After sitting through still another ponderous, meandering, esoteric City Council debate last night about a, so far, amorphous Youth Advisory Commission, community activist Tom Camarella stood up to join Jeff Cooper of the Parks and Recreation Commission in pacing around the back of Council Chambers.
They were too anxious to remain in their seats as the discussion droned on without a solution in sight.
Up on the dais, Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger, who has spent most of his 6 1/2 years on the Council trying to organize a youth group, was sparring with his skeptical colleagues over arcane social points.
If there was such a pressing need to organize teenagers, Mr. Cooper offhandedly wondered why not a single student from Culver City High School, or any other school, showed up to plead the case.
Mr. Camarella also was frustrated, for a separate reason. “Congress didn’t talk this long before passing the Patriot Act,” he said, sar
donically.
Threatening to make more appearances than “My Fair Lady” did on Broadway, the notion of a politically astute youth commission that would “advise” the Council — Mr. Silbiger’s description — did not arouse much more enthusiasm last night than it has in previous incarnations.
Buddy, Can You Spare $4,350?
The City Council’s challenge this time was to approve $4,350 to fund a survey of teenagers to see — once again — if they have any appetite for joining a youth commission.
Among the stumbling blocks were composition of the survey questions, and then a logistical detail, how the survey would be forwarded to the students.
No one had been anointed to deliver it to campuses. No one knew which campuses to visit. No one knew if the School District would even allow the surveys to be distributed. And if the District did grant permission, no one knew how to circulate the surveys.
About the 10th detail that had not been decided was the age bracket(s).
Finally, there was the matter of paying for this polling. The Parks and Recreation Dept. estimated that even though no one knew how or when or where on the still-to-be-finalized survey, the task would require 80 hours of labor, billed at $50 an hour.
Whose Turn to Decide?
Another slow-motion root problem in launching a commission has been chronic imprecision, an inability or lack of will to develop a blueprint for advancing beyond Step 1. Then there was the job of designating someone to be responsible for pulling it together.
Mr. Silbiger thinks it is a terrific idea. He has since he was elected. But then what happens? This Council and the previous Council have been unable to agree on how a youth commission should be organized or structured, and what its mission should be.
The sticking point every time the subject has been agendized in the last 6 1/2 years is whether there is concrete interest among Culver City teens. Mr. Silbiger insists there is. As proof, he recalls that when he wanted to form his own sort of outlaw youth commission after his peers rejected a Council-authorized group several years ago, 25 applications for membership were received. But since the Silbiger commission went out of business, no teens have been known to show any interest in a revival.
Commission Supporters
From the audience, School Board member Saundra Davis and Mr. Silbiger’s activist son, Karlo, advocated for a commission, although Ms. Davis acknowledged that teenagers who once were interested have moved on with their lives.
A youth commission most recently was discussed in June when the Council ordered a survey of community teens. The last four months apparently have been spent devising the survey, which the Council refined last night.
With Mayor Scott Malsin as the lone holdout, the City Council voted 4 to 1 to somehow have the finalized version of the survey delivered to students.
In the process, they saved a bundle of money. Instead of spending $4,000 for Parks and Recreation Dept. employees to conduct and assess the survey, the results are to be tabulated by a volunteer group. However, with volunteers at the nexus of the latest youth commission attempt, deadlines appear to be imprecise. Survey results are due back before the Council sometime in winter — this year’s winter.
COUNCIL NOTES — Strong and organized protests continue to be voiced over building projects in two resistant residential neighborhoods, 4043 Irving Pl., and 8665 Hayden Pl. As mediation proceeds between neighbors and builder Sal Gonzalez over 4043 Irving, a mediator described Mr. Gonzalez and his partner in harsh terms, accusing their side of “bullying” tactics. Approval of 4043 is being appealed and is due before the City Council in two weeks, on Monday, Nov. 10. Five days after the Planning Commission approved plans for 8665 Hayden, several residents issued withering criticism of the three commissioners who rendered the verdict. “I never have been so ashamed of my city,” said Donna LeBlanc, who said she lives across from the site…Michael Franklin of the “Culver City Youth Against Smoking” project said that 27 percent of Culver City businesses his group visited were willing to sell cigarettes to underage teens…Vicki Daly Redholtz reported that Friends of the Culver City Dog Park raised $11,000 at the annual Boneyard Bash 10 days ago. The Friends group is hopeful of getting lights installed on the grounds…Culver City Observer reporter Robert Gagnier, a native of New Orleans, was among the honored for raising emergency funds three years ago to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. His team sent $5,000 to Habitat for Humanity to aid the newly homeless…