Meanwhile, as far as the apparently unseated members of the Light Rail Committee are concerned, what happened in a furious flurry of moves at the City Council’s Reorganization Meeting last Monday was surreal. Mr. Silbiger, as the incumbent delegate, and Councilperson Carol Gross, as the alternate, contended their twin appointments to the Light Rail Committee a year ago were for four years apiece. Going into this week’s meeting, they did not consider their seats in jeopardy. On the night when a passel of Council committee assignments traditionally are made for the next twelve months, the wheels of controversy began churning early in the meeting. When Mr. Corlin alertly noticed that space was provided in the standard-issue agenda for all committee assignments except for what is called the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority, known as Expo, he turned to City Atty. Carol Schwab. Was it legal, he inquired, for the City Council to vote on two new members, as was the case with all other committees?
And Then Came the Vote
After considerable deliberation, Ms. Schwab told him yes, and a flamboyant war was on. Mr. Corlin made a motion calling for him to be the delegate to the Light Rail Committee and Mr. Malsin to be the alternate. With the support of their ally Steve Rose, the new twosome was voted onto the committee by three to two. Standing up for the honor of his seat, Mr. Silbiger immediately, and profusely, protested. Mr. Silbiger, an attorney, and Ms. Schwab argued that the positions rightfully belonged to them. “My understanding,” said Ms. Gross, “was that it was the intention of the Council last year to make our terms for four years.” Mr. Silbiger wondered “what authority Culver City has to overrule state officials?” Ms. Schwab said her office could contact the legislative counsel’s office in Sacramento for a further opinion. Mr. Rose questioned how such an unelected person in the state capital could have power over “an elected body.” Mr. Silbiger, bristling, vowed to “continue to look into this.” The Mayor previously had stated that he would attend the next light rail meeting in his official capacity, as he has for the past year. Mr. Corlin’s intended presence at the same meeting could cause sparks, even if his seat is in the audience.
The histrionics that settled over the dais like a vast multi-colored cloud may have seemed more shrill than the members’ regular weekly disputes because new dynamics were at work. The composition of the City Council had just been shaken up, and Mr. Silbiger, after patiently waiting for four years, was in the first minutes of his one-year rotation term as Mayor. Still mad about Mr. Corlin’s successful call for a vote for new members, Mr. Silbiger said that “it is not lawful to take an unlawful vote.” If that was his opinion, said Mr. Corlin, why had he participated in the vote? Mr. Silbiger explained his reasoning to thefrontpageonline.com: “One way of saying there is an illegal vote is to vote against it.”
Why Was the Item Even Listed?
The strident spitting war between the new Mayor and the new Vice Mayor was ignited by their root disagreement over the abbreviated manner in which the Light Rail Committee was acknowledged in the official meeting agenda. Mr. Silbiger said that “the item only was listed for information purposes.” Ms. Schwab said that even though there wasn’t any space to write in the names of two new committee members, a Council vote for new members was proper, in her opinion. Bingo, or something like that, Mr. Corlin said, taking on the glow of the triumphant. “We should not have voted,” Mr. Silbiger countered, “because no one knew there was going to be a vote.”
Unlike other developments on an evening unintentionally devoted to the confusing art of convolution, Mr. Corlin said there was a simple reason why he called for a vote to form a new Light Rail Committee team. “It was time,” he said. “We have not been getting reports. We have not been getting input from our people on the committee. It didn’t seem to me they viewed themselves as representatives of the City Council or of the community.”