Warming up for tomorrow’s day-night doubleheader of City Council candidate forums – 12 noon at the Senior Center, 7 o’clock at the King Fahad Mosque Event Center, southwest corner of Huron Street and Washington Boulevard – Meghan Sahli-Wells this afternoon returned to the topic of merging the city’s two feature elections.
By staging the School Board and City Council elections simultaneously at two-year intervals instead of holding the Board campaign in the summer and autumn, followed by the Council in winter and spring, both agencies will save money and voter fatigue will be avoided, she reasoned.
How much money?
City Hall spent $80,000 on the last Council election two years ago, according to Ms. Sahli-Wells.
That figure, however, barely would place a dent in the School District’s expenses for School Board elections, which are run through the County.
This afternoon as he began his final five hours on the job as Ali Delawalla, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services, reported the figure at an estimated $190,000, more than double City Hall’s cost. Without itemization or an official account of charges yet available, Mr. Delawalla said that is the amount of money the County told Culver City to set aside. (Mr. Delawalla begins his new gig, with the Cerritos Community College District, tomorrow morning at 8:55.)
By merging elections, Ms. Sahli-Wells calculates, each agency will operate more prudently, saving 50 percent of current expenses.
“My intention is to be smart with what limited resources we have, especially with the loss of the Redevelopment Agency,” she said.
“You need to get the maximum return on investment. You can do that by sharing costs. It is kind of like two people going together to buy a car.”
As an example of also sharing talent and resources, Ms. Sahli-Wells pointed out that City Hall has an advanced IT department while the School District contracts out every year for its website. “This is why a cost analysis is needed to determine if it makes sense,” she said.
“It is kind of like buying local. You use the resources you have and you maximize them.
“We have amazing resources in Culver City, and we can use them even better than we are today.”
