What Separates the Candidates?

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      As voters continue to search for distinctions among the three candidates for two City Council seats — reasons to support them — they had one final chance yesterday morning in a very low-key setting at the Senior Center.
      The way the candidates responded to one  unanticipated question may help at least that audience to sort out which contenders it will back on Election Day next Tuesday.
      A woman complained that Culver City has done a poor job of making voting accessible for handicapped persons. “The County and state have audio machines to aid blind voters,” she said. “Culver City doesn’t.” Saying that the Help America Vote Act requires such machines as of this year, she wanted to know what the candidates will do about it.

Why ‘V’ Is Right Move

Ari L. NoonanLetters

     As present and former members of the School Board, we agree on the importance of passing Measure V (Charter reform).
     We support the new City Charter, Measure V, because it will make positive changes to our city government.

     We know the changes will be beneficial based on our experience as "part-time elected officials" in Culver City with an organizational structure similar to the proposed city manager-form of government. We have experienced "order," and we shudder at the idea of "chaos."

When New Chief and Officers Meet

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      Although the cart and the horse have appeared juxtaposed at times in the week since the City Council named a new Police Chief, Don Pedersen himself is proceeding in an orderly manner.
      The Police Chief of Signal Hill for the past five years, he has been undergoing standard preliminary testing this week, a requirement before his appointment becomes official.
      Only the slenderest interaction has taken place between the new Culver City Chief and City Hall.
      Mayor Albert Vera dialed Mr. Pedersen a week ago yesterday morning, hours after the City Council voted three to two to confirm him as successor to the retired John Montanio.

Doing Everything by the Book

Ari L. NoonanSports

      For genuine uncomplicated pleasure, bow-tied with intellectual stimulation, walking out of a chilly, rainy night into a bright, warmly bathed library is nearly unsurpassed.
      When I stopped in two nights ago on the way home, there were enough City Council and School Board members to form a basketball team, if only I had remembered to bring either a gavel or a ball.
      Phil Simmons, the most important person of the evening because his company was the sponsor, was sitting with his wife Linda. Surrounded by other Reasonably Significant Personages, including School Board members Saundra Davis, the President, and Jessica Beagles-Roos, all sat in a neat row, across the front of the room. Everyone looked washed and scrubbed for this special evening.

Speaking of Dr. McGaughey

Ari L. NoonanLetters

     I just read your story, “Jaffe’s Name in the Super Derby,” (Monday), and I have to say that this is not only rampant speculation on your part, but that your story includes a number of factual errors.
     First of all, since Supt. Dr. Laura McGaughey just announced her retirement a few days ago, (effective July 31), it is speculation, and only speculation, that the School Board would choose to focus its search entirely within the Culver City Unified School District.
     More likely, the Board will discuss the matter and opt to seek candidates from both inside and outside the District.

Cops Say No to the Mayor

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

       As early as last Wednesday, at the hour when Official Culver City first was learning that an out-of-towner had been picked for Police Chief, the ominous, jagged-edged talk erupted throughout the Police Station.
       The mayor was trying to reach Sgt. Frank LaFlame, President of the Police Union.
       Wanted to meet with the guys. His guys.
       No explanation needed.
       Everybody knew why.
       With his sensitive, usually fine-tuned political antennae working just fine, Mayor Albert Vera was convinced that there would be hell to pay when the Police Dept. heard that their guy, unaccountably, had been passed over.

Mayor Ticketed for Speeding?

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

       If yesterday’s traditional Mayor’s Luncheon at the Vets is an accurate snapshot of Mayor Albert Vera’s farewell tour, you can leave the engine running.
       His speech was so short he could have delivered it in a burning building. No sweat — on him. 
       Perpetually in a hurry-up mode — you would be, too, if you held three fulltime  jobs and were past seventy — Mr. Vera did not disappoint toe-tappers in the back of the room.
       If his retirement doesn’t last longer than his speech, he will be running for office again by Thursday.
      
       Measured physically, Mr. Vera’s  nine-minute address was a maximum two-burper.
       Only by the skinniest whisker was it longer than the invocation by Father Kevin Nolan of St. Augustine Catholic Church,

How Swede It Is

Ari L. NoonanSports

       In the yawning absence of courageous Catholics who will correct the errant Cardinal of Los Angeles and courageous Hispanics (legal or illegal) who will correct the errant Mayor of Los Angeles, we bring you today a Culver City gentleman of my acquaintance.
       A legal, they say, as if he were an oddity.
       Before shaking hands, printedly speaking, may I be granted two presumptions:
That all Catholics in the Los Angeles Archdiocese shipped out to Mars last night at the very hour every Hispanic in this town was returning to his homeland?
How else would you explain the staggering failure of two sprawling communities to react to the outlandish claims by their two most admired leaders.
What is the difference between your mother saying that murder is acceptable, and the Mayor and the Cardinal agreeing that illegal aliens and legal immigrants are equivalent?

Vets Raise Doubts About Chief

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

       Distressed over the snubbing of their choice for Police Chief, some veterans in the Culver City Police Dept. are shining doubt on whether the new chief, Don Pedersen of Signal Hill, ever will assume permanent command of their department.
       Officers believe a report that Signal Hill, where Mr. Pedersen supervises a department one-quarter the size of Culver City, is attempting to lure the chief into staying put. Signal Hill is said to have offered Mr. Pedersen a substantial pay raise.
       Seven years short of the now common retirement mark of thirty years of service, the chief, sources say, soon must decide on the final key move of his career.
              Cynics, meanwhile, claim the intention of reporting a department roiling with dissension and possible resentment toward the new chief is to portray Culver City as an unpleasant, unwelcoming workplace.  Veterans, however, say the spitting angry officers cannot easily be mollified.

How Do You Spell Wall-Mart?

Ari L. NoonanSports

       Adhering to one of the sacred principles of liberal political lore, the protesting high school students last week thoroughly confused the masses about the goal of their immigration-law protests.
       Probably not deliberately. They were just imitating their whining, dishonest elders, and following the directions of their handlers.
Nevertheless, the students (and their elders) blew a chance to attract Americans who otherwise might have felt rays of empathy.
       Instead of clarity, audiences were greeted with rambling, imprecise, indiscernible rhetoric. They also seemed to be turned off by hordes of Latin American flags and un-cute homemade dandies, including this one in Costa Mesa: “All Europeans Are Illegal on This Continent Since 1492.”