Second in a series. 

Re: “What if the City Council Had a Goalline?”

The conversation started when Jim Clarke was saying how tiny are audiences for certain important events at City Hall, the series of budget meetings late every spring.

Where are the crowds?

Why don’t they come out?

The City Councilman’s voice echoes and bounces off the distant walls of Council Chambers.

Mr. Clarke remarked earlier how Council colleague Meghan Sahli-Wells presented a lofty goal last year when she became mayor. “She wanted to make Culver City a great place for raising kids,” he said. Mr. Clarke regretted that the Council could not have adopted the theme for itself. Throughout the 12 months of Ms. Sahli-Wells’s tenure, each City Hall department would be closely tracked regarding its progress toward the ultimate goal.

“We would ask, ‘What are you doing in Community Development to help us reach our goal?’ ‘What are you doing in Parks and Rec?’ Even in Human Resources.

“If the City Council could do that, we would be a little more focused,” Mr. Clarke said.

“That would be a good process. Then the public would have an idea of ‘Okay, this is what we want to accomplish.’

“I would not make it just for one year, but a two-year plan. Then I would look at it every year and tack on a year or two.”

(To be continued)