My trousers, my hands and my hair are rife with the filthiest components of dust one attracts when investing weeks in crawling beneath big mahogany desks and behind resistant filing cabinets. Avidly, I was searching for even amoeba-sized shards of evidence, recent or distant, that Mark Barabak, a political reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has flashed a sense of humor. Finding none, I did not throw my right wrist to my forehead and faint onto the old green couch. Showing that at least I, a sensible person, possessed a sense of humor, I returned to this mornings edition of the Times. When I read the headline Pelosis liberal label is all relative, I suspected the obvious the dour Mr. Barabak is on an undercover mission. He is seeking to be named Jokes Editor of the daily newspaper that is the biggest joke in American journalism. In its bold many-tentacled campaign to get all breathing federal Democrats elected next Tuesday, the Times is back to serving up baloney and marketing it as prime rib. This story was expressly intended to soften the hardline image of the foul-mouthed U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). The Times ulterior goal is to neutralize her ubiquitous, inflammatory rhetoric while widening popular support for her as the next Speaker of the House in the event the Democrats win a majority of seats. The theme of Mr. Barabaks story, that residents of her home base, San Francisco, regard her as a centrist rather than a far left-winger, was honest enough. Trouble was, Mr. Barabak agreed with the assessment of the nuttiest San Franciscans. That, too, would have been fine, except that he crossed the ethical line the Times has been trying to blot out for several years.
By Name, He Is a Champion But He Doesn’t Act Like a Champion
A peek inside the disappointing decomposition of an important Culver City story. The star of the story does not sound heroic. He is a richly successful developer who has become breathtakingly cautious, seemingly unsure of his footing in this town.
The cheery voice of Bob Champion, the president of the Champion Development Group on Wilshire Boulevard, came volleying through my cell phone. Only I missed the call. I was interviewing for tomorrow’s lead story. I had contacted Mr. Champion last week because he is proposing a record-size redevelopment on South Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City. As the chief visionary, he could sketch a contextual portrait for the community that probably would alleviate some fears and spark an interest among landowners unfamiliar with his intentions. This morning, Mr. Champion promptly emailed me. “I will be delighted to talk to you about our proposed project,” he wrote, “but would prefer to wait until our study sessions with staff and the City Council subcommittee are completed and we have our first community meeting to gather input.” In my return email, I conveyed my disappointment. “I appreciate the timeline you have noted. But my principal motivation for sitting with you is to air a comprehensive presentation of your vision and its context. Months from now, we can talk about what staff or the City Council or the community think. You are the primary actor. Your view is, by far, the most important. Therefore, I would like to sit down with you in the next two weeks or so, morning, afternoon or evening. Looking forward to your reply.” Mr. Champion’s response was swift and succinct. “I am not prepared to discuss my vision until I have input from staff, Council and the community and have incorporated same into ‘my vision.’”
A Preview of the Next Days Headlines
Even though in recent months I have reduced the space I take up by narrowing my waist to 33 inches, my suspenders are threatening to burst with significant news developments. At the lunch hour yesterday, I sat at a fairly round table at School District headquarters with three serious people, Interim Supt. Diane Fiello, David El Fattal, who is Asst. Supt. for Finance, and Geoff Maleman, the best public relations person in Southern California. You can read about the fruits of our visitlater today. Next stop was with one of Culver Citys most prominents. To the surprise of many, he will be changing jobs when October morphs into November, and that is the lead story later today. Last visit of the afternoon was with a new voice in the City Hall/eminent domain dispute. He is a gentleman who has had plenty to say on the subject, but off stage. I was thinking of the sober focus of our politically themed newspaper yesterday morning over breakfast while, in lumps, digesting the journalistic equivalent of stale corn flakes. The Los Angeles Times and its zoo of bizarre columnists in the once-again-reconfigured Op-Ed section introduced the fifth or sixth attempt to make their opinion pages appealing to sensible people. I was reminded of a hopelessly ugly woman. She tries on a succession of sexy dresses. Maybe a man will walk right past her face, ignore her looks, and think that she is more sensuous than she actually is.
A Letter to Jakie, Baby, With Free Advice Included
Brotman Medical Center,
3828 Delmas Terrace
Culver City, CA 90230
To: (Presumed) Managing Gen. Partner Dr. Jacob Terner
From: Your Forgotten Friend
Dear J.T.:
Jakie, baby.
You never write. Never call.
What’s wrong, Jakie, baby?
I thought we had an agreement: You make news, I will write about it and probably comment on it. But you aren’t being as square with me as I have been with you. For the past year, you have been running Culver City’s only hospital as if it were a wing of the government’s Witness Protection Program. Sometimes I think that Brotman was bought by undercover cops. You, ostensibly the most visible member of the physicians’ group ownership team, would make a better fried onions vendor than a hospital owner. Jakie, baby. In ’06, owning one of the most visible institutions in a small town carries the responsibility of being occasionally visible, especially when you commit an act that kicks up dust around town. In what is turning out to be a big week for firing stars in Culver City, you dump your CEO, the unfortunate Maureen Cate, as if she were a bag of potatoes gone rotten. I dial your crack public relations broad, who gets her mail away out in Orange County, where people go to sun themselves and bury their dogs. How convenient. I have heard of absentee owners. But why would a sensible owner farm his public relations person out to the next county? She may as well be in Kalamazoo. The bar mitzvahs of all three of my sons combined did not last as long as I have been waiting for this dizzy dame to try and remember where she lost her little telephone beneath the dirt and clutter in her office. Ms. Ditzy is a doozy. Her P.R. skills are a terrific match for your ownership skills, Jakie, baby. Didn’t you guys have any practice run-throughs before you bought Brotman? Jakie, baby, I know coal miners who don’t go as far underground as you have since buying Brotman, waving a wand and making yourself disappear.
Supt. Fiello. Say It Again. Has a Nice Ring, Doesnt It?
I think I know why Diane Fiello will not be named the next Superintendent of Schools later in the autumn. The Interim Superintendent is the logical choice. Logic, according to the School Board, is not a good excuse. Better to hire someone who has been tilling the fertile soil in the Central Valley. Likelier yet, find an unemployed Maryland administrator who is a nifty letter-writer and knows how to assemble a flashy resume. If Ms. Fiello can be entrusted with the vast responsibilities of superintending for 6 months while headhunters look for a worse candidate, what is the harm, what is the danger, to the School District for turning the job over to her for a year or two? If you place your ear against the north wall of the School District headquarters building, you will hear Nero fiddling. The brilliant members of the School Board think they are performing useful community service when they quarrel with each other over what kind of perfume and what color shoes they believe President Saundra Davis should wear to meetings, The headhunting broom-sweepers designated by the State School Board Assn. to find a lighter-weight candidate than Ms. Fiello are crawling behind dusty, cough-inducing refrigerators and beneath Ted Cooke-type desks to unearth candidates who are barely breathing. Meanwhile, the smart, talented, accessible, experienced Ms. Fiello lives within sniffing distance of the School Board’s snooty, soot-filled noses. With years of experience in Culver City, she knows the players, the parents, the students, the teachers, the system, the rhythms of the community, what works, and how to apply remedies. Especially compared to the last Superintendent, Ms. Fiello is a public relations geniuus. On several occasions, she has explained to me the academic equivalent of quantum physics with the clarity of a mother training her child. Collectively, those are thundering reasons for seriously considering, then hiring Ms. Fiello.
Mr. Malsin, Ms. Gross: Did You Say Peasant or Pleasant or Pheasant?
It occurred to me while walking out of Council Chambers last night that City Council member Carol Gross may have served too long and that first-year Councilman Scott Malsin is in need of seasoning. On separate occasions, each behaved boorishly. They departed from their regular demeanor. She showed signs of rust. His green-ness was on display at the height of an emotional communal debate over whether a developer with dollar signs in his eye-sockets should be allowed to personally knock down more than 100 neighborhood businesses. It is important to note that the vast, subdivided redevelopment project that was the subject of the meeting is up against an indeterminate amount of community opposition.
The Angry Times Strikes a Blow for Lovers of Dishonest Reporting
With breathtaking dishonesty that probably was too subtle for its liberal readers to detect, the Los Angeles Times once again kicked journalistic integrity in the groin this morning with its coverage of Prop. 90. This is the eminent domain reform measure. The unloosing of eminent domain last year by the U.S. Supreme Court has ignited one of the sizzling political debates that is raging in numerous states this autumn. The Court embittered private property owners in its Kelo ruling that holds government may seize private land at will. Ever since, furious business owners in Culver City and elsewhere have been seeking legal relief. This was a classic triple-whammy, an old-fashioned bushwhacking, that the Times pulled off. The Times socked its readers to the jaw not twice but three times. And not slyly. On the cover page of the community section, they ran a lengthy and vicious hit piece that could have been scripted by the opponents of Prop. 90. On page 6, the Times set aside 40 more inches for arguments against 90. Finally, when the reader walked around the corner and into the Op-Ed section, he was slugged a third time by surprise an anti-Prop. 90 editorial, neatly set up by the 2 news stories. Call it gutter journalism. This is equivalent to a baseball pitcher throwing a spitball. It is decidedly unethical to pretend to be objective while acting as a vigorous advocate. The subject of eminent domain is of uncommon interest in Culver City. Prop 90 would severely limit governments ability to randomly seize private property by casually invoking the loosely defined concept of eminent domain. Culver City business owners have been howling for several years about what they call City Halls abusive deployment of eminent domain as an intimidating weapon of destruction. Close readers of the Times were tipped off this morning that the fix was in when a prominent headline on the cover page of the community section announced, Outsiders Bankroll Prop. 90 Campaign. Not even the Culver City News would stoop to a headline that guileless. This belongs in the category of Dog Bites Mailman or Sun Levitates in East.
Drat, Benny Is Dead, Skelton Is Dead, and So Are Abbott and Costello
They were going to make a motion picture about the turbulent life and times of the chronically unhappy boys and girls on the School Board. Then the director remembered the obvious choices for the leading men, Mr. Abbott and Mr. Costello, both were dead. Elmer Fudd, drawing unemployment for the last 6 months, rejected a co-starring role even as his stomach was growling. If the film is shot, it will be called Enemies: A Love Story, with apologies to Isaac Bashevis Singer. If Rodney King knew Saundra Davis, Stew Bubar, Dr. Dana Russell, Mara Wolkowitz and Dr. Jessica Beagles-Roos, he would not even have bothered to inquire, Cant we all get along? Significantly, School District insiders say the necessary business of the District does get accomplished even though the boys and girls spend many Tuesday nights holding up large mirrors to their own pretty faces. Idly, they wonder why others dont love them as much as they adore themselves. Even while meetings are in progress, they are busily polishing their own lines for the anticipated production of the Puerility Follies. At last nights meeting, somebody in the audience said the School Board members have been so slow to mature they wont ever be eligible for membership at the Senior Center. Instead, they will be forced to enroll at the Sophomoric Center. The in-fighting on the School Board the last 5 years has been the identical scene repeated a few hundred times. Nearly every meeting, the critical fire is aimed at Ms. Davis. Periodically in these obviously incurable quibbles, a suggestion of racism makes an appearance. Ms. Daviss Board critics, notably Mr. Bubar and Dr. Russell, say she is abrasive. She has said, if not in so many words, they are equally offputting. The 5 of them are like an old married couple who havent been able to stand each other for 40 years. The act, people in the community tell me, is wearing thin. They should be discussing their personal tensions out in the parking lot, not wasting our time, one woman said this morning.
Silbiger Has a Peculiar Notion of Who Is Upstaging Whom on the City Council
Last April, a sense of fair play drove me to write the only public defense ever made of Mayor Gary Silbiger by a non-ally during his four-plus years on the City Council. Like some of the women I have married, he can be frustrating. But the steady hammering and the criticism of Mr. Silbiger issued almost every Monday night by exasperated Council colleagues had begun to feel to me like piling on. Eye-rolling by Council members has become as embedded a part of the weekly Council agenda as the Pledge of Allegiance. I expect eye-rolling to be listed as item A-1 for next Monday. Playwrights who watch the City Council meetings on channel 35 have rich material offered to them from the dais, at no extra charge, each week. Everyone has his role in the drill memorized. As if on cue, Mr. Silbiger comments on an arcanity buried in the bowels of what is most commonly a drop-dead item that all four of his colleagues are clear on. The issue was so clean that when the other City Council members opened their information packet four days before the meeting, they knew how they were going to vote. Not the Mayor. He will find the single particle of unswept dust in his grandmothers attic full of antiques. Increasingly, he will ask a rudimentary question to which all of his colleagues knew the answer days or weeks or months ago. That would be frustrating enough.
A Partial Victory Feels Good to Relieved Members of a City Union
Just to show how much the negotiating climate has changed for labor unions, the rank and file of the Culver City Employees Assn. recently voted overwhelmingly to approve a contract with a clause that amounts to a split decision with City Hall. Buoyed by the prospects of a 4 percent annual raise through 2011,the life of the contract, members voted 229 to 48 to approve a new 5-year agreement. This cheery news obviously outweighed a split call on an issue the union had identified as the most crucial component of all. Early in the summer, City Hall told members of the Employees Assn., one of the lower-paying unions, that because of the citys unsteady financial predicament, all members, active and retired, would need to pony up 5 percent of their own healthcare benefits. The Employees Assn. answered in an unusual, unprecedented manner. Dsays later, wearing black tee-shirts that marked them as union members, more than 100 persons silently, respectfully, marched into Council Chambers before a City Council meeting to underscore their protest. When called upon, union leaders strolled to a podium, gently, almost prosaically, made carefully measured statements and returned to their seats. The Employees Assn. argued that it was unfair to saddle retirees of a modest-paying union with an additional fiscal obligation when the largest portion of them were just getting by. It is not knowable whether the unions noiseless, unobtrusive demonstration was pivotal in gaining a partial victory. In the compromise settlement, City Hall withdrew part of its demand. City negotiator Jack Hoffman agreed to shield all present retirees from the 5 percent pay obligation. Everyone else, however, will be liable present active members, employees hired as of Jan. 1 or later, and all who retire from now on.