Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger is, by far, the most persistent advocate on the City Council for his particular agenda. Community participation in important decisions never is far from the busy mind of Mr. Silbiger, who seems to manage a way to weave it into Council exchanges virtually every Monday night..
When the hiring of a well-known recruiting firm to find a new City Manager turned up on the Consent Calendar of tonight’s Council meeting, Mr. Silbiger used it as a springboard to once again aggressively assert one of his favorite causes, direct community participation in city business.
Only last week did City Manager Jerry Fulwood announce his plans to retire in the spring.
The Northern California headhunting firm of William Avery and Associates has worked with City Hall for years, and approval by the City Council was regarded as a lock. Acting pre-emptively, the company’s chief recruiter already had been scheduled to appear in Culver City at the Oct. 27 Council meeting to explain how the process works.
Mr. Silbiger said that was tarrying too long, since information to go into a brochure selling Culver City is due at the printer’s by Nov. 6.
Mr. Silbiger said the recruiter should be re-scheduled for one week earlier, next Monday, so that there will be sufficient time, after Oct. 20, for community members to give their input into contents for the promotion brochure.
City Clerk Martin Cole reminded Council members that there already is a long agenda for next Monday’s meeting, mainly because of an anticipated widespread neighborhood protest over the Planning Commission’s April approval of a building project at 4043 Irving Pl., presently a parking lot.
“We need to include community participation in the recruiting process as early as possible,” the Vice Mayor told his skeptical colleagues. But the four of them agreed that Oct. 27 was an appropriate time to start the recruiting wheels spinning.
Proffering a further “suggestion,” Mr. Silbiger said that in addition to the City Council, representatives of the city’s six unions should also interview the City Manager finalists “because they have a lot at stake.”
COUNCIL NOTES — The city’s extremely active Committee on Persons with Disabilities was honored in view of October being Disability Awareness Month. In related actions, commendations were presented to Samson Mulugeta for 24 years of service to persons with disabilities, and the company Hands Service, Inc., was honored for several reasons, including hiring persons with disabilities…
The Culver City Symphony will open its season with, typically, a free concert on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 8 o’clock, at the Vets Auditorium. One of numerous attractions will be renderings of theme songs for each branch of the military…