Even when he remains uncharacteristically mute, so deeply is the fabric of Gary Silbiger’s unusual personality woven into the minds of his City Council teammates that he remains a polarizing figure.
He kind of got his way last night on a long-simmering pet project, a Youth Advisory Commission. A perceived Silbiger victory always rates as news because it occurs with the infrequency of Halley’s Comet.
The commission will not resemble the independent, stand-alone form he has been dreaming about, but the vaguely drawn idea at least will be studied. Which is progress.
Instead of leading the charge once again to sell the plan to his teammates, Mr. Silbiger mostly watched as a parade of extremely well-spoken young people enthusiastically declared their support.
For this occasion, he was a man of mystifyingly few words.
Normally outspoken, occasionally bombastic, a week after losing the Mayor’s race — to his disgust — Mr. Silbiger conducted himself peculiarly throughout last night’s meeting.
What About Focus?
Before departing the dais about 30 minutes early, he clammed up much of the night. He appeared distracted.
He scarcely acknowledged that a vague proposal he has been shlepping since 2002 is closer than it ever has been to reality.
Following numerous abortions on the much scoffed-at notion, it was creatively resuscitated, and Mr. Silbiger’s abstract brainchild was theoretically embraced for the first time.
But when the most stubborn member of the City Council finally won his hard-fought approval, there were mixed signals from the dais. Congratulations did not exactly ring through the air.
At issue was: Should the unanimous recommendation to finally explore a teenage advisory group to the Council (operating under the auspices of the city-based Teen Center) be regarded as a moment of triumph for Mr. Silbiger? Or was this merely another nagging reminder of his numerous promotional failures? Of what could have been?
One Person’s Opinion
“This evening is illustrative of what he could have accomplished in the last seven years if only he had been collegial, co-operative, willing to work with people,” said one colleague.
In a related irony, it was new Mayor Andy Weissman — who outpolled Mr. Silbiger last week for the top job — who proposed the compromise that smoothly advanced the Youth Advisory Commission to the next stage.
Virtually since his arrival in 2002, Mr. Silbiger has been fruitlessly trying to convince his colleagues to certify the shapeless group of typically invisible teens who would counsel the Council on how Council members can enrich youth life in Culver City.
Throughout his single-track campaign, he has been an anti-compromise absolutist.
A philosophical loner, Mr. Silbiger lost a string of votes because he only held the germ of an idea. Pressed for details, he had none to counter with.
The notion of whether Culver City teenagers are more than abstractly interested in banding together and advising the City Council mostly has been a subject for Mr. Silbiger’s mind, lacking in physical evidence.
Where are the crowds of young people storming the gates to organize an assembly?
The question of what constitutes a “crowd” long has been a subjective matter of dispute.
So few teens showed up last night that they all could have traveled to City Hall in one small car — five of them.
Is five a consensus? Does that number represent a promising trend?
But the Council agreed that the whole crop of students was impressive, rich in ideas, sturdy in energy and, presumably, commitment.
But since nearly all are seniors at Culver City High School and likely will be leaving town in the autumn, where does that leave the sustainability of the semi-ephemeral commission?
That will be the task of delegates of the Teen Center and the Parks and Recreation Commission to figure out as summertime blossoms.
One Man Making a Difference
Community activist Neil Rubenstein contributed an unexpected spark to the debate over a youth commission. Since the advisory Parks and Recreation Commission concluded that an independent youth group would be too expensive in already financially strapped times, Mr. Rubenstein volunteered the first $5,000 to help underwrite the project, should it become airborne.
He made further news afterward by stiffly opposing West Los Angeles College’s three-month-old campus shuttle bus scheme. He asserted that it potentially deprived the Culver City bus lines of revenue and funding because the financial outlines of the plan are imprecise.
The Council, however, approved a memorandum of understanding, assuring its continuation.
