I have received numerous emails from residents of Culver City over the past few months thanking me for my opinions and information about Culver City government.
I have received a lot of requests for information about the city’s current financial situation, and I have responded with whatever information I have.
I do not know Sandra Kallander, she has never emailed me (see “An Accusation Is Leveled — But Was It Proven?”).
I have no information on royalties from mineral rights for Culver City residents, and I do not know if City Councilman Scott Malsin allegedly called Ms. Kallander a liar, as she said.
But I do want to thank her for standing up for me and the numerous other members of the Culver City community who have been called liars over the years.
How the System Works
Usually members of the City Council do not publicly call someone a liar.
But they do imply that by their actions or inactions.
Usually the City Council will thank someone for the information and refer a speaker’s comments or written information to staff for a report.
At this point, if staff knows that you are lying, a report is generated and you will publicly be exposed as a liar within days.
If you tell the truth, as soon as you speak you can rest assured that someone on the Council or city staff knows you are telling the truth.
At this point city staff will begin to circle the wagons to defend the poor or illegal decisions that they have made. Closed door meetings will be held. Everyone will be informed of what the city’s position will be (truth or not).
Memos will be sent out informing staff that the community is onto us and we need to be more careful in the future.
Then they will wait.
If you do not respond, the Council will let the matter disappear.
Everyone forgets about it, except the fact that you lied.
On Killing ‘the Truth’
Ms. Kallander, if you persist with offering the truth to the city and the truth does not fit their agenda, the information you supply will not be acknowledged by the city and everyone will think that you lied.
No one will look into the information you supply to verify the truth, only to discredit you and If they can’t, they will ignore it.
If you persist with legal action, the city has numerous contract law firms willing to defend the city’s poor or illegal decisions all the way to the highest courts in the land (for a price).
The city will spend hundreds of thousands of your taxpayer dollars to defend these poor or illegal decisions in order to hide the truth.
Even when faced with the truth, the city will delay admitting the truth in the hopes of wearing you down until you give up or you are like one of the people who have died waiting for the city to acknowledge the truth.
How They Disposed of Me
Although never publicly stated, I have carried the label of “he’s lying” from 1996 to the present. In 1996 I questioned the city’s hiring and promotional testing as unfair.
In return, I and several other employees in the city have suffered humiliation, ruined careers, termination, demotion and discipline for simply speaking the truth.
I don’t like to admit this, but by December 2007, the city of Culver City wore me down emotionally, physically, financially. I gave up my fight against their unfair promotion practices and retired from the Police Dept. after 31 years.
I think that it was only fitting that on a night when someone unknown to me and without knowing herself, would stick up for me at a City Council meeting, that the City Council would be voting on new promotional guidelines for the Culver City Police Dept.
After 11 years of spending hundreds of thousands of city taxpayer dollars on attorneys’ fees, false staff reports, city employees giving false testimony under oath in court depositions and administrative hearings while vehemently defending their unfair promotional practices, the City Council admitted the flawed practices.
The Council thanked city staff for their hard work and approved the new promotional guidelines. I guess the city figured everyone had forgotten about the police promotion problem. But they were wrong again.
The only misstatement I heard come out of this Council meeting was Mr. Malsin’s when he said he thought that other cities looked to Culver City for the best way to do things.
After 33 years of being involved in law enforcement in California, it been my experience that law enforcement agencies in California look to Culver City police operations for guidance on what not to do.
My advice to the citizens of Culver City:
Continue to speak the truth.
Demand answers.
Speak every chance you get.
Never give up, and wear them down.
Greg Smith, a retired Culver City police officer, may be contacted at scsinternationalinvestigations.com
