Alan Elmont must have been working hard yesterday afternoon at a meet-and-greet party to formally launch his campaign for the School Board in November.
As he extended his hand to greet a visitor, he was perspiring — although the mid-80s heat and steam from a nearby grill where Jerry Chabola was creating ready-to-enjoy hot dogs also could be blamed.
Mr. Elmont is the uniquely qualified Mr. Inside of the 7-way race on Nov. 3 for 3 open seats on the School Board.
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Alan Elmont, left front, in the green shirt, with supporters at home of Scott and Aileen Zeidman
Between him and his wife Teri, the Elmonts have attended, and very actively participated in, virtually every Board meeting for the last 17 years, spanning the school careers of their 3 children.
Nobody mistook them for statues.
For the last 6 years, Mr. Elmont also has been quite visible as an original member of the Community Budget Advisory Committee.
Whether his regular attendance at meetings has inspired the solutions to perplexing conundrums is a separate question. But he is intimately familiar with every remotely workable solution the School Board has pondered to resolve the state-funding emergency.
Be Prepared
“We are looking at the next 2 or 3 years being as bad or maybe worse, financially, than the last 2 years have been,” Mr. Elmont said in the midst of a major celebration at the home of School Board member Scott Zeidman and his wife Aileen.
“We really need to have some rigid financial responsibility going on at the School District. Not that there hasn’t been. But we need to find short-term solutions that will get us from here to there, and then put longer term solutions into place.
“We know if the state improves and starts refunding education again at the level it had been, we need to put longer term solutions into place so that if this kind of emergency happens again, we are prepared.
“We need to do it,” Mr. Elmont continued, “in a way that creates a surplus of money that is protected and that we can use when necessary.
“Imagine if 25 years from now, we have $20 to $25 million in a trust account and we could spin off $5 million a year that the state could not touch?”
Mr. Elmont, ever effervescent, was asked if that was a realistic projection.
“Why not?” he shot back.
“Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes — we have rich communities all around us. They have different demographics, different tax bases. They have stars who can come out and do a night to raise millions for their school district.
“Now, Culver City. Why can’t we make a concerted, community-based effort to raise $1 million to $1 1/2 million a year for the next 25 years that can be tucked away, not touched. We work off the interest to supplement the allowance the state gives us?”
What makes Mr. Elmont believe this can come true.
“People smarter than I,” he said, “have said, ‘If people can envision it, it can be accomplished’.”
