Will the Wheels Come Off?
While the Council may make nice on Monday since the members will be in a public arena, up to here the hiring of Mr. Pedersen not only has been messy but nasty.
This is the last full night the five Council members will be together as a team.
That could be a signal for blowing down the walls of propriety. Again.
Or it could be an episode where they all lean back, cross their legs and idly blow smoke rings in the air.
Here is where the always creaky relations among the five of them could fray. Fast.
Some members do not want their votes revealed. Regardless of who is in the audience, they may fight to keep a lid on the vote.
City Councilperson Carol Gross says she does not know what will happen.
Since City Hall was closed on Friday, Ms. Gross could not inquire about the Council’s legal obligations regarding a vote at the meeting.
“ I presume the public vote would be symbolic,” Ms. Gross said. “But I would have to ask.”
City Councilman Alan Corlin was standing by with details.
He said the City Code calls for publicly reporting the way the private vote for Police Chief went last month.
That could ignite a war between any of several combinations of City Council warriors.
When Mr. Pedersen was chosen in Closed Session, there was blood on the floor. A bruising brawl played out. This was Bull Run updated.
If sound bites were available, the accent would be on the latter term.
The three-to-two vote — three for Mr. Pedersen, two for the hometown favorite, the Culver City Asst. Chief Hank Davies — precipitated one of the most acrimonious fights any City Council in this town has engaged in.
Tempers scarcely have cooled in the interim.
But don’t tell anybody. The Closed Session vote is supposed to be a secret.
No one, neither Mr. Pedersen nor anyone else in Culver City, Signal Hill or Peoria, is supposed to know that it was three to two or how the air was repeatedly fouled during the final hours of the selection process.
Since the new Police Chief is expected to be in the audience when the City Council votes publicly on Monday, will the members throw their arms around each other for old times’ sake?
Will they vote five to nothing for Mr. Pedersen — an innocent pawn in all of the bickering — for the sake of appearances?
No one is betting on nicey-nice.
Postscript
Ms. Gross said that last Tuesday’s election results don’t change anything about her statements a week ago regarding the allegedly unclear job status of Chief Administrative Officer Jerry Fulwood.
On Election Day, the Charter Reform measure easily passed, meaning the Chief Administrative Officer’s office morphs into the City Manager’s office any edition now.
Ms. Gross, who opposed the Reform measure, insists the identity of the City Manager is unsettled. She says it “is a decision the City Council will have to make.”
Her colleague Mr. Corlin disagrees.
“Why do you think we re-upped Jerry for three more years in January?” he asked. As far as he is concerned, Mr. Fulwood will automatically become the City Manager the moment the election results are certified.
The Council vote on whether to renew Mr. Fulwood last winter was another three to two war. The two who voted against Mr. Fulwood are not going quietly.
If there is time for one more explosion on Monday night, the volatile pending ordinance banning Recreational Vehicles from parking on city streets will be aired again.
Mayor Albert Vera, running his last meeting, has promised relief to worried/angry owners in the form of a parking area for more than two dozen RVs.