First-year member Mehaul O’Leary will be The Most Watched Man at tonight’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting, an unusually raucous jam-session, but in the beginning, every eye will train on City Manager Jerry Fulwood. He is scheduled to pull a trigger on a torrid controversy that will ignite an explosion.
He will issue a critical statement on proposed, proliferating city-funded animal shelters that will establish a blistering tone for the evening.
City Hall has been rocking for days over an undisguised dispute pitting Mr. Fulwood and his staff against the two-member Council subcommittee on animal control over an “abysmal” lack of research conducted on two prospective animal shelters in addition to the present arrangements with the County shelter in Carson.
Speaking separately with the members of the divided City Council, Mr. Fulwood has told them he is going to make a very strong statement tonight about the tactics of the subcommittee. “I don’t want to blindside you with what I am going to say,” the City Manager said in his confidential contacts.
Mr. Fulwood has made no secret of being appalled by the supposedly separatist actions of subcommittee members Gary Silbiger, the Vice Mayor, and Councilman Chris Armenta. For reasons that are not clear, apart from their ideologies, he is convinced that Mr. Silbiger and Mr. Armenta are trying to rush through skeletal animal shelter ideas while providing virtually no data relating to expenses and infrastructure. Additionally, Mr. Fulwood is annoyed that his staff has not been included in some subcommittee meetings where the subcommittee has been joined by vigorous animal rights activist Deborah Weinrauch.
What baffles the City Manager and others is that no meter is running, no deadline is to be met.
Will Fulwood Go for One or Two?
Last June, a split Council grudgingly approved a two-year pilot program whose centerpiece was supposed to be the hiring of a 40-hour-a-week animal control officer. Only with the hiring of an officer would the two-year countdown begin. As details have trickled into public view, plans for the ambitious program have steadily mushroomed, underpinned by thin or entirely absent data.
Having already announced last Thursday that he would recommend postponing debate on one item, building a temporary shelter in Culver City Park — for “lack of data” — Mr. Fulwood hesitated this morning when asked if he would urge the Council to also table debate on funding still another animal shelter in Hawthorne atop a current agreement with a shelter in Carson.
“Staff would like to have more time to study both items,” the City Manager told the newspaper. He did not say he would recommend for or against proceeding with a debate over approving an arrangement with a privately operated shelter in Hawthorne, which would be considerably more expensive than the present contract with the County for the Carson facility.
The prospective of three shelters presents Culver City residents with a dilemma. After their pets are picked up, they could be housed at any of three potential shelters.
Mr. Fulwood’s recommendations — whether he submits one or two — are seen as crucial barometers. In 5 1/2 years as the chief executive, no Council is believed to have rebuffed his recommendati ons on a major topic. A recommendation is the limit of the City Manager’s authority.
An Irish Conundrum
Meanwhile, Mr. O’Leary, one of three freshman members, finds himself once again at the nexus of tonight’s controversy.
“We all know how the other four Council members feel,” he told the newspaper this afternoon. “I want to hear, though, what everyone else has to say before deciding how I am going to vote.”
Mayor Scott Malsin and member Andy Weissman are expected to concur with Mr. Fulwood’s recommendation to postpone one or both topics. Mr. Armenta and Mr. Silbiger are likely to resist the strategy.
Mr. O’Leary indicated he favors putting off discussion of building a temporary shelter inside of Culver City Park, a plan whose present state he characterized as “a mess.” As for the costlier private shelter in Hawthorne, the Councilman said he is amendable to either deferring action until more data is collected or debating it tonight.
