You get the feeling that whether it is the last edition of the City Council, including Albert Vera, or the new edition, including Scott Malsin, the cadence, the attitude, would be the same. It is extraordinary. Every meeting is Ignore Gary Silbiger Night. When the five Council members walk into a room, four peel off in one direction, Mr. Silbiger in the other, not because he is a loner but because, what the hell, they are not going to speak to him anyway. What is psychologically curious is that the isolation did not evolve. It started with Mr. Silbiger’s very first night, about two hundred City Council meetings ago. That is an agonizingly long time for a middle-aged professional to stand outside in the cold, uncomplainingly. Two other Council members vary from the so-called norm, but they don’t get the hands-off treatment. Four members are Democrats of varying stripes, and Steve Rose is the lone Republican, conservative, business-oriented. His conservative politics separate him from every colleague. His beliefs are more different from the majority’s than Mr. Silbiger’s ultra Progressive resume. Mr. Rose is integral to the inner circle. Mr. Silbiger isn’t even told where the inner circle meets.
Carol Gross not only has survived nicely for six years as the only woman on the City Council, she has prospered most of the time in her role. She suffered her own freeze-out this week when the boys ganged up and divided the four available titles among themselves (Mayor, Vice Mayor, Redevelopment Agency Chair, Vice Chair). What distinguishes Ms. Gross’s case from Mr. Silbiger’s is that she is feisty, she is a fighter. He really has not been. He swallows defeats noiselessly. His loyal supporters don’t. But he does. Ms. Gross, by contrast, spits fire back at them — toward those she is closest to and those she is furthest from. Verbally, she will put her foot on their necks if she feels it is required. Increasingly in the last few days, this conundrum has engaged me. I find it completely puzzling. If Mr. Silbiger possessed either an obvious or evident failing, that would be a clue. Without a doubt, he is farther left than the other three liberals on the City Council. His ultra Progressive beliefs, which he enunciates often, as if he had brought home a report card with straight A’s, hugely differ from the belief systems of his teammates. But he bathes regularly. I have stood close enough while interviewing him to know that he is dentally responsible. He visits his barber in a timely manner. His clothes are pressed. His hair is groomed. Unseemly flakes are not flecked on his spectacles. My shoes should look as good as his. Is it his choice of neckties that bothers you?
This Was His No. 1 Priority?
If you were watching television or were in Council Chambers last Monday, you heard a titter or two when it was Mr. Silbiger’s turn to list his top five committee assignment preferences. His colleagues pegged either Economic Development or Budget. “Martin Luther King Day,” said Mr. Silbiger. I gulped. Others were less discreet. I have spent considerable ink scolding City Hall for burying its very white head in the sand for years in avoiding its civic obligation of establishing a serious day for Dr. King every January. I am not sure that a quorum of non-blacks in Culver City agrees with me. Apparently, there was a decent ceremony this year, which I missed because of a family wedding out-of-town. I scorched the early planning for this year’s program because the chattering, small-thinking women who offered to design the program behaved like chattering housewives instead of grown-up visionaries. We shall resume that dialogue later. Mr. Silbiger has a social conscience, a sense of social justice that is keener, more tender than anyone else’s on the City Council. He would dash, unthinkingly, into heavy traffic to rescue a puppy struck by a car without regard for his safety. It surely is not my philosophy. But such sensitivities are defendable, and I am here to defend. Admittedly, there is a Stan Laurel quality about Mr. Silbiger. He is the born straight man. “Square” may be a more apt description than straight. He might be the last person in the room to get a joke.
If it was not discernable last Monday, it has been in the intervening days that Mr. Silbiger has undergone a transformation since accepting the mantle of Mayor. Thoughtful, reflective, comprehensive in fitting together the pieces of his agenda puzzle, he has emerged this week as a mature politician prepared to lead a community rather than sounding like the slender voice of a passionate,lonely partisan. The gift of a power position from his colleagues — the only thing he has been given in four years — may have turned Mr. Silbiger into the pleasant surprise of the year.