The anticipated red-meat debate between the Teachers Union and the
Crash May Go Away Quietly
The story of last Saturday evening’s spectacular car crash into the side of a mid-Culver City apartment building appears destined to end on a far more quiescent note. Not, however, that the mystery about the out-of-control accident has gone away.
Chance of Charges Dwindling
It is not likely” that charges will be filed against the driver of a white Cuest mini-van, a spokesperson for the Police Dept. told thefrontpageonline.com on Tuesday afternoon. But don’t ask who the driver was. The police don’t know. Sources said the driver, who reportedly had difficulty responding to questions in English,was without documentation, identifying himself, car insurance or ownership of the car. All that was absolutely clear three days after the white Cuest mini-van slammed into a
apartment was the
You Have To Be Ethnic
Returning yesterday morning to
Near-Victim Had His Camera Ready
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David Gobbeo was still startled when photographer Cay Justice caught up with him at the crash scene. The three photos at the right by Ms. Justice graphically illustrate the damage done by the crash. |
A moment after arriving home from work early last Saturday evening, David Gobbeo nearly was run down in his ground-level apartment on
Fussless, the Fulwood Way
Whether these are the best of times for Jerry Fulwood, the chief executive of City Hall, only his God and his family know. No one in
Independence Day for Council Rookie
The emergence of new member Scott Malsin as a muscularly independent force may be the most pleasantly surprising development five weeks into the new City Council season. While he was campaigning last winter for his first term on the Council, it was broadly suggested that once he reached the dais, he would become an instant ally of his co-campaign managers, the Vice Mayor Alan Corlin and the Councilman Steve Rose. By locking a permanent majority into place, they could sweep through their agenda the next two years, accomplishing everything they sought to do, practically without interruption.
This line of reasoning was fed by Mr. Malsin’s reputation for being a passionate devotee of the elusive art of compromise and consensus. He made it plain from his first meeting that because of his City Hall background — serving the last five years on the ambitious Planning Commission — he did not require the learning curve that another rookie Councilman would need. “I told the voters that I did not need any time to catch up,” he said. “I was going to hit the ground running.”
Nobody Home, Intellectually
Except for a profound misunderstanding of the nature of homelessness, the city of Santa Monica undoubtedly is well-advised to be paying former County Supervisor Ed Edelman $200,000 a year to reduce homelessness. Outside of city retirees, who draw 90 percent of their salaries as they ease into the non-working life in their early 50s, Mr. Edelman must have the best gig going on the Westside. I will wager that Mr. Edelman radically alters his appearance at every Let’s Cure Homelessness This Millenium meeting that he attends so that critics never can find him, never can figure out what he really looks like. This is too good of a gig to blow.
Putting My Secretary to Work
Murgatroyd, take a memo. Send it out to all Los Angeles media: Mamas, don’t let your sons grow up to be cowboys. Track down Ed Edelman’s telephone number, and teach them how to emulate him. Apply this morning for the lucrative job of Heir Apparent to Ed Edelman. Tell him you always have dreamed of curing homelessness in the world. But you would like to start out modestly, wiping it out in Santa Monica first. Land the job, and you’ll never go hungry — or, heaven forbid, homeless. From your penthouse window overlooking the serene Pacific, you can observe the colorful armies of the colorless homeless. Then jot down impractical, unattainable strategies for ending the homelessness that these men and women genuinely desire. Hand your suggestions in to the City Council. They probably will keep renewing your contract, year after year.
Santa Monica Shakeup
This comes under the heading of Be Glad You and Your Children Live in Culver City, even if you chafe under the feckless leadership of the Noble School Board. With the resignation this week of Ilene Straus, the main principal of Santa Monica High School, so many community leaders have quit this year that you would think a busload of sensible Republicans had arrived to clean up the puddles on the floor that educators and politicians have strewn across Santa Monica.
Signal Hill Brutality Claim
It came to light this week that the last days of new Police Chief Don Pedersen with the Signal Hill Police Dept. began auspiciously in April.
Suit Came as a Surprise
To the apparent surprise of Signal Hill police last Tuesday afternoon, large, clunky news vans rolled up in front of the department, serving the first notice of what turned out to be a dramatic press conference to announce a police brutality action. The media event was planned in front of Police Headquarters for maximum exposure and effect. Fifteen minutes before the press conference, at 1:45, the department was served with papers announcing that three young Hispanic men were suing the Police Dept. and the city of Signal Hill for a $3 million claim in damages. A spokesperson for Signal Hill said Mr. Pedersen, as the Police Chief of Signal Hill at the time, was not cited by name in the claim. All three of the petitioners — between the ages of 18 and 24 — had been arrested late on Easter Sunday afternoon at Signal Hill Park, where police had been summoned to solve a fracas between a middle-aged mother and her adult daughter.
Who Will Be the Next Chief?
With the Santa Monica Police Chief’s chair available for the first time in 15 years, will Santa Monica Capt. Jacqueline Seabrooks — twice a finalist in Culver City — win the lucrative job and finally satisfy her yearning to lead a department? While that concept is being pondered, it can be reported with reasonable certitude that Culver City Asst. Chief Hank Davies, another finalist here, “probably will not” bid for the position. One of the most popular figures in the Police Dept. for decades, and a two-time candidate here, Mr. Davies did not say that he had flushed police chiefing out of his system or out of his future. But he indicated that leaving the department where he has spent his career for an adjacent agency — in a very different community — is not presently on his agenda. “As of now,” Mr. Davies said, “I have no intention of applying.”