News Articles

Tonight at 7: The Culver City Homeowners Assn. hosts a Candidates Forum in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium, 4117 Overland Ave.

They were looking for an imaginative way to avoid monotony or candidate fatigue in last night’s latest forum for the City Council contenders at El Marino Language School.

At the behest of Laura Stuart, vice president of the Sunkist Park neighborhood association, a dramatically different format was tried:

In the spacious El Marino cafeteria, the nine candidates were posted at separate tables encircling the room.

The Community Budget Advisory Committee to the Culver City Unified School Board met last evening for the third time this year to discuss and prioritize recommendations to the Board to achieve a $3.5 million reduction in School District expenses.

Over the course of weeks, recommendations have been put forth for consideration. Beginning with the remnants of the last round of cuts a few years ago, the District has searched internally and externally for ideas and suggestions. Virtually any idea was put forth for CBAC to discuss, and the members of CBAC (parents, site representatives, citizens, union and administration representatives) added their own suggestions.

There was a spring in the step of School Board member Scott Zeidman as he walked away from the Lin Howe School campus a little after 6:30 last evening.

“I am very excited, and I am very happy,” he said about the just-completed Community Meeting that he had called.

His attitude, no exaggeration, could be catching.

For all of the smoke that was blown and the thunder that was pounded over the technical status of so-called Community Organizations at last night’s City Council meeting, hardly anything seems likely to change for the groups in the coming months.

As the opening act before the Council finally approved a slenderized revision of the city’s mixed-use development policy was more dramatic than it was defining.

After meeting with all nine City Council candidates, the Police Officers Assn. announced its endorsement this week of Mehaul O’Leary, Loni Anderson and Andy Weissman for the April 8 election.

“Our association feels strongly that these three candidates will best direct Culver City’s promising future,” said Rick Nielsen, president of the union. “They’re all community leaders and business people who understand the importance of funding city services through increased investment in our city.”

Not only will the 400 boys and girls in the Culver City National Little League be resplendent this season in newly donated uniforms, they will keep track of their games this spring on two colorful new scoreboards that also were donated.

The owners of Westfield Fox Hills mall have presented both gifts to the Little League.

“They really have stepped up as a major sponsor this year,” said Chi Netzel, Director of Fundraising for the league. “We can’t begin to express our gratitude for all they have done for our league.”

When he strolls into the cafeteria at Lin Howe School on Irving Place a little before 5 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, “I hope to see a hundred people from the community,” says the ever optimistic School Board member Scott Zeidman.

The occasion is a community meeting that was Mr. Zeidman’s idea.

The setting at Lin Howe will be an urgent but informal discussion of possible budget cuts — that seem likely to start as early as next week’s School Board meeting.

Dr. Luther Henderson is piling up the endorsements from elected officials in his campaign to be elected to the City Council of Culver City on April 8.

In the latest development, County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke has endorsed Dr. Henderson for one of the three open City Council seats.

“I support and endorse Dr. Henderson,” said Supervisor Burke, who made news last week when he formally endorsed L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks to succeed her when she retires in June.

In a field of City Council hopefuls teeming with colorful personalities, Cary Anderson, the blue collar candidate, presents a unique calculation:

He is the antithesis of the candidate who promises practically everything.

Mr. Anderson is a hard-nosed, plain-talking challenger who is running on his relatively low-key record of neighborhood activism.

As a television news camera operator and engineer, he is in the company of celebrities more often than any of his rivals. He is running in part because of a conversation with the late Johnny Grant, who died last month.

Mark Langston writes in with an urgent message regarding a stolen dog: This is an email from a friend whose dog, Hambone, was stolen. Please help him in any way that you can, and post these flyers that he has made. This dog is an ambassador for his breed and a wonderful pet. Just think how you would feel if it were your dog. Thank you.