering on about nothing. This was believed to be a first. And, no doubt, a last. You know how dull and abbreviated the latest City Council meeting was on Monday night when the highlight was Carol Gross, playing the role of the Mama, rebuking Mayor Gary Silbiger and Vice Mayor Alan Corlin for acting like little boys. Not that it was child’s play. They got steamed at each other. What may have resembled sibling squabbling actually was a familiar tableau of passion, both gentlemen laboring in separate vineyards that each one loves. Mr. Silbiger’s reputation says that he loves to pluck arcane gems of information from the remote corners of issues and to debate them, frequently to the consternation of his colleagues. Two of his favorite topics are non-competitive contract awards and certain arguably small expenditures. Mr. Corlin prides himself on personal and professional tidiness, nattiness as opposed to nattering. Two weeks running, his attire has attracted uncommon attention in Council Chambers. He never is bashful about chiding his power partner, the Mayor, for overlooking what the Vice Mayor regards as an overwhelmingly obvious point.

Long-simmering tensions exploded in a furious cluster of angry sparks on Saturday morning when three of Culver City’s best-known political figures unexpectedly met on the same plot of earth at the Opening Ceremonies for the 55th anniversary of Fiesta La Ballona. One of the participants still is exhausted from the volatility. “I am so stressed out by what happened that I am still reeling,” School Board President Saundra Davis said this afternoon. “I can’t get it out of my head.” The three political stars clashed with a thud, eyewitnesses reported. So far, two versions of what took place are on file with this newspaper. The third perspective has been promised to thefrontpageonline.com by Tuesday morning. While it is not possible to gauge the personality temperature when the three intersected, the human heat clearly was much more torrid than the hot weather. This appears to be the way events unfolded: Nearly two dozen Culver City dignitaries of varying prestige and importance were seated on the large Main Entertainment Stage at Vets Park to officially open the Fiesta, which presumably had been rumbling along since Monday.

Going into the final week of his third contemporary art exhibition — featuring innovative young Los Angeles artists — the Culver City gallery owner Joshua Kaplan paused briefly this morning to reflect. On the surface, his C.V. is ordinary enough — a native of South-Central who grew up in a home filled with modest art, practiced law on the Westside for 35 years, and, in the process became a serious collector of contemporary art. Mr. Kaplan runs deep, and this is the juncture where he departs from many peers. Dear gallery visitor: You need to know the full dimensions of Mr. Kaplan’s raison d’etre for entering this volatile field in order to more maturely appreciate the identity of the artists whom he has selected. That he is a gentleman of profound and sensitive depth should be compelling enough reason to visit Bandini Art, at 2635 S. Fairfax, before the exhibit illuminating the works of Jennifer Celio and Laura Ricci closes late on Saturday afternoon. From the farthest, most personalized pocket inside of an internal well, Mr. Kaplan explained why he dramatically changed career directions and unveiled Bandini Art just south of Washington Boulevard in the late spring. His story is extraordinary. Knocking on life’s most sensitive door preparatory to entering his senior seasons, Mr. Kaplan’s mellow voice echoed and volleyed around the showroom of what was a warehouse in another lifetime.

In a counter demonstration on Saturday afternoon in the immigration tinderbox community of Maywood, in southeast Los Angeles, bottle-throwing rioters, tore down the American flag at a Post Office and replaced it with a Mexican flag, according to eyewitness reports. Photos from the area of Maywood City Hall depict police in riot gear pitted against a shouting, bellingerent reconquista crowd described as pro-illegal immigration. “Illegal blue-eyed devils” was one of the favorite screams repeatedly directed at riot police officers. Marchers were attempting to neutralize an earlier, significantly smaller demonstration. This featured a group of several dozen persons carrying banners that read “Save Our State” from illegal immigrants. The anti-illegal marchers who gathered in front of the Maywood City Hall asserted that Maywood has become a sanctuary for illegals, as some city officials earlier had vowed. The anti-illegal crowd also charged that the Maywood Police Dept. has closed down its traffic unit to accommodate illegals. Without traffic cops, the claim goes, illegal immigrants who do not have driver’s licenses would not have to worry about having their cars towed. Eyewitnesses said that after the Post Office closed on Saturday afternoon and lowered the American flag, the pro-illegal demonstrators hoisted the flag of Mexico up the same pole. Witnesses said that Maywood police circled the flag pole and attempted to bring down the Mexican flag. Halfway through the process, though, the cords to the flag became twisted. The result was that the Mexican flag, for the time being, was left on the pole, flying at half-mast.

Lt. Ellis Smith, who retired four years ago from the Culver City Police Dept., died last night of complications from recently discovered cancer, friends reported. He was in his mid-50s. Until days ago, Mr. Smith was in “excellent spirits” and apparently in robust health, said Jim Raetz, president of the Police Officers Assn. When Mr. Smith went to an optometrist complaining of vision problems, other symptoms emerged. Doctors shortly found a tumor that was malignant. Initially hospitalized at Brotman Medical Center, this week he was transferred to St. John’s, Santa Monica, where he died. Mr. Smith, who is survived by his children and wife, was brave until the end, Mr. Raetz said. “Ellis was a true soldier,” he said. “He didn’t want people to worry about him. He told everyone that he was going to beat the cancer and walk out of there.” During his heyday with the Police Dept., Mr. Smith was known for his “excellent” work as a narcotics officer. In the early 1990s, he led narcotics undercover teams that made “huge” seizures. During his brief retirement, Mr. Smith was in charge of the welfare of retired police and fire veterans. Funeral plans are not yet known.