Re “Culver City, Where Have You Gone?”
“Culver City welcomes Bellapasta with $1,000 in fines!” The quarter-page ad, paid for by Jay Handal in the Culver City business newspaper, featured a scan of the penalty and a free entrée offer for whomever brought in the ad to his new restaurant.
This was in September 1995, and Mr. Handal did not hesitate to take on the city in a very public way for a perceived injustice (he had apparently violated the sign ordinance).
Today, as countless voters voice their public outrage at the actions of former City Councilman Scott Malsin, Mr. Handal, in his latest letter, calls it everything from “distasteful remarks” and “spurting personal hate” to “bullets being shot at the candidates.”
No, Mr. Handal, what you are witnessing is called the democratic process. That it is vibrant and healthy in Culver City is a good thing. Just as you were upset when the city fined you, we are upset that Mr. Malsin appears to confuse the city's General Fund with his own, personal ATM. We could have fixed a lot of broken sidewalks with that $800,000.
I do not disagree that Mr. Malsin did this for his family. So did Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo. But wiggling through a legal loophole to be the last beneficiary of an expensive perk the city no longer can afford is neither ethically nor morally the right thing to do.
By abandoning his Council position to cash in on this benefit, Mr. Malsin showed us that he didn't really care about what would happen in his absence, and we, the voters, realized that he was far from indispensable.
As a self-proclaimed “consensus builder,” Mr. Malsin sure knows how to divide the city by his actions. This division will be exacerbated if he gets re-elected. So yes, Mr. Handal, I will go out and vote on Tuesday. Thank you for reminding me.
Mr. Milligan may be contacted at Michael.Milligan11@sbcglobal.net
