[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]Re “Be Careful Who You Blame”

An unstinting endorsement of former City Councilwoman Carol Gross’s provocative explanation for a dustup with the state came from a rather amazingly unlikely source this morning:

Her colleague on the dais for eight years, Alan Corlin.

There wasn’t enough imagination, even in the fairly spacious Council Chambers, for even a wit to call Ms. Gross and Mr. Corlin chummy.

In the same way that a clock is correct twice a day, sometimes their opinions paralleled, but the landscape was hardly littered with their mutual agreements.

If they were not necessarily known for their pepperiness, their salty vocabularies occasionally led to a clash, if not a crash, of views. Term limits took both to the sidelines.

In a three-part series that started Monday, Ms. Gross said there was a reasonable, logical explanation for a charge raised by Sacramento last Sept. 30, that Culver City was among numerous communities that failed to meet its state-assigned goal of building affordable housing during a recent period.

The community prevented us from meeting our goal, Ms. Gross said. Virtually every time a development was proposed to the city, and affordable housing was included in the package, neighbors objected.

We had no choice but to reject, she argued.

When Mr. Corlin checked in this morning, he said:

“I read the three-part article, and factually, I can’t find anything wrong with it.”

Initially that may not have sounded like a jubilant ally jumping out of his seat, dashing to the stage and raising Ms. Gross’s hand as the unchallenged winner, but sometimes Mr. Corlin begins other than at the front door.

(To be continued)