If I were City Councilman Gary Silbiger, I would not be too disappointed at the fact that I did not receive the Mayor’s position for my final year.
I can’t think of anyone who would want this position for this coming year, unless it was for his own personal esteem.
There are many problems in Culver City’s future, and I think they will really come to the surface this year.
I think that Andy Weissman is the perfect person for the Mayor’s position for this coming year.
Why?
His many years of experience sitting on city commissions have been widely talked about.
What advantage does this have for Mr. Weissman that the others do not have?
Mayor Has Been Backstage
The answer is a simple one; he has sat in on more closed sessions, private meetings, committee meetings, commission meetings and City Council meetings than anyone I know.
He knows what has gone on for all of these years, and he has remained silent because that’s what you do in Culver City to get what you want.
But now Andy Weissman is the Mayor and the leader of the City Council. He can no longer remain silent if the city hopes to get through the crises.
Let’s start Mr. Mayor with the recent closed session discussion about Culver City Employees Assn.
How is the Council going to handle these negotiations with the different employee groups in order to be fair to all.
Some Staffers Feel Comfortable
The Executive Staff and the Management Groups are probably feeling very secure right know, because they were involved in the selection of the new City Manager, and I understand that they were pleased with what he had to say.
There probably will not be any reductions in management staff or pay cuts.
That only leaves the Culver City Employees, Police Officers and Firefighters associations to carry the brunt of these needed cuts.
The City Council put the new City Manager in a bad position when they hired him with a big pay raise and a $250,000 housing loan because now he has to ask the employee associations to make sacrifices.
These are not the employee associations of the past, and they will not sit by and allow management staff to provide bad information to the Council and community, as has been done in the past.
The majority of these employeess are dedicated, hard-working employees who interact with the community on a daily basis.
They are the paramedics, firefighters, police officers and city workers who keep your city going.
These are the people on the line when city staff and the Council approve a new work project that certain community members may not want in their city.
These are the people sent out to fix the problems that these new projects may bring. They will continue to follow orders and complete the tasks that they are given.
But I do not think the leaders of these associations will continue to remain silent when their members are told not to enforce, repair or maintain certain services in the City so management can push through a new project, tax Increase or city budget.
Mr. Smith may be contacted at scsinternationalinvestigations.com
