Fiesta Chair Tom Camarella opened the VIP portion of the day. Bill LaPointe, Parks and Recreation Dept. Director, followed by introducing the civic celebrities. Peace, at that point, was about to be defeated. As the Mayor of Culver City, Gary Silbiger, in a burst of not uncharacteristic enthusiasm, invited Ms. Davis to step up and greet the Fiesta crowd. Ms. Davis is a longtime personal friend and political ally of the Mayor. As she was moving toward the microphone, second-term City Councilman Steve Rose, who is the Chair of the Redevelopment Agency, angrily stood up to walk out in protest.
The Loudest Sound Was ‘Bang’
It is here that the accounts become multi-layered. According to Ms. Davis, “I heard Steve Rose say, ‘If she speaks, I am leaving the stage.’ I was shocked. I thought he was kidding. We have never had words. He said, ‘She’s not a member of the City Council. This is not a School District event. She shouldn’t be speaking.’ And then he heckled me the whole time I was speaking.” Mr. Rose issued a double denial to this newspaper, insisting that he was not mad and is not mad at Ms. Davis. Further, he emphatically stated that he did not heckle her, insisting he was not present. “I walked away,” he said. “Besides, my beef is with Gary, not Saundra Davis. What Gary did, once again, was to try and turn this occasion into a political event. He does that every time. It is completely inappropriate.” Ms. Davis told this newspaper that she heard Mr. Rose say, ‘I don’t want to hear anything that woman has to say.’”
He Said, She Said
Routinely, Mr. Rose and Mr. Silbiger, who hold rival political philosophies, oppose each other on high-profile City Council agenda items. Mr. Rose said he stormed off the stage “because this was a city event. It was not a political event, even though Gary tried to make it one. And it certainly was not a School District event. It was not appropriate for Saundra to speak. As Gary continues to make political events out of everything, I am not going to be a part of them. When I left the stage, somebody said to me, ‘Come back.’ But I said ‘I don’t want to be part of this.’” For her part, Ms. Davis said, the fallout may not be over from what was supposed to be a bright and happy moment. Mr. Rose said he heard that the entertainer Ronnie Jayne sang Happy Birthday to him to mark No. 60. But he could not confirm the report, he said, “because I was not there to hear it.” Mr. Silbiger’s voice has been silent to this point. He promised the newspaper to present his account later.
