When Bosses Take the Day Off

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   When one half of the glitzy crowd was thanking the rest of the glitzy crowd last week on the second floor of the Fox Hills Mall for launching a promising-sounding job-enablement program, a modest man sat hidden away in the back of the room.
   Nine events were listed on an elaborate agenda emc’d by Sam  Andes, the General Manager of the Mall.
None of the listings carried the name of the modest man.
Space and time, instead, were engraved for flouncier people, political celebrities. But some of the flouncier people were too busy flouncing elsewhere in Southern California that morning.

It’s an old story.

Vera 1, Everybody Else 0

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   Fourteen years and three terms after coming to City Hall, the wily Mayor Albert Vera was outfoxing his critics down to his final meaningful day in office.
   His orchestrated Closing Act as Mayor was a doozy, a dollop of garlic-flavored Gotcha, a wink and a wave for any colleague who might have foolishly thought he had figured out how Mr. Vera ticked.
   Instead, in his wake, one last time, Mr. Vera left some ticked-off cohorts while he was  galloping, smilingly, into the sunset of reluctant retirement.
      Cue up the organ music, Maestro, for dramatic effect.

They Will Call Him Chief

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   Before the members of the City Council donned their boxing gloves on Monday night, they bid welcome to Don Pedersen, the new Chief of Police.
   Before uttering a word, he presented exactly the image that Culver City has yearned for in its leaders:
   Family man.
   With his wife Carol, his two daughters who are twelve and nine, and his sister in tow, Mr. Pedersen and his family calmed the waters that had been roiled since last month when he was chosen over the local favorite, Hank Davies.

Council Shuns Goodbye Kisses

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   As oldtimers used to say over the cracker barrel down at the General Store about the Garden of Eden, temptation was too juicy to be resisted.
   Which reminds everybody in Culver City of the feudin’ and fightin’ by the City Council.
   No one blew kisses at their farewell full meeting on Monday night.
   Rather, they almost looked as if they wanted to blow each other away.
   When the new Chief of Police, Don Pedersen, surprisingly was being sworn in — without prior announcement — at the City Council meeting, for one blurry moment,it looked as if a potentially volatile evening might go smoothly after all.

Gays: Still Victims of Oppression

Frédérik SisaThe Recreational Nihilist

     I am often amused, in an eye-rolling sort of way, by denials that certain people are victims of socially ingrained prejudices and outright discrimination. While in some cases — race and gender — the nature of the prejudice has gone far beyond pointing at a white male, yelling “oppressor!” and leaving it at that, it really comes close in other cases to being that simple. I’m referring to gay, lesbian, and transgendered individuals, whose victimhood isn’t the product of paranoid delusions; their oppressors don’t even bother to hide under rocks. And who are these gay-hating, gay-bashing oppressors? The answer: So-called religious conservatives, particularly the very vocal right-wing of Christianity.

Will Chief Vote Remain Soundproof?

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

     While the new Police Chief-in-waiting Don Pedersen was visiting a doctor on Friday morning to fulfill his medical exam requirement, the City Council was talking about him. 
     They will be talking about him even more at the outset of the City Council meeting on Monday night, and it may get messy. 
     Worded intriguingly vaguely on the Council Agenda, a “presentation” of Mr. Pedersen is listed as the first order of business. 
     What is a presentation? At the weekend, a precise explanation was not available.

The Anatomy of an Election

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

• Complete Election Results (below)

   The first or second most beguiling question on the morning after the City Council election was:
   Did Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger and Scott Malsin prevail because they were judged superior candidates or did Mehaul O’Leary lose it?
      That answer will be sorted out, argued and assessed in the coming days, but the preponderance of opening evidence weighs in favor of Mr. Silbiger and Mr. Malsin.
   They rolled, and hardly anyone or anything got in their dissimilar paths.

From a wandering journalist’s diary

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

From a wandering journalist’s diary as he wended his way through Culver City on Election Night:
 
Silbiger Headquarters
 
   New Mom Amy Cherness of the Democratic Club was spotted walking into Club Tropical, the Gary Silbiger headquarters, with new Papa Darrell Cherness:

   Mrs. C was beaming about Isabell Gabrielle, who turns two months old on Thursday, April 20. She behaves nearly perfectly, her objective Mom testified, as all infant Democrats traditionally do.

Silbiger, Malsin and V Win Big

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   With the gracefulness of  swans and the unrelenting determination of bulldogs, Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger and Planning Commissioner Scott Malsin — stylistic opposites — handily won the two available City Council seats in last night’s election.
   They were favored in January, and while they didn’t lose any ground during a pretty low-key campaign, they may not have gained much, either.
   No one could have been very surprised by the results, although the margins were defined more clearly than had been forecast.

Sounds on Election Nght

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      The most closely watched dynamic on the reconstituted City Council will be the tone of rhetoric between Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger and newcomer Scott Malsin.
   While the nature of future skirmishing is debated, the contrasts between the two already have been pounded into the ground.
   At Mr. Malsin’s headquarters last night, Pacifico’s restaurant, Downtown, the crowd of professionals and City Hall workers reacted the same way their candidate did — in an understated manner.